CHARLES V (*the Wise)), King of France, son of John II: b. Vincennes, 21 Jan. 1337; d. there, 16 Sept. 1380. While duke of Normandy, and during the captivity of his E father in England, after the battle of Poitiers, he took the title of lieutenant of the kingdom. The vices and extravagances of the court were extreme, and the demands of the States-General for reform, headed by Stephen Marcel, provost of the merchants of Pans, were loudly and persistently urged. This assembly was sup ported in its claims by Charles the Bad, King of Navarre, who, as grandson of Louis le Hutin, maintained a preferable right to the crown. By artfully temporizing Charles con trived to detach the leading orders from the cause of the states, and having brought about indirectly the assassination of Marcel, succeeded in crushing their party. Meantime his father, John, grill continued in captivity in England till liberated by the Treaty of Bretigny in 1360. Four years afterward he died, leaving Charles as successor to. the French crown. The reign
of the latter presents a series of combined hostilities and intrigues carried on with the view of establishing his power and extending his dominions. Great defensive skill was shown in his wars, and in these he was so far successful as to keep at bay the King of Navarre and de prive the English of a great part of their possessions in France. The magnanimity and wisdom of Charles have been greatly com mended by some writers, and if we make due allowance for the times in which he lived, the high character which these have assigned him may not appear overcharged. That in his pub lic administration, however, he was guilty of various acts of perfidy and cruelty cannot be disputed. He possessed some literary tastes and was the founder of the Bibliotheque Royale. He erected the Bastile for the purpose of overawing the Parisians, whose outbreaks he had found reason to dread. Consult De lacheval, de Charles (Paris 1908).