Charles V (born 24 February 1500 - died 21 September 1558) Holy Roman Emperor. Spanish king from the Habsburg dynasty. The last emperor officially crowned by the pope. Under the banner of Catholicism, he tried to create a "world Christian power".
What is known about Charles V
King Carlos I of Spain, better known as the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, was the last of the European monarchs to rule over a vast territory, in many ways surpassing the empire of Charlemagne. His subordination was Spain with its American and Italian possessions, the Netherlands and the lands of the Holy Roman Empire. It is not without reason that his proud statement is widely known: "The sun never sets in my country."
The future emperor, who received his name in honor of Charlemagne, was born on February 24, 1500 in Ghent and was the grandson of the famous Spanish couple: kings Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, whose marriage made Castile and Aragon a united Spain. When the boy was six years old, his father, King Philip I the Handsome, the son of Emperor Maximilian I, died. His mother, Juan, who was distinguished by an unstable psyche, after the death of her beloved husband completely lost her mind and was recognized as incapable of running the state.
Childhood. Youth
Little Karl was raised by his aunt Margarita in the Netherlands. Being very young, in 1515, at the insistence of the Burgundian states, he became the Duke of Burgundy, that is, he received the so-called "Burgundian inheritance", which covered the Netherlands, the Duchy of Luxembourg Franche-Comté region. And a year later, after the death of his grandfather Ferdinand, the duke took the Spanish throne and began to be called Carlos I of Spain.
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The beginning of the reign
1517, September 17 - Charles's fleet landed on the Spanish coast in Tasones, and his entire court arrived with it, which was not pleasant to the proud Spanish grandees. The new king also became a disappointment for them: he did not speak Spanish, did not know the customs and traditions of the country. On top of that, he also appointed Flemings to the highest government positions, who behaved arrogantly and irritated the Spanish aristocracy ousted from power. As a result, part of the local nobility began to prepare a rebellion.
The estate Cortes, who had the right to approve taxes, also opposed the monarch. Their representatives said to Charles: "Sovereign, you must know that the king is only a servant of the nation on a salary"; they also demanded that the king not leave Castile, not export gold from the country, remove foreigners from the highest government posts and provide Spain with an heir.
The young sovereign, striving for absolute power, was not going to fulfill these requirements. Moreover, the circumstances were such that he simply had to leave: the emperor Maximilian died, and the election of a new emperor was coming. 1520, May - Charles urgently departed for Germany, leaving the archbishop of Utrech, Cardinal Adrian, in whom the Spaniards saw a stranger, to govern the country.
Emperor Charles V (in his youth and mature years)
Holy Roman Emperor
The elections ended successfully for the Spanish king. Under the name of Charles V, he became the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, that is, the political leader of Christendom. His power now, in addition to the Spanish and Dutch possessions, were subordinated to the Germanic principalities and the Czech Republic. But in Spain itself, immediately after his departure, an uprising of free city-communes broke out, which was therefore called the communeros uprising.
11 such cities formed the union of the "Holy Junta", which was also joined by part of the nobility. Adrian fled, the royal council in Valladolid ceased to function. However, the royal troops soon defeated the rebel forces. Their remains were destroyed in the summer of 1522 with the help of the German Landsknechts, who were brought with him by the returning king-emperor. 290 rebels were executed, the power of the Cortes came to an end, the ancient liberties of the Spaniards were destroyed, and Charles received absolute power over his subjects.
The king nevertheless made some conclusions. He learned Spanish, appointed the Spaniards to senior government posts and married Isabelle of Portugal, whom he loved very much. But in Spain, Charles still lived periodically, for several years, and spent the rest of the time in wars and traveling through his vast estates.
Wars and foreign policy
Having received support in Spain, the emperor began to fight for the creation of a worldwide Christian monarchy. His main rival in the struggle for hegemony in Europe was King Francis I of France. Despite the fact that on May 13, 1516, Charles signed an agreement with France on the transfer of Navarre to King Jean d'Albret, he decided in 1520 to return the disputed area to himself and declared war. The emperor's military operations were successful: on June 30, 1521, the French suffered a crushing defeat at Esquire, and Navarre finally ceded to Spain. And in 1522 Charles defeated the French army near Pavia and was able to capture Francis himself.
Even during the wars, Charles V did not disregard the fair sex. Despite his love for the queen, he had many amorous adventures that contributed to the increase in his offspring, while Karl did not forget about illegitimate children. In 1521, for example, during the siege of Tournais, the emperor fell in love with the beautiful daughter of a weaver, Catherine van der Heinst, who lived in a neighboring village. The result of this passionate passion was a daughter, whom he named Margaret and gave up to be raised by his sisters Margaret of Austria and Mary of Hungary. They pampered their niece and took care of her education. In the future, under the name of Margaret of Parma, she had to play a certain role in the Dutch revolution, since the heir to Charles Philip II made her the ruler of the Netherlands.
The sphere of interests of Spain included Mediterranean ports, therefore Charles also waged military operations in Italy and North Africa. One of the Italian campaigns became notorious. 1527, May - the troops of Charles V approached Rome. Most of the soldiers were German Lutheran mercenaries who had not been paid for a long time. They mutinied and sacked the city mercilessly. The facts of vandalism that became known shocked Europe.
Charles V at the battle of Mühlberg
On the very first day, 7 or 8 thousand inhabitants were killed, churches and palaces were plundered, and the Spanish Catholics, trying to find out the places where gold and jewelry were hidden, subjected the captives to cruel torture. Even Pope Clement VIII had a chance to move to Bologna. However, he quickly reconciled with the emperor: at the end of June 1529, they concluded the Barcelona Peace Treaty, and the illegitimate daughter of the emperor, already known to us Margaret, was engaged to the Pope's nephew, Alexander Medici.
The idea of a "world Christian power" in the mind of the emperor was associated with Catholicism. Therefore, he became the main enemy of the Protestants. The emperor fought against heresies, seeing in them crimes against divine and human spiritual power, while using gross violence. The position of the Protestants in the Netherlands was especially strong, where most of the population was Lutheran, Calvinist or Anabaptist. The Emperor brutally suppressed all these currents. He gave the Dutch bishops special inquisitorial rights to search and eradicate heresies and issued a series of special decrees called posters. Particularly cruel was the poster of 1550, which threatened the death penalty for all who did not profess Catholicism. The men's heads were chopped off with a sword, and the women were buried alive in the ground. Burning at the stake is also widespread. The property of heretics and thosesomeone who not only helped, but was simply noticed in a conversation with them, was confiscated.
The wars of Charles V fell an unbearable burden on the peoples of the lands subject to him. Taxes began to increase steadily, and Spanish troops behaved like conquerors in the Netherlands. All this paved the way for the Dutch revolution, which the heir, Philip II, had already been able to unravel. But in spite of everything, the inhabitants of the Netherlands remained loyal to their emperor. In Ghent, for example, a monument to the emperor was erected on the Pyatnitsky market after the revolution.
1539 April - Empress Isabelle died at the birth of her seventh child. This was a shock for the monarch. Strength gradually began to leave him. And several military failures in the fight against the Protestants and the death of a part of the Spanish fleet during the landing in Algeria on October 25, 1541 broke the spirit of the emperor. So, having ordered to lift the siege of Metz, he sadly exclaimed: "Happiness is a depraved woman: she caresses only young men!"
Children
1546 - being in Regensburg, the aged and gloomy emperor again experienced something similar to love for a young girl Barbara Blomberg. After his departure, she became the mother of Karl's last son, João of Austria, who was destined to become the stadtholder (heir) of the Netherlands in the future. Karl's mother was no longer interested, but he followed the fate of his son, took him to Spain and gave him up for education to a certain Donna Magdalene Ulloa, who considered him her husband's bastard son. The secret was revealed only after the death of Charles V, who mentioned João in his will. Philip II ordered to bring his brother to the court and began to educate him along with his own son.
Charles V and his son Philip II of the Habsburgs
Abdication
Years passed, and the health of the monarch was completely upset. Because of the gout that had plagued him for over 20 years, Karl could not stay in the saddle. And he could only walk leaning on a stick. State affairs did not captivate the emperor. He devoted more and more time to religious reading. After much deliberation, Charles abdicated the throne on September 12, 1555 in Brussels.
It should be noted that external circumstances played an important role in the fate of Charles's inheritance and the success of his reign, which determined his defeat in the struggle against the Protestant princes of Germany. Back in 1520, Suleiman 1 the Magnificent came to power in the Ottoman Empire, who conquered the Hungarian kingdom and began to threaten Europe. 1521, September 21 - the Turkish army approached the walls of Vienna, and only the courage of the besieged and the approach of winter forced Suleiman to retreat.
In subsequent years, the emperor had to demand large monetary contributions from the German princes to repel the Turkish invasion. They, in turn, put forward their own demands, which forced the monarch to sign a peace treaty with them in 1532. And this, according to the famous historian EB Chernyak, "made it easier for the Protestant princes to unite into the Schmalkalden Union." As a result, Charles V was forced to give up the idea of transferring the imperial crown to his son Philip when he abdicated the throne. The prince received Spain, Sicily, the Netherlands and the lands of the New World, and the crown of the Holy Roman Empire was handed over to Charles's brother, Archduke Ferdinand, who two decades ago resisted the Ottoman invasion.
After the abdication, the former emperor went to Spain, where he decided to spend the rest of his life. On the way, festivities were held in the cities on the occasion of his arrival. However, Karl was not pleased with such a manifestation of feelings. A magnificent meeting in Valladolid was arranged for the accompanying sisters-queens - Isabella of France and Mary of Hungary. Karl himself quietly drove into the capital the next day.
Karl's death
There is a legend, accepted by many biographers as an indisputable fact, that the former emperor ended his days as a monk. This is not so: the last residence of Charles was San Jeronimo de Yuste in Extremadura. This place in the mountains was famous for its fresh air and rich hunting grounds. But autumn here was foggy and rainy. Doctors advised Karl not to live there. But he did not listen to anyone and, surrounded by 50 close associates, settled in Extremadura.
A year later, Charles caught a severe cold and died on September 21, 1558. Here he was buried, but in 1574, by order of King Philip II, the remains of the emperor were transferred to the royal pantheon of Escurial.
Charles V was certainly the greatest ruler of medieval Europe. Put by the game of dynastic ties at the head of a huge state, he was able to achieve relative calm in the territories under his control with the carrot and stick. But by the end of the reign, the emperor clearly understood that his son Philip, whom he had predicted to take his place, could not keep the empire subordinate. The huge inheritance had to be divided, and Philip was forced to strengthen the tyranny in the management of the possessions that had ceded to him.
I. Wagman