CHARLES VIII  . (1470-1498), king of France, was the only son of Louis XI . During the whole of his childhood Charles lived far from his father at the chateau of Amboise, which was throughout his life his favourite residence . On the death of Louis XI. in 1483 Charles, a lad of thirteen, was of age, but was absolutely incapable of governing . Until 1492 he abandoned the government to his sister Anne of Beaujeu . In 1491 he married Anne, duchess of Brittany, who was already betrothed to Maximilian of Austria . Urged by his favourite, Etienne de Vesc, he then, at the age of twenty-two, threw off the yoke of the Beaujeus, and at the same time discarded their wise and able policy . But he was a thoroughly worthless man with a weak and ill-balanced intellect . He had a romantic imagination and conceived vast projects . He proposed at first to claim the rights of the house of Anjou, to which Louis XI. had succeeded, on the kingdom of Naples, and to use this as a stepping-stone to the capture of Constantinople from the Turks and his own coronation as emperor of the East . He sacrificed everything to this adventurous policy, signed disastrous treaties to keep his hands free, and set out for Italy in 1494 . The ceremonial side of the expedition being in his eyes the most important, he allowed himself to be intoxicated by his easy triumph and duped by the Italians .

On the 12th of May 1495 he entered Naples in

great pomp, clothed in the imperial insignia . A general coalition was, however, formed against him, and he was forced to return precipitately to France . It cannot be denied that he showed bravery at the battle of Fornovo (the 5th of July 1495) . He was preparing a fresh expedition to Italy, when he died on the 8th of April 1498, from the results of an accident, at the chateau of Amboise . See Histoire de Charles VIII, roy de France, by G. de Jaligny, Andre de la Vigne, &c., edited by Godefroy (Paris, 1684) ; De Cherrier, Histoire de Charles VIII (Paris, 1868) ; H . Fr . Delaborde, Expedition de Charles VIII en Italic (Paris, 1888) . For a complete bibliography see H . Hauser, Les Sources de l'histoire de France, 1494-1610, vol. i . (Paris, 1906) ; and E . Lavisse, Histoire de France, vol. v. part i., by H . Lemonnier (Paris, 1903) .