Charles V
Charles V (1500-1558; Holy Roman Emperor 1519-56; Charles I of Spain (1516-56) and Archduke of Austria (1519–21)) inherited a vast empire that stretched from the Iberian Peninsula and the Low Countries to Central Europe and Italy, with Spanish America serving as a significant colonial outpost. His father, Philip the Handsome, son of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian I and Mary of Burgundy was Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy and Count of Flanders until his mother-in-law died in 1504. That should have placed his wife Joanna, the daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, on the Castilian throne.
However, since she was regarded as insane, her father promptly declared himself regent and confined her in a Spanish nunnery. Philip returned to Spain to claim the throne but died in 1506. As a result, Charles, his brother Ferdinand and his sisters were brought up in Flanders by their aunt, Archduchess Margaret of Austria, who acted as regent until fifteen-year-old Charles was declared of age in 1515. After his maternal grandfather's death in 1516, Charles inherited Spain, Naples, and Spanish America. Three years later, Maximilian passed away, and Charles inherited the German crown. The following year, the college of prince-electors gathered at Aachen to select the next Holy Roman Emperor, and they chose Charles over France's Francis I.
So, nineteen-year-old Charles became Renaissance Europe's most powerful monarch as the continent stood on the brink of religious turmoil and intermittent territorial wars, including the Netherlands' eighty-year struggle for independence. In 1525, Charles and his forces defeated the French at Pavia, held Francis as a prisoner through the subsequent peace negotiations, and then saw Francis repudiate the treaty as soon as he was released. That aligned Charles against an alliance in which the French were joined by Pope Clement VII and Henry VIII of England as the various interests fought for control of Italy. The 1529 Treaty of Cambrai delivered a temporary peace after Charles captured and sacked Rome two years earlier. Hostilities flared again in 1536 and 1542; the 1544 Treaty of Crépy brought a longer-lasting truce. In the meantime, Charles had to deal with the Ottoman siege of Vienna (1532) and the rising tide of Protestantism, presiding over the 1521 Imperial Diet of Worms and the Diets of Augsburg (1530) and Regensburg (1541), which failed to reconcile the schism between Catholics and Protestants. Further hostilities lasted until he was forced to recognise Protestantism in the 1552 Treaty of Passau and the 1555 Peace of Augsburg.
Elsewhere, Charles oversaw Spanish expansion in the Americas and attempted to consolidate his dominions. Failing health towards the end of his reign saw him hand the Holy Roman Empire to his brother Ferdinand (1553, although it was not formalised until 1558) and Spain, the Netherlands, and the Spanish Americas to his son Philip (1555-56), then retired to the San Geronimo de Yuste monastery in Estremadura in 1557. He died there a year later.
Links to add:
Holy Roman Emperor
Philip the Handsome
Maximillian I
Burgundy
Flanders
Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella
Castile
Margaret of Austria
Aachen
Francis I
Clement VII
Henry VIII
Treaty of Cambrai
Treaty of Crépy
Ottoman Siege of Vienna
Diet of Worms
Diets of Augsburg
Diet of Regensburg
Treaty of Passau
Peace of Augsburg.
Ferdinand
Philip II
San Geronimo de Yuste monastery
Estremadura
