Summary of Charles V of Habsburg: the coronation as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, the wars in Italy and against the Turks, the fight against the Protestants, the abdication and division of the empire.
Charles V of Habsburg reigned from 1519 to 1556 over an empire over which, as he loved to say himself, the sun never set.
Who was Charles V of Habsburg?
Charles V of Hapsburg was born on 24 February 1500 in Ghent (in present-day Belgium) from Philip the Fair and Joan the Crazy. His paternal grandfather was Maximilian I of Hapsburg, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire; his maternal grandfather was Ferdinand II of Aragon (called Ferdinand the Catholic), king of Spain.
In 1506 he inherited from his father (Philip the Fair) the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Artois and France County; in 1516 he inherited from his maternal grandfather (Ferdinand II) the kingdom of Spain, with Italian dominions and American colonies; in 1519 he inherited from his paternal grandfather (Maximilian I) the Austrian crown.
Finally in 1519 he added to all these possessions and titles that of emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, following an election that remained famous for the lengthy negotiations between voters and because the other aspiring to imperial dignity was Francis I of France.
Charles succeeded in prevailing thanks above all to the support of the banker Jakob Fugger.
The Empire of Charles V of Habsburg
Charles V set out to restore imperial authority over Europe. However, his project was doomed to failure, because there were real reasons for weakness.
First of all, his possessions, which were too scattered, lacked cohesion, not only because the language, customs and privileges were different, but also because of the effective distance that separated them from each other and forced the sovereign to frequent and exhausting journeys. He was then forced to delegate his powers to regents (Margaret of Austria, his aunt, and Mary of Hungary, his sister, in the Netherlands; Hadrian of Utrecht, future Pope Hadrian VI, in Spain).
Secondly, there was the hostility of France and the threat of the Ottoman Turks, and finally the difficult question of the Protestant Reformation in Germany. But the most demanding clash was that with France of Francis I.
The war in Italy between Charles V of Habsburg and Francis I
Under the Treaty of Noyn (1516) Spain was attributed the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily and the French the Duchy of Milan. But the Duchy of Milan controlled the Ligurian ports - Genoa in particular - which connected the Iberian Peninsula and the Po Valley. If for Charles V it was vital to control this strategic corridor, for Francis I it was vital to prevent it from falling into Spanish hands.
In 1521 Charles V went down to Italy to regain Milan: he defeated the French in Pavia (1525) and took King Francis I as a hostage. The French king was deported to Spain and forced to sign the Treaty of Madrid (1526) with which, in exchange for his freedom, he undertook to grant Charles V Milan and Burgundy.
However, once freed, Francis I did not respect the agreements; he said that the Treaty of Madrid had been extracted from him. He then formed an anti-Hasburg alliance, the League of Cognac (1526), which was joined by the England of Henry VIII, Pope Clement VII (of the Medici family), Florence, Milan and Venice.
The emperor then, with his army, largely formed by the Lutheran Lansquenets, reached Rome and sacked it (for further information read The Lansquenets and the Sack of Rome 1527). Meanwhile, there was a growing protest against the fate of the pope who had to take refuge in Castel Sant'Angelo, practically hostage to the imperial forces. This led to the Treaty of Barcelona (1529). With this treaty Charles V:
- undertook to return to the pope all the lands that had been taken from him;
- undertook to restore the government of the Medici in Florence;
- obtained in exchange the recognition of his possessions in Italy and the imperial coronation from the hands of the Pope (1530), who would definitively consecrate his role and his prestige.
In the same year (1529) Charles V and Francis I signed the peace of Cambrai: the emperor renounced the claims on Burgundy, while the king of France recognized the possession of Milan, at the head of which remained Francis II Sforza, on the condition that his death would be annexed to the Spanish.