Carlos I of Spain and V of Germany

Charles of Austria or Habsburg He was born in Ghent on February 24, 1500. Son of Juana la Loca and Felipe el Hermoso de Castilla, he was educated in the Netherlands by Adriano de Utrecht and Guillermo de Croy. He receives influences from personalities such as Erasmus of Rotterdam. At the age of 15 he is appointed Governor of the Estates of the House of Burgundy granted by the inheritance of his paternal grandmother. When his maternal grandfather died, he took charge of the unified Crowns of Castile and Aragon, annexed to it; Naples, Sicily, Sardinia and Roussillon. He inherits Austria, Tyrol, Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola when his paternal grandfather dies, Maximilian I of Austria.

Carlos assumes the project of Gattinara to establish the universal Christian Empire reason why embarks in continuous wars against his rivals in this company. Carlos was not too accepted in Germania due to his condition of foreigner, putting these a high resistance that was suppressed with time. Was a absent king Y little respectful of municipal autonomy; it imposed innumerable taxes to finance its European wars and that unleashed insurrections in the Communities of Castile and in the GermanĂ­as of Valencia and Mallorca. She spends time on the peninsula to quell the uprisings and to marry her cousin Isabel from Portugal. He faces the Turks in Austria and Barbarossa in the Mediterranean navigation.

He fought four wars against Francis I in Italy and the Netherlands and the alliance of Henry VIII of England as other European states; Venice, Florence, Switzerland, Denmark or Sweden with France creates new confrontations and mistrust. The protestant reformation liquidates the Catholic unit and Charles retaliates, forcing the Protestant princes to return the bosom of the Church through the Edict of Worms. But through the Peace of Augsburg he is forced to abdicate in Brussels leaving his son Felipe II to rule the kingdoms of Spain and the House of Burgundy, including the Indies, Italy; Sardinia, Naples, Sicily and Milan, the Netherlands and Franche-Comté. Carlos left his son a bankrupt inheritance for the innumerable expenses of the wars all over Europe. Suffering from gout, he retires to Yuste monastery and died on September 21, 1558.