British statesman, diplomat, man of letters, and acclaimed wit, best known for his Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774), a guide to etiquette, worldly success, and the art of pleasing.

A translatory, diplomat, and customs official as well as a poet, Chaucer is most famous for The Canterbury Tales, written in the late fourteenth century and composed partly of narratives that Chaucer adapted or even appropriated from Boccaccio's Decameron. Chaucer's many other works include The Legend of Good Women (c. 1386), which collects tales primarily from Ovid and Boccaccio; Troilus and Criseyde (c.

Inspired by a growing English interest in antiquated and primitive poetry, Chatterton fabricated a number of works supposedly by fifteenth-century Bristol sheriff Thomas Rowley, whom Chatterton fictitiously recast as a poet, providing spurious documentation for the poems' authenticity as well. Made desperate by poverty, he committed suicide while still in his teens, inspiring his reception among Romantic readers as a quintessential example of tragically neglected genius.

An exceptionally versatile writer, Francois-Auguste-Rene de Chateaubriand was the foremost literary figure of early nineteenth-century France. Chateaubriand's Atala (1801) is a novel of ill-fated love between two American Indians of opposing tribes. His literary criticism was highly regarded, especially his Sketches of English Literature; with Considerations on the Spirit of the Times, Men, and Revolutions (London: Henry Colburn, 1836), translated from Essai sur la littérature anglaise et Considérations sur le génie des hommes, des temps et des révolutions (1836).

Known as "Bonnie Prince Charlie" by his supporters and "The Young Pretender" by detractors, Charles Edward Stuart was raised in exile after his grandfather, James II, was deposed from the British throne for his ambitions to return England to the Catholic faith. Prince Charles Edward mounted the Jacobite Uprising from Scotland in an effort to reclaim the throne for the Stuart royal line.

King of France beginning in 1483, Charles VIII began the French expeditions into Italy that lasted until the mid-16th century.

First referred to as "the Beloved" and later "the Mad," Charles VI ascended to the throne at the age of eleven and increasingly suffered from psychotic episodes that rendered him an ineffectual ruler. Although Charles signed the Treaty of Troyes shortly after the French defeat at the Battle of Agincourt, making his future son-in-law Henry V heir to the French throne, Henry died shortly before Charles, leading to the French re-entering the Hundred Years' War and earning victory for the French House of Valois.

Archduke of Austria, King of Spain, and Holy Roman Emperor beginning in 1519. His reign was largely characterized by his struggle to hold the Catholic empire together in the wake of the Protestant Reformation in Europe.

Exiled to France during the English Civil Wars and Interregnum, Charles II returned to England in 1660 to be crowned king, bringing French court culture as well as artistic and cultural sophistication with him to inaugurate a reign of relative political stability and flourishing arts but characterized by detractors as profligate and immoral.

Member of the French Capetian dynasty, King of Sicily and Naples, also known as "Charles of Anjou." Charles I created an impressive empire through his exploits in Italy, though it dissolved prior to his death.