have attended both Oxford and Cambridge universities
without taking a degree. His earliest published poems,
The Shadow of Night (1594) and Ovid’s Banquet of Sence
(1595), are remarkable mainly for their obscurity; Chap-
man was never one to wear his learning lightly, a failing
also apparent in his continuation of MARLOWE’s Hero and
Leander (1598). He probably began writing for the stage in
the mid-1590s, producing such comedies as An Humorous
Day’s Mirth (1599) and All Fools (1605). Satirical allusions
to the Scots in Eastward Ho! (1605) incurred the displea-
sure of King James I, causing Chapman and his coauthors
Ben JONSONand John Marston to be briefly imprisoned.
Chapman’s best play is his tragedy Bussy d’Ambois (1607),
the hero of which is his finest dramatic creation. Chap-
man’s greatest achievement, however, was his translation
of the whole Homeric corpus: the complete Iliad in
rhymed 14-syllable lines appeared in 1611, followed by
the Odyssey in rhymed decasyllables (1614–15) and the
Homeric hymns (1616).
Charlemagne, legend of The cycle of narratives, also
known as “the matter of France,” that accumulated during
the Middle Ages around the Frankish king Charlemagne
(c. 742–814; emperor 800–814) and his knights (pal-
adins). Much of the earliest material focuses on Charle-
magne himself as the divinely appointed champion of
Christianity against Islam, but the part of the Charle-
magne cycle that really kindled the medieval imagination
was the incident in 778 when the rearguard of the Frank-
ish army was ambushed by Basques while returning from
an abortive campaign in Spain and was annihilated at
Roncesvaux in the Pyrenees. This historical kernel grew
into the Old French Chanson de Roland (c. 1100), the epic
tale of the rearguard’s last stand under its commander
Roland against overwhelming hordes of Saracens. The
poem was translated into German as the Rolandslied (mid-
12th century), and further material was added to the
Roland theme in Spanish and Italian poems on the hero’s
exploits prior to Roncesvaux and in laments for the
slaughtered knights. Grotesque, magic, and erotic el-
ements were also attached to the Roland story, particularly
in Italy, and PULCI’s Morgante attempts to blend these with
the story of Roncesvaux. Roland, Italianized as Orlando,
also appears as the hero of the two greatest Italian roman-
tic epics, BOIARDO’s Orlando innamorato and ARIOSTO’s Or-
lando furioso, in which the materia cavalleresca of
Charlemagne’s wars against the pagans provides the gen-
eral narrative framework.
Charles V (1500–1558) Holy Roman Emperor (1519–56);
also Charles I of Spain (1516–56), archduke of Austria, and
duke of Burgundy
A HAPSBURGprince, the son of Philip (the Handsome) of
Burgundy and Joanna (the Mad) of Castile, Charles inher-
ited vast territories from each of his four grandparents. He
succeeded MAXIMILIAN Ias Holy Roman Emperor, inherit-
ing from him Austrian and other German territories. From
Mary, heiress of Burgundy, Charles inherited the Nether-
lands, Franche-Comté, and other territories near the
Rhine. From FERDINAND II AND ISABELLA Icame Spain,
Spanish territory in North Africa and the New World, and
various Italian territories and claims. By his wife, Isabella
of Portugal (1503–39), Charles begot the future PHILIP II
of Spain; two of his illegitimate children—MARGARET OF
PARMAand Don JOHN OF AUSTRIA—also played prominent
roles in the late 16th century.
Charles was an earnest, but not particularly intellec-
tual, man. His favorite painter was TITIAN. A devout, if
rather unimaginative Catholic, he took his great responsi-
bilities seriously and was determined to protect his faith
both against the attacks of the OTTOMAN TURKS, who
reached the gates of Vienna in 1529, and against the
Protestants.
Charles was born in Ghent and educated in the
Netherlands, where he succeeded his father in 1506 and
assumed personal rule in 1515. He was later faced with se-
rious revolts in some Netherlands cities, notably the revolt
of Ghent, which was ruthlessly suppressed in 1540. In
Spain too there were rebellions early in his reign (see CO-
MUNEROS, REVOLT OF THE), but order was restored by- Charles worked hard to reach an understanding
with his Spanish subjects in the 1520s; during his reign
Spanish power in the New World was developed and the
monarchy in Spain became more unified and centralized.
In Germany, despite some attempts to reach a com-
promise, as for instance at the colloquy of REGENSBURG,
Charles had to confront the Protestant challenge and years
of sectarian warfare until the Peace of AUGSBURG(1555)
suspended the religious struggle. In Italy, as Maximilian I
had done, Charles continued to dispute French claims.
The Wars of ITALYwere the most obvious expression of
Hapsburg–Valois rivalry for mastery in Europe.
In 1556, exhausted by the burdens of his inheritance,
Charles retired to the Spanish monastery of Yuste. His in-
heritance was divided; Spain, the Netherlands, and other
Spanish territories went to his son, Philip II of Spain. Aus-
tria, other German territories, and the Holy Roman Em-
pire passed to his brother, FERDINAND I.
Further reading: Willem Pieter Blockmans, Emperor
Charles V: 1550–1558, transl. Isola van den Haven-Varden
(London: Edward Arnold, 2002); William D. Maltby,
The Reign of Charles V (New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
2002).
Charles VIII (1470–1498) King of France (1483–98)
The only son of Louis XI and Charlotte of Savoy, Charles
was frail and not very intelligent. During his minority
(1483–91), Anne de Beaujeu, his sister, and her husband
were regents. They administered France soundly and by
arranging Charles’s marriage (1491) to Anne, heiress ofCChhaarrlleess VVIIIIII 1 10011