Charles V (1500–1558)

King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, Charles governed the largest realm in Europe since the time of Charlemagne. He was the son of Philip I the Handsome (the Duke of Burgundy) and Joanna the Mad of Spain. He was grandson of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, the joint rulers of Spain, and of Maximilian I, Habsburg emperor of the Holy Roman states. Born in Ghent, he was raised by an aunt, Margaret of Austria. Charles inherited the Netherlands, a part of Burgundy, on the death of his father in 1506, but ruled through Margaret, who served as his regent until 1515. On the death of Ferdinand II in 1516, Charles became the first monarch of a united Spanish kingdom that included Aragon, Navarre, Castile, Granada, Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia, and that also governed colonies established by Spanish explorers and adventurers in the Americas. As an outsider, Charles was at

first unpopular in Spain, where he levied heavy taxes and appointed Flemish outsiders to govern.

In 1519, on the death of his grandfather Maximilian, Charles was elected as the Holy Roman Emperor, governing an area that included Austria and other territories in central Europe. His election frustrated the ambitious King Francis I of France, who also had claimed the title. This encounter laid the seeds of a long rivalry between the two rulers that would endure for decades. In 1522, finding the huge realm too much for a single man to rule, Charles gave up direct rule of his territories in Austria to his brother Ferdinand.

Charles still disputed control of Burgundy and Navarre with Francis I; at the same time, Italy was contested between the pope and foreign kings seeking to extend their influence to wealthy city-states such as Milan and Florence. The emperor allied with Pope Leo X and went to war against Francis I in 1521. Charles's army won an important victory at the Battle of Pavia in 1525, capturing Francis and bringing him to Spain, where the French king was forced to sign the Peace of Madrid. This treaty freed Milan from French control and ended France's claims to Burgundy. When he returned to France, however, Francis claimed he had signed the treaty under duress and renounced it. He formed an alliance against Charles that included King Henry VIII of England, Pope Clement VII, and the cities of Venice, Milan, and Florence. Charles responded with an invasion of Italy. His armies brutally sacked the city of Rome in 1527 and took the pope hostage. The Treaty of Cambrai in 1529 temporarily ended the conflict bctween the emperor and the French king; soon afterward Charles also signed the Peace of Barcelona with the pope. In 1535, Charles installed his son Philip as the Duke of Milan in defiance of Francis, who was again claiming the city. The war continued until 1538, then resumed in 1542 with Francis allying with Suleiman I, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and Charles allying with Henry VIII.

In 1530, after reaching a peace agreement with Pope Clement VII, Charles was officially crowned the Holy Roman Emperor by the pope. The Spanish conquests in the New World had brought him prestige and a fortune in silver. Charles strongly believed in the Christianizing mission of the conquistadores; in Europe, he saw his own holy mission in the fight against Protestantism that was threatening the authority of the pope and emperor in Germany and in the Low Countries. In 1521, at the Diet of Worms, Charles had condemned the teachings of Martin Luther, the German monk who was leading the revolt against the Catholic Church, known as the Protestant Reformation. Charles sent inquisitors and troops to ruthlessly put down Protestant rebellion and worked to ally the princes of Germany with the Catholic Church and against the Protestant movement. In 1531 his Protestant opponents responded by organizing the Schmalkaldic League against him. The league allied with France against Charles; its officers seized Catholic properties, expelled Catholic leaders, and forcibly converted many German cities to Protestantism.

At the Council of Trent in 1545, Charles persuaded several German princes to join his crusade against Protestantism. With his opponents divided over strategy, he decisively defeated the Schmalkaldic League at the Battle of Mühlberg in 1546. In 1555 the Peace of Augsburg finally established a lasting compromise between Catholics and Protestants. By this treaty, the religion of each realm would be that of its prince. In the next year Charles abdicated his throne. His brother Ferdinand replaced him as the Holy Roman Emperor and his son Philip II became king of Spain. Charles entered a monastery in Yuste, Spain, where he died in 1558.