Charles V

“One of the most significant political figures of the sixteenth century, Charles V was emperor of the Holy Roman Empire” as well as a great portion of Europe (255 Bruccoli). He was born into the Hapsburg family as the son of Philip I the Handsome, the Duke of Burgundy and ruler of the Netherlands, and Charles’ mother was Joan the Mad. When Charles was six his father died and he inherited the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and the Franche-Comte. By the age of sixteen Charles was also the king of Castile, the Indies, Aragon, Navagon, Navarre, Sicily, Sardinia, and Naples, after the death of his grandfather and his mother was deemed mentally unsound to rule. Charles V continued to gain more land when his parental grandfather died in 1519 and he inherited the House of Australia and was later elected Holy Roman Emperor. Charles’ career was mostly basted around his struggles with Francis I and his religious controversies with Martin Luther. Throughout the 1500s and 1600s, absolutism ...