Charles V
Power, Empire and Legacy
Jean AndrewsA portrait of empire, disability and power in Europe
Charles V inherited an empire on a scale unmatched by any monarch of his generation. Born in 1500 and raised in Brussels, he became duke of Burgundy at fifteen, king of Spain at sixteen and Holy Roman Emperor at nineteen, ruling territories that stretched across Europe and the Americas. This biography follows his efforts to govern a vast and diverse collection of lands during an age of religious upheaval, war and imperial expansion. Jean Andrews presents a nuanced portrait of a conscientious monarch who sought compromise as often as conquest, giving particular attention to Charles’s lifelong struggle with physical disability, his reliance on family networks and the financial pressures that shaped his reign. His story illuminates the challenges of ruling a global empire before the modern age.
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Jean Andrews gives us insights into the complex and interlocked political, religious and dynastic problems that attended Charles’s reign and drove him to despair. She also has much too on Charles the man. By homing in on his facial disfigurement, eating habits, love of chivalric fiction and the artistic works he commissioned, this book provides a deeply human portrait of a ruler who, in Jean Andrews’s verdict, truly did what he could.
'Martyn Rady, Masaryk Professor Emeritus of Central European History, University College London, and author of The Habsburgs
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Jean Andrews’ highly readable biography provides a fresh and exciting approach to the life experiences of the Habsburg emperor Charles V, from his childhood at the Burgundy court and his reign as king of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor on to his final abdication and death. Visually tracing the monarch’s emotional and political maturation through contemporary portraits and illustrations, the book insightfully explores Charles’ singular devotion to chivalric ideals and the arduous road he faced in governing his vast empire. Witha focus on the cultural as well as political consequences of his reign, it probes his complex relations with female relatives as much as with his formidable adversaries: Henry VIII, François I, and Suleiman the Magnificent. Further, Andrews’ keen examination of Charles’ involvement in the religious reforms incited by Martin Luther and Henry VIII and its detailed narrative of the controversial conquests of new worlds enrich and expand the book’s contextual background. Offering new perspectives in early modern history, this welcome biography reformulates the emperor’s trials and triumphs within the greater geopolitical sphere of influence that he helped create yet ultimately relinquished.
'Anne J. Cruz, Professor of Spanish and Cooper Fellow in the Humanities, Emerita, University of Miami
1 An Impaired Prince at the Sunset of Chivalry
2 The Reformation in the Holy Roman Empire
3 Dynasty and Disparate Realms
4 Two Empires, One Emperor
Epilogue
Chronology
References
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index
Jean Andrews is Associate Professor in Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies at the University of Nottingham. She is the author of Painting and Devotion in Golden Age Iberia: Luis de Morales (2020).