CHARLES V., (I. of Spain), emperor of Germany, son of Philip, Archduke of Austria, born at Ghent; became king of Spain in 1516, on the death of his maternal grandfather Ferdinand, and emperor of Germany in 1519 on the death of his paternal grandfather Maximilian I., being crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1520; reigned during one of the most important periods in the history of Europe; the events of the reign are too numerous to detail; enough to mention his rivalry with Francis I. of France, his contention as a Catholic with the Protestants of Germany, the inroads of the Turks, revolts in Spain, and expeditions against the pirates of the Mediterranean; the ambition of his life was the suppression of the Protestant Reformation and the succession of his son Philip to the Imperial crown; he failed in both; resigned in favour of his son, and retired into the monastery of St. Yuste, in Estremadura, near which he built a magnificent retreat, where, it is understood, notwithstanding his apparent retirement, he continued to take interest in political affairs, and to advise in the management of them (1500-1558).

CHARLES VI., emperor of Germany from 1711 to 1740, as well as king of Spain from 1703, was son of the Emperor Leopold I., and father of Maria Theresa.

CHARLES XII., king of Sweden, son of Charles XI., a warlike prince; ascended the throne at the age of 15; had to cope with Denmark, Russia, and Poland combined against him; foiled the Danes at Copenhagen, the Russians at Narva, and Augustus II. of Poland at Riga; trapped in Russia, and cooped up to spend a winter there, he was, in spring 1709, attacked by Peter the Great at Pultowa and defeated, so that he had to take refuge with the Turks at Bender; here he was attacked, captured, and conveyed to Demotica, but escaping, he found his way miraculously back to Sweden, and making peace with the Czar, commenced an attack on Norway, but was killed by a musket-shot at the siege of Friedrickshall; “the last of the Swedish kings”; “his appearance, among the luxurious kings and knights of the North” at the time, Carlyle compares to “the bursting of a cataract of bombshells in a dull ballroom” (1697-1718).

CHARLES I., king of England, third son of James I., born at Dunfermline; failing in his suit for the Infanta of Spain, married Henrietta Maria, a French princess, a devoted Catholic, who had great influence over him, but not for good; had for public advisers Strafford and Laud, who cherished in him ideas of absolute power adverse to the liberty of the subject; acting on these ideas brought him into collision with the Parliament, and provoked a civil war; himself the first to throw down the gauntlet by raising the royal standard at Nottingham; in the end of which he surrendered himself to the Scots army at Newark, who delivered him to the Parliament; was tried as a traitor to his country, condemned to death, and beheaded, 30th January, at Whitehall (1600-1649).