CHARLES III. (1716-1788), king of Spain, was the second son of Philip V. Parma, Piacenza, and Tuscany, having fallen into the hands of Spain, were bestowed upon Charles, who at the age of fifteen was furnished with an army, and sent to take possession of his principality. At eighteen he conquered the two Sicilies, and the emperor was obliged to recognize him as king. In 1759, by the death of his brother, Charles succeeded to the throne of his native country. His reign was a useful one ; for he was a man of ability and of liberal temper, and he was served by such ministers as Aranda, Grimaldi, and Florida Blanca. The administration of the finances was reformed, and a bank was instituted at the capital. The Jesuits were banished, and an attempt, which was not, however, successful, was made to bring the Inquisition under the power of the civil government. Something was done to abolish brigandage ; and on two occasions Charles endeavoured to repress the piracy of the Algerines ; he interested himself greatly in the development of commerce, science, and art ; and, lastly, he did much to strengthen the army and navy. The wars, however, which he carried on with England, in alliance with the French, brought him little success. In 1763 he ceded Florida to the English in exchange for Cuba. He joined France in sending assistance to the United States during the War of Independence; and in the peace which was concluded after that war, he recovered Florida, and also gained Minorca. But his attack on Gibraltar was unsuccessful, and the English refused to treat for its restoration. Charles died at Madrid in 1788, after a reign of twenty-nine years. See the 1.7ogio of Cabarrus, and the accounts of the reign by Beccatini and Roy.

CH_ RLEs IV. (1748-1819), king of Spain, was the son of Charles III., whom he succeeded in 1788. He was married while very young to his cousin, Maria Louisa of Parma, who soon acquired the greatest influence over him. His most remarkable minister was Manuel Godoy, a good looking guardsman, who gained the friendship of both the queen and her husband, rose from the ranks to the position of lieutenant-general, and was made duke of Alcudia, and minister of foreign affairs. In 1795 Godoy concluded a treaty of peace with the French Republic at Basel, after an unsuccessful attempt by the king to aid his relative, Louis XVI. Soon after the peace an offensive and defensive alliance was entered into with France ; and Spain was thus involved in a short war with Portugal and a longer struggle with England, during which Nelson shattered the Spanish fleet at the battle of Trafalgar (1805). In 1807 Charles made a secret treaty with Napoleon, according to which Portugal was to be seized by the French and Spaniards, and the greater part divided between Godoy and the queen of Etruria, and Charles was to assume the title of emperor of America. At the same time 16,000 Spanish troops were sent to assist the French in Denmark. Meanwhile Napoleon also carried on intrigues with Don Ferdinand, the heir to the throne, who was soon after discovered in a plot to assassinate his father. Though pardoned, Ferdinand continued to do all that he could to arouse ill feeling against the court ; and in 1808 Charles was so alarmed by disturbances in Madrid, that he abdicated in his favour. He declared almost immediately that the act was not voluntary; but the matter was decided by a meeting with Napoleon at Bayonne. Urged by Godoy, who was moved by his fear of Ferdinand, and also by the queen, Charles surrendered the crown to Napoleon, who gave him a pension of 6,000,000 francs with the castle and grounds of Chambord ; and from that time he lived in retirement with his wife and the favourite, refusing to return to the throne, even when he might have done so with safety on account of the great unpopularity of his son. He died at Rome, soon after the decease of his wife, iu 1819.