Karl 5 Habsburg biography. Charles V is Holy Roman Emperor. Wars and foreign policy of Charles
In 1519-1558.
The reign of Charles is, on the one hand, the apotheosis of the development of the European Christian monarchy, and, on the other, its decline: it was he who was the last emperor, crowned king by the Roman pontiff and celebrating his triumph in the Eternal City (August 23, 1530).
By right of birth, the young man became the leader of the largest political entity in Europe: he received the Dutch lands from his father Philip I, Duke of Burgundy; Castile and Aragon - from his mother, the Spanish Infanta Juana, the land of the Habsburgs in Germany and Austria - from his grandfather Emperor Maximilian I. He further strengthened these possessions and his status through a dynastic marriage with Isabella of Portugal and military conquests (Lombardy, Tunisia, New Granada, New Spain, Peru). From 1516, Charles became the first king of a united Spain, and in 1519 he was elected emperor by the college of German electors.
The reign of Charles passed under the sign of the struggle for pan-European unity. A supporter of the idea of a universal Christian monarchy, the emperor defended his supremacy over other European sovereigns, saw himself as a peacemaker, defender of Europe from the Turkish enemy and head of the church.
In his desire for centralization, Charles relied on dynastic ties, personal patronage and military strength, and supported his claims on a symbolic and representative level (for example, his majestic titulary). The financial power of Charles V was largely provided by overseas colonies, as well as the fundamental rejection of a permanent residence and, consequently, the maintenance of a nomadic court, which fell on the shoulders of subjects, mainly imperial cities.
Charles's foreign policy earned him the nickname "impressario of war". Charles fought four times against King Francis of France and once against his heir Henry II ("Italian wars") - in 1521-26, 1526-30, 1536-38, 1542-46, 1551-59. The result of these wars was the establishment of Spanish domination in Italy. Charles also waged an active struggle with the Ottoman Empire and the Barbary pirates. In 1535 he attacked Tunisia and freed many Christian captives. In 1541 he made an unsuccessful campaign in Algeria.
At the core domestic policy Charles V laid the idea of centralization and the development of general imperial norms. This program was announced at the Reichstag in Worms in 1521. In it, in particular, Luther was condemned as a heretic, whose preaching threatened the collapse of the imperial confessional unity. To implement this program, it was necessary to carry out economic (1525), legislative (1532), and other reforms.
Put by the events of the German Reformation in front of the need for church reforms, Charles V convenes in 1545 the Council of Trent, initially aimed at finding a compromise with the Protestants, and after the victory in the Schmalkalden War over the union of Protestant princes, he achieves the proclamation of an all-imperial liturgy (Augsburg interim 1550).
However, the short duration of all military and political successes, due to the crisis of the religious idea as a factor in politics (the alliance of France with the Turkish Empire during the fourth Italian war of 1542-1546) and the formation of proto-national states, forced Charles V to admit defeat. In 1547, his army defeated the Protestants at Mullberg, but in 1552 the princes marched for the emperor vras-bad, he barely fell into captivity, and re-cherk-well-lo all his achievements in Germany.
Historical sources:
Correspondenz des Kaisers Karl V / Hrsg. von K. Lanz. Lpz., 1844-1846. Bd 1-3;
Corpus documental de Carlos V / Ed. M. Fernandez Alvarez. Salamanca, 1973-1981. Vol. 1-5;
Testamento de Carlos V / Ed. M. Fernandez Alvarez. Madrid, 1982.
Illustrations:
Portrait of Charles V by Bernard van Orley 1520
Charles V was the greatest European statesman of the 16th century, becoming during his reign King of Spain under the name Charles I, King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor. Having inherited an empire of incredible size, which in the 16th century extended to almost the entire territory of Europe, Charles V managed to develop and increase the legacy left by his ancestors. In addition, Charles V of Habsburg became last emperor crowned by Pope Clement VII.
Young years of the king
The father of the future monarch was Duke Philip of Burgundy, his mother was the Spanish Infanta Juana. Charles V was born in 1500 in the possessions of his father, located in Ghent. Since the father was almost constantly in Spain, trying to inherit the crowns of his mother-in-law Isabella I, Queen of Castile, the future ruler had to stay in the Netherlands. Since Charles's native language was French, he experienced certain difficulties in communicating in other languages. Nevertheless, from the moment of his coronation to the throne of Spain, he mastered the Castilian language, and by the end of his life he had a reasonable command of many.
In 1506, Philip of Burgundy died, and Carl Juan's mother became mentally insane. From that moment on, Karl entered the care of his famous aunt Margaret of Austria, the ruler of the Habsburg Netherlands. In fact, the upbringing of the young monarch for 17 years of living in Brussels was carried out exclusively by his aunt and Adrian Florence, who served as vice-chancellor of the University of Louvain, and later became Pope Adrian VI. It is worth noting that it was Florence who instilled in Charles a strong religiosity, and also introduced him to the works of Erasmus of Rotterdam.
Accession to the throne
Due to frequent deaths in many other royal dynasties, as well as thanks to a series of dynastic politically advantageous marriages, the Habsburg family took a leading position in Europe, and therefore all sorts of titles and territories literally fell on the 17-year-old Charles.
So, after the death of his father in 1506, Charles became the ruler of the territories belonging to the Burgundian family, the Netherlands and Franche-Comte. Since his mother, Juan the Mad, was removed from power, and his grandfather Ferdinand of Aragon died, in 1516 Charles takes the Spanish throne.
Together with Spain, Charles inherits southern Italy, Sardinia, Sicily, as well as all the colonies in America. In addition, being the grandson Austrian emperor Maximilian I, Charles takes the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, thus becoming the greatest ruler in Europe since the reign of Charlemagne.
Internal administration of Charles V
Since the territories Charles inherited were a conglomeration of scattered lands with their own established laws, it was extremely difficult to manage them. However, being a man with an excellent education and cosmopolitan views, Karl successfully overcame the difficulties that arose. In general, his reign was conditioned by the interests of foreign policy. Since the power of the monarch was fragile in some territories, he had to yield to the princes, especially in the fight against the French and Turks. However, in those lands that were in his direct possession, Charles adhered to absolutism, which led to several uprisings, which he brutally suppressed, such as the Comuneros uprising in 1520-1522, and the Ghent uprising in 39-40.
Foreign policy of Charles V
The leitmotif of Charles's foreign policy was the "imperial idea", which consisted in the unification of European Christian territories under the rule of the emperor and the struggle against the Ottoman Empire. However, the Reformation and the claims of France stood in the way of the realization of the utopian idea.
In order to protect Austria and Hungary from the Turks and to ensure the safety of the coast of Spain from pirate attacks, in 1535 Charles V decided on a campaign in Tunisia, which ended in success, however, did not bring the proper result. In addition, the military campaign against Algiers in 1541 was also unsuccessful.
In addition, there was a constant confrontation with Francis I, but since Charles V was forced to wage wars on several fronts at once, he was unable to consolidate and develop the victories received. The Habsburgs emerged victorious from this war only under the son of Charles - Philip II.
Having become emperor, Charles led the opponents of the Reformation. A long confrontation between Catholics and Lutherans in Germany turned into a military battle in Mühlberg, in which Charles was able to win in 1547. However, Charles V could not build on the success, and therefore the signing of the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 was perceived by the emperor as the collapse of his policy in Germany.
Charles decided to compensate for these failures with the help of marriage between his son Philip and Mary Tudor, Queen of England, but this marriage did not live up to his hopes.
Abdication
By the end of his reign, Charles was very tired of all kinds of strife, besides, his health was shaken. Charles decided to abdicate and divide his empire between his son Philip, who received Spain with all its possessions, the Netherlands, Charolais and Franche-Comte, and his younger brother Ferdinand, who received the Austrian lands of the Habsburg dynasty and the title of emperor.
At the end of his life, Charles V went to the Spanish monastery of Yuste, from where he often wrote letters to his son, which Philip kept with special touching for many years. The great ruler passed away on September 21, 1558. Charles V was buried in Escorial.
The content of the article
CARL V(Karl V) (1500–1558), Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, King of Spain (as Carlos I), who, due to the vastness of his possessions, was deeply involved in the dynastic struggle with France, and in desperate attempts to stop the Turkish invasion, and in the rearguard battles of the Catholic states with the Reformation. Charles was born in Princeshof Castle near Ghent (Flanders) on February 25, 1500, his father was the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Handsome, and his mother, Juan the Mad, daughter of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. Charles's native language was French, and he was educated in Flanders.
Karl's legacy.
Charlemagne owned a much larger territory than that to which the power of Charlemagne extended. Historians consider this phenomenon as a consequence of the motto A. E. I. O. U., purposefully carried out by the Habsburgs, i.e. Austriae est imperare orbi universo (Latin "Austria must rule the whole world"). This process began with the sudden death in 1506 of Charles's father Philip, son of Emperor Maximilian I, as a result of which Charles became Duke of Burgundy. Charles was declared of age in 1515, and the following year his maternal grandfather died, leaving Spain and all dependent territories to Charles's mother, the mentally ill Juana, with whom (nominally) Charles ruled until her death in 1555.
Since that time, Charles, as Duke of Burgundy, was the sovereign of the Burgundian possessions (the duchy itself had by that time entered the domain of the French kings), including the counties of Burgundy (or Franche-Comte), Flanders, Holland, Gennegau and Artois, as well as the duchies of Brabant and Luxembourg. As king of Spain, Charles owned Castile with the kingdoms of Granada and Navarre, Aragon with the kingdom of Valencia, the autonomous province of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, the kingdoms of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia, as well as territories in the New World.
The third part of Karl's possessions went to him after the death of his paternal grandfather Maximilian, which followed on January 12, 1519. These are the lands of the Habsburgs: the Archduchy of Austria, the duchies of Carinthia and Carniola, part of Istria with access to the Adriatic Sea, Tyrol, as well as other lands scattered in different parts Europe. The title of emperor also became vacant, and Charles was determined to get it (in competition with his younger brother Ferdinand), despite the claims french king Francis I. Charles got his way by distributing as bribes to seven electors (electors) the sum of 850,000 florins, which he had borrowed from the large German banking houses of the Fuggers and Welsers. Charles received the silver crown of the king of Germany in 1521 in Aachen, and in 1530 in Bologna the pope crowned him as Holy Roman Emperor.
The tasks that Carl faced were very difficult. There was no administrative unity in his possessions. Castile, Aragon, Naples, Sicily and Sardinia had independent governments. The same can be said about the various states that were part of the Habsburg part of the empire. The first step of Charles was the transfer of the Habsburg domain in 1521 to the management younger brother Ferdinand, who in the same year married Anna of Bohemia and Hungary, thus marking the claims of the Habsburgs to the respective thrones.
The main stronghold of Charles's empire was the Spanish possessions, thanks to which he could carry out all his plans. However, these enterprises placed an increasing burden on the treasury, as military costs were constantly growing. If in 1494 an expeditionary force of 6,000 men was considered quite sufficient for an invasion of Italy, then by 1520, due to the fact that the Italians had significantly improved their fortifications, a need arose for much larger forces. Thus, the armies that opposed each other under Pavia (1525) numbered 30,000 people each, and under Mulberg (1547), Charles had to put up to 70,000 people.
Charles V's first visit to Spain (1517–1520) had a dual purpose: to obtain recognition from the local Cortes for his royal powers and to obtain an increase in contributions to the royal treasury. The Flemish courtiers who arrived with Charles aroused envy and suspicion among the Spaniards, who said that they "drained the king dry." Nevertheless, Charles managed to convince his Spanish subjects, and the money was given to him. In terms of his personality, Charles, especially at an early age, was more of a Fleming, but he managed to assume the duties characteristic of a Spanish monarch. He was imbued with piety and mysticism, the spirit of the crusades against Islam and heretics. Nevertheless, the devotion and love of the Spanish subjects did not come to him immediately. When Charles left the country for the first time, leaving his Flemish tutor Adrian (the future Pope Adrian VI) in his place, the Castilian cities rebelled (the so-called comuneros uprising, 1520–1522) and only Charles himself managed to cope with them, who committed a merciless massacre with the rebels.
Wars with France.
The first stage of Charles's stay on the throne was marked primarily by the conflict with France, which was taking place with varying success, which feared that Charles would concentrate excessive power in his hands. Charles, for his part, saw France as a threat to the unity of his dominions. The arena of confrontation was Italy, where the main struggle was fought. Charles and the French king Francis I waged wars for dominance over Italy, at that time the most developed and civilized country in Europe. The first aggressive step was taken in 1522 by France, which moved its troops here under the pretext of dynastic claims to Milan and Naples. Charles stopped the invasion by defeating the French troops in 1525 at Pavia (south of Milan), and Francis was captured in the process. It was a resounding victory, because in the eyes of Europe, France was at that moment the most powerful power on the continent. Charles forced the captive king to sign the Treaty of Madrid (January 14, 1526), which recognized Charles's claims to Italy, as well as his rights as a feudal overlord to Artois and Flanders. The two sons of Francis were held hostage. However, as soon as Francis managed to gain freedom, he declared the treaty null and void and on May 22, 1526 founded the League of Cognac against Charles, which included Florence, Milan, Venice, the pope, and also England. The warring armies invaded Italy, and the emperor's forces, led by the constable de Bourbon, sacked Rome mercilessly in May 1527 (Bourbon had died by that time). In 1528 Charles made peace with the king of England. Henry VIII, and in 1529 with Pope Clement VII. According to the peace treaty signed at Cambrai in May 1529, the sum of the ransom for the two French princes was appointed in the amount of two million golden ecu, of which 1.2 million had to be paid immediately.
Wars with the Turks.
However, Charles was primarily motivated to end the fruitless conflict with France by a real threat coming from the east, a collision with which Charles foresaw as early as 1526. In this struggle, Charles assumed the role of a crusader, defender and unifier of the Christian world. At the same time, he revived the old idea of a single empire, i.e. unification of Europe on the basis of Christianity, for which he received the nickname "God's standard-bearer". At the end of 1529, the Turks, who had already turned Hungary into their province, laid siege to Vienna, but they failed to take the city by storm, and the approaching winter forced them to retreat. In 1532, Turkish troops were forced to withdraw with nothing from the Köszeg fortress in western Hungary. Karl took advantage of the lull and in 1535 undertook a sea expedition to Tunis, the stronghold of the famous corsair Hayraddin Barbarossa. Charles' fleet under the command of Andrea Doria took the city and freed thousands of enslaved Christians. A fortress was erected here and a Spanish garrison was left. However, this victory was nullified by the dubious (rather even disappointing for the imperial fleet, which Doria again commanded) outcome of the battle of Preveza (Epirus) in 1538, when the Christians were opposed Turkish fleet, rebuilt by the Turkish Sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent. Now the Turks again took control of the movement of ships in the Mediterranean and retained it until the Battle of Lepanto (1571).
In 1541, Charles personally tried to capture Algeria, but a sudden storm scattered his fleet. Finally, Ferdinand was able to take advantage of the fact that the Turks were involved in a campaign against Persia, and achieved a truce (November 1545), and then a peace treaty for a period of five years (June 1547). Thus, despite repeated attempts by Charles and Ferdinand to oust Suleiman, they had to recognize him and even pay tribute to him, since he constantly threatened Charles' possessions in Spain and Italy, as well as in Austria.
Wars in Germany.
After the armistice with Turkey, Charles turned his attention to Germany and tried to restore the religious unity of his empire. By that time, the religious rebellion raised by Martin Luther in 1517 had achieved significant success. The intransigence of the reformer, shown by him in 1521, when Charles had a chance to confront him at the Reichstag in Worms, persuaded the emperor to consider him a heretic, with whom one should in no case deal with. The reform movement and the opposition that the emperor gave him brought Germany into a state of ferment. The cause of religious freedom was linked in this case with territorial sovereignty, since the German sovereigns were sharply negative about the active interference of the emperor in the administration of the regions subject to them and the imposition of military taxes on them. In view of so many sources of disagreement, even the Teutonic Order, which until recently remained loyal to the emperor, opposed him. Other signs of the collapse of the state were the so-called. The Knights' War of 1522–1523, when an alliance of Lutheran aristocrats attacked the lands belonging to the Archbishop of Trier and the Elector, and Peasants' War 1524–1525.
The emperor made a final break with the Lutherans only after the Reichstag, held in Augsburg in 1530. The Lutherans formed a military alliance, the Schmalkaldic League. Luther died on February 18, 1546, and Charles, after several attempts to split the Protestant camp, in June 1546 went on a decisive offensive. He issued an imperial edict at Regensburg against all those who did not recognize the jurisdiction of the imperial chamber. At the same time, it was an implicit action against all heretics and Protestants. War followed the edict, and on April 24, 1547, at Mühlberg (on the Elbe), Charles's troops, commanded by the Duke of Alba, won a major victory. It was followed by success in the field of religion - the Augsburg Religious Compromise, concluded on May 19, 1548, according to which the parties agreed that "there is only one Church, of which the Pope is the chief bishop."
But these successes were short-lived. In 1552, the Protestant sovereigns entered into an alliance with King Henry II of France, promising him three bishoprics in return for providing assistance - Metz, Toul and Verdun. Karl's siege of Metz was unsuccessful, and the war ended with the conclusion of the Treaty of Passau of August 22, 1552, according to which German Lutherans were for the first time guaranteed freedom of religion.
last years in power.
Thereafter, Charles stopped trying to realize his dream of an all-encompassing empire and renounced the commitments that involved him in the fight against so many political and religious opponents. His dreams were shattered, encountering, first of all, the stubborn resistance of the Protestants and the German sovereigns. Now Charles took up the matter from the other side, he tried to compensate for his failure in Germany with success in England - through the marriage between Queen Mary I of England and his son Philip. And although European affairs demanded from him an abyss of strength and ingenuity, he almost effortlessly cobbled together the Spanish Empire on the other side of the Atlantic. The conquistadors, the church and the colonial bureaucracy allowed Charles to create reliable strongholds of Spanish domination here. From 1526 to 1559, local courts appeared in eight American colonies, and three universities were founded from 1551 to 1555. Towards the end of Charles's reign, a great route was established that led through Mexico to Southeast Asia. European financiers invested their money in the colonies, like, for example, the Welsers in the conquest of Venezuela in 1527. Merchants sent loaded ships back to Spain, brought them there and precious metals in bullion, mainly obtained in silver mines discovered in the 1540s in Mexico (Zacatecas) and South America (Potosi).
In Europe, Charles suffered one defeat after another. At the Augsburg Reichstag (1550-1551), he failed to retain Philip's right to inherit the imperial crown, which he sought, wanting to keep the interests of Spain. Throughout his reign, Charles experienced financial difficulties, and by the end of his life they worsened, leading in 1557 to the complete depletion of the royal treasury.
During his life, Karl undertook approx. 40 long journeys, the very size of the empire turned out to be prohibitive so that it could be controlled by one person. At 55, he was a decrepit old man who thought only of peace, and therefore he was glad to transfer the burden of power to his son Philip. In 1555, Charles abandoned the fight and concluded the famous Peace of Augsburg (September 25, 1555), the terms of which were worked out by his brother Ferdinand, thereby agreeing with the spread of Protestantism in Germany. Freedom of religion was guaranteed to sovereigns in accordance with the principle that every German state follows the confessions of its ruler, which was expressed in the Latin slogan "Cuius regio, eius religio" (lat. "Whose power, that is religion"). On October 25, 1555 Charles renounced the Netherlands in favor of his son Philip. On January 16, 1556, he, also in favor of Philip, resigned the Spanish crown, including giving possession of Spain in Italy and the New World. Although the desire to be removed from the imperial power was already expressed by Charles in 1556, the electors accepted his abdication and elected Ferdinand emperor only in February 1558.
By that time, Charles had already been in Spain for a long time. In September 1556, he arrived in the town of Yuste in the province of Extremadura, where he built himself a house next to the monastery of San Jeronimo. Charles died in Yust on September 21, 1558.
historical portrait
King Charles of Spain I
Charles I/V, Holy Roman Emperor
24.2.1500 - 21.9.1558 father- Philip I of Castile mother- Joanna of Castile children- Philip II of SpainEmperor in 1519-56, Spanish king in 1516-56, from the Habsburg dynasty. In 1506 he inherited Burgundy and the Netherlands from his father Philip the Handsome (son of Maximilian I), in 1516 he inherited the Spanish crown from his grandfather Ferdinand the Catholic, and in 1519 he was elected emperor. Charles V subordinated his entire policy to the implementation of the reactionary program of creating a "worldwide Christian monarchy", making militant Catholicism his banner. The absolutist policy of Charles V in Spain and the Netherlands caused a number of uprisings (the uprising of the comuneros of 1520-22 and others in Spain, the Ghent uprising of 1539-40 in the Netherlands). Charles V waged numerous wars with France - the main rival of the Habsburgs in Europe, as well as with the Ottoman Empire. Having stopped the advance of Turkish troops into the possessions of the Habsburgs in the war of 1532-33, he took away from the vassal in 1535 Ottoman Empire Tunisia, but was defeated in Algiers (1541). Under him, Spanish possessions in America were also significantly expanded. In Germany, in the fight against the Reformation, he issued the Edict of Worms in 1521 against Luther. He defeated the German Protestant princes in the Schmalkaldic War of 1546-48, but in a new war that began in 1552, he suffered a cruel defeat, was forced to conclude the Augsburg religious peace of 1555; then he abdicated the Spanish crown (transferred the Spanish throne and the Netherlands to his son Philip II) and the imperial throne (in favor of his brother Ferdinand I).
Life under the motto: Plus ultra
Among the Spanish kings, Charles I/V appears to be an exception in many respects: more than under all kings before and after him, other kingdoms have left their mark on this reign. The fact that Charles is commonly referred to as Carlos V demonstrates the significance of his dominion that extended beyond Spain. This is consistent with studies of his policies in the Spanish kingdom. In fact, Karl's contemporaries were already interested in only some stages: the question of his coming to power (1517) and the subsequent uprisings of the comuneros "". Perhaps behind this lies only the expression of "national-historical" interests. For all their complete internationalism, the previous studies nevertheless clearly showed that this ruler cannot be driven into the narrow framework of national historical criteria. Only on a European scale can one assess his personality and rule. It is all the more understandable that Charles V is attracted by the unusualness of his life and deeds.
Chance played an extraordinary role in his royal fate, the play of dynastic forces, thanks to which Charles was able to get at his disposal huge and hitherto never united spheres of domination in Western, Southern and Central Europe. After him, they were never part of a single empire again. Charles V owned the Netherlands and, in addition to the most important counties (Brabant, Holland, Zeeland, etc.), he also owned the county of Burgundy, the Spanish kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula with the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, Sicily and Naples as vassals of the Aragonese crown. During his reign, the conquest, colonization and Christianization of the lands of Central and South America, an unprecedented process of Europeanization that cost the indigenous population of these lands enormous sacrifices, the consequences of which are still felt today.
The expression, eagerly used in connection with Charles V, "In my realm the sun never sets," expresses the fullness of the emperor's power, and his own motto "Plus ultra", meaning "further, beyond this", combined with the image of the Pillars of Hercules, symbolizes walking in the unknown paths leading beyond the boundaries of antiquity, then revered as a measure of things. It was hardly a solvable problem to create a single state out of these highly diverse subject territories in the state-legal, social, economic and church-religious terms, to solve the organizational problems of communication and coordination. And the fact that Charles had such intentions is evidenced by his own reflections, which he shared at the end of his reign, during his abdication in Brussels (1555). Karl stated the following: “Any of you remember that on January 5, 1555, it was forty years since the day when here [in Brussels], in the same room, at the age of fifteen, I received from my paternal grandfather, Emperor Maximilian , supreme power over the Belgian provinces. After the death of my maternal grandfather, King Ferdinand the Catholic, which soon followed, an inheritance was placed under my care, which my mother's health was too weak to manage. At the age of seventeen I thus went across the sea to take possession of the kingdom of Spain. At the age of nineteen, after the death of the emperor, I ventured to claim the imperial crown, not in order to expand my possessions, but in order to be able to act even more effectively for the good of Germany and my other kingdoms, namely the Belgian provinces, and in the hope of maintaining peace between the Christian nations and unite their armed forces to defend the Catholic faith against the Turks."
Charles I of Spain. Childhood, dynastic perspectives
Born on February 24, 1500 in Ghent and baptized in honor of Charlemagne, the boy immediately after birth was considered the future heir to a vast state scattered throughout Europe. Unpredictable circumstances were in his favor due to the high mortality in the house of Trastamar, with whom Charles's father, Philip the Handsome, the son of Emperor Maximilian I, became related by marriage. As part of a double marriage project, Philip in 1496 married Joanna, the daughter of the Catholic kings Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. Juan, the only heir of the House of Trastamar, in 1497 married Margaret of Austria, Philip's only sister. Juan died during their honeymoon; his sister Isabella, who became his heiress, married to Portugal, died in 1498 while giving birth to her son Miguel, who, in turn, died in 1500. So Joanna, the next oldest daughter of the Catholic royal couple, became the heir to the Spanish throne.
Before her son Charles opened an unexpected opportunity to inherit a huge power. Since Charles's father, Philip, died early (in 1506), and his mother, Joanna, who lived in Spain, went crazy and was declared incapable of governing the state, Charles was brought up in the Netherlands by aunt Margarita, in the spirit of mixed up on the knightly ideas about the nobility of late medieval Burgundian culture , which was dominated by knightly tournaments and hunting. Spiritual education received little attention. At the insistence of the Burgundian states, in 1515 Charles assumed the title of Duke of Burgundy in the Netherlands. Then relations with the French crown, whose first vassals were traditionally Burgundian dukes, were still good. This good-neighborly relationship, inherited from his father, Philip, seems to have been maintained mainly in order to enter the Spanish inheritance without interference. When this happened, Charles's relationship with France cracked. Unlike his father, shortly after his accession to the Spanish throne (1517), he took an anti-French position.
Charles I. Proclamation as king of Spain in Brussels
After the death of Queen Isabella (1504) in the Kingdom of Castile there was difficult situation. Prior to that, the queen ruled, who didn't really rule, as everyone knew. On her behalf, Philip the Handsome first ruled, and then Ferdinand. After the death of Ferdinand, the regent, Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros, warned the young Charles: “The death of Ferdinand, your grandfather, does not give you any rights to Castile; any change may cause a revolt in the country and offend the feelings of those who, although involuntarily recognized the queen as incapable of governing, did not dare to deprive her of the right. Therefore, at the Brussels court, they sought to signal the entry into the inheritance of Catholic sovereigns by proclaiming Charles king of Castile and Aragon (March 14, 1516). This attempt to present everyone with a fait accompli caused a riot - Perez sees in it a "coup d'état." The meeting of the Castilian Cortes in Valladolid back in 1518 reminded that a mother has more rights than a son.
After the election of Charles as emperor (1519), another problem was added, since the imperial rank was higher than the royal one and therefore was called first when listing titles. And yet in Castile they still had to put the name of the queen before the name of the king. For official texts, the following compromise was found: "Charles, by the grace of God, King of Rome, Joanna, by the grace of God, Queen of Castile." After the suppression of the uprising of the comuneros in 1521 (that is, the uprising of a number of Castilian cities), the name of Joanna, whom her son survived for only three years, disappears completely.
Before sending Charles to join the Spanish inheritance, the chief adviser, the senior chamberlain Guillaume de Croix, seigneur Chievre, took all conceivable measures, the need for which was explained by the international position of Burgundy and, accordingly, the Netherlands. For the Burgundian politician, smooth relations with France were extremely important, especially since the prestige of Francis I after his victory in Italy, at Marignano, on September 13/14, 1515, rose extremely. After negotiations with England to ensure trade interests, on August 13, 1516, Chevre concluded the Treaty of Noyon with France. It was based on an agreement on the marriage union of Charles with Louise, the one-year-old daughter of King Francis I, who was supposed to bring Naples (which he already de facto owned) as a dowry to Charles, and this in return for a high annual tribute and concession of Navarre. In the event of the death of Louise, another, not yet born daughter of the French king, was to take her place, otherwise - Rene of France.
CARL V (German Karl, Spanish Carlos) (February 24, 1500, Ghent - September 21, 1558, St. Justus Monastery, Spain), Holy Roman Emperor (1519-56), King of Spain, from the Habsburg dynasty (1516-56). Son of Philip I of Habsburg and Juana the Mad. He received a humanistic education, was influenced by Erasmus of Rotterdam. From 1515 he ruled the Netherlands. In 1516, after the death of his grandfather, Fernando II became king of Spain (he ascended the throne under the name of Charles I), finally uniting Castile and Aragon. In 1519 he was elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (crowned by the pope in 1530 in Bologna). As a result of the dynastic policy of the ancestors and their own acquisitions, under the rule of Charles V were huge territories in Western and Central Europe (Spain, Southern Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, the Franche-Comté, Charolais regions), in Asia, Africa and America. Ruling a power in which, according to contemporaries, “the sun never set,” Charles V was guided by the idea of a “universal monarchy” headed by an emperor who was the supreme patron of Western Christians and occupied a leading position among European monarchs. Charles V actively participated in the management of the empire, constantly going around his possessions. In 1522, under an agreement with his brother - the future emperor Ferdinand I, Habsburg transferred to him the hereditary lands of the Habsburgs in Austria.
The attempt of Charles V to use authoritarian methods of government in Spain became one of the causes of the Comuneros uprising in Castile, Germanius in Valencia and the Balearic Islands. The long stay of Charles V in Spain after their suppression contributed to the stabilization of the situation in the Iberian Peninsula. Royal power was noticeably strengthened, the management system was modernized, the court was reorganized. During the reign of Charles V came important events Great geographical discoveries and Conquest. The territory of Central and a significant part of South America was conquered, and the foundations of an effective colony management system were laid.
The policy of Charles V in the German lands was determined by his rejection of the ideas of the Reformation, but he also had to take into account the political interests of the princes. In 1521, Charles V issued the Edict of Worms, declaring M. Luther a heretic. However, the long absence of the emperor in Germany contributed to the strengthening of the positions of the Protestants and allowed them to enter into a political confrontation with the Catholics. From the second half of the 1540s, Charles V fought with an alliance of Protestant princes (see the Schmalkaldic Wars). In 1547, his troops won a victory at Mühlberg, but in 1552, the performance of the Protestants took Charles V by surprise (he was almost captured) and crossed out all his achievements in Germany. The compromise Augsburg Religious Peace of 1555 guaranteed the Lutheran princes freedom of religion. Charles V stubbornly pressed the popes to convene an ecclesiastical council in order to combat the Reformation. Through his representatives, he influenced the work of the Council of Trent, played a crucial role in shaping the policy of the Counter-Reformation.
Charles V waged continuous wars with France over Northern Italy (see Wars of Italy) and with Turkey for control of the Central Mediterranean. Despite a number of victories in the wars with France, Charles V failed to achieve decisive success. At the same time, the victories of the Ottomans (the capture of Belgrade in 1521, the victory at Mohacs in 1526, the capture of part of the territory of Hungary) created a threat to the Austrian lands of the Habsburgs. Charles V tried to defeat the African pirates allied to the Ottomans. In 1535 he undertook a successful campaign in Tunisia, but the expedition to Algiers in 1541 ended in failure.
Charles V completed the unification of the Netherlands, turning them into an indivisible hereditary possession of the Habsburgs (Pragmatic Sanction 1549). However, the increase in taxes and the struggle of Charles V with the reform movement caused widespread discontent in the Netherlands, which resulted in the Ghent uprising.
In 1556 Charles V abdicated. Disagreements with Ferdinand I of Habsburg over imperial policy led Charles V to abandon his attempts to pass on to his son Philip (see Philip II) the title of emperor, which Ferdinand had inherited. Philip received Spain, its colonial possessions and possessions in Italy, as well as the so-called Burgundian inheritance - the Netherlands, Franche-Comte and Charolais. The last 2 years of Charles V's life he spent in the monastery of Hieronymites.
Charles V had a great influence on the development of European culture. He was the largest patron of his time, patronized Titian. In Spain, during the years of his reign, the Renaissance culture flourished.
Source: Corresponded des Kaisers Karl V / Hrsg. von K. Lanz. Lpz., 1844-1846. Bd 1-3; Corpus documental de Carlos V / Ed. M. Fernandez Alvarez. Salamanca, 1973-1981. Vol. 1-5; Testamento de Carlos V / Ed. M. Fernandez Alvarez. Madrid, 1982.
Lit.: Baumgarten H. Geschichte Karls V. Stuttg., 1885-1892. Bd 1-3; Rassow R. Die politische Welt Karls V. 2. Aufl. Munch., 1946; Tyler R. Kaiser Karl V. 2. Aufl. Stuttg., 1960; Fernandez Alvarez M. Politica mundial de Carlos V in Felipe II. Madrid, 1966; Das römischdeutsche Reich im politischen System Karls V / Hrsg. von H. Lutz. Munch.; W., 1982; Naujoks E. Kaiser Karl V und die Zunftverfassung. Stuttg., 1985; Karl V: Politik und politisches System / Hrsg. N. Rabe. Konstanz, 1996; Kohler A. Charles I / V (1516-1556) // Spanish kings. Rostov n/D., 1998; Perez J. Carlos V. Madrid, 1999; Carlos V: Las armas y las letras. Madrid, 2000; Carlos V y la quiebra del humanismo politico en Europa (1530-1558) / Ed. J. Martinez Millan. Madrid, 2001. Vol. 1-4; Carlos V: Europeismo at Universalidad / Ed. J. L. Castellano, F. Sânchez Montes Gonzâlez. Madrid, 2001; Carlos V / Karl V. 1500-2000 / Hrsg. A. Kohler. Madrid, 2001; De la union de coronas al Imperio de Carlos V / Ed. E. Belenguer Cebria. Madrid, 2001. Vol. 1-3; Maltby W. S. The reign of Charles V. N. Y., 2002; Kohler A. Karl V. Münch., 2005.
