118 CHARLES VII. OF FRANCE 



CHARLES X. OF FRANCE 



mother of Charles Fitzcharles, Earl of Ply- 

 mouth (1657-80). Then came the splendid ter- 

 magant, Barbara Villiers or Palmer (1640-1709), 

 whom Charles made Countess of Castlemaine in 

 1661, Duchess of Cleveland in 1670, and who was 

 mother of the three Fitzroy Dukes of Southamp- 

 ton and Cleveland (1662-1730), Grafton (1663-90), 

 and Northumberland (1665-1716). By 'pretty, 

 witty ' Nell Gwynn ( 1650-87 ) Charles was- father of 

 Charles Beauclerk, Duke of St Albans ( 1670-1726) ; 

 Almost his last words were 'Let not poor Nelly 

 starve. ' There were, besides, ' la belle Stewart ' 

 (Duchess of Richmond), the Duchess of Mazarin, 

 and many more, with, last but not least, the hated 

 'Madam Carwell,' i.e. Louise de Keroualle ( 1649- 

 1734), the subtle, 'baby-faced' Breton. She was 

 made Duchess of Portsmouth in 1672, French 

 Duchesse d'Aubigny in 1684 ; and she was the 

 mother of Charles Lennox, Duke of Richmond 

 (1672-1723). 



See the articles ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, MONK, LAUDER- 

 DALE, LEEDS ( Danby ), HALIFAX, &c. ; the Histories of 

 Clarendon, Burnet, Hallam, Macaulay, Ranke, and Green ; 

 the Diaries of Pepys and Evelyn ; Grammont's Memoirs ; 

 Masson's Life of Milton ; the Calendars of State Papers, 

 1649-67 (21 vols. 1860-87) ; Harris's Life of Charles II. 

 (2 vols. 1766) ; Jesse's Court of England under the Stuarts 

 (4 vols. 1840) ; Hoskyn's diaries II. in the Channel 

 Islands ( 2 vols. 1854 ) ; P. Cunningham's Story of Nell 

 Gwynn (1852 ; new ed. 1893) ; Molloy's Royalty Restored 

 (1885); Forneron's Louise de Keroualle (trans. 1887); 

 Allan Fea, The Flujht of the Kiwj (1897). 



Charles VII., the third son and successor of 

 Charles VI. of France, was born 22d February 

 1403. On his father's death (1422) his army held 

 possession of the southern provinces ; Paris and 

 the north being in the hands of the English, who 

 proclaimed Henry VI. of England king of France, 

 and appointed the Duke of Bedford regent. For 

 some time the events of war were unfavourable to 

 Charles, who was compelled to evacuate in succes- 

 sion Champagne and Maine. In 1426 the Count 

 Dunois gained the first victory over the English at 

 Montargis ; but in the year following the latter 

 laid siege to Orleans, a place of great importance 

 to the French, as securing a connection with the 

 north. At this time also, Joan of Arc, the famous 

 Maid of Orleans, by her wonderful courage and 

 confidence of a heavenly mission, roused the fervour 

 both of nobles and people. The siege of Orleans 

 was raised in May 1429 ; the English retired dis- 

 heartened, and gradually lost all they had gained 

 in France, while their cause finally became hopeless 

 after the treaty concluded at Arras ( 1435), between 

 the French king and the Duke of Burgundy. 

 Bayonne, the last stronghold in the south, fell in 

 1451, and with the death of Talbot under the walls 

 of Castillon in 1453, the whole south finally passed 

 to France, and the Hundred Years' War came to 

 an end. Nothing now remained to the English 

 across the channel but Calais, with Havre and 

 Guines Castle. In 1436 Charles entered Paris. 

 He next devoted himself to the reorganisation of 

 the government, in whicli everything had fallen 

 into confusion, and under his rule France recovered 

 in some measure from the effects of the terrible 

 calamities which it had endured. His last years 

 were embittered by the conduct of his son, the 

 Dauphin, afterwards Louis XI. He died at Melun 

 on 22d July 1461. See the great work by De Beau- 

 court (6 vols. 1881-92). 



Charles IX., king of France (1560-74), the 

 second son of Henry II. and of Catharine de' Medici, 

 was born at St Germain-en-Laye in 1550, and suc- 

 ceeded his brother, Francis II., in 1560. He was a 

 proficient in manly exercises, possessed much physi- 

 cal energy, and considerable literary accomplish- 

 ments. But weak and wavering, with all his 



cruelty and cunning, he was completely subject to 

 the will of his mother, whose counsels drove him to 

 authorise an act so diabolical that all Europe stil. 

 shudders at the recollection. The atrocious mas- 

 sacre of St Bartholomew's Day, 24th August 1572, 

 was the culmination of a series of disgraceful 

 treacheries towards the Huguenots. Its con- 

 sequences politically were the very reverse of 

 favourable to the Catholic cause, while scarce two 

 years later (May 30, 1574) the wretched king 

 died miserably, with all the horrors of hell before 

 his eyes. See BARTHOLOMEW ( MASSACRE OF ST). 

 Charles X., king of France (1824-30), third 

 son of the Dauphin Louis, and grandson of Louis 

 XV., was born at Versailles, 9th October 1757. 

 He received the title of Comte d'Artois, and in 

 1773 married Maria Theresa of Savoy. The taking 

 of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, prevented the 

 success of a coup d'etat planned by Artois and the 

 court party. The first emigration headed by Artois 

 and Conde then followed, and a more disastrous 

 policy was never conceived. The attempts of the 

 Emigres to restore the old state of things in France 

 by means of foreign intervention did more than 

 any single event to insure the fall of the monarchy. 

 After taking a small part in the war of 1792, 

 Charles went to St Petersburg ; thence in May 1793 

 to England. In spite of the failure of the expedi- 

 tion to Quiberon Bay in June 1795, another was 

 attempted under Artois' leadership in October, but 

 he had not courage to land and place himself at the 

 head of the insurgents, whom he basely left to the 

 vengeance of Hoche and the republicans. After 

 this he lived in obscurity, partly at Holyrood and 

 partly at Hartwell, until the allies entered Paris in 

 1814, when he appeared in France as lieutenant- 

 general of the kingdom, and issued a proclamation 

 announcing the end of despotism, of conscriptions, 

 and of oppressive taxes. After the second restora- 

 tion, in alliance with the priests, he headed the 

 party of the Ultras in their struggle with the Con- 

 stitutionalists. The accession of Villele to office 

 and the unconstitutional character of .the latter 

 part of Louis XVIII. 's reign attested the success of 

 Artois' reactionary policy. The death of Louis, 

 on 16th September 1824, brought him to the throne 

 as Charles X. He took the oath of adherence to 

 the Charte, and was at first popular with all parties ; 

 but he soon displayed his intention of restoring as 

 much as possible the absolutism of the old French 

 monarchy. Popular discontent rapidly increased. 

 The victory of the opposition at the elections of 

 1827 was followed by the resignation of Villele. A 

 ministry of compromise, headed by Martignac, a 

 moderate politician, succeeded in January 1828, 

 but in August 1829 Charles called to the head of 

 affairs the Prince Polignac, an extreme royalist. A 

 royal speech, of a threatening character, on 2d 

 March 1830, was followed by an address of remon- 

 strance, signed by 221 deputies, upon which the 

 king dissolved the chambers. The deputies who 

 signed the address were all re-elected, but the court 

 taking fresh courage from the success of the expedi- 

 tion to Algiers, the celebrated five ordinances of 

 25th July were signed by the king, putting an end 

 to the freedom of the press, already largely cur- 

 tailed, appointing a new mode of election, and dis- 

 solving the recently elected chamber. Paris took 

 up arms, the guards were repulsed, the revolu- 

 tion was accomplished in three days, and the king 

 found himself compelled to retire to Rambouillet. 

 As a last resource, he abdicated the throne on 2d 

 August 1830 in favour of his grandson, the little 

 Comte de Chambord. But it was too late ; the 

 revolution was completed, and Louis-Philippe, Duke 

 of Orleans, was chosen king of the French. Charles 

 then travelled through France to Cherbourg, and 

 embarked for England in an American ship. He 



