h despot of the benevolent order, and had been deeply
offended by the real or suspected share of the Jesuits in the riot of
1766. He therefore consented to the expulsion of the order, and was then
the main advocate for its suppression. His quarrel with the Jesuits, and
the recollection of some disputes with the pope he had had when king of
Naples, turned him towards a general policy of restriction of the
overgrown power of the church. The number of the idle clergy, and more
particularly of the monastic orders, was reduced, and the Inquisition,
though not abolished, was rendered torpid. In the meantime much
antiquated legislation which tended to restrict trade and industry was
abolished; roads, canals and drainage works were carried out. Many of
his paternal ventures led to little more than waste of money, or the
creation of hotbeds of jobbery. Yet on the whole the country prospered.
The result was largely due to the king, who even when he was ill-advised
did at least work steadily at his task of government. His example was
not without effect on some at least of the nobles. In his domestic life
King Charles was regular, and was a considerate master, though he had a
somewhat caustic tongue and took a rather cynical view of mankind. He
was passionately fond of hunting. During his later years he had some
trouble with his eldest son and his daughter-in-law. If Charles had
lived to see the beginning of the French Revolution he would probably
have been frightened into reaction. As he died on the 14th of December
1788 he left the reputation of a philanthropic and "philosophic" king.
In spite of his hostility to the Jesuits, his dislike of friars in
general, and his jealousy of the Inquisition, he was a very sincere
Roman Catholic, and showed much zeal in endeavouring to persuade the
pope to proclaim the Immaculate Conception as a dogma necessary to
salvation.

See the _Reign of Charles III._, by M. Danvila y Collado (6 vols.), in
the _Historia General de Espana de la Real Academia de la Historia_
(Madrid, 1892, &c.); and F. Rousseau, _Regne de Charles III d'Espagne_
(Paris, 1907).

CHARLES IV. (1748-1819), king of Spain, second son of Charles III. and
his wife Maria Amelia of Saxony, was born at Portici on the 11th of
November 1748, while his father was king of the Two Sicilies. The elder
brother was set aside as imbecile and epileptic. Charles had inherited a
great frame and immense physical strength from the Sa