CHARLES V

CHARLES V: translation

Charles V served as holy Roman emperor from 1519 to 1556, ruling over a vast territory that included Spain, Burgundy, and numerous German and Italian states. He vehemently defended Catholicism against Martin Luther* and the growth of the Protestant Reformation, and he maintained Habsburg dynastic policies in the face of external threats from the papacy, France, and the Ottoman Empire.

Charles was born on 24 February 1500 in Ghent, Flanders, to Philip the Handsome, the son of Emperor Maximilian I, and Joanna the Mad, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. He spent his youth in Burgundy influenced by Adrian of Utrecht in religious matters and Guillaume de Croy, sieur de Chievres, who helped him develop chivalrous and missionary tendencies. Charles possessed a medieval character favoring dynastic politics and Catholicism, and he enjoyed an affinity for traditional Burgundian culture. Later influential figures who fur­thered his dynastic outlook were Cardinal Francisco Ximenes in Spain and Mercurino Gattinara, his close political advisor.

Charles became duke of Burgundy in 1515 and the following year became king of Spain. He traveled to Spain in 1517 and was not well received since he was from Burgundy. In 1519, with financial backing from German bankers, Charles was unanimously elected holy Roman emperor and was crowned at Aachen on 23 October the following year. He remained in Germany for only a short time, however, as he was forced to return to Spain in 1522 to put down a revolt by a group of Castilian cities supported by the nobility. Charles re­mained in Spain from 1522 to 1529, where he ultimately gained the support of the Spaniards.

The major problem Charles faced during his reign was the emergence of Protestantism. He confronted Luther at the Diet of Worms in 1521 and vowed to defend the Catholic faith against Lutheran Protestantism. Charles had diffi­culty dealing with Protestantism due to several major external pressures and ultimately allowed his brother, Ferdinand, to focus on issues within the empire.

Dynastic politics forced Charles into conflict with Francois I,* king of France.Charles wanted to regain the hereditary territories of Burgundy and Milan, and Francois understandably feared Habsburg encirclement. Fighting between Charles and Francois began in 1521 and resulted in a French defeat at Pavia in 1525. At the same time Charles was at war with France, he was also experi­encing problems with the papacy because it opposed his push for the formation of a church council to manage the threat of Protestantism. Pope Clement VII believed that his authority was being threatened and therefore did not cooperate with Charles. Francois allied with Clement against Charles and, in 1527, Charles sent forces to sack Rome, resulting in Clement's capture and increased imperial control in Italy. Clement was captured and released in 1528, and Charles and Francois agreed to the Peace of Cambrai in 1529. Charles renounced claims to Burgundy, and Francois gave up Milan and Naples. Francois did not remain idle long, for in 1536 he allied with the Turks—who also posed occasional threats to Charles throughout his reign—and invaded Savoy. Francois turned down a personal combat with Charles and agreed to peace in 1538. Fighting resumed in 1542, and Charles pushed his forces close to Paris. The Peace of Crepy was concluded in 1544, which maintained the status quo.

Charles's campaign against Protestantism continued throughout his reign but achieved limited success. Although Clement had eventually crowned Charles in Bologna in 1530, the last pope to crown a holy Roman emperor, he still refused Charles's request to call a council to discuss Protestantism. Clement's successor, Paul III, cooperated with Charles and convened the Council of Trent in 1545. The council failed to produce the reforms Charles wanted, and ultimately, papal fear of Spanish control of Italy prevented papal and imperial cooperation toward the suppression of Protestantism.

Charles still continued his attacks on Protestants and was victorious at the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547. At the Diet of Augsburg (1547-48), he allowed Lutherans to return to Catholicism and granted them Communion and clerical marriages. Both Lutheran and Catholic princes feared Spanish domination over Germany, and several prominent German princes deserted Charles and joined Henri II. Charles was driven from Germany in 1552 and in 1553 eventually turned over German affairs to his brother, Ferdinand; both eventually adhered to the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. Lutheranism and Catholicism were deemed equal, and the religion of the regional authority would be the religion of the land. In October 1555 Charles gave control of the Netherlands to his son, Philip,* and in January 1556 abdicated his rule over Spain in favor of Philip. Charles died on 21 September 1558 in Spain.

Charles remained medieval in outlook throughout his reign, defending his territories from external threats and supporting the church against the rise of Protestantism. Although the Reformation caused a decline in the arts, Charles's popularity was seen in numerous artistic forms. Albrecht von Brandenburg con­structed Neue Stift at Halle, a reaffirmation of Catholicism, which contained a silver bust of Charles on the high altar. Medallions of Charles were found on tombs signifying imperial ties, medalists such as Christoph Weiditz, Hans Rein­hart, Hans Kels the Younger, and Hans Schwarz showed their support of Charles, and portraits by Hans Daucher, Hans Memling, and Titian* showcased Charles's greatness. He was viewed as a great man because of the issues he faced, and he garnered a great deal of support throughout the Holy Roman Empire.

E. Armstrong, The Emperor Charles V, 1902.

K. Brandi, The Emperor Charles V, 1939.

J. C. Smith, German Sculpture of the Later Renaissance, c. 1520-1580, 1994.

Charles V: translation

(1500-1558)

   King of Spain (1515-1555) and Holy Roman Emperor (1519-1555). Charles was the most powerful ruler in 16th-century Europe. As the descendant of the German Habsburg dynasty, of the rulers of the united Spain created by his grandparents Ferdinand and Isabella, and of the powerful dukes of Burgundy, in his youth he collected, by inheritance and election, a vast empire that dominated much of Europe and considerable parts of the Americas. Born and reared in the Netherlands, and originally speaking only the French language of the Burgundian court, he became ruling prince of the Netherlands at the age of six and was declared of legal age in 1515, when he took charge of the government. In 1516, after the death of his grandfather Ferdinand, he became hereditary king of Spain, a position that also made him king of Naples and ruler of the Spanish colonies in America. The death of his Habsburg grandfather Maximilian I in 1519 brought him title to the hereditary Habsburg principalities in Germany; it also made him the prime candidate to succeed Maximilian as emperor, a position to which he was elected in 1519 in rivalry with King Francis I of France. His electoral victory was won not by his descent from the German Habsburgs (he understood no German) but by the enormous bribes with which he bought the votes of a majority of the seven electoral princes.

   Charles aspired to develop his imperial title into a strong German monarchy, while also maintaining control over the Netherlands (where he grew up), Spain, and Naples. He took seriously the universalist claims of his imperial title. Personally devout and firmly Catholic though sympathetic to humanist reformers like Erasmus, he nevertheless clashed frequently with the popes, partly over ecclesiastical patronage in his territories but mainly over his determination to transform the imperial title into an effective control over all of Italy, a policy bitterly resisted by the popes.The chief hindrance to his success was the determination of France to resist his attempts to regain French fiefs lost by his Burgundian ancestors in the mid-15th century, and also to keep him from creating a unified German monarchy that would dominate western and central Europe. Charles's task was complicated by the Lutheran Reformation and the decision of a number of the German princes and the great majority of self-governing German towns to support Martin Luther's reforms. Charles attempted to enforce the decree he proclaimed at the Diet of Worms in 1521 out-lawing Luther and all who supported him.

   Despite his great military power and revenues, however, he never gained enough military power in Germany to make good his threats to extinguish heresy by force. The constant opposition of the French king Francis I, who felt threatened by Charles' ambitions, helped to frustrate his policy. Only in 1546, at one of the rare moments when he had forced the French to stop meddling in German politics and had won political and financial support from the pope, was Charles finally able to concentrate his military power in Germany, defeat the Lutheran princes in the Schmalkaldic War (1546-1547), and compel those princes to accept an interim religious settlement that was intended to reestablish Catholicism eventually throughout Germany. Even this victory proved ephemeral. The French king resumed his encouragement of the anti-Habsburg German princes, the one major Lutheran prince who had joined the imperial side in the war defected, and by 1552 the Lutherans had forced Charles' brother Ferdinand to agree to a settlement that preserved Lutheranism in Germany. After many decades of struggle against the Lutherans, the French, and the Ottoman Turks, Charles decided to abdicate. He turned control of Germany over to his brother Ferdinand, who received the imperial title. He abdicated control in the Netherlands, Spain, and Naples in favor of his son Philip II. In 1556 he withdrew to a monastery in Spain.

   Although by no means an intellectual, Charles did have some sympathy for the humanistic learning of the Renaissance, especially for the moderate reform ideas of the German and Dutch humanists who did not turn Protestant. He was a great admirer and patron of the artists of the Renaissance.

Charles V: translation

(1500-1558)

   Charles V was born in Ghent on 25 February 1500. The eldest son of Philip I and Joanna of Castile, and grandson of Ferdinand II of Aragon, Isabella of Castile, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, and Mary of Burgundy, he inherited a vast domain, including the Netherlands. He became duke of Brabant on the death of his father in 1506 and was elected Holy Roman Emperor on 28 June 1519. Charles was brought up in Mechelen under the tutelage of his aunt, Margaret of Austria, who served as regent of the Netherlands. On 23 January 1501, he was inducted as a knight into the Order of the Golden Fleece in a ceremony held at the convent of the Grands Carmes. Charles made his Joyeuse Entrée into Brussels on 28 January 1515, and it was Brussels that he would consider his home base during a reign spent traveling through his far-flung possessions. In 1531, his sister Mary of Hungary, the governor of the Netherlands, set up court at the Coudenberg Palace, where it would remain henceforth. The three collateral councils—Council of State, Privy Council, and Council of Finances — created by Charles to assist in governing were established in Brussels and remained there until the end of the ancien régime. The Estates-General of the Netherlands and the Estates of Brabant met henceforth in Brussels.

   Charles backed efforts to limit urban privileges and the prerogatives of the crown were strengthened during his rule.In 1547, he initiated action to secure the written compilation of the urban privileges of Brussels, hitherto undocumented.

   His introduction of the Inquisition led to the first persecutions that would contribute to the outbreak of the wars of religion. In making the city the political and administrative capital of the Netherlands, Charles engendered economic expansion. The court's presence promoted development of luxury trades (see ECONOMY). Immigrants from Brabant and abroad arrived as well as renowned visitors, including Albrecht Dürer (1520) and Erasmus (1521). Elaborate festivities were held at the Hôtel de Ville, notably the ommegang of 1549 attended by Charles and his son Philip. Hunts were staged in the Forêt de Soignes. In 1522, Charles ordered construction of a grand chapel at the Coudenberg Palace, completed by Mechelen-based Rombout Keldermans II (ca. 1460-1531), and of which only the foundations remain.

   In the mid-1550s, Charles made a series of abdications that left the Hapsburg dominions divided between Spain and Austria. The emperor had earlier named his younger brother Ferdinand (1503-1564) regent of his Austrian lands (28 April 1521), a grant confirmed by the Convention of Brussels (30 January 1522). He turned over the Netherlands to Philip (1527-1598) in 1555. Exhausted, racked by gout, and disillusioned from efforts to craft a universal empire, Charles abdicated in a solemn, emotion-filled ceremony before the Estates-General in the Magna Aula of the ducal palace on 25 October 1555. He retired to a small castle he had built next to a monastery near Yuste, in Spain (Castile), where he lived quietly and where he died on 21 September 1558.