n som han virkelig var_ (Christiania, 1897); Johan
Almen, _Atten Bernadotte_ (Stockholm, 1893); C. Schefer, _Bernadotte
roi_ (Paris, 1899); G.R. Lagerhjelm, _Napoleon och Carl Johan under
Kriget i Tyskland, 1813_ (Stockholm, 1891). (R. N. B.)

CHARLES XV. (1826-1872), king of Sweden and Norway, eldest son of Oscar
I., king of Sweden and Norway, and Josephine Beauharnais of
Leuchtenberg, was born on the 3rd of May 1826. On the 19th of June 1850
he married Louisa, daughter of Prince Frederick of the Netherlands. He
became regent on the 25th of September 1857, and king on the death of
his father (8th of July 1859). As crown-prince, Charles's brusque and
downright manners had led many to regard his future accession with some
apprehension, yet he proved to be one of the most popular of
Scandinavian kings and a constitutional ruler in the best sense of the
word. His reign was remarkable for its manifold and far-reaching
reforms. Sweden's existing communal law (1862), ecclesiastical law
(1863) and criminal law (1864) were enacted appropriately enough under
the direction of a king whose motto was: "Build up the land upon the
laws!" Charles XV. also materially assisted De Geer (q.v.) to carry
through his memorable reform of the constitution in 1863. Charles was a
warm advocate of "Scandinavianism" and the political solidarity of the
three northern kingdoms, and his warm friendship for Frederick VII., it
is said, led him to give half promises of help to Denmark on the eve of
the war of 1864, which, in the circumstances, were perhaps misleading
and unjustifiable. In view, however, of the unpreparedness of the
Swedish army and the difficulties of the situation, Charles was forced
to observe a strict neutrality. He died at Malmo on the 18th of
September 1872. Charles XV. was highly gifted in many directions. He
attained to some eminence as a painter, and his _Digte_ show him to have
been a true poet. He left but one child, a daughter, Louisa Josephina
Eugenia, who in 1869 married the crown-prince Frederick of Denmark.

See Cecilia Baath-Holmberg, _Carl XV., som enskild man, konung och
konstnar_ (Stockholm, 1891); Yngvar Nielsen, _Det norske og svenske
Kongehus fra 1818_ (Christiania, 1883). (R. N. B.)

CHARLES (c. 1319-1364), duke of Brittany, known as CHARLES OF BLOIS and
CHARLES OF CHATILLON, was the son of Guy of Chatillon, count of Blois (d.
1342), and of Marguerite of Valois, sister of Philip VI