[2][3] Beginning in 1323 Charles was confronted with a peasant revolt in Flanders, and in 1324 he made an unsuccessful bid to be elected Holy Roman Emperor.

From 1314 to his accession to the throne, he held the title of Count of La Marche and was crowned King of France in 1322 at the cathedral in Reims.

[7] Charles married again in 1325, this time to Jeanne d'Évreux: she was his first cousin, and the marriage required approval from Pope John XXII.

[12] Charles undertook rapid steps to assert his own control, executing the Count of L'Isle-Jourdain, a troublesome southern noble, and making his own royal progress.

[2] He debased the coinage to his own benefit, sold offices,[2] increased taxation, exacted burdensome duties, and confiscated estates from enemies or those he disliked.

Tensions rose in November 1323 after the construction of a bastide, a type of fortified town, in Saint-Sardos, part of the Agenais, by a French vassal.

Isabella was joined by the young Prince Edward later that year, who paid homage to Charles on his father's behalf as a peace gesture.

[22] In 1326 after negotiations with Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray, Charles renewed the Auld Alliance with Scotland through the Treaty of Corbeil (1326).

[23] Meanwhile, Isabella had entered into a relationship with the exiled English nobleman Roger Mortimer and refused to return to England, instead travelling to Hainaut, where she betrothed Prince Edward to Philippa, the daughter of the local Count.

[24] She then used this money, plus an earlier loan from Charles,[8] to raise a mercenary army and invade England, deposing her husband Edward II,[24] who was then murdered in 1327.

[26] Over time, however, Louis' clear French loyalties and lack of political links within Flanders itself began to erode his position within the county itself.

[27] Charles was relatively unconcerned at first, since in many ways the revolt could help the French crown by weakening the position of the Count of Flanders over the long term.

In November 1325 Charles declared the rebels guilty of high treason and ordered them excommunicated, mobilising an army at the same time.

[30] Louis pardoned the rebels and was then released, but once safely back in Paris he shifted his position and promised Charles not to agree to any separate peace treaty.

Charles gave his nephew a particularly advanced education by the standards of the day, arranged for his marriage to Blanche of Valois, and also renamed him.

[2] Charles, a keen crusader who took the cross in 1323, had a history of diplomatic intrigue in the Levant – he had attempted to become the Byzantine emperor earlier in his career.

A French envoy sent in return with Pope John's blessing later in the year, however, found Byzantium beset with civil war, and negotiations floundered.

[37] Charles IV died in 1328 at the Château de Vincennes, Val-de-Marne, and is interred with his third wife, Jeanne d'Évreux, in Saint Denis Basilica, with his heart buried at the now-demolished church of the Couvent des Jacobins in Paris.

Charles is a character in Les Rois maudits (The Accursed Kings), a series of French historical novels by Maurice Druon.