Proof that the trace of a matrix is the sum of its eigenvalues

These answers require way too much machinery. By definition, the characteristic polynomial of an $n\times n$ matrix $A$ is given by $$p(t) = \det(A-tI) = (-1)^n \big(t^n - (\text{tr} A) \,t^{n-1} + \dots + (-1)^n \det A\big)\,.$$ On the other hand, $p(t) = (-1)^n(t-\lambda_1)\dots (t-\lambda_n)$, where the $\lambda_j$ are the eigenvalues of $A$. So, comparing coefficients, we have $\text{tr}A = \lambda_1 + \dots + \lambda_n$.

Let $A$ be a matrix. It has a Jordan Canonical Form, i.e. there is matrix $P$ such that $PAP^{-1}$ is in Jordan form. Among other things, Jordan form is upper triangular, hence it has its eigenvalues on its diagonal. It is therefore clear for a matrix in Jordan form that its trace equals the sum of its eigenvalues. All that remains is to prove that if $B,C$ are similar then they have the same eigenvalues.

I'll try to show it another way. We know that if we have a polynomial $x^n+b_{n-1} x^{n-1} + \dots +b_1 x+ b_0$, then $(-1)^{n-1} b_{n-1}$ is the sum of the roots of this polynomial. (So-called Vieta's formulas) In our case, the polynomial is $\det(tI-A)$ and we have $(-1)^{n-1} b_{n-1}=\lambda_1+\lambda_2+\dots+\lambda_n$.

$\def\S{\mathcal{S}_n}$ Let $\S$ denote all the permutations of the set $\{1,2,\dots,n\}$. Then by definition $$ \det M = \sum_{\pi\in\S} m_{1,\pi(1)} m_{2,\pi(2)} \dots m_{n,\pi(n)} \operatorname{sgn}\pi, $$ where $\operatorname{sgn}\pi$ is either $+1$ or $-1$ and it is $+1$ for the identity permutation (we don't need to know more now).

Consider $M=tI-A$. To get the power $t^{n-1}$ for a permutation, we need this permutation to choose at least $n-1$ diagonal elements, i.e., to have $\pi(i)=i$ for at least $n-1$ values of $i$. However, once you know the value of a permuation on $n-1$ inputs, you know the last one as well. This means, that to get the coefficient of $t^{n-1}$, we need to consider only the identity permutation.

So far we got that $b_{n-1}$ is the coefficient of $t^{n-1}$ in $(t-a_{1,1})(t-a_{2,2})\dots(t-a_{n,n})$ (this is the term of the sum above corresponding to the identity permutation). Therefore $(-1)^{n-1}b_{n-1} = a_{1,1}+a_{2,2}+\dots+a_{n,n}=\operatorname{Tr}A$.