Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

It is difficult to say what nationality Charles was. He was a Hapsburg on his father's side, but he was not German: he famously said "I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse." His first language was French, but he was a lifelong enemy of France. His mother was Spanish, and Spain was the core of his kingdom, but he was not Spanish: however he probably felt more at home in Spain than anywhere else in his vast multilingual empire.

Charles was born in Ghent and brought up in the Netherlands until 1517, where he was tutored by Adrian of Utrecht, later Pope Adrian VI. In 1506, on the death of his father, Charles inherited the Netherlands and Franche-Comté. After the death of his grandfather Ferdinand in 1516, Charles became joint-king of Castile with his mother (who was insane), and also inherited Aragon, Navarre, Granada, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, and Spanish America. Upon arriving to Castile, he had to fight the Castilian War of the Communities against the cities and petty nobles who disliked his appointment of Flemings for Castilian offices. He eventually won and from then on Castilian Cortes were keen on conceding him the vast resources needed for the numerous wars he waged in Europe. After the death of his other grandfather, Maximilian, in 1519, he inherited Hapsburg lands in Austria and was elected Holy Roman Emperor.

He married infanta Isabella, sister of John III of Portugal, who had shortly before married Catherine, Charles's sister.

Charles V initiated many wars with France during his reign, first fighting against them in Northern Italy in 1521. Later, in 1527, his troops sacked Rome, causing Charles some embarrassment but enabling him to keep the Pope from annulling the marriage of Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon, who was his aunt.

As Holy Roman Emperor, he called Martin Luther to the Diet of Worms in 1521, promising him safe conduct if he would appear. He outlawed Luther and his followers in that same year but was tied up with other concerns and unable to try to stamp out Protestantism.

In a war supported by Henry VIII of England, in 1525 Charles captured François I of France and made him sign the Treaty of Madrid (1526), in which France renounced her claims on Northern Italy. When he was released, however, François reneged on the treaty. The 1529 Treaty of Cambrai (signed with France) and the Peace of Barcelona (with the Pope) confirmed Charles as Holy Roman Emperor and also allowed him to keep the lands he had acquired in Italy.

1524 to 6 saw the Peasants' Revolt in Germany and the formation of the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League, and Charles delegated increasing responsibility for Germany to his brother Ferdinand while he concentrated on problems abroad.

He had been fighting with the Ottoman Empire and its sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, for a number of years. The expeditions of the Ottoman force along the Mediterranean coast posed a threat to Hapsburg lands and the peace of Western Europe. In 1535 Charles won an important victory at Tunis, but in 1536 Francis I of France allied himself with Suleiman against Charles. While Francis was persuaded to sign a peace treaty in 1538, he again allied himself with the Ottomans in 1542. In 1543 Charles allied himself with Henry VIII and forced Francis to sign the Truce of Crepy. Charles later signed a humiliating treaty with the Ottomans, to gain him some respite from the huge expenses of their war.

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 defeated John Frederick I of Saxony and imprisoned Philip of Hesse in 1547. At the Diet of Augsburg in 1547 he created a doctrinal compromise that he felt Catholics and Protestants alike might share. In 1548 he made the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands an entity separate from both the Empire and from France (the "Pragmatic Sanction of 1548").

In 1556 Charles abdicated his various positions, giving his personal empire to his son, Philip II of Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire to his brother, Ferdinand. Charles retired to the monastery of Yuste (Extremadura, Spain) and is thought to have had a nervous breakdown. He died in 1558. In the last two decades of his life he suffered from gout.

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