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CHARLES (1525-1574)

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 936 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHARLES (1525-1574)  , See also:cardinal of See also:Lorraine, See also:French states-See also:man, was the second son of See also:Claude of Lorraine, See also:duke of See also:Guise, and See also:brother of See also:Francis, duke of Guise . He was See also:archbishop of See also:Reims in 1538, and cardinal in 1547 . At first he was called the cardinal of Guise, but in 1550, on the See also:death of his See also:uncle See also:John, cardinal of Lorraine, he in his turn took the See also:style of cardinal of Lorraine . Brilliant, cunning and a See also:master of intrigue, he was, like all the Guises, devoured with ambition and devoid of scruples . He had, said Brant6me, " a soul exceeding smirched," and, he adds, " by nature he was exceeding See also:craven." Together with his brother, Duke Francis, the cardinal of Lorraine was all-powerful during the reigns of See also:Henry II. and Francis II.; in 1558 and 1559 he was one of the negotiators of the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis; he fought and pitilessly persecuted the reformers, and by his intolerant policy helped to provoke the crisis of the See also:wars of See also:religion . The death of Francis II. deprived him of See also:power, but he remained one of the See also:principal leaders of the See also:Catholic party . In 1561, at the Colloquy of See also:Poissy, he was commissioned to reply to See also:Theodore See also:Beza . In 1562 he went to the See also:council of See also:Trent, where he at first defended the rights of the Gallican See also:Church against the pretensions of the See also:pope; but after the assassination of his brother, he approached the See also:court of See also:Rome, and on his return to See also:France he endeavoured, but without success, to obtain the promulgation of the decrees of the council (1564) . In 1567, when the Protestants took up arms, he held for some See also:time the first See also:place in the See also:king's council, but See also:Catherine de' See also:Medici soon See also:grew weary of his arrogance, and in 1570 he had to leave the court . He endeavoured to regain favour by negotiating at Rome the See also:dispensation for the See also:marriage of Henry of See also:Navarre with See also:Margaret of See also:Valois (1572) . He died on the 26th of See also:December 1574, at the beginning of the reign of Henry III . An orator of See also:talent, he See also:left several harangues or sermons, among them being Oraison prononcee au Colloque de Poissy (See also:Paris, 1562) and Oratio habita in Concil .

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Trident . (Concil . Trident . Orationes, See also:Louvain, 1567) . A large amount of See also:correspondence is preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris . See also Rene de See also:Bouille, Histoire See also:des ducs de Guise (Paris, 1849) ; H . Forneron, See also:Les Guises et leur $poque (Paris, 1877); Guillemin, Le Cardinal de Lorraine (1847) .

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