1848 there were riots
in his capital (19th of March), and he declared his readiness to throw
in his lot with Charles Albert, the pope, and Leopold of Tuscany,
repudiated the Austrian treaty and promised a constitution. Then he
again changed his mind, abdicated in April, and left Parma in the hands
of a provisional government, whereupon the people voted for union with
Piedmont. After the armistice between Charles Albert and Austria (August
1848) the Austrian general Thurn occupied the duchy, and Charles II.
issued an edict from Weistropp annulling the acts of the provisional
government. When Piedmont attacked Austria again in 1849, Parma was
evacuated, but reoccupied by General d'Aspre in April.

In May 1849 Charles confirmed his abdication, and was succeeded by his
son CHARLES III. (1823-1854), who, protected by Austrian troops, placed
Parma under martial law, inflicted heavy penalties on the members of the
late provisional government, closed the university, and instituted a
regular policy of persecution. A violent ruler, a drunkard and a
libertine, he was assassinated on the 26th of March 1854. At his death
his widow Maria Louisa, sister of the comte de Chambord, became regent,
during the minority of his son Robert. The duchess introduced some sort
of order into the administration, seemed inclined to rule more mildly
and dismissed some of her husband's more obnoxious ministers, but the
riots of the Mazzinians in July 1854 were repressed with ruthless
severity, and the rest of her reign was characterized by political
trials, executions and imprisonments, to which the revolutionists
replied with assassinations.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Massei, _Storia civile di Lucca_, vol. ii. (Lucca,
1878); Anon., _Y Borboni di Parma ... del 1847 al 1859_ (Parma, 1860);
N. Bianchi, _Storia della diplomazia europea in Italia_ (Turin, 1865,
&c.); C. Tivaroni, _L'Italia sotto il dominio austriaco_, ii. 96-101,
i. 590-605 (Turin, 1892), and _L'Italia degli Italiani_, i. 126-143
(Turin, 1895) by the same; S. Lottici and G. Sitti, _Bibliografia
generale per la storia parmense_ (Parma, 1904).

CHARLES [KARL LUDWIG] (1771-1847), archduke of Austria and duke of
Teschen, third son of the emperor Leopold II., was born at Florence (his
father being then grand-duke of Tuscany) on the 5th of September 1771.
His youth was spent in Tuscany, at Vienna and in the Austrian
Netherlands, where he began his career of military service in the war