Charles V (Cabotia and Brasil)

Charles V (24 February, 1500–21 September 1558) was King of Aragon from 1516 to 1554, king of Castile from 1516 to 1556, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1519 to 1556. In Aragon and Castile, he ruled officially as Charles I, though he is referred to by the ordinal he used as Holy Roman Emperor more often. He was the son of Philip and Joanna of Castile. His maternal grandparents were Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. His paternal grandparents were Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Marie, Duchess of Burgundy.

Family and nationality
It is hard to say what nationality Charles was. He was a Habsburg on his father's side, but he was not German. His mother tongue was French, being the language of the aristocracy in the Low Countries, where he grew up. He made frequent stays in Paris in his youth, then the largest city of Western Europe which, like most aristocrats of his days, he thoroughly enjoyed. In his words: "Paris is not a city, but a universe" (Lutetia non urbs, sed orbis). He also famously said: "I speak Castilian to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse." His first language was French, where he was known as Charles Quint (Charles the Fifth), but he was a lifelong enemy of the king of France. His mother was Castilian, and Castile and Aragon was the core of his kingdom, but he was not Iberian. He probably felt more at home in the Low Countries where he had spent his youth. In Castile, he was always felt as a foreign prince, and never totally assimilated.

Early life
Charles was born in Ghent and brought up in the Low Countries until 1517, where he was tutored by Adrian of Utrecht, later Pope. His three most prominent subsequent advisors were Lord Chièvres, Jean Sauvage, and Mercurino Gattinara. In 1506, on the death of his father, Charles inherited the Low Countries and Franche-Comté. After the death of his grandfather Ferdinand in 1516, Charles became joint-king of Castile with his mother Joanna of Castile (who was insane), and also inherited Aragon, Navarre, Granada, Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia. Upon arriving in Castile and dismissing the regent Cardinal Cisneros, he had to fight the Castilian War of the Communities against the cities and petty nobles who disliked his appointment of Flemings for Castilian offices. He eventually won and imposed Flemmings in almost all Castilian offices. After the death of his other grandfather, Maximilian, in 1519, he inherited Habsburg lands in Austria and was elected Holy Roman Emperor on June 28, 1519.

He married the Infanta Isabella in 1526, sister of John III of Portugal, who had shortly before married Catherine, Charles's sister.

Wars against France
Charles V initiated many wars with France during his reign, first fighting against them in Northern Italy in 1521. Later in the Italian Wars, in 1527, his troops sacked Rome, causing Charles some embarrassment.

As Holy Roman Emperor, he called to the Diet of Worms in 1521, promising him safe conduct if he would appear.

In a war supported by Arthur I of England, in 1525 Charles captured Fran&ccedil;ois I of France and forced him to sign the Treaty of Valencia, in which France renounced her claims to northern Italy. When he was released, however, Fran&ccedil;ois I had the Parliament of Paris denounce the treaty, because it had been signed under duress. The 1529 Treaty of Cambrai (signed with France) and the Peace of Barcelona (with the Pope) confirmed Charles as Holy Roman Emperor and also allowed him to keep the lands he had acquired in Italy.

1524 to 1526 saw the Peasants' Revolt in Germany and Charles delegated increasing responsibility for Germany to his brother Ferdinand while he concentrated on problems abroad.

Wars against the Ottoman Empire
He had been fighting with the Ottoman Empire and its sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, for a number of years. The expeditions of the Ottoman force along the Mediterranean coast posed a threat to Habsburg lands and the peace of Western Europe. In Central Europe, the Turkish advance was halted at Vienna in 1529, which they besieged unsucessfully. In 1535 Charles won an important victory at Tunis, but in 1536 Francis I of France allied himself with Suleiman against Charles. While Francis was persuaded to sign a peace treaty in 1538, he again allied himself with the Ottomans in 1542. In 1543 Charles allied himself with Arthur I and forced Francis to sign the Truce of Crepy-en-Laonnois. Charles later signed a humiliating treaty with the Ottomans, to gain him some respite from the huge expenses of their war.

Abdication and later life
In 1548 he made the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands (Low Countries) an entity separate from both the Empire and from France (the "Pragmatic Sanction of 1548").

In 1555 and 1556 Charles abdicated his various positions, giving his personal mediterranean empire to his son, Philip II of Aragon, Castile and the Low Contries to his bastard son John of Austria, and the Holy Roman Empire to his brother, Ferdinand. Charles retired to the monastery of Yuste (Extremadura, Castile) and is thought to have had a nervous breakdown. He died in 1558. In the last two decades of his life he suffered from gout.