Charles II or III of Savoy called the Good was Duke of Savoy, prince of Piedmont and count of Aosta, Moriana and Nice from 1504 to 1553. He was also titular king of Cyprus and Jerusalem (the title as Charles II or as Charles III varies depending on whether his cousin Carlo Giovanni Amedeo di Savoia is considered as Charles II or not). He was the son of Philip II of Savoy and his father's second wife, Claudina di Brosse.
Spentosi Filiberto II without descendants, he was succeeded by his half-brother Carlo, who found the State in very precarious financial conditions. Trying to restore at least part of the serious deficit produced by previous governments, he allied with Louis XII in the league of Cambrai against the Duchy of Milan. To Louis XII happened (1 January 1515) Francis I, grandson of the same Charles II of Savoy (the father of Francis I, Charles, Count of Agoulême, had married Luisa of Savoy, daughter of Philip II of Savoy and Margaret of Bourbon ) and progenitor of the French royal dynasty of the Valois-Agoulême. Because of the friendship with the French king, the Duchy of Savoy was invaded by Swiss mercenary troops hired by Pope Leo X, to whom Charles had denied transit through France. The French army, commanded by Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, circumvented the Swiss, who left Piedmont, and took a brilliant victory at Marignano (13 September 1515). At the conclusion of Noyon's peace Charles II mediated between Francis I and Charles I of Spain (the future emperor Charles V). On 5 October 1521 Charles II married Villefranche sur Mer Beatrice of Portugal (1504 - 1538), daughter of Manuel I, king of Portugal (1469 - 1521) and of Maria of Aragon (1482 - 1517), who brought him as dowry the county of Asti. At the election of Charles I of Spain to Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire under the name of Charles V, it was a new war (1523). Francesco I re-descended with his army from the Alpine passes but was defeated in Lombardy by the imperial army. He re-descended with his army the Alps the following year, always passing through the lands of the Duchy of Savoy with devastating effects imaginable, and conquered Milan but was soundly defeated and taken prisoner in Pavia. In the meantime Charles II had approached the Emperor of whom he had become a brother-in-law through his wife. With the extinction of the Paleologi di Monferrato in the person of Gian Giorgio Paleologo (1533), Charles II encamped his claims on the territory, being descendant of Jolanda di Monferrato, who in 1333 had married Aimone di Savoia, but against him he found Federico I Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, and the Marquis of Saluzzo Francesco Lodovico, supported by Francesco I. A further approach by Charles II to the Emperor, manifested by sending the son of Charles II Ludovico to Madrid to be educated, provided the excuse to Francis I to invade Savoy. On 3 April 1536 the French occupied Turin and Charles II fled with his son Emanuele Filiberto in Vercelli. Piedmont was declared annexed to France by Francis I, despite the heroic resistance of cities such as Aosta and Nice. Unfortunately, Charles II was too weak, both economically and militarily, to be able to hope to recover the lost cities and, soon forgotten, even tried to restore his power in Piedmont. When, however, Spaniards and Englishmen came to threaten Paris itself, Francis I was forced to sign the peace of Crepy (18 September 1544), with which he undertook to return all occupied lands to the Savoy, not including Pinerolo and Montmélian. But the French remained in fact where they were and, dead Francis I (1547), his successor Henry II came to visit Turin triumphantly welcomed as if the city was French. Reduced only with the provinces of Aosta, Vercelli and Nizza, the unhappy Charles II died in Vercelli and was buried in a chapel of the cathedral of this city.