le, but he had a weak, passionate and fantastic
nature. His education had spoiled him. He was left to his whims--even
the strangest--and to his taste for violent exercises; and the excesses
to which he gave himself up ruined his health. Proclaimed of age on the
17th of August 1563, he continued to be absorbed in his fantasies and
his hunting, and submitted docilely to the authority of his mother. In
1570 he was married to Elizabeth of Austria, daughter of Maximilian II.
It was about this time that he dreamed of making a figure in the world.
The successes of his brother, the duke of Anjou, at Jarnac and
Moncontour had already caused him some jealousy. When Coligny came to
court, he received him very warmly, and seemed at first to accept the
idea of an intervention in the Netherlands against the Spaniards. For
the upshot of this adventure see the article ST BARTHOLOMEW, MASSACRE
OF. Charles was in these circumstances no hypocrite, but weak,
hesitating and ill-balanced. Moreover, the terrible events in which he
had played a part transformed his character. He became melancholy,
severe and taciturn. "It is feared," said the Venetian ambassador, "that
he may become cruel." Undermined by fever, at the age of twenty he had
the appearance of an old man, and night and day he was haunted with
nightmares. He died on the 30th of May 1574. By his mistress, Marie
Touchet, he had one son, Charles, duke of Angouleme. Charles IX. had a
sincere love of letters, himself practised poetry, was the patron of
Ronsard and the poets of the Pleiad, and granted privileges to the first
academy founded by Antoine de Baif (afterwards the Academie du Palais).
He left a work on hunting, _Traite de la chasse royale_, which was
published in 1625, and reprinted in 1859.

AUTHORITIES.--The principal sources are the contemporary memoirs and
chronicles of T.A. d'Aubigne, Brantome, Castelnau, Haton, la Place,
Montluc, la Noue, l'Estoile, Ste Foy, de Thou, Tavannes, &c.; the
published correspondence of Catherine de' Medici, Marguerite de
Valois, and the Venetian ambassadors; and Calendars of State Papers,
&c. See also Abel Desjardins, _Charles IX, deux annees de regne_
(Paris, 1873); de la Ferriere, _Le XVIe siecle et les Valois_ (Paris,
1879); H. Mariejol, _La Reforme et la Ligue_ (Paris, 1904), in vol. v.
of the _Histoire de France_, by E. Lavisse, which contains a
bibliography for the reign.

CHARLES X. (1757-1836), king of France