harles I of Anjou (1226-85), youngest son of Louis VIII of France, and brother of Louis IX, the Saint. His brother gave him Anjou and Maine, and in 1246 he became by marriage Duke of Provence. In 1265 Pope Clement IV offered him the crown of Naples and Sicily; his government provoked great discontent in both Naples and Sicily, and in 1268 he had to cope with a revolt under Conradin. After the death of Louis IX he became the most important sovereign in Western Christendom, being all-powerful in France, and exercising great influence over the rest of Italy. A league was formed against Charles by the pope. Peter of Aragon came to the help of the Sicilians. Charles’s fleet was defeated by the Spanish fleet near Reggio in 1284, and the French lost Sicily forever. [World Wide Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1935]

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