See A.C. Ewald, Life and Times of Charles Stuart, the Young Pretender (2 vols., 1875); C.S. Terry, Life of the Young Pretender, and The Rising of 1745; with Bibliography of Jacobite History 1689—1788 (Scott. Hist. fr. Contemp. Writers, iii.) (1900); Earl Stanhope, History of England (1836) and Decline of the Last Stuarts (1854); Bishop R. Forbes, The Lyon in Mourning (1895-1896); Andrew Lang, Pickle, the Spy (1897), and Prince Charles Edward (1900); R. Chambers, History of the Rebellion in Scotland, &c. &c.
(H. M. V.)
CHARLES EMMANUEL I. [Carlo Emanuele] (1562-1630), duke of Savoy, succeeded his father, Emmanuel Philibert, in 1580. He continued the latter’s policy of profiting by the rivalry of France and Spain in order to round off and extend his dominions. His three chief objects were the conquest of Geneva, of Saluzzo and of Monferrato. Saluzzo he succeeded in wresting from France in 1588. He intervened in the French religious wars, and also fought with Bern and other Swiss cantons, and on the murder of Henry III. of France in 1580 he aspired to the French throne on the strength of the claims of his wife Catherine, sister of Henry of Navarre, afterwards King Henry IV. In 1590 he sent an expedition to Provence in the interests of the Catholic League, and followed it himself later, but the peace of 1593, by which Henry of Navarre was recognized as king of France, put an end to his ambitions. In the war between France and Spain Charles sided with the latter, with varying success. Finally, by the peace of Lyons (1601), he gave up all territories beyond the Rhone, but his possession of Saluzzo was confirmed. He now meditated a further enterprise against Geneva; but his attempt to capture the city by treachery and with the help of Spain (the famous escalade) in 1602 failed completely. The next few years were filled with negotiations and intrigues with Spain and France which did not lead to any particular result, but on the death in 1612 of Duke Francesco Gonzaga of Mantua, who was lord of Monferrato, Charles Emmanuel made a successful coup de main on that district. This arrayed the Venetians, Tuscany, the Empire and Spain against him, and he was obliged to relinquish his conquest. The Spaniards invaded the duchy from Lombardy, and although the duke was defeated several times he fought bravely, gained some successes, and the terms of the peace of 1618 left him more or less in the status quo ante. We next find Charles Emmanuel aspiring to the imperial crown in 1619, but without success. In 1628 he was in alliance with Spain in the war against France; the French invaded the duchy, which, being abandoned by Spain, was overrun by their armies. The duke fought desperately, but was taken ill at Savigliano and died in 1630. He was succeeded by his son Victor Amedeo I., while his third son Tommaso founded the line of Savoy-Carignano from which the present royal house of Italy is descended. Charles Emmanuel achieved a great reputation as a statesman and warrior, and increased the prestige of Savoy, but he was too shifty and ingenious, and his schemes ended in disaster.
See E. Ricotti, Storia della monarchia piemontese, vols. iii. and iv. (Florence, 1865); T. Raulich, Storia di Carlo Emanuele I. (Milan, 1896-1902); G. Curti, Carlo Emanuele I. secondo; più recenti studii (Milan, 1894).
CHARLES MARTEL[1] (c. 688-741), Frankish ruler, was a natural son of Pippin II., mayor of the palace, and Chalpaïda. Charles was baptized by St Rigobert, bishop of Reims. At the death of his father in 714, Pippin’s widow Plectrude claimed the government in Austrasia and Neustria in the name of her grandchildren, and had Charles thrown into prison. But the Neustrians threw off the Austrasian yoke and entered into an offensive alliance with the Frisians and Saxons. In the general anarchy Charles succeeded in escaping, defeated the Neustrians at Amblève, south of Liége, in 716, and at Vincy, near Cambrai, in 717, and forced them to come to terms. In Austrasia he wrested the power from Plectrude, and took the title of mayor of the palace, thus prejudicing the interests of his nephews. According to the Frankish custom he proclaimed a king in Austrasia in the person of the young Clotaire IV., but in reality Charles was the sole master—the entry in the annals for the year 717 being “Carolus regnare coepit.” Once in possession of Austrasia, Charles sought to extend his dominion over Neustria also. In 719 he defeated Ragenfrid, the Neustrian mayor of the palace, at Soissons, and forced him to retreat to Angers. Ragenfrid died in 731, and from that time Charles had no competitor in the western kingdom. He obliged the inhabitants of Burgundy to submit, and disposed of the Burgundian bishoprics and countships to his leudes. In Aquitaine Duke Odo (Eudes) exercised independent authority, but in 719 Charles forced him to recognize the suzerainty of northern France, at least nominally. After the alliance between Charles and Odo on the field of Poitiers, the mayor of the palace left Aquitaine to Odo’s son Hunald, who paid homage to him. Besides establishing a certain unity in Gaul, Charles saved it from a very great peril. In 711 the Arabs had conquered Spain. In 720 they crossed the Pyrenees, seized Narbonensis, a dependency of the kingdom of the Visigoths, and advanced on Gaul. By his able policy Odo succeeded in arresting their progress for some years; but a new vali, Abdur Rahman, a member of an extremely fanatical sect, resumed the attack, reached Poitiers, and advanced on Tours, the holy town of Gaul. In October 732—just 100 years after the death of Mahomet—Charles gained a brilliant victory over Abdur Rahman, who was called back to Africa by the revolts of the Berbers and had to give up the struggle. This was the last of the great Arab invasions of Europe. After his victory Charles took the offensive, and endeavoured to wrest Narbonensis from the Mussulmans. Although he was not successful in his attempt to recover Narbonne (737), he destroyed the fortresses of Agde, Béziers and Maguelonne, and set fire to the amphitheatre at Nîmes. He subdued also the Germanic tribes; annexed Frisia, where Christianity was beginning to make progress; put an end to the duchy of Alemannia; intervened in the internal affairs of the dukes of Bavaria; made expeditions into Saxony; and in 738 compelled some of the Saxon tribes to pay him tribute. He also gave St Boniface a safe conduct for his missions in Thuringia, Alemannia and Bavaria.
During the government of Charles Martel important changes appear to have been made in the internal administration. Under him began the great assemblies of nobles known as the champs de Mars. To attach his leudes Charles had to give them church lands as precarium, and this had a very great influence in the development of the feudal system. It was from the precarium, or ecclesiastical benefice, that the feudal fief originated. Vassalage, too, acquired a greater consistency at this period, and its rules began to crystallize. Under Charles occurred the first attempt at reconciliation between the papacy and the Franks. Pope Gregory III., menaced by the Lombards, invoked the aid of Charles (739), sent him a deputation with the keys of the Holy Sepulchre and the chains of St Peter, and offered to break with the emperor and Constantinople, and to give Charles the Roman consulate (ut a partibus imperatoris recederet et Romanum consulatum Carolo sanciret). This proposal, though unsuccessful, was the starting-point of a new papal policy. Since the death of Theuderich IV. in 737 there had been no king of the Franks. In 741 Charles divided the kingdom between his two sons, as though he were himself master of the realm. To the elder, Carloman, he gave Austrasia, Alemannia and Thuringia, with suzerainty over Bavaria; the younger, Pippin, received Neustria, Burgundy and Provence. Shortly after this division of the kingdom Charles died at Quierzy on the 22nd of October 741, and was buried at St Denis. The characters of Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne offer many striking points of resemblance. Both were men of courage and activity, and the two men are often confused in the chansons de geste.
See T. Breysig, Jahrbücher d. fränk. Reichs, 714—741; die Zeit Karl Martells (Leipzig, 1869); A.A. Beugnot, “Sur la spoliation des biens du clergé attribuée à Charles Martel,” in the Mém. de l’Acad. des Inscr. et Belles-Lettres, vol. xix. (Paris, 1853); Ulysse Chevalier, Bio-bibliographie (2nd ed., Paris, 1904).
(C. Pf.)