Charles, who always called himself Carolus, was destined for a career in the church as a younger son. In 1648 he became
provost of
Saint-Dié and in 1649 abbot of
Gorze Abbey. However, the death of his older brother Ferdinand in 1659 made him heir to Lorraine and Bar. He resigned from his church offices and switched to a military career. Charles was engaged to
Marie Jeanne of Savoy but after his uncle was restored as Duke of Lorraine in 1661, he abandoned this marriage and returned to the Imperial court at Vienna. He took up a career in the
Imperial Army in 1663, his first major action being
Saint Gotthard in 1664, where he served under the Imperial commander,
Raimondo Montecuccoli. (left) and Charles (right) at the Battle of Mohács When France re-occupied Lorraine in 1670, both Charles and his uncle fought in the Imperial Army during the 1672–1678
Franco-Dutch War. He was wounded at the
Battle of Seneffe in 1674 and replaced his uncle in the
Rhineland after his death in 1675, taking part in the recapture of
Philippsburg in 1676. In recognition of this, he was promoted
Generalfeldmarschall in 1676 but was unable to build on these gains, largely due to poor logistics; in the last stages of the war, he was out manoeuvred by
de Créquy and suffered minor defeats at Rheinfeld and
Ortenbach. The
Treaty of Nijmegen in 1679 confirmed his title as Duke of Lorraine, but France retained the territory and, in 1681, also annexed
Strasbourg, capital of
Alsace. Charles' prospects of regaining his Duchy seemed increasingly remote and when the
Great Turkish War began in 1683, he was appointed Commander of the Imperial army. He was outnumbered by the
Ottomans, who were also supported by anti-Habsburg Hungarians known as
Kurucs, as well as non-Catholic minorities who opposed
Leopold's anti-Protestant policies. Charles positioned his men outside
Vienna, shielding them from the plague epidemic then prevailing in the city; unlike the Ottomans, many of whom died of it. His forces focused on raiding Ottoman camps and protecting resupply convoys to the city, while
Pope Innocent XI assembled an alliance to support the Habsburgs. Known as the
Holy League and led by
John III Sobieski, this force combined with Charles's troops to defeat the besieging army at the
Battle of Vienna on 11 September 1683. In the next few years, the Habsburg army under Charles reconquered
Hungary,
Slavonia and
Transylvania; his first
siege of Buda in 1684 ended in defeat but was followed by major victories over the Ottomans at the
siege of Buda in 1686 and the
second battle of Mohács in 1687. In May 1688, he resigned his military commission in favor of
Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria. When the
War of the Palatine Succession broke out in September 1688, he returned to command Imperial forces in the Rhineland and reconquered
Mainz from the French on 8 September 1689 but fell ill. He initially returned to his family in
Innsbruck, but then wanted to travel to Vienna to organize a comprehensive army reform with Emperor Leopold. He died of a
pulmonary embolism in
Wels on 8 April 1690. He was succeeded by his son Leopold, who was restored as Duke of Lorraine after the 1697
Treaty of Ryswick. He was initially buried in the Jesuit Church in Innsbruck but after the treaty of Ryswick his remains were transferred to the ducal chapel in
Church of Saint-François-des-Cordeliers in
Nancy, Lorraine. ==Ancestry==