The Empire of Charles V, also known as the Habsburg Empire, included the Habsburg hereditary lands in central Europe, the kingdoms of Spain, the colonial Spanish Empire, the kingdom of Naples, the Habsburg Netherlands and other territories and principalities across Europe. It is sometimes considered to include, in addition, the kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary which were held by Charles's brother Ferdinand during his reign. In 1519, Charles was elected Holy Roman Emperor and, as such, was suzerain of the states of the Holy Roman Empire.
The empire was the first to be labelled as "the empire on which the sun never sets", a term used to describe several global empires throughout history. The lands of the empire had in common only the monarch, Charles V, while their boundaries, institutions, and laws remained distinct. Charles's nomenclature as Holy Roman Emperor was Charles V (also Karl V and Carolus V), though earlier in his life he was known by the names of Charles of Ghent (after his birthplace in Flanders), Charles II as Duke of Burgundy, and Charles I as King of Spain (Carlos I) and Archduke of Austria (Karl I). The imperial name prevailed due to the politico-religious primacy held by the Holy Roman Empire among European monarchies since the Middle Ages, which Charles V intended to preserve as part of his (ultimately failed) project to unite Christendom under his leadership.For the same reason, the term "Imperial" was used as the corresponding adjective (E.G. Imperial army, Imperial court, Imperial victory) and the followers of Charles V were described as "the Imperials."Simpson, L. F., Baron Kervyn de Lettenhove, J. M. B. C.; The Autobiography of the Emperor Charles VBlockmans, W. P., and Nicolette Mout. The World of Emperor Charles V (2005)Brandi, Karl. The emperor Charles V: The growth and destiny of a man and of a world-empire (1939)
Charles V inherited the states comprising his empire as a result of the ambitious Habsburg matrimonial policy, engaged in extensive warfare during his reign, especially against Francis I of France and Francis I's Muslim ally, Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, and had to face the Protestant Reformation of Martin Luther. His empire expanded in the Americas with the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire and the Inca Empire. He had access to vast resources consisting of flows of silver from the Americas to Spain, loans received from German and Italian bankers, and financial revenues of his states, especially the rich Low Countries; he used this wealth to wage war in Europe, but failed to contain religious divisions and French and Ottoman hostility, while his regime became more and more indebted and suffered from inflation. Ruling a vast empire as an itinerant monarch, he was assisted by many collaborators and entrusted oversight of his realms to his close relatives; ultimately he abdicated and divided the component states of his empire, with his brother Ferdinand succeeding him as Holy Roman Emperor and his son Philip inheriting the Spanish territories and the Low Countries.
Inheritances of Charles V
Birth and heritage
Charles of Habsburg was born on 24 February 1500 in the Prinsenhof of Ghent, a Flemish city of the Low Countries, to Archduke Philip of Habsburg and Princess Joanna of Trastámara.Emperor Charles V: The Growth and Destiny of a Man and of a World-empire, Karl Brandi His father Philip, nicknamed Philip the Handsome, was the firstborn son of Maximilian I of Habsburg, Archduke of Austria as well as Holy Roman Emperor, and Mary the Rich, Burgundian duchess of the Low Countries. His mother Joanna, known as Joanna the Mad for the mental disorders afflicting her, was a daughter of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, the Catholic Monarchs of Spain from the House of Trastámara. The political marriage of Philip and Joanna was first conceived in a letter sent by Maximilian to Ferdinand in order to seal an Austro-Spanish alliance, established as part of the League of Venice directed against the Kingdom of France during the Italian Wars.Emperor, a new life of Charles V, Geoffrey Parker
The organization of ambitious political marriages reflected Maximilian's practice to expand the House of Habsburg with dynastic links rather than conquest, as exemplified by his saying "Let others wage war, you, happy Austria, marry". The marriage contract between Philip and Joanna was signed in 1495, and celebrations were held in 1496. Philip was already titular duke of Burgundy, given Mary's death in 1482, and also heir apparent of Austria as honorific archduke. Joanna, on the other hand, was only third in the Spanish line of succession, preceded by her older brother John, Prince of Asturias and older sister Isabella of Aragon. Although both John and Isabella died in 1498, the Catholic Monarchs desired to keep the Spanish kingdoms in Iberian hands and designated their Portuguese grandson Miguel da Paz as heir presumptive of Spain by naming him prince of Asturias. Only a series of dynastic accidents eventually favored Maximilian's project.The Habsburgs: The Rise and Fall of a World Power, Martyn Rady
Charles was born in a bathroom of the Prinsenhof at 3:00 a.m. not long after Joanna had attended a ball, despite symptoms of labor pains. His name was chosen by Philip in honour of Charles I of Burgundy.Joanna unsuccessfully proposed "John" in honour of her deceased brother. Scheuber, Yolanda (2007). «Carlos, el futuro emperador». Juana la reina, loca de amor. Ediciones Nowtilus According to a poet at the court, the people of Ghent "shouted Austria and Burgundy throughout the whole city for three hours" to celebrate his birth. Given the dynastic situation, the newborn was originally heir apparent only of the Low Countries as the honorific duke of Luxembourg and became known in his early years simply as Charles of Ghent. He was baptized at the Saint Bavo's Cathedral by the Bishop of Tournai: Charles I de Croÿ and John III of Glymes were his godfathers; Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy and Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy his godmothers. Charles's baptism gifts were a sword and a helmet, objects of Burgundian chivalric tradition representing, respectively, the instrument of war and the symbol of peace.Charles V and the end of the Respublica Christiana, José Hernando Sanchez
In 1501, Philip and Joanna left Charles to the custody of Margaret of York and went to Spain. They returned to visit their son very rarely, and thus Charles grew up in the Low Countries practically without his parents. The main goal of their Spanish mission was the recognition of Joanna as Princess of Asturias, given Prince Miguel's death a year earlier. They succeeded despite facing some opposition from the Castilian Cortes, reluctant to create the premises for Habsburg succession. In 1504, as Isabella died, Joanna became Queen of Castile. Philip was recognized king in 1506 but died shortly after, an event that drove the mentally unstable Joanna into complete insanity. She retired in isolation into a tower of Tordesillas. Ferdinand took control of all the Spanish kingdoms, under the pretext of protecting Charles's rights, which in reality he wanted to elude, but his new marriage with Germaine de Foix failed to produce a surviving Trastámara heir to the throne. With his father dead and his mother confined, Charles became titular duke of Burgundy and was recognized as prince of Asturias (heir presumptive of Spain) and honorific archduke (heir apparent of Austria).Charles was made honorific Archduke by Maximilian in 1508, and was recognized Prince of Asturias by the Castilian cortes in 1504 and 1510. ,
Low Countries
The Burgundian inheritance in the Low Countries, also called "Netherlands", "Flanders", or "Belgica", were Charles's homeland and originally included Flanders, Artois, Brabant, Limburg, Luxembourg, Hainaut, Holland, Namur, Mechelen, and Zeeland. Charles inherited those territories, as well as the exclaves of Franche-Comté and Charolais, when his father Philip died. On 15 October 1506, he was named Lord of the Netherlands as Duke Charles II of Burgundy by the States General of the Netherlands. The remaining provinces of the Low Countries, initially outside of Charles's jurisdiction, were Guelders, Friesland, Utrecht, Overijssel, Groningen, Drenthe, and Zutphen. Another territory not included in the Burgundian inheritance was Burgundy proper, annexed by France in 1477. As a young lord, Charles grew up with two major political goals: recover Burgundy proper and unite the Seventeen Provinces of the Low Countries under sole Habsburg rule. By the end of his reign, he would have failed in the former objective but succeeded in the latter.
The Low Countries held an important place in Europe for their strategic location, and the wealthy Flemish cities were flourishing in trade and experiencing a transition to capitalism. Although located within the Holy Roman Empire and its borders, those territories were formally divided between fiefs of the German kingdom and French fiefs (such as Charles's birthplace of Flanders) and thus formed, as Henri Pirenne put it, "a state made up of the frontier provinces of two kingdoms". Given that Charles ascended to the ducal throne as a minor, Emperor Maximilian appointed Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy (Charles's aunt and Maximilian's daughter) as his guardian and regent. Charles viewed and treated Margaret as his motheras he himself recalled at her death in 1530 and grew up in her Hof van Savoye in Mechelen along with his sisters. Margaret soon found herself in conflict with France over the question of Charles's requirement to pay homage to the French king in his position as duke of Burgundy and count of Flanders.
Charles's entourage, which consisted of hundreds of members, was composed primarily of fellow countrymen such as his chamberlain William de Croÿ and his tutor Adrian of Utrecht. Because of this, the young duke grew up speaking exclusively his native languages: French and Dutch. Very important to Charles was the Burgundian Order of the Golden Fleece, a forum of knights and nobles of which he was a member and later the grand master. The basis of Charles's beliefs was formed in this environment, including his Burgundian chivalric culture and the desire of Christian unity to fight the infidel in the tradition of medieval figures born in the Low Countries such as Charlemagne and Godfrey of Bouillon, whose biographies he often read.For the manuscripts owned by Charles's family, see "A difficult inheritance: 1515–1517" in the biography of Charles V by Geoffrey Parker
Emperor Maximilian decided to emancipate his grandson in 1515 at the great hall of the Coudenberg Palace in Brussels, where Charles would abdicate 40 years later. Once emancipated, he undertook his first voyage to tour the Burgundian provinces and made an acclaimed Joyous Entry in Bruges and other Flemish cities. Meanwhile, he refused to attend the coronation ceremony of the new king of France Francis I of Valois as a French vassal. This event marked the first episode of a long rivalry between the two monarchs.Carlo V, Claudio Gerosa
Spanish kingdoms