oughout his life his favourite
residence. On the death of Louis XI in 1483 Charles, a lad of thirteen,
was of age, but was absolutely incapable of governing. Until 1492 he
abandoned the government to his sister Anne of Beaujeu. In 1491 he
married Anne, duchess of Brittany, who was already betrothed to
Maximilian of Austria. Urged by his favourite, Etienne de Vesc, he then,
at the age of twenty-two, threw off the yoke of the Beaujeus, and at the
same time discarded their wise and able policy. But he was a thoroughly
worthless man with a weak and ill-balanced intellect. He had a romantic
imagination and conceived vast projects. He proposed at first to claim
the rights of the house of Anjou, to which Louis XI. had succeeded, on
the kingdom of Naples, and to use this as a stepping-stone to the
capture of Constantinople from the Turks and his own coronation as
emperor of the East. He sacrificed everything to this adventurous
policy, signed disastrous treaties to keep his hands free, and set out
for Italy in 1494. The ceremonial side of the expedition being in his
eyes the most important, he allowed himself to be intoxicated by his
easy triumph and duped by the Italians. On the 12th of May 1495 he
entered Naples in great pomp, clothed in the imperial insignia. A
general coalition was, however, formed against him, and he was forced to
return precipitately to France. It cannot be denied that he showed
bravery at the battle of Fornovo (the 5th of July 1495). He was
preparing a fresh expedition to Italy, when he died on the 8th of April
1498, from the results of an accident, at the chateau of Amboise.

See _Histoire de Charles VIII, roy de France_, by G. de Jaligny, Andre
de la Vigne, &c., edited by Godefroy (Paris, 1684); De Cherrier,
_Histoire de Charles VIII_ (Paris, 1868); H. Fr. Delaborde,
_Expedition de Charles VIII en Italie_ (Paris, 1888). For a complete
bibliography see H. Hauser, _Les Sources de l'histoire de France,
1494-1610_, vol. i. (Paris, 1906); and E. Lavisse, _Histoire de
France_, vol. v. part i., by H. Lemonnier (Paris, 1903).

CHARLES IX. (1550-1574), king of France, was the third son of Henry II.
and Catherine de' Medici. At first he bore the title of duke of Orleans.
He became king in 1560 by the death of his brother Francis II., but as
he was only ten years old the power was in the hands of the
queen-mother, Catherine. Charles seems to have been a youth of good
parts, lively and agreeab