CHARLES IX, King of France, son of Henry II and Catharine de Medici: b. Saint Germain-en-Laye, 27 June 1550; d. 30 May 1574. He ascended the throne at the age of 10, after the death of his brother, Francis II, and his mother assumed the regency. Parliament ac quiesced in this resolution, to avoid exciting new contests between the Guises and the princes of the blood. The Duke of Guise, who obtained possession of the person of the young King, was shot by an assassin before Orleans, in February 1563. In his last moments he advised the King and the Queen mother to negotiate with the parties. This advice was followell; a treaty was signed 19 March, and Havre taken from the English 27 July. The King, who was the same year declared of age, visited the provinces in company with his mother. At Bayonne he had a meeting with his sister Isa bella, the wife of Philip II of Spain. This ex cited such suspicions in the Calvinists that they took up arms, and immediately formed the plan of attacking the King on his return to Paris. Being warned in season he escaped the danger: but this plot could not fail to arouse the hatred of Charles. After the battle of Saint Denis, 1567, in which the Constable of Montmorenci lost his life, Catharine entered into negotiations for peace. But the Calvinists reserved certain of the places which they were to have surren dered and continued to keep up a communica tion with England and the German princes. A new civil war soon broke out. Notwithstand
ing the jealousy of Charles, Catharine placed the Duke of Anjou, his brother, at the head of the royal army. The Prince of Conde was shot in the battle of Jarnac in 1569, and the Admiral Coligny defeated at Montcontour in the same year, after which the King concluded peace (1570) on terms so favorable to the Calvinists that they seem even to have suspected treachery under them. The heads of that party did not therefore all appear at court when Challes celebrated his marriage with Elizabeth, the daughter of Maximilian II. By degrees this distrust disappeared, and the marriage of the young King of Navarre (after ward Henry IV) with Margaret, sister of Charles X, seemed to banish every suspicion. This marriage took place 18 Aug. 1572. But under the sinister influence of his mother a diabolical plot was being framed. On the 22d the first attempt was made on the life of Co.. ligny, and Qn the 24th began that massacre known under the name of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, from having taken place on the night of the festival of that saint. Civil war broke out for the fourth time, and Catharine now became aware of the errors of her policy. Charles could no longer conceal his aversion to her, and was on the point of assuming him self the reins ofgovernment, when he died, childless, in 1574. Consult Merimee, du regne de Charles IX' (Paris 1839).