succeeded in maintaining a neutral position in the struggle between Francis I. of France and the emperor Charles V. He died on the 14th of June 1544, and was succeeded by his son Francis I., who died of apoplexy (August 1545) at the very moment when he was negotiating peace between the king of France and the emperor. _Lorraine in Modern Times._--Francis's son Charles III. or II., called the Great, succeeded under the tutelage of his mother and Nicholas of Vaudemont, bishop of Metz. Henry II. of France took this opportunity to invade Lorraine, and in 1552 seized the three bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verdun. In the same year the emperor laid siege to Metz, but was forced to retreat with heavy loss before the energetic resistance of Duke Francis of Guise. On leaving Lorraine, Henry II. took Charles to France, brought him up at the court and married him to his daughter Claude. After the accession of Francis II., the young duke returned to Lorraine, and, while his cousins the Guises endeavoured to make good the claims of the house of Lorraine to the crown of France by virtue of its descent from the Carolingians through Charles, the son of Louis d'Outremer, he devoted himself mainly to improving the administration of his duchy. He reconstituted his domain by revoking the alienations irregularly granted by his predecessors, instructed his _chambre des comptes_ to institute inquiries on this subject, and endeavoured to ameliorate the condition of industry and commerce by reorganizing the working of the mines and saltworks, unifying weights and measures and promulgating edicts against vagabonds. His duchy suffered considerably from the passage of German bands on their way to help the Protestants in France, and also from disturbances caused by the progress of Calvinism, especially in the neighbourhood of the three bishoprics. To combat Calvinism Charles had recourse to the Jesuits, whom he established at Pont-à Mousson, and to whom he gave over the university he had founded in that town in 1572. To this foundation he soon added chairs of medicine and law, the first professor of civil law being the _maître des requêtes_, the Scotsman William Barclay, and the next Gregory of Toulouse, a pupil of the jurist Cujas. Charles died on the 14th of May 1608, and was succeeded by his eldest son Henry II., called the Good, who rid Lorraine of the German bands and died in 1624 without issue.