Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor Totally Explained

Charles V (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1519 to his abdication in 1556. He also ruled as Charles I of Spain from 1516 to 1556. As the heir of four of Europe's leading royal houses, he united in personal union extensive realms including the Holy Roman Empire, Aragon, Castile, Naples, Sicily, the Burgundian Netherlands, and Spanish colonies in America. Upon his retirement, he divided his realms between his son Philip and his brother Ferdinand.
He was the son of Philip of Burgundy and Joanna the Mad of Castile. His paternal grandparents were Emperor Maximilian I and Mary of Burgundy, whose daughter Margarete of Austria raised him. His maternal grandparents were Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, whose marriage had first united their territories into what is now modern Spain, and whose daughter Catherine of Aragon was Queen of England and first wife of Henry VIII. His cousin was Mary I of England who married his son Philip.

Heritage and early life

Combining the heritage of the German Habsburgs, the House of Burgundy, and the Spanish heritage of his mother, Charles transcended ethnic and national boundaries. His motto was Plus Ultra, Further Beyond.
   Charles was born in the Flemish city of Ghent in 1500. The culture and courtly life of the Burgundian Low Countries were an important influence in his early life. He spoke five different languages: Flemish, German, Spanish, French, and Italian. He spoke French as mother language and Flemish from his childhood years, later adding an acceptable Spanish (which was required by the Castilian Cortes as a condition for becoming king of Castile) and some German. Indeed, he claimed to speak "Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse."
   From his Burgundian ancestors, he inherited an ambiguous relationship with the Kings of France. Charles shared with France his mother tongue (together with Flemish) and many cultural forms. In his youth, he made frequent visits to Paris, then the largest city of Western Europe. In his words: "Paris isn't a city, but a universe" (Lutetia non urbs, sed orbis). But Charles also inherited the tradition of political and dynastical enmity between the Royal and the Burgundian lines of the Valois Dynasty. This conflict was amplified by his accession to both the Holy Roman Empire and the kingdom of Spain.
   Though Spain was the core of his kingdom, he was never totally assimilated and especially in his earlier years felt like and was viewed as a foreign prince. He couldn't speak Spanish very well, as it wasn't his primary language. Nonetheless, he spent most of his life in Spain, including his final years in a Spanish monastery.
   In his youth, Charles was tutored by Adrian of Utrecht, later Pope Adrian VI. His three most prominent subsequent advisors were Lord Chièvres, Jean Sauvage and Mercurino Gattinara.

Marriage and children

On 10 March, 1526, Charles married his first cousin Isabella of Portugal, sister of John III of Portugal.
Their children included:

Philip II of Spain (1527 - 1598), the only son to reach adulthood.
Maria of Spain (1528 - 1603), who married her cousin Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor.
Joan of Spain (1535 - 1573)

Charles is also famous for his many mistresses. Two of them gave birth to two future Governors of the Habsburg Netherlands:

Johanna Maria van der Gheynst bore Margaret of Parma and

Barbara Blomberg bore John of Austria.

Reign

Burgundy and the Low Countries

In 1506, Charles inherited his father's Burgundian territories, most notably the Low Countries and Franche-Comté, most of which were fiefs of the German empire, except his birthplace Flanders that was -on paper- still a French fief, a last remnant of what had been a powerful player in the hundred years war. As he was a minor, his aunt Margaret acted as regent until 1515 and soon she soon found herself in war with the regent of the king of France over the question whether Charles would have to do homage to the French king for Flanders as his father had done. The outcome was that France relinquished its ancient but empty claim on Flanders in 1528.
   Charles extended the Burgundian territory with the annexation of Tournai, Artois, Utrecht, Groningen and Guelders. The Seventeen Provinces had been unified by Charles' Burgundian ancestors, but nominally were fiefs of either France or the Holy Roman Empire. In 1549, Charles issued a Pragmatic Sanction, declaring the Low Countries to be a unified entity of which his family would be the heirs.
   Negotiations with the Castilian Cortes proved difficult, and in the end Charles was accepted under the following conditions: he'd learn to speak Castilian; he wouldn't appoint foreigners; he was prohibited from taking precious metals from Castile; and he'd respect the rights of his mother, Queen Joanna. The Cortes paid homage to him in Valladolid in 1518. In 1519, he was crowned before the Cortes of Aragon in Zaragoza, and the Corts of Catalonia followed.
   Charles was accepted as sovereign, even though the Spanish felt uneasy with the Imperial style. Spanish monarchs until then had been bound by the laws; the monarchy was a contract with the people. With Charles it would become more absolute, even though until his mother's death in 1555 Charles didn't hold the full kingship of the country.
   Soon resistance against the Emperor rose, because of the heavy taxation (funds that were used to fight wars abroad, wars most Castilians had no interest in) and because Charles tended to select Flemings for high offices in Spain and America, ignoring Castilian candidates. The resistance culminated in the Castilian War of the Communities, which was suppressed by Charles. After this, Castile became integrated into the Habsburg empire, and would provide the bulk of the empire's military and financial resources...

America

During Charles' reign, the territories in New Spain were considerably extended by conquistadores like Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro, who caused the Aztec and Inca empires to fall in little more than a decade. Combined with the Magellan expedition's circumnavigation of the globe in 1522, these successes convinced Charles of his divine mission to become the leader of a Christian world that still perceived a significant threat from Islam. Of course, the conquests also helped solidify Charles' rule by providing the state treasury with enormous amounts of bullion. As the conquistador Bernal Diaz observed: "We came to serve God and our Majesty, ... and also to get rich."

Humanism and Reformation

As Holy Roman Emperor, he called Martin Luther to the Diet of Worms in 1521, promising him safe conduct if he'd appear. He initially dismissed Luther's idea of reformation as "An argument between monks". He later outlawed Luther and his followers in that same year but was tied up with other concerns and unable to try to stamp out Protestantism. 1524 to 1526 saw the Peasants' Revolt in Germany and in 1531 the formation of the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League. Charles delegated increasing responsibility for Germany to his brother Ferdinand while he concentrated on problems abroad.
In 1545, the opening of the Council of Trent began the Counter-Reformation, and Charles won to the Catholic cause some of the princes of the Holy Roman Empire. He also attacked the Schmalkaldic League in 1546 and at the Battle of Mühlberg defeated John Frederick, Elector of Saxony and imprisoned Philip of Hesse in 1547. At the Augsburg Interim in 1548 he created a doctrinal compromise that he felt Catholics and Protestants alike might share. A more permanent settlement followed with the 1555 Peace of Augsburg.

Abdication and later life

In 1556, Charles abdicated his various titles, giving his Spanish empire (Spain, the Netherlands, Naples and Spain's possessions in the Americas) to his son, Philip II of Spain. He passed his dynastic Austrian lands and the Holy Roman Empire to his brother, Ferdinand. Charles retired to the monastery of Yuste in Extremadura, but continued to correspond widely and kept an interest in the situation of the empire. He suffered from severe gout and some scholars think Charles V decided to abdicate after a gout attack in 1552 forced him to postpone an attempt to recapture the city of Metz, where he was later defeated..
Charles died on 21 September, 1558. Twenty-six years later, his remains were transferred to the Royal Pantheon of The Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial.

Charles V in literature and popular culture

There are few figures about whom as many traces have survived half a millennium, in both literature and living minds. Those traces comprise a large number of legends and folk tales that can often be attributed to phantasy, as well as the literary renderings of historical events connected to Charles' life and romantic adventures, his relationship to Flanders, and his abdication.

In De heerelycke ende vrolycke daeden van Keyser Carel den V, published by Joan de Grieck in 1674, the short stories, anecdotes, citations attributed to the emperor, and legends about his encounters with famous and ordinary people, depict a noble Christian monarch with a perfect cosmopolitan personality and a strong sense of humour. Converesely, in Charles De Coster's masterpiece Thyl Ulenspiegel (1867), Charles V is after his death consigned to Hell as punishment for the acts of the Inquisition under his rule, his punishment being that he'd feel the pain of anyone tortured by the Inquisition. De Coster's book also mentions the story on the spectacles in the coat of arms of Oudenaarde, the one about a paysant of Berchem in Het geuzenboek (1979) by Louis Paul Boon, while Abraham Hans (1882–1939) included both tales in De liefdesavonturen van keizer Karel in Vlaanderen.

Lord Byron's Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte refers to Charles:

The Spaniard, when the lust of sway
Had lost its quickening spell,
Cast crowns for rosaries away,
An empire for a cell;
A strict accountant of his beads,
A subtle disputant on creeds,
His dotage trifled well:
Yet better had he neither known
A bigot’s shrine, nor despot’s throne.

Ernst Krenek's opera Karl V (opus 73, 1930) examines the title character's career via flashbacks.

In the third act of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Ernani, the coronation of Charles as Holy Roman Emperor is presented. Charles (Don Carlo in the opera) prays before the tomb of Charlemagne. With the announcement that that he's elected as Carlo Quinto he declares an amnesty including the eponymous bandit Ernani who had followed him there to murder him as a rival for the love of the soprano. The opera, based on the Victor Hugo play, portrays Charles as a callous and cynical adventurer whose character is transformed by the election into a responsible and clement ruler.

In The Maltese Falcon, the title object is said to have been an intended gift to Charles V.

A well known Flemish legend about Charles being served a beer at the village of Olen, as well as the emperor's lifelong preference of beer above wine, led to the naming of several beer varieties in his honor. The Haacht Brewery of Boortmeerbeek produces Charles Quint, while the Het Anker Brewery at Mechelen produces Gouden Carolus.

In the episode of The Simpsons, Margical History Tour, Homer Simpson portrays Henry VIII who, wanting to end his marriage to Catherine of Aragon said "I can't cut off her head because her dad's the King of Spain. This is a reference to why the real Henry VIII couldn't behead his first wife. In real life, Catherine was the daughter of Ferdinand II of Aragon, not Charles V, the then King of Spain.

Gouden Carolus Grand Cru of the Emperor (Gouden Carolus Cuvee Van De Keizer) is a beer by Brouwerij Het Anker in Mechelen, Belgium. It is brewed once a year on Charles V's birthday.

In the 2003 film Luther, he's portrayed by Torben Liebrecht.

Trivia

He suffered from an enlarged lower jaw, a deformity which got considerably worse in later Habsburg generations. He struggled to chew his food properly and consequently experienced bad indigestion for much of his life. As a result, he usually ate alone.

He suffered from joint pain, presumed to be gout, according to his 16th century doctors. In his retirement, he was carried around the monastery of St. Yuste in a sedan chair. A ramp was specially constructed to allow him easy access to his rooms.}}
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