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Emperor: A New Life of Charles V
Drawing on vital new evidence, a top historian dramatically reinterprets the ruler of the world’s first transatlantic empire
The life of Emperor Charles V (1500–1558), ruler of Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and much of Italy and Central and South America, has long intrigued biographers. But the elusive nature of the man (despite an abundance of documentation), his relentless travel and the control of his own image, together with the complexity of governing the world’s first transatlantic empire, complicate the task.
Geoffrey Parker, one of the world’s leading historians of early modern Europe, has examined the surviving written sources in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish, as well as visual and material evidence. He explores the crucial decisions that created and preserved this vast empire, analyzes Charles’s achievements within the context of both personal and structural factors, and scrutinizes the intimate details of the ruler's life for clues to his character and inclinations. The result is a unique biography that interrogates every dimension of Charles’s reign and views the world through the emperor’s own eyes.
The life of Emperor Charles V (1500–1558), ruler of Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and much of Italy and Central and South America, has long intrigued biographers. But the elusive nature of the man (despite an abundance of documentation), his relentless travel and the control of his own image, together with the complexity of governing the world’s first transatlantic empire, complicate the task.
Geoffrey Parker, one of the world’s leading historians of early modern Europe, has examined the surviving written sources in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish, as well as visual and material evidence. He explores the crucial decisions that created and preserved this vast empire, analyzes Charles’s achievements within the context of both personal and structural factors, and scrutinizes the intimate details of the ruler's life for clues to his character and inclinations. The result is a unique biography that interrogates every dimension of Charles’s reign and views the world through the emperor’s own eyes.
737 pages, Hardcover
First published June 25, 2019
About the author
Geoffrey Parker
105 books149 followersGeoffrey Parker is Andreas Dorpalen Professor of European History and an Associate of the Mershon Center at The Ohio State University. He has published widely on the social, political and military history of early modern Europe, and in 2012 the Royal Dutch Academy recognized these achievements by awarding him its biennial Heineken Foundation Prize for History, open to scholars in any field, and any period, from any country.
Parker has written or co-written thirty-nine books, including The Military Revolution: Military innovation and the rise of the West, 1500-1800 (Cambridge University Press, 1988), winner of the 'best book prize' from both the American Military Institute and the Society for the History of Technology; The Grand Strategy of Philip II (Yale University Press, 1998), which won the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize from the Society of Military History; and Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century (Yale University Press, 2013), which won the Society of Military History’s Distinguished Book Prize and also one of the three medals awarded in 2014 by the British Academy for ‘a landmark academic achievement… which has transformed understanding of a particular subject’.
Before moving to Ohio State in 1997, Parker taught at Cambridge and St Andrews universities in Britain, at the University of British Columbia in Canada, and at Illinois and Yale Universities in the United States, teaching courses on the Reformation, European history and military history at both undergraduate and graduate levels. He has directed or co-directed over thirty Doctoral Dissertations to completion, as well as several undergraduate theses. In 2006 he won an OSU Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award.
He lives in Columbus, Ohio, and has four children. In 1987 he was diagnosed as having Multiple Sclerosis. His latest book is Imprudent King: A New Life of Philip II (Yale University Press, 2014).
Parker has written or co-written thirty-nine books, including The Military Revolution: Military innovation and the rise of the West, 1500-1800 (Cambridge University Press, 1988), winner of the 'best book prize' from both the American Military Institute and the Society for the History of Technology; The Grand Strategy of Philip II (Yale University Press, 1998), which won the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize from the Society of Military History; and Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century (Yale University Press, 2013), which won the Society of Military History’s Distinguished Book Prize and also one of the three medals awarded in 2014 by the British Academy for ‘a landmark academic achievement… which has transformed understanding of a particular subject’.
Before moving to Ohio State in 1997, Parker taught at Cambridge and St Andrews universities in Britain, at the University of British Columbia in Canada, and at Illinois and Yale Universities in the United States, teaching courses on the Reformation, European history and military history at both undergraduate and graduate levels. He has directed or co-directed over thirty Doctoral Dissertations to completion, as well as several undergraduate theses. In 2006 he won an OSU Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award.
He lives in Columbus, Ohio, and has four children. In 1987 he was diagnosed as having Multiple Sclerosis. His latest book is Imprudent King: A New Life of Philip II (Yale University Press, 2014).
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January 10, 2024
The World was Enough.
When Charles V abdicated in 1556 his empire and dominions spanned across the globe. He was the most powerful prince in the western world. He was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Germany, Italy and Spain, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy and Lord of the. Netherlands. His possessions in America stretched from modern day USA to Peru. What is clear, with much power there is a lot of responsibility and as a result a lot to do. He was described later as ‘the monarch of the world’, which could be argued as accurate. But this was too much and caused Charles to abdicate and split his empire.
Charles’ reign was one of rivalries, warfare, triumph and disappointment. Born in 1500, he was a contemporary of Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France. He became King of the Romans in 1519, crushed and captured Francis I in 1525 after the Battle of Pavia. Then captured Pope Clement VII after the sacking of Rome in 1527. This made Clement unable to annul the marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Charles’ aunt, which led to Henry breaking away from Rome. These successes on the battlefield ensured he was proclaimed Holy Roman Emperor in 1530. In the New World Hernán Cortez and Francisco Pizarro overran the Aztec and Inca Empires in Charles’ name adding vast new territories to his empire. Charles as a result spent a huge amount of time travelling Europe, and as Parker notes only 260 days of his exact whereabouts are unrecorded. All of them being whilst he was at sea.
As I have said above, there were failures. Most significantly, even after meeting Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms in 1521 he was unable to prevent the Protestant Reformation and as such declared the monk an outlaw. Francis I got his revenge by defeating Charles in 1536, when Charles’ invading army was devastated. Most humiliatingly he had to flee from Innsbruck after defeat at the hands of the Protestant princes in the Second Schmalkaldic War. Ultimately Charles divided his lands in 1556 between his younger brother, who became Ferdinand I as Holy Roman Emperor, giving Spain, the New World and the Netherlands to his son Philip II. His regime and power hold in his empire could only survive with Charles V at the top. His leadership style, devolution of power and military prowess kept it together during his reign. But recognised that this was too much, even though he saw his son Philip and brother Ferdinand capable on their own right.
Charles was very religious, attending mass every day and after abdication retired to monastery after his abdication. But also had at least four illegitimate children, some with servant girls. He recognised most of them and looked after them, even if this came later in their lives. He was not a confident public speaker but could speak multiple languages, as famously said he spoke ‘Spanish to God, Italian to friends, French to lovers and German to enemies.’ He was plagued by gout, asthma and haemorrhoids for much of his life and the workload ultimately contributed to an emotional breakdown. He signed more than 100,000 documents in his life time and even read them attentively as there is evidence he questioned outcomes and ‘facts’ in them.
This is a really fascinating book of an individual who is important in the history of so many. For me Charles was mostly an effective ruler and one of the best the Habsburgs produced. This book is a masterpiece and truly a work of scholar genius. Parker himself states Charles was an extraordinary man who achieve extra things.’ Parker has done Charles justice.
When Charles V abdicated in 1556 his empire and dominions spanned across the globe. He was the most powerful prince in the western world. He was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Germany, Italy and Spain, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy and Lord of the. Netherlands. His possessions in America stretched from modern day USA to Peru. What is clear, with much power there is a lot of responsibility and as a result a lot to do. He was described later as ‘the monarch of the world’, which could be argued as accurate. But this was too much and caused Charles to abdicate and split his empire.
Charles’ reign was one of rivalries, warfare, triumph and disappointment. Born in 1500, he was a contemporary of Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France. He became King of the Romans in 1519, crushed and captured Francis I in 1525 after the Battle of Pavia. Then captured Pope Clement VII after the sacking of Rome in 1527. This made Clement unable to annul the marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Charles’ aunt, which led to Henry breaking away from Rome. These successes on the battlefield ensured he was proclaimed Holy Roman Emperor in 1530. In the New World Hernán Cortez and Francisco Pizarro overran the Aztec and Inca Empires in Charles’ name adding vast new territories to his empire. Charles as a result spent a huge amount of time travelling Europe, and as Parker notes only 260 days of his exact whereabouts are unrecorded. All of them being whilst he was at sea.
As I have said above, there were failures. Most significantly, even after meeting Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms in 1521 he was unable to prevent the Protestant Reformation and as such declared the monk an outlaw. Francis I got his revenge by defeating Charles in 1536, when Charles’ invading army was devastated. Most humiliatingly he had to flee from Innsbruck after defeat at the hands of the Protestant princes in the Second Schmalkaldic War. Ultimately Charles divided his lands in 1556 between his younger brother, who became Ferdinand I as Holy Roman Emperor, giving Spain, the New World and the Netherlands to his son Philip II. His regime and power hold in his empire could only survive with Charles V at the top. His leadership style, devolution of power and military prowess kept it together during his reign. But recognised that this was too much, even though he saw his son Philip and brother Ferdinand capable on their own right.
Charles was very religious, attending mass every day and after abdication retired to monastery after his abdication. But also had at least four illegitimate children, some with servant girls. He recognised most of them and looked after them, even if this came later in their lives. He was not a confident public speaker but could speak multiple languages, as famously said he spoke ‘Spanish to God, Italian to friends, French to lovers and German to enemies.’ He was plagued by gout, asthma and haemorrhoids for much of his life and the workload ultimately contributed to an emotional breakdown. He signed more than 100,000 documents in his life time and even read them attentively as there is evidence he questioned outcomes and ‘facts’ in them.
This is a really fascinating book of an individual who is important in the history of so many. For me Charles was mostly an effective ruler and one of the best the Habsburgs produced. This book is a masterpiece and truly a work of scholar genius. Parker himself states Charles was an extraordinary man who achieve extra things.’ Parker has done Charles justice.
October 2, 2022
This book is a long winded boring mess.
The author's stated opinions are both sexist & racist; in addition he uses this bias to present an inaccurate history of Charles V.
There is tons of information but it is hopelessly unorganized.
This is an extremely complex and complicated period in history.
You need to know all of the players on your own before reading this.
The book includes a section on the children of Chales V but facts about them are sprinkled throughout the book and not in an orderly or logical manner.
The author primarily focuses on war and battles.
Now this is important to this period but the author never even clearly delineates all of Charles holdings, the government bodies and policies.
Again you are expected to know this already.
There's not enough info on the actual players in Charles life.
This really matters because of the size and type of his Empire.
This is a disservice and kinda makes this a useless collection of battle dates.
The author has a very limited view, cites lots of research but tailors his findings along biased lines.
Example in the the first couple chapters about Charles V's parents. He totally removes all of the well documented abuse that Philip I inflicted on Juana I. Even for her sexist times he was considered wildly abusive. He locked her in room, he took away her clothes so she couldn't socialize with the court, he played horrible mind games with her.
Instead the author portrays Philip as the model father and Juana as mean and unbalanced.
Considering when this was written it's beyond irresponsible history.
The author purposely culled the sources in order to create the image he wanted to portray, which is how biographies work. In this case very unhelpfully.
Charles V is an asshole with no redeeming qualities. He stole from and betrayed all of his siblings as well as his own mother.
He fucked over his wife and his kids-legitimate and otherwise.
He was unspeakably cruel to his mother whom he kept in a dark room for decades lying to her, isolating her and allowing her jailers to abuse and torture her.
He rarely visited but when he did it was steal her treasures.
Cortez and Conquistadors happen on Charles V's watch and the author thinks he cared unusually for Indigenous peoples of the Americas.🙃
Look, Isabel & Carlos both feel guilt over their behaviors in the Americas. The reason their descendants don't isn't because Isabel and Carlos were better people, it's because their descendants grew up normalizing their immoral behavior. They established that immoral behavior and it was easier for them to see it was wrong.
The author uses quotes from Games of Thrones TV show and it's annoying and irrelevant.
Plus he misses the best correlation. The Red Wedding, which is based on European social customs. If you feed your guests to harm them is a grave breach of custom.
Cortes and his thieves are wined and dined before betraying Montezuma and committing mass murder on the Aztec peoples.
Guess that only applies to other Europeans in this racist authors mind.
The author uses exclusively European sources for the conquest of what is now Mexico. Not a single Indigenous source is used.
The problem with this is that European sources are overwhelmingly lies to excuse enslaving and stealing.
The Catholic church allowed stealing from non-Catholics and enslaving of pagans and cannibals.
This is why so many Indigenous peoples of the Americas are labeled as violent cannibals.
The Europeans were lying and will go on lying for centuries.
Charles and Cortes will steal boatloads of solid gold and silver from Mexico. Guess that's why they're (Mexico) so poor now.
The irony that Aztec art will be destroyed and 500 yrs later white people will act like Indigenous peoples of the Americas had no cities and no advanced culture.🙃
This book feeds into that same racist white supremacist thinking that ignored the genocide of 2 continents and has the nerve to call that civilization.
The author's stated opinions are both sexist & racist; in addition he uses this bias to present an inaccurate history of Charles V.
There is tons of information but it is hopelessly unorganized.
This is an extremely complex and complicated period in history.
You need to know all of the players on your own before reading this.
The book includes a section on the children of Chales V but facts about them are sprinkled throughout the book and not in an orderly or logical manner.
The author primarily focuses on war and battles.
Now this is important to this period but the author never even clearly delineates all of Charles holdings, the government bodies and policies.
Again you are expected to know this already.
There's not enough info on the actual players in Charles life.
This really matters because of the size and type of his Empire.
This is a disservice and kinda makes this a useless collection of battle dates.
The author has a very limited view, cites lots of research but tailors his findings along biased lines.
Example in the the first couple chapters about Charles V's parents. He totally removes all of the well documented abuse that Philip I inflicted on Juana I. Even for her sexist times he was considered wildly abusive. He locked her in room, he took away her clothes so she couldn't socialize with the court, he played horrible mind games with her.
Instead the author portrays Philip as the model father and Juana as mean and unbalanced.
Considering when this was written it's beyond irresponsible history.
The author purposely culled the sources in order to create the image he wanted to portray, which is how biographies work. In this case very unhelpfully.
Charles V is an asshole with no redeeming qualities. He stole from and betrayed all of his siblings as well as his own mother.
He fucked over his wife and his kids-legitimate and otherwise.
He was unspeakably cruel to his mother whom he kept in a dark room for decades lying to her, isolating her and allowing her jailers to abuse and torture her.
He rarely visited but when he did it was steal her treasures.
Cortez and Conquistadors happen on Charles V's watch and the author thinks he cared unusually for Indigenous peoples of the Americas.🙃
Look, Isabel & Carlos both feel guilt over their behaviors in the Americas. The reason their descendants don't isn't because Isabel and Carlos were better people, it's because their descendants grew up normalizing their immoral behavior. They established that immoral behavior and it was easier for them to see it was wrong.
The author uses quotes from Games of Thrones TV show and it's annoying and irrelevant.
Plus he misses the best correlation. The Red Wedding, which is based on European social customs. If you feed your guests to harm them is a grave breach of custom.
Cortes and his thieves are wined and dined before betraying Montezuma and committing mass murder on the Aztec peoples.
Guess that only applies to other Europeans in this racist authors mind.
The author uses exclusively European sources for the conquest of what is now Mexico. Not a single Indigenous source is used.
The problem with this is that European sources are overwhelmingly lies to excuse enslaving and stealing.
The Catholic church allowed stealing from non-Catholics and enslaving of pagans and cannibals.
This is why so many Indigenous peoples of the Americas are labeled as violent cannibals.
The Europeans were lying and will go on lying for centuries.
Charles and Cortes will steal boatloads of solid gold and silver from Mexico. Guess that's why they're (Mexico) so poor now.
The irony that Aztec art will be destroyed and 500 yrs later white people will act like Indigenous peoples of the Americas had no cities and no advanced culture.🙃
This book feeds into that same racist white supremacist thinking that ignored the genocide of 2 continents and has the nerve to call that civilization.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 27, 2019
Geoffrey Parker is quickly growing into one of my favorite authors. Having read his book on Philip II, I enjoyed it quite alot but it was not as interesting or enjoyable as this new biography. Parkers background is in medieval spain and warfare which comes through in this book as he is clearly very knowledgeable without being exhausted - the same cannot be said for Frank Mclynn.
While Charles and his habsburg jaw were largely successful, he was also largely negligent when it came to the concerns of his people and often pursued his own ambitions instead of looking to address the grievances of his people. He ignored the uprising in Spain of the Comunero revolt and was not able to facilitate his expansion into Mexico when Cortes met the Aztecs.
What can certainly be said of Charles was that of the three major monarchs during his reign; Francis in France and Henry in England, he was certainly the best military leader. Granted that does not say much as Francis was very poor at military affairs, Charles certainly stood shoulders above the rest especially when fighting the Ottomans who were pressing onto Christendom from the East with the help of Francis I. Charles also certainly displayed his leadership during his suppression of the Lutheran movement in the 1540s when he tried to bring the landgrave and heads of the Netherlands back under catholicism, a problem that his son would inherit.
While Parker does try his best to remain neutral as all good professional historians are suppose to do, you could sense that he was a sympathizer of Charles, which is hard to argue against as he was largely successful in most that he tried to do and was the most successful monarch who fit the role of emperor in the 1500's and largely did it without using previous empires to use as his guidance. I will definitely be returning to this book in the future and will definitely recommend the book to any who want to learn about him.
While Charles and his habsburg jaw were largely successful, he was also largely negligent when it came to the concerns of his people and often pursued his own ambitions instead of looking to address the grievances of his people. He ignored the uprising in Spain of the Comunero revolt and was not able to facilitate his expansion into Mexico when Cortes met the Aztecs.
What can certainly be said of Charles was that of the three major monarchs during his reign; Francis in France and Henry in England, he was certainly the best military leader. Granted that does not say much as Francis was very poor at military affairs, Charles certainly stood shoulders above the rest especially when fighting the Ottomans who were pressing onto Christendom from the East with the help of Francis I. Charles also certainly displayed his leadership during his suppression of the Lutheran movement in the 1540s when he tried to bring the landgrave and heads of the Netherlands back under catholicism, a problem that his son would inherit.
While Parker does try his best to remain neutral as all good professional historians are suppose to do, you could sense that he was a sympathizer of Charles, which is hard to argue against as he was largely successful in most that he tried to do and was the most successful monarch who fit the role of emperor in the 1500's and largely did it without using previous empires to use as his guidance. I will definitely be returning to this book in the future and will definitely recommend the book to any who want to learn about him.
April 19, 2021
One of the great biographies of the last decade, product of an extraordinary amount of research, it was a wonderful portrait of Charles V - balanced and interesting. Magisterial.
July 4, 2020
Emperor Charles V is the stuff of legends
The wedding of his parents, linking up Burgundy, the Low Countries , Austria and Spain, took place in Lier and is still celebrated there in processions and folklore. The marriage, however, was not a happy one. Charles’ father died young and his mother went down into history as Joanna the Mad. A tragic tale. Charles’ family, not unlike other upper class families at the time (and perhaps even now too), was a profoundly dysfunctional one.
The future emperor was born as their second child in the rebel city of Ghent and brought up in Mechelen together with his oldest sisters by his aunt Margaret of Austria, one of the few likeable characters in this history of intrigues and machinations. Soon the young ruler was swarmed by advisors.
As an adult leader, de facto the world’s leader, Charles V wasn’t a grand visionary. He was often reluctant to take action and just relied on his good faith and lady fortune for things to turn out right. When he was successful, it was often because he just let his staff go about their business without interfering much. Sometimes the emperor then failed to fully capitalize on their successes.
Not really having an imperial palace of residence, the emperor was constantly on the move throughout his vast empire, always wheeling and dealing, always putting out fires. Charles V does not always appear to be the smartest of leaders (perhaps he was a slow learner).
Yet, this man found himself at the head of the biggest (western) empire the world had ever seen and managed to stay there for nearly half a century and at a most crucial time in history. The rule of Charles V saw the rise of globalization (through conquest and colonialism), the undissolved conflict with Islam and the emergence of protestant religions. In the part of the world I live, the so-called Spanish times would lead to the break-up of the Netherlands, and beyond that to the eventual formation of Belgium as a sort-of country and the transformation of the medieval county of Flanders into the political (mis)construction that it is today.
Emperor is packed with reports, anecdotes and sometimes quite surprising insights. But in spite of the abundance of documents (or maybe even because of them), Charles remains a bit of an enigma, even after the thousand plus pages of this perhaps definitive biography.
So what’s Charles’ legacy? And what was he really like? The more I read, the bigger the riddle.
There’s no denying that the man had his flaws and was very much a child of his time. He constantly used his offspring as pawns for political scheming, advocating and blocking marriages for any political cause at hand. He could be very cruel to women and children, being particularly gruesome to his mother. Although he really seemed to love her, he was unfaithful to his wife (not really a surprise there) and whenever he sired illegitimate offspring, he took care to provide for them (and their mothers).
His attitude towards the Native Americans is similarly ambiguous. On the one hand he did seem to be genuinely worried about the treatment the Native Americans got, although mainly on religious grounds. He feared the mistreatment of the native peoples would constitute an eternal sin. Paradoxically, this lead to his decision to send over African slaves to endure the hardship for them. Strange reasoning.
In short, Charles V fails badly when judged by the 21st century standards of Metoo and Black Lives Matter. That should not come as a big surprise. Most of our own leaders fail just as bad in that regard, and they were elected.
On the whole, though, Charles V probably wasn’t the worst of the lot, especially compared to the deeds and feats of his son Filip II, whose name still rings with fear and horror here in the Low Countries.
Many people in this corner of the world (let’s call it Greater Brabant) still consider Charles V to be “one of us” and think kindly of him. His legacy lives on in the world as it is today, in several folk tales and in our beer culture.
Charles V was a beer drinker who came to rule a vast wine drinking empire. I once travelled to Yuste in rural Spain, where Charles spent the final days more or less in seclusion and was happy to discover some local beers named after him, there too.
My only reservation after reading this grand biography is that Geoffrey Parker does write from a rather Anglo-Saxon point of view. He quotes extensively, often in olde English, which isn’t always easy to read and sometimes not very relevant. The Emperor who ruled the world spoke several languages (Flemish/Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Latin), but no English. Although he did envisage a union with England (through a marriage of his son), that failed and the role of England was in fact quite peripheral here. To his credit Parker does occasionally provide an original phrase in Latin or Italian to clarify a particular translation.
Emperor is an academic masterclass, yet it is very readable. I enjoyed it tremendously and highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in European history. Chin up!
Allegory on Emperor Charles V as Ruler of Vast Realms, by Peter Paul Rubens (1604), Residenzgalerie Salzburg
The wedding of his parents, linking up Burgundy, the Low Countries , Austria and Spain, took place in Lier and is still celebrated there in processions and folklore. The marriage, however, was not a happy one. Charles’ father died young and his mother went down into history as Joanna the Mad. A tragic tale. Charles’ family, not unlike other upper class families at the time (and perhaps even now too), was a profoundly dysfunctional one.
The future emperor was born as their second child in the rebel city of Ghent and brought up in Mechelen together with his oldest sisters by his aunt Margaret of Austria, one of the few likeable characters in this history of intrigues and machinations. Soon the young ruler was swarmed by advisors.
As an adult leader, de facto the world’s leader, Charles V wasn’t a grand visionary. He was often reluctant to take action and just relied on his good faith and lady fortune for things to turn out right. When he was successful, it was often because he just let his staff go about their business without interfering much. Sometimes the emperor then failed to fully capitalize on their successes.
Not really having an imperial palace of residence, the emperor was constantly on the move throughout his vast empire, always wheeling and dealing, always putting out fires. Charles V does not always appear to be the smartest of leaders (perhaps he was a slow learner).
Yet, this man found himself at the head of the biggest (western) empire the world had ever seen and managed to stay there for nearly half a century and at a most crucial time in history. The rule of Charles V saw the rise of globalization (through conquest and colonialism), the undissolved conflict with Islam and the emergence of protestant religions. In the part of the world I live, the so-called Spanish times would lead to the break-up of the Netherlands, and beyond that to the eventual formation of Belgium as a sort-of country and the transformation of the medieval county of Flanders into the political (mis)construction that it is today.
Emperor is packed with reports, anecdotes and sometimes quite surprising insights. But in spite of the abundance of documents (or maybe even because of them), Charles remains a bit of an enigma, even after the thousand plus pages of this perhaps definitive biography.
So what’s Charles’ legacy? And what was he really like? The more I read, the bigger the riddle.
There’s no denying that the man had his flaws and was very much a child of his time. He constantly used his offspring as pawns for political scheming, advocating and blocking marriages for any political cause at hand. He could be very cruel to women and children, being particularly gruesome to his mother. Although he really seemed to love her, he was unfaithful to his wife (not really a surprise there) and whenever he sired illegitimate offspring, he took care to provide for them (and their mothers).
His attitude towards the Native Americans is similarly ambiguous. On the one hand he did seem to be genuinely worried about the treatment the Native Americans got, although mainly on religious grounds. He feared the mistreatment of the native peoples would constitute an eternal sin. Paradoxically, this lead to his decision to send over African slaves to endure the hardship for them. Strange reasoning.
In short, Charles V fails badly when judged by the 21st century standards of Metoo and Black Lives Matter. That should not come as a big surprise. Most of our own leaders fail just as bad in that regard, and they were elected.
On the whole, though, Charles V probably wasn’t the worst of the lot, especially compared to the deeds and feats of his son Filip II, whose name still rings with fear and horror here in the Low Countries.
Many people in this corner of the world (let’s call it Greater Brabant) still consider Charles V to be “one of us” and think kindly of him. His legacy lives on in the world as it is today, in several folk tales and in our beer culture.
Charles V was a beer drinker who came to rule a vast wine drinking empire. I once travelled to Yuste in rural Spain, where Charles spent the final days more or less in seclusion and was happy to discover some local beers named after him, there too.
My only reservation after reading this grand biography is that Geoffrey Parker does write from a rather Anglo-Saxon point of view. He quotes extensively, often in olde English, which isn’t always easy to read and sometimes not very relevant. The Emperor who ruled the world spoke several languages (Flemish/Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Latin), but no English. Although he did envisage a union with England (through a marriage of his son), that failed and the role of England was in fact quite peripheral here. To his credit Parker does occasionally provide an original phrase in Latin or Italian to clarify a particular translation.
Emperor is an academic masterclass, yet it is very readable. I enjoyed it tremendously and highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in European history. Chin up!
Allegory on Emperor Charles V as Ruler of Vast Realms, by Peter Paul Rubens (1604), Residenzgalerie Salzburg
August 19, 2020
C'era bisogno di scrivere una nuova biografia di Carlo V, si domanda sornione lo storico inglese nella prefazione del corposo volume (settecento e rotte pagine)
Un uomo di cui si sanno vita, morte e miracoli. Un sovrano che ha prodotto e fatto produrre, ai suoi tempi, tonnellate di documenti pubblici e privati, resoconti diplomatici, corrispondenze, atti di governo di decine di stati europei, grandi e piccoli: da Erasmo al re di Danimarca, dal sultano a Lutero, dal cortigiano in cerca di favori al pettegolissimo (e informatissimo) ambasciatore veneziano.
E' possibile dire qualcosa di nuovo dopo il 'monumento' biografico di Karl Brandi (1936)?
Per uno storico del calibro di Parker, quasi alla fine di una carriera di studi straordinari sulla storia della Spagna Cinque/seicentesca la biografia dell'Emperor è una sfida e una possibilità ( nessuno potrebbe accusarlo di faciloneria o di sottovalutazione del compito).
E, dopo avere letto il malloppo la risposta è: sì.
Una scrittura brillante (non scevra di commenti ironici), si accompagna alla profondità dell'analisi storiografica. Poco di nuovo nelle fonti (inevitabilmente), ma fresca la capacità di leggere la figura pubblica del sovrano attraverso la documentazione più intima.
Tanta attenzione alla famiglia e alla rete dei reciproci e inesausti rapporti (con la sorella Maria, governatrice dei Paesi Bassi e con il fratello Ferdinando, arciduca d'Austria, solo di lettere ne sono sopravvissute quasi centomila nel corso di 40 anni di regno!).
Tanta attenzione al mondo degli uomini che osservano, aiutano, seguono, consigliano Carlo lungo tutto il regno: le loro opinioni servili o libere, acute o miopi, leali o subdole sono lo spettro attraverso il quale la figura dell'imperatore ha modo di costruirsi, pagina dopo pagina.
La sua grandezza politica e i suoi errori, la fede fervida e la crudeltà insensibile, il senso di un dovere superiore e la tendenza all'apatia e al disinteresse dagli affari pubblici.
Pochi sovrani dell'età moderna sono paragonabili a Carlo per l'importanza e la straordinarietà della sua esperienza politica unica, frutto di strategie ereditarie e coincidenze impreviste che lo resero a 16 anni re di Spagna (non sarebbe dovuto toccare a lui) e a 19 Sacro romano imperatore.
Parker riesce a rinnovare la personalità del sovrano e anche chi ne ha letto altre biografie potrà trovare grande piacere intellettuale nella lettura di questo libro.
Ma attenzione: parliamo di un LIBRO DI STORIA. Forse non è lettura per tutti perchè i grandi libri di storia donano un piacere che deve essere conquistato con pazienza e dedizione.
Una menzione a parte meritano le appendici documentarie dove con larghezza ma con grande chiarezza (anche 'narrativa') sono spalancate le porte del laboratorio sterminato nel quale riposano gli strumenti del lavoro dello storico.
Un libro che durerà a lungo.
Un uomo di cui si sanno vita, morte e miracoli. Un sovrano che ha prodotto e fatto produrre, ai suoi tempi, tonnellate di documenti pubblici e privati, resoconti diplomatici, corrispondenze, atti di governo di decine di stati europei, grandi e piccoli: da Erasmo al re di Danimarca, dal sultano a Lutero, dal cortigiano in cerca di favori al pettegolissimo (e informatissimo) ambasciatore veneziano.
E' possibile dire qualcosa di nuovo dopo il 'monumento' biografico di Karl Brandi (1936)?
Per uno storico del calibro di Parker, quasi alla fine di una carriera di studi straordinari sulla storia della Spagna Cinque/seicentesca la biografia dell'Emperor è una sfida e una possibilità ( nessuno potrebbe accusarlo di faciloneria o di sottovalutazione del compito).
E, dopo avere letto il malloppo la risposta è: sì.
Una scrittura brillante (non scevra di commenti ironici), si accompagna alla profondità dell'analisi storiografica. Poco di nuovo nelle fonti (inevitabilmente), ma fresca la capacità di leggere la figura pubblica del sovrano attraverso la documentazione più intima.
Tanta attenzione alla famiglia e alla rete dei reciproci e inesausti rapporti (con la sorella Maria, governatrice dei Paesi Bassi e con il fratello Ferdinando, arciduca d'Austria, solo di lettere ne sono sopravvissute quasi centomila nel corso di 40 anni di regno!).
Tanta attenzione al mondo degli uomini che osservano, aiutano, seguono, consigliano Carlo lungo tutto il regno: le loro opinioni servili o libere, acute o miopi, leali o subdole sono lo spettro attraverso il quale la figura dell'imperatore ha modo di costruirsi, pagina dopo pagina.
La sua grandezza politica e i suoi errori, la fede fervida e la crudeltà insensibile, il senso di un dovere superiore e la tendenza all'apatia e al disinteresse dagli affari pubblici.
Pochi sovrani dell'età moderna sono paragonabili a Carlo per l'importanza e la straordinarietà della sua esperienza politica unica, frutto di strategie ereditarie e coincidenze impreviste che lo resero a 16 anni re di Spagna (non sarebbe dovuto toccare a lui) e a 19 Sacro romano imperatore.
Parker riesce a rinnovare la personalità del sovrano e anche chi ne ha letto altre biografie potrà trovare grande piacere intellettuale nella lettura di questo libro.
Ma attenzione: parliamo di un LIBRO DI STORIA. Forse non è lettura per tutti perchè i grandi libri di storia donano un piacere che deve essere conquistato con pazienza e dedizione.
Una menzione a parte meritano le appendici documentarie dove con larghezza ma con grande chiarezza (anche 'narrativa') sono spalancate le porte del laboratorio sterminato nel quale riposano gli strumenti del lavoro dello storico.
Un libro che durerà a lungo.
February 10, 2020
Let me start by saying what this book isn't. This is not a history of epochs nor broad historical movements. It doesn't explain the rise of Protestantism nor does it provide an explanation of ideological differences within Europe during the reign of Charles V. Having said that, the treatment of the various Popes is engaging.
However, it does provide an intimate portrait of its subject matter in exquisite detail. If you want to get to know the man, and in particular the father, this is the book for you. It is almost contemporary in its psychological interpretation. It is hardly important whether we like him or not, I don't think that is Parker's goal. What is important is that we know him, even if we don't fully understand him, but then, maybe he didn't understand himself either.
So, not so much history as biography as the title suggests. Fast paced, detailed, engaging and never ever dull.
However, it does provide an intimate portrait of its subject matter in exquisite detail. If you want to get to know the man, and in particular the father, this is the book for you. It is almost contemporary in its psychological interpretation. It is hardly important whether we like him or not, I don't think that is Parker's goal. What is important is that we know him, even if we don't fully understand him, but then, maybe he didn't understand himself either.
So, not so much history as biography as the title suggests. Fast paced, detailed, engaging and never ever dull.
July 25, 2020
This is a new biography of one of the handful of rulers who came close to ruling all of Europe - and he also ruled a large portion of what became Central and South America too, around a quarter of the Earth’s landmass at its peak. His reign provided a major part of the lead up to the 30 years war and set the dynamics of balance of power politics into motion that arguably continue today. Like him or not, Charles V had quite an impact. He also made a lot of enemies, both within a very extended family, and outside the family - for example among Castilian tax payers.
...but do we need a new biography?
This is a long and complicated book - he reigned for nearly 50 years. There are lots of wars, most of which are small and not very memorable. This story took place in a fragmented Renaissance Europe and involved dozens of political units, multiple languages, nascent religious conflict (Luther and others), and the initial explorations of the Americas. The biographical question is clear - how could one person unify numerous and geographically disparate polities to become the universal ruler under these conditions? ...and he seemed to have lifelong dental issues as well. The results are impressive.
So what’s the secret? Charles was skillful. That is clear and the book taps into some sources that show him to be skillful, as well as thoughtful and reflective. In one on one confrontations, he was formidable. Charles was also lucky. There were key events and conflicts that could have turned out differently. There was also a preexisting set of dynastic relations and unexpected events that provided Charles with the opportunity to put together a large dynastic empire. (Keeping track is a challenge.)
There are other interesting angles to this story. For example, how does one coordinate such a far flung empire, before anything resembling a modern technology? Lots and lots of letters... How do you manage an empire like Charles developed? Sure, family members are crucial - this is what dynastic politics is about - but they can be a mixed bag even for strong rulers. Beyond family, how do you pick advisors and other minions? How do you manage over great distances, when you will not learn of political and military events overseas until weeks or months later? How do you fund an empire like this, before the rise of modern capitalism - even with Spanish gold?
Overall, this is a solid book and a compelling read. It has to be, given its length, if readers are to have any hope of finishing. I don’t know that this changes my thinking about Charles, but after reading Lotharingia not long ago, with all of the place and event references to the 16th century, it is valuable to take a deep dive to avoid swimming in a ocean of unfamiliar people, places, and events. Parker’s good is an excellent story, although it is not for everyone.
If you are interested in the later Holy Roman Empire, however, then this is the book for you.
...but do we need a new biography?
This is a long and complicated book - he reigned for nearly 50 years. There are lots of wars, most of which are small and not very memorable. This story took place in a fragmented Renaissance Europe and involved dozens of political units, multiple languages, nascent religious conflict (Luther and others), and the initial explorations of the Americas. The biographical question is clear - how could one person unify numerous and geographically disparate polities to become the universal ruler under these conditions? ...and he seemed to have lifelong dental issues as well. The results are impressive.
So what’s the secret? Charles was skillful. That is clear and the book taps into some sources that show him to be skillful, as well as thoughtful and reflective. In one on one confrontations, he was formidable. Charles was also lucky. There were key events and conflicts that could have turned out differently. There was also a preexisting set of dynastic relations and unexpected events that provided Charles with the opportunity to put together a large dynastic empire. (Keeping track is a challenge.)
There are other interesting angles to this story. For example, how does one coordinate such a far flung empire, before anything resembling a modern technology? Lots and lots of letters... How do you manage an empire like Charles developed? Sure, family members are crucial - this is what dynastic politics is about - but they can be a mixed bag even for strong rulers. Beyond family, how do you pick advisors and other minions? How do you manage over great distances, when you will not learn of political and military events overseas until weeks or months later? How do you fund an empire like this, before the rise of modern capitalism - even with Spanish gold?
Overall, this is a solid book and a compelling read. It has to be, given its length, if readers are to have any hope of finishing. I don’t know that this changes my thinking about Charles, but after reading Lotharingia not long ago, with all of the place and event references to the 16th century, it is valuable to take a deep dive to avoid swimming in a ocean of unfamiliar people, places, and events. Parker’s good is an excellent story, although it is not for everyone.
If you are interested in the later Holy Roman Empire, however, then this is the book for you.
February 20, 2022
For scholarship, comprehensiveness and detail, Emperor deserved the full five stars, but in terms of my enjoyment, I confess it came closer to three.
My mistake though might have been to choose the audiobook. This is a complex and detailed life of Charles V, and it would have made it easier to follow with the text in front of me.
There is certainly no shortage of detail here. No aspect of Charles V’s life is left unexplored, from his faith, through his philosophy, physicality and health. You really have to be interested in the Emperor, as this is no broad overview.
There are an awful lot of military campaigns to cover; that is a fact of course, but it does make some sections dense, and a little relentless.
Curiously, despite the length of this biography, and the wealth of source material it is based on, I still did not feel I had a full grasp of Charles’ character by the end of the book. Perhaps that was the nature of the man, but I also felt the personal was sometimes drowned out by the relaying of fact.
Nevertheless, this is still a fascinating account of a rich and eventful life at a turbulent time in European history. No ruler before or since has controlled such a large slice of the Continent.
Much of Charles’ life though would be spent trying to hold this sprawling empire together through the challenges from other powers and religious schism. This was the time of Luther as well, and Charles found himself ruling over Protestants as well as Catholics.
There are then plenty of military campaigns covered, but also a lot of dynastic wrangling as Charles tries to hold a fractured empire together.
But you do really have to crave detail. Parker still finds an awful lot of ground to cover even after he’s given an account of the Emperor’s demise. That does mean occasionally going over similar facets again. You’ll discover a lot about Charles’ gout!
In terms of the audiobook, the narration is solid if not absolutely compelling, and meets all the challenges of pronunciation and clarity.
It did take me some time to make my way through the density of this biography; that is unusual for me, but I cannot be sure that wasn’t at least in part because of trying to follow an audiobook rather than a written text.
My mistake though might have been to choose the audiobook. This is a complex and detailed life of Charles V, and it would have made it easier to follow with the text in front of me.
There is certainly no shortage of detail here. No aspect of Charles V’s life is left unexplored, from his faith, through his philosophy, physicality and health. You really have to be interested in the Emperor, as this is no broad overview.
There are an awful lot of military campaigns to cover; that is a fact of course, but it does make some sections dense, and a little relentless.
Curiously, despite the length of this biography, and the wealth of source material it is based on, I still did not feel I had a full grasp of Charles’ character by the end of the book. Perhaps that was the nature of the man, but I also felt the personal was sometimes drowned out by the relaying of fact.
Nevertheless, this is still a fascinating account of a rich and eventful life at a turbulent time in European history. No ruler before or since has controlled such a large slice of the Continent.
Much of Charles’ life though would be spent trying to hold this sprawling empire together through the challenges from other powers and religious schism. This was the time of Luther as well, and Charles found himself ruling over Protestants as well as Catholics.
There are then plenty of military campaigns covered, but also a lot of dynastic wrangling as Charles tries to hold a fractured empire together.
But you do really have to crave detail. Parker still finds an awful lot of ground to cover even after he’s given an account of the Emperor’s demise. That does mean occasionally going over similar facets again. You’ll discover a lot about Charles’ gout!
In terms of the audiobook, the narration is solid if not absolutely compelling, and meets all the challenges of pronunciation and clarity.
It did take me some time to make my way through the density of this biography; that is unusual for me, but I cannot be sure that wasn’t at least in part because of trying to follow an audiobook rather than a written text.
June 9, 2019
This is quite long, but quite good. I'm not sure how much credence to give this version of Charles' life since there seems to be so many (contradictory) versions in various books. But this is obviously well-researched and written by a highly credible author, so it's definitely worth your time if you're interested in Charles' life. You're bound to find a few particularly interesting aspects of his life and/or facts. It includes a really nice chronology and over 100 pages of notes, and a detailed bibliography. Recommended for history fans. 4.5 Stars
I really appreciate the complimentary copy for review!!
I really appreciate the complimentary copy for review!!
August 24, 2022
Половину свого часу імператор у 16 сторіччі полював і бенкетував, решту часу - визначав, хто де буде герцогом і як провести наступну кампанію проти французів. Це зовсім не схоже на діяльність якогось сучасного глави держави, який повинен цікавитись купою економічних та соціальних питань, але це несподівано близько до перспективи гравця в стратегію Civilization, яка дотепер мені здавалась недостатньо детальною та реалістичною.
July 12, 2022
The definitive biography on Charles V. Very detailed and complete.
March 7, 2024
I feel like reading this mammoth of a book is the same as running half a dozen marathons .... once I catch my breath I'll try to write up a review!
May 17, 2020
When I first saw this book on Amazon I'll say that "Charles V" didn't ring any particular bells, especially considering his contemporaries: Henry VIII of England, Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire, Martin Luther, etc. But, it turned out he was a Hapsburg, and I have some interest there, so I picked it up.
Geoffrey Parker's subject is fascinating: inheriting and expanding his personal domain to include the entirety of the modern Benelux countries, reunited under a single ruler what is now modern day Spain, much of the Italian peninsula, ostensible Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire as well as the Spanish Americas. Charles left behind a tremendous amount of documentation for someone living in the 16th century as did many of his contemporaries, so the book does not need to rely on speculation or secondary sources as heavily as many Renaissance princes' biographies.
Charles himself was a fascinating product of his time. Deeply religious: but willing to steal and lie to his mother in her palace-prison, tolerate (most of the time) the 'heresies' of Luther, variously fight with and align himself with the Pope. He was deeply concerned for the immortality of his soul: upon hearing of the mistreatment of natives in Spanish America he attempted to make arrangements to prevent their imprisonment or impressment into the silver and gold mines of South America, but he was unconcerned about the use of African slaves in those same mines.
As an Emperor/King with separate states spread all across Europe he was one of the best traveled monarchs of the age. Parts of the book read a bit like a travelogue of a "court-on-the-road" between Italy, the Holy Roman Empire, the Spanish Netherlands, France, occasionally England, Spain, and even North Africa three times. He was a soldier-statesman who regularly went to war and forged peaces of varying degrees of success.
Possibly most interesting is that in his 50s he decided to give it all up. Charles abdicated, really more like a retirement, to a palace he had built in a remote monastery in Spain, where he would spend his final years complaining about the same things that many modern retirees complain about: the world was going to hell, his kids, and ex-coworkers did not talk to him anymore.
One oddity that takes a bit of time to get used to are the firsthand quotes. The modern eye struggles a bit with: "Albeyt th'emperour, lyke a wise prince and man of great experience, castying upon the worste, made everye where great prevision, yet the numbre and the diversitie...". Though the author does take care to either cast quotes into modern English or provide a helpful bit of translation for the phrases of particular idiosyncracy.
All-in-all: highly recommended even if this is not a subject area of intense interest to you. Charles the man is interesting both as a man and as Emperor, but, the book ends up being a cross between a biography, a general history of the times, and a travelogue. Consequently, even if Charles does not do much for the reader, the scenery along the way is well worth the price of the trip. Parker's writing is flowing and sometimes a bit cloying (he word 'lapidary' shows up more often than statistically it should for a book of 540 pages), but a pleasant read. Another plus for Parker is that he does not spend a tremendous amount of time in the body of the text analyzing, though there is some, he largely holds judgement on Charles and his rule to the final chapter. This editorial decision helps prevent the book from seeming and reading excessively "academic press"...even though it is published by Yale University Press. I look forward to trying out a few of Parker's other books.
Geoffrey Parker's subject is fascinating: inheriting and expanding his personal domain to include the entirety of the modern Benelux countries, reunited under a single ruler what is now modern day Spain, much of the Italian peninsula, ostensible Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire as well as the Spanish Americas. Charles left behind a tremendous amount of documentation for someone living in the 16th century as did many of his contemporaries, so the book does not need to rely on speculation or secondary sources as heavily as many Renaissance princes' biographies.
Charles himself was a fascinating product of his time. Deeply religious: but willing to steal and lie to his mother in her palace-prison, tolerate (most of the time) the 'heresies' of Luther, variously fight with and align himself with the Pope. He was deeply concerned for the immortality of his soul: upon hearing of the mistreatment of natives in Spanish America he attempted to make arrangements to prevent their imprisonment or impressment into the silver and gold mines of South America, but he was unconcerned about the use of African slaves in those same mines.
As an Emperor/King with separate states spread all across Europe he was one of the best traveled monarchs of the age. Parts of the book read a bit like a travelogue of a "court-on-the-road" between Italy, the Holy Roman Empire, the Spanish Netherlands, France, occasionally England, Spain, and even North Africa three times. He was a soldier-statesman who regularly went to war and forged peaces of varying degrees of success.
Possibly most interesting is that in his 50s he decided to give it all up. Charles abdicated, really more like a retirement, to a palace he had built in a remote monastery in Spain, where he would spend his final years complaining about the same things that many modern retirees complain about: the world was going to hell, his kids, and ex-coworkers did not talk to him anymore.
One oddity that takes a bit of time to get used to are the firsthand quotes. The modern eye struggles a bit with: "Albeyt th'emperour, lyke a wise prince and man of great experience, castying upon the worste, made everye where great prevision, yet the numbre and the diversitie...". Though the author does take care to either cast quotes into modern English or provide a helpful bit of translation for the phrases of particular idiosyncracy.
All-in-all: highly recommended even if this is not a subject area of intense interest to you. Charles the man is interesting both as a man and as Emperor, but, the book ends up being a cross between a biography, a general history of the times, and a travelogue. Consequently, even if Charles does not do much for the reader, the scenery along the way is well worth the price of the trip. Parker's writing is flowing and sometimes a bit cloying (he word 'lapidary' shows up more often than statistically it should for a book of 540 pages), but a pleasant read. Another plus for Parker is that he does not spend a tremendous amount of time in the body of the text analyzing, though there is some, he largely holds judgement on Charles and his rule to the final chapter. This editorial decision helps prevent the book from seeming and reading excessively "academic press"...even though it is published by Yale University Press. I look forward to trying out a few of Parker's other books.
March 29, 2020
Incredible depth. Can’t imagine one would need any other book on Charles V. Learned a lot about the early 1500s...
August 11, 2019
I haven't read any single biographies on Charles V - this was my first. Much of what I had read was contained within other books - more of a secondary character or part of the supporting cast. So whether it stacks up against other know biographies, I cannot comment.
For me, this was an eye-opener into the intricacies of Charles' life and reign. I knew the basics and many of the names that cropped up but not at all in such depth as presented here. Many familiar events were tied together and put into perspective. Each of the "parts" of the book consisted of a series of manageable chapters highlighting his life, his reign, including an assessment of both the man and his political achievements. I was particularly intrigued by the view that Charles' later actions closely reflected the goals and values of his grandfather, Maximillian, ".. whom he imitated and saw as a role model, for better or worse.." Other issues have been relegated to the appendices for addressing, allowing the author to explore and elaborate on views and theories, whilst still presenting a fairly unbiased biography.
As a whole, it is quite lengthy at 570 pages- containing biography; chronology; appendices; notes and sources, and bibliography; attesting to that fact that an extensive amount of research went into this tome. This is something I would definitely come back to a re-read, and most likely find a place for on the shelves of my own personal library.
"History can never be reduced to a single entry in a ledger .." - and this book certainly proves that.
For me, this was an eye-opener into the intricacies of Charles' life and reign. I knew the basics and many of the names that cropped up but not at all in such depth as presented here. Many familiar events were tied together and put into perspective. Each of the "parts" of the book consisted of a series of manageable chapters highlighting his life, his reign, including an assessment of both the man and his political achievements. I was particularly intrigued by the view that Charles' later actions closely reflected the goals and values of his grandfather, Maximillian, ".. whom he imitated and saw as a role model, for better or worse.." Other issues have been relegated to the appendices for addressing, allowing the author to explore and elaborate on views and theories, whilst still presenting a fairly unbiased biography.
As a whole, it is quite lengthy at 570 pages- containing biography; chronology; appendices; notes and sources, and bibliography; attesting to that fact that an extensive amount of research went into this tome. This is something I would definitely come back to a re-read, and most likely find a place for on the shelves of my own personal library.
"History can never be reduced to a single entry in a ledger .." - and this book certainly proves that.
June 20, 2019
"Emperor" follows the life of Charles V, who essentially creates, inherits, marries, and wins what is now known as the Hapsburg Empire: Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, parts of Italy, etc. Although a biography that follows his life in great detail, I had a hard time finding Charles the person in all of it. The book is divided into sections to cover his life and at the end of each section is a "portrait of the emperor" section that reveals a bit more of him as a human being, but the majority of the book is a detailed review of Charles' triumphs and failures- especially in war- with not as many of the reasonings behind the scenes as I enjoy in biographies. I got only limited understanding of the lands, times, and people Charles dealt with on a daily basis. "Emperor" is a very well researched and detailed book, but overall I felt it read like a history textbook more than anything else and I found myself dragging my way through it instead of enjoying the journey.
June 20, 2020
736 pages or in my case 26 hours of listening seemed like quite a commitment when I started, but it was no punishment at all. I learned a great deal about the early 1500s and finally got some order in my head as to who ruled what and why in Europe. I can't say I find Charles a sympathetic person and I am not even convinced he was a brilliant leader or great statesman. But the life and times are simply fascinating.
November 9, 2020
Deeply researched life of Charles V. Not helped by the numerous direct quotations from 16th century English sources with the spelling and grammar of the time, which add only to difficulty.
December 12, 2021
I'm in the middle of reading: Emperor: A New Life Of Charles V by early modern historian, Geoffrey Parker, which was published in 2019, so this isn't my usual book review as I haven't finished the biography yet. However halfway through (on page 332 with 200 pages to go!) I can say it's meticulously researched and compelling to read. The section I'm on is where the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor is intent on wrangling in all those rebellious Lutheran German Princes who have broken away from Rome (and thus labeled Protestants) and taken theirs, as well as, Charles' subjects with them. As you might imagine, Emperor Charles is thinking, "What the hell! Those pesky heretics!!! Not gonna happen on my Christian watch!!!" So he's organizing talks and campaigns to deal with the German problem in his realm.
Charles of Habsburg was born on February 24, 1500, in Ghent, then called the Low Countries in the Netherlands, which today is Belgium. Son of Joanna of Castile and Philip of Habsburg, Charles was the grandson of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragan (present-day Spain), Mary of Burgandy (Belgium and the Netherlands) and Maximillian I of Habsburg, Archduke of Austria, as well as, the elected Holy Roman Emperor of the Germanies before Charles campaigned and won the title in 1519 at age 19 (upon Maximillian's death).
After the death of his grandparents, Charles V ruled over Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands, as well as, much of Italy, Central, and South America. He was an Emperor with a capital ''E." -- conquering, reorganizing, and protecting what the book calls the "world's first and most enduring transatlantic empire."
I can't grasp doing the colossal research for this book. The author had to turn to documents and primary sources written in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Burgundian, English, Latin, Hungarian, as well as, the regional dialects in these languages like Castilian in Spain and Flemish in the Low Countries.
Likewise, Charles V had to become proficient in many languages to rule over his vast lands, and of course, he had an overall fine education in philosophy, theology, the arts and was taught jostling, hunting, shooting, fishing, good manners, chivalry, to play music and dancing in his role as heir to the throne. His two closest in age sisters took classes with him. He studied mathematics as an adult to "escape the burden of affairs" of state for a few hours at night.
A lesser ruler with a weaker intellect and will couldn't have held such a diverse and enormous empire together for 40 years. At the time monarchs believed their roles were divinely ordained, and, the grandson of 4 sovereigns carried out his duty with conviction and gratitude to God. Charles worked tirelessly and constantly traveled throughout Europe attending to conflicts and ensuing problems by negotiating, writing up, and signing over 100,000 documents, edicts, and treaties. He asked for what he wanted -- in point-by-point terms -- and got much of it. He called forth and oversaw major councils and diets of the day, as well as, met privately and publically with townspeople, officials, kings, and Popes. And when talking didn't lead to peace and agreement, he took rulers prisoner until they came around, as Charles was a capable and successful military commander and also lucky since the weather or an advisory's blunder often favored him. Moreover, Charles V strategized and knew how to seize an advantage.
It's a long, serious detailed biography. The nitty-gritty of the long-ago battles get somewhat tiring, yet you do come away with knowing what a brilliant, comprehensive mind Charles V had and why he came out on top. As Emperor, he appointed smart, capable people as regents during his absences. Regents included his wife, Empress Isabella over Spain; his aunt Margaret of Austria (and later when Margaret died) his sister Maria of Hungry over the Netherlands; and his brother, Ferdinand over Germany. Emperor Charles married his sister, Eleanor to King Francis I of France although the marriage didn't stop the rivalry or wars with France; a sister Isabeau to Christian II of Denmark; and another sister Catalina to the King of Portugal.
Emperor Charles is a complex historical character. He was dutiful, patient, conscientious, dogmatic (i.e., inclined to lay down principles), a seeker of advice, a good listener, but also selfish, dogmatic (this time meaning opinionated and domineering), and a forceful ruler who always settled scores. Like many leaders and diplomats of a country, he told the truth, but not necessarily all of the truth, nor all of the time.👑
It's impossible to overlook how Charles manipulated Joanna, his mother. She was the Queen of Castile, inheriting the Kingdom jointly with Charles, but he made sure she was left in the dark, and he ruled Spain solo. It's possible he thought she wasn't capable of statesmanship but the ends don't justify the means. Periodically he visited his mother but kept her secluded from the world which is appalling!
On the other hand, as Emperor, he never demanded more sacrifice or hard work from his family than he was already doing himself. At times he pressed some of his sisters into service to govern as his trusted regents over Habsburg territories when they wanted to step down. He administered hands-on leadership over his armies and subjects. Charles rode into battles and fought alongside his troops. He motivated and spent time with the men ... once staying on his horse in full armor for 21 hours; and to the extent possible he was accessible to his many subjects, those born aristocratic and lowly in his kingdoms whenever he visited.
A few interesting facts about Charles V on the personal side:
1) He had 4 illegitimate children -- 3 before and 1 after his marriage to Isabella of Portugal. Yet during his marriage, there is no record of the Emperor ever having extra-marital affairs ... rather moral considering his immense power, lots of travels, and what powerful rulers could get away with during the 16th century.
2) The Habsburgs watched each other's backs. Sometimes Emperor Charles appealed to (critics might say shamelessly exploited) his siblings' loyalty and love for him to get them to act as regents for the Habsburg dynasty. The siblings cooperated and even spent time together after Charles abdicated and went into retirement. They managed to stay cohesive and put dynasty above ego, as well as, be close in their later years.
3) Charles attended mass daily and without fail took a week off to participate fully in Holy Week devotionals every Easter.
4) As devout as Charles V was to Catholicism (and indeed, he was pious all his life) when the Pope crossed the line into politics by siding with Francis I of France and sending troops against him (1526 - 1527), Charles defeated those armies and took the Pope hostage! It's the reason why Henry VIII of England was not granted his annulment against his popular Queen of 25+ years, Catherine of Aragon, to marry a woman who would have faired better as his mistress. Queen Catherine of England was Charles V's maternal aunt ... and with the pope as his prisoner, Henry was not going to get his divorce. In fact, it was a term the Pope had to agree to in the peace treaty to gain his freedom.
5) Charles had an enlarged lower jaw (mandibular prognathism) a congenital deformity that got worst in later Habsburg generations due to inbreeding.
6) When his wife, Empress Isabella, died from childbirth in 1539, Charles was so devastated, he locked himself away in a monastery for 2 months to grieve her. He never remarried and wore black for the rest of his life.
7) I haven't gotten to the part of the book where Charles abdicated as Emperor in 1556, but I find the fact that he knew when to relinquish power interesting, as well as, admirable. Due to acute arthritis (called gout) and his declining health, Charles knew he couldn't travel and reign as effectively as before, and the burden of ruling and traveling non-stop for 40 years exhausted him. The man was tired!
8) Realizing it was too much for one person, Charles V divided the Habsburg Empire into two parts, giving Spain, the Netherlands, and parts of Italy to his son, Philip II to rule ... and Austria, and the German states to his brother, Ferdinand I -- the next elected Holy Roman Emperor. Charles V's daughter, Maria, married her 1st cousin, Maximillian II, who also became the Holy Roman Emperor (= Charles' nephew and brother, Ferdinand I's son). Charles and Isabella's other surviving child, Joanna, married another 1st cousin, Prince John Manuel of Portugal. Joanna became the Regent of Spain during her brother, Philip II's absence and marriage to Queen Mary Tudor, Philip's 1st cousin. All the family intermarriages occurred for the purpose of keeping the territories in Habsburg hands, but over the generations, it also weaken the dynasty as defects in recessive genes lead to horrible birth defects including the inability to produce healthy heirs in Spain.
After his public abdication in the Netherlands in October 1556, Charles V left for Spain persuading his two widowed sisters, Eleanor of France and Maria of Hungry to accompany him. He lived in lovely quarters at the Monastery of Yuste from January 1557 until September 21, 1558, dying from malaria at the age of 58 while clutching the same cross that his wife, Isabella, held in her hands when she died.
Well, it's back to page 332 for me. I think reading 10 - 15 pages per sitting is about right to keep a myriad of historical details straight. Common sense and intuition tell me Charles isn't done with the Germans, French, or Turks, and none of them are done with him either. What's more, the "taming of America" is coming up in a later chapter. Oh, taming Americans, eh ... I'd like to see him try.😁
For sure, this biography of a remarkable Emperor, the most powerful man of his time, is a riveting read for a history buff!
thesavvvyshopper.blogspot.com/2021/11...
Charles of Habsburg was born on February 24, 1500, in Ghent, then called the Low Countries in the Netherlands, which today is Belgium. Son of Joanna of Castile and Philip of Habsburg, Charles was the grandson of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragan (present-day Spain), Mary of Burgandy (Belgium and the Netherlands) and Maximillian I of Habsburg, Archduke of Austria, as well as, the elected Holy Roman Emperor of the Germanies before Charles campaigned and won the title in 1519 at age 19 (upon Maximillian's death).
After the death of his grandparents, Charles V ruled over Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands, as well as, much of Italy, Central, and South America. He was an Emperor with a capital ''E." -- conquering, reorganizing, and protecting what the book calls the "world's first and most enduring transatlantic empire."
I can't grasp doing the colossal research for this book. The author had to turn to documents and primary sources written in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Burgundian, English, Latin, Hungarian, as well as, the regional dialects in these languages like Castilian in Spain and Flemish in the Low Countries.
Likewise, Charles V had to become proficient in many languages to rule over his vast lands, and of course, he had an overall fine education in philosophy, theology, the arts and was taught jostling, hunting, shooting, fishing, good manners, chivalry, to play music and dancing in his role as heir to the throne. His two closest in age sisters took classes with him. He studied mathematics as an adult to "escape the burden of affairs" of state for a few hours at night.
A lesser ruler with a weaker intellect and will couldn't have held such a diverse and enormous empire together for 40 years. At the time monarchs believed their roles were divinely ordained, and, the grandson of 4 sovereigns carried out his duty with conviction and gratitude to God. Charles worked tirelessly and constantly traveled throughout Europe attending to conflicts and ensuing problems by negotiating, writing up, and signing over 100,000 documents, edicts, and treaties. He asked for what he wanted -- in point-by-point terms -- and got much of it. He called forth and oversaw major councils and diets of the day, as well as, met privately and publically with townspeople, officials, kings, and Popes. And when talking didn't lead to peace and agreement, he took rulers prisoner until they came around, as Charles was a capable and successful military commander and also lucky since the weather or an advisory's blunder often favored him. Moreover, Charles V strategized and knew how to seize an advantage.
It's a long, serious detailed biography. The nitty-gritty of the long-ago battles get somewhat tiring, yet you do come away with knowing what a brilliant, comprehensive mind Charles V had and why he came out on top. As Emperor, he appointed smart, capable people as regents during his absences. Regents included his wife, Empress Isabella over Spain; his aunt Margaret of Austria (and later when Margaret died) his sister Maria of Hungry over the Netherlands; and his brother, Ferdinand over Germany. Emperor Charles married his sister, Eleanor to King Francis I of France although the marriage didn't stop the rivalry or wars with France; a sister Isabeau to Christian II of Denmark; and another sister Catalina to the King of Portugal.
Emperor Charles is a complex historical character. He was dutiful, patient, conscientious, dogmatic (i.e., inclined to lay down principles), a seeker of advice, a good listener, but also selfish, dogmatic (this time meaning opinionated and domineering), and a forceful ruler who always settled scores. Like many leaders and diplomats of a country, he told the truth, but not necessarily all of the truth, nor all of the time.👑
It's impossible to overlook how Charles manipulated Joanna, his mother. She was the Queen of Castile, inheriting the Kingdom jointly with Charles, but he made sure she was left in the dark, and he ruled Spain solo. It's possible he thought she wasn't capable of statesmanship but the ends don't justify the means. Periodically he visited his mother but kept her secluded from the world which is appalling!
On the other hand, as Emperor, he never demanded more sacrifice or hard work from his family than he was already doing himself. At times he pressed some of his sisters into service to govern as his trusted regents over Habsburg territories when they wanted to step down. He administered hands-on leadership over his armies and subjects. Charles rode into battles and fought alongside his troops. He motivated and spent time with the men ... once staying on his horse in full armor for 21 hours; and to the extent possible he was accessible to his many subjects, those born aristocratic and lowly in his kingdoms whenever he visited.
A few interesting facts about Charles V on the personal side:
1) He had 4 illegitimate children -- 3 before and 1 after his marriage to Isabella of Portugal. Yet during his marriage, there is no record of the Emperor ever having extra-marital affairs ... rather moral considering his immense power, lots of travels, and what powerful rulers could get away with during the 16th century.
2) The Habsburgs watched each other's backs. Sometimes Emperor Charles appealed to (critics might say shamelessly exploited) his siblings' loyalty and love for him to get them to act as regents for the Habsburg dynasty. The siblings cooperated and even spent time together after Charles abdicated and went into retirement. They managed to stay cohesive and put dynasty above ego, as well as, be close in their later years.
3) Charles attended mass daily and without fail took a week off to participate fully in Holy Week devotionals every Easter.
4) As devout as Charles V was to Catholicism (and indeed, he was pious all his life) when the Pope crossed the line into politics by siding with Francis I of France and sending troops against him (1526 - 1527), Charles defeated those armies and took the Pope hostage! It's the reason why Henry VIII of England was not granted his annulment against his popular Queen of 25+ years, Catherine of Aragon, to marry a woman who would have faired better as his mistress. Queen Catherine of England was Charles V's maternal aunt ... and with the pope as his prisoner, Henry was not going to get his divorce. In fact, it was a term the Pope had to agree to in the peace treaty to gain his freedom.
5) Charles had an enlarged lower jaw (mandibular prognathism) a congenital deformity that got worst in later Habsburg generations due to inbreeding.
6) When his wife, Empress Isabella, died from childbirth in 1539, Charles was so devastated, he locked himself away in a monastery for 2 months to grieve her. He never remarried and wore black for the rest of his life.
7) I haven't gotten to the part of the book where Charles abdicated as Emperor in 1556, but I find the fact that he knew when to relinquish power interesting, as well as, admirable. Due to acute arthritis (called gout) and his declining health, Charles knew he couldn't travel and reign as effectively as before, and the burden of ruling and traveling non-stop for 40 years exhausted him. The man was tired!
8) Realizing it was too much for one person, Charles V divided the Habsburg Empire into two parts, giving Spain, the Netherlands, and parts of Italy to his son, Philip II to rule ... and Austria, and the German states to his brother, Ferdinand I -- the next elected Holy Roman Emperor. Charles V's daughter, Maria, married her 1st cousin, Maximillian II, who also became the Holy Roman Emperor (= Charles' nephew and brother, Ferdinand I's son). Charles and Isabella's other surviving child, Joanna, married another 1st cousin, Prince John Manuel of Portugal. Joanna became the Regent of Spain during her brother, Philip II's absence and marriage to Queen Mary Tudor, Philip's 1st cousin. All the family intermarriages occurred for the purpose of keeping the territories in Habsburg hands, but over the generations, it also weaken the dynasty as defects in recessive genes lead to horrible birth defects including the inability to produce healthy heirs in Spain.
After his public abdication in the Netherlands in October 1556, Charles V left for Spain persuading his two widowed sisters, Eleanor of France and Maria of Hungry to accompany him. He lived in lovely quarters at the Monastery of Yuste from January 1557 until September 21, 1558, dying from malaria at the age of 58 while clutching the same cross that his wife, Isabella, held in her hands when she died.
Well, it's back to page 332 for me. I think reading 10 - 15 pages per sitting is about right to keep a myriad of historical details straight. Common sense and intuition tell me Charles isn't done with the Germans, French, or Turks, and none of them are done with him either. What's more, the "taming of America" is coming up in a later chapter. Oh, taming Americans, eh ... I'd like to see him try.😁
For sure, this biography of a remarkable Emperor, the most powerful man of his time, is a riveting read for a history buff!
thesavvvyshopper.blogspot.com/2021/11...
January 30, 2022
Any biography of Charles V will unavoidably consist of a sprawling landscape.
The Hapsburg son of Philip I and Joana of Castile gained numerous titles during his lengthy reign. In addition to serving as Holy Roman Emperor, Charles possessed titles as diverse as King of Castile and Aragon, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Luxembourg, and Duke of Burgundy. He ruled during the early stages of unrest fostered by Martin Luther’s movement, and as the nephew of Catherine of Aragon he found himself unwillingly embroiled in the Catholic and Lutheran drama. The establishment of new norms as an early head of the Holy Roman Empire was a task made many times more difficult thanks to the traction gained by Luther's critique of the Catholic Church.
For Charles, deciding where to spend his time turned out to be a challenge in such a far flung empire. Although he spent a lot of it in the Netherlands, the running of the Low Countries was left primarily to his sister Marie in his absence. The bulk of his non-Netherlands days were spent in Spain, where his brother Ferdinand I was given the title King of the Romans and had a good chunk of responsibility outsourced to him when Charles was unable to be there in person. Charles’s other son was also deeply involved in furthering Spain's interests, in his case eventually becoming Philip II as husband to Mary I of England.
The sinews between Charles and Spain/Portugal were strong on many fronts: the one spouse he ever had was Isabella of Portugal. In fact, Charles seemed to lean more and more heavily, perhaps too much so, on Spaniards for counsel. This outcome certainly left his subjects in Germany and the Netherlands often feeling neglected.
A huge curveball thrown at Charles and the broader European politico-religious sphere was Martin Luther’s movement. The difficulties Luther presented in Germania and the subsequent headaches it gave the Holy Roman Emperor are explained well by author Geoffrey Parker, while Charles’s views of the monk as a heretic and deceiver were plain as day.
The two conversed face to face at the Diet of Worms, a meeting from which neither man seemed to leave with a positive impression of the other. The violence unleashed by the Reformation would have an early flareup with the formation of the Schmalkaldic League, a banding together of Protestants in the face of what they viewed as Holy Roman Empire repression. The subsequent Schmalkaldic War (1546-1547) was a small-scale war in which Charles aimed to crush rebellious sentiment and feelings of autonomy on the part of the league’s Protestant lords.
The Emperor’s regal bearing did not go unnoticed. Following the 1543 Diet of Speyer, Strasbourg Reformer Martin Bucer noted that, “The emperor is a man with a sharp mind who pursues his plans with the greatest determination and he is ‘imperial in word, deed, looks, gestures, gifts, everything. (People) are amazed to see in him such enthusiasm, willingness, determination, and majesty.”
Francis I functions as the primary antagonist, and the French king’s disdain for Charles was so strong that he even teamed up with the Ottoman leader Suleiman the Magnificent in attacks on the Emperor’s possessions. Although Francis was at one point imprisoned by Charles, the latter’s naïve diplomatic missteps led to the French king being released with the capacity to once again do harm to the empire. (Their British contemporary, Henry VIII, vacillated between friend and foe of Charles as strategic interests realigned.) Much of the emperor’s successes end up centering around defeats of Francis I’s schemes.
Charles himself was no stranger to the game of playing European monarchs against one another. The French diplomat Charles de Marillac noticed this too, saying he had an ability to “create dissension among allies by winning over those favorable to him... and...sow doubts about loyalty among his enemies, so they become less willing to attack him.” Marillac went on to point to the handling of the Duke of Bourbon and Andrea Doria as examples of this in practice.
One of the more interesting sections is found later in the book, when Spanish interests in the New World come into focus. Charles’s efforts to reign in the heavy handed actions of conquistadors like Hernan Cortes and an at least embryonic concern for fair treatment of the South American natives put him in a more positive light than many who had their hands in the New World cookie jar. On the other hand, these human stirrings seemed to be offset by the lack of concern Charles showed when it came to his principalities’ role in the trafficking of slaves.
The resulting inflow of South American precious metals to the imperial treasury ensured the New World empire would keep the Old World one flush with funds. But rebellions from the indigenous populations over their treatment turned out to not be the only concern. There were also clashes between the Spanish settlers themselves, as men like Gonzalo Pizarro and Pedro de la Gasca were frequently at loggerheads and the vast distances from Europe often made directives from Charles irrelevant by the time their destination was reached.
Both the New World angle and Charles’s 1535 conquering of Tunis in North Africa add a global angle to a European continent heavy storyline.
The book also advances the case that luck played a role in the successes Charles experienced. Parker states that “biologically, a sequence of marriages, births and deaths between 1488 and 1509…conspired to leave the young duke of Luxembourg (Charles) as sole heir to four previously separate states...In 1545 the death of the duke of Orleans saved him from surrendering either Milan or the Netherlands, as the treaty of Crepy obliged him to do.” Unfortunately for the empire, the disastrous 1552 siege of Metz was one situation where luck failed to smile on Charles’s army.
Charles’s post-abdication years at Yuste close out the book, and even in this portion Parker gives due diligence to the details of the then former emperor’s living arrangements.
Geoffrey Parker did fantastic work writing a book of such breadth, bringing together a lot of information into a readable format. He saves a lot of his opinions for the closing section, instead choosing to present both the good and bad of Charles’s reign as Emperor throughout the bulk of the book. No effort is made to conceal shortcomings or hide leadership mistakes, while at the same time Parker does not go overboard in worshipful reverence at the Emperor’s accomplishments.
There is an expose on the women with whom Charles fathered illegitimate children. One such relationship was with Barbara Blomberg, who was the same age as his son Philip. The appalling treatment of his mother, who was technically Queen of Castile, was particularly hard to overlook. Struggling with what certainly was mental illness, Charles and his cohorts allegedly locked her away in Castile and created a fake reality, details of which they fed to her in her lonely room. This sad situation certainly did little favor to posterity's assessment of Charles's commitment to the principles of his faith. At the very least these sorts of poor decisions certainly do not hold up well to modern scrutiny.
Readers may rest assured that Emperor: A new Life of Charles V is a worthwhile addition to any collection of Europe's storied past. The writing is top notch and what could have become bogged down in a confusing array of warring principalities instead becomes a simple to follow recounting of interesting familial and royal rivalries. The excellent supporting cast and a willingness to balance the political with the personal of Emperor Charles V's reign create an intensely readable look at the closing acts of the Late Middle Ages.
-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado
The Hapsburg son of Philip I and Joana of Castile gained numerous titles during his lengthy reign. In addition to serving as Holy Roman Emperor, Charles possessed titles as diverse as King of Castile and Aragon, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Luxembourg, and Duke of Burgundy. He ruled during the early stages of unrest fostered by Martin Luther’s movement, and as the nephew of Catherine of Aragon he found himself unwillingly embroiled in the Catholic and Lutheran drama. The establishment of new norms as an early head of the Holy Roman Empire was a task made many times more difficult thanks to the traction gained by Luther's critique of the Catholic Church.
For Charles, deciding where to spend his time turned out to be a challenge in such a far flung empire. Although he spent a lot of it in the Netherlands, the running of the Low Countries was left primarily to his sister Marie in his absence. The bulk of his non-Netherlands days were spent in Spain, where his brother Ferdinand I was given the title King of the Romans and had a good chunk of responsibility outsourced to him when Charles was unable to be there in person. Charles’s other son was also deeply involved in furthering Spain's interests, in his case eventually becoming Philip II as husband to Mary I of England.
The sinews between Charles and Spain/Portugal were strong on many fronts: the one spouse he ever had was Isabella of Portugal. In fact, Charles seemed to lean more and more heavily, perhaps too much so, on Spaniards for counsel. This outcome certainly left his subjects in Germany and the Netherlands often feeling neglected.
A huge curveball thrown at Charles and the broader European politico-religious sphere was Martin Luther’s movement. The difficulties Luther presented in Germania and the subsequent headaches it gave the Holy Roman Emperor are explained well by author Geoffrey Parker, while Charles’s views of the monk as a heretic and deceiver were plain as day.
The two conversed face to face at the Diet of Worms, a meeting from which neither man seemed to leave with a positive impression of the other. The violence unleashed by the Reformation would have an early flareup with the formation of the Schmalkaldic League, a banding together of Protestants in the face of what they viewed as Holy Roman Empire repression. The subsequent Schmalkaldic War (1546-1547) was a small-scale war in which Charles aimed to crush rebellious sentiment and feelings of autonomy on the part of the league’s Protestant lords.
The Emperor’s regal bearing did not go unnoticed. Following the 1543 Diet of Speyer, Strasbourg Reformer Martin Bucer noted that, “The emperor is a man with a sharp mind who pursues his plans with the greatest determination and he is ‘imperial in word, deed, looks, gestures, gifts, everything. (People) are amazed to see in him such enthusiasm, willingness, determination, and majesty.”
Francis I functions as the primary antagonist, and the French king’s disdain for Charles was so strong that he even teamed up with the Ottoman leader Suleiman the Magnificent in attacks on the Emperor’s possessions. Although Francis was at one point imprisoned by Charles, the latter’s naïve diplomatic missteps led to the French king being released with the capacity to once again do harm to the empire. (Their British contemporary, Henry VIII, vacillated between friend and foe of Charles as strategic interests realigned.) Much of the emperor’s successes end up centering around defeats of Francis I’s schemes.
Charles himself was no stranger to the game of playing European monarchs against one another. The French diplomat Charles de Marillac noticed this too, saying he had an ability to “create dissension among allies by winning over those favorable to him... and...sow doubts about loyalty among his enemies, so they become less willing to attack him.” Marillac went on to point to the handling of the Duke of Bourbon and Andrea Doria as examples of this in practice.
One of the more interesting sections is found later in the book, when Spanish interests in the New World come into focus. Charles’s efforts to reign in the heavy handed actions of conquistadors like Hernan Cortes and an at least embryonic concern for fair treatment of the South American natives put him in a more positive light than many who had their hands in the New World cookie jar. On the other hand, these human stirrings seemed to be offset by the lack of concern Charles showed when it came to his principalities’ role in the trafficking of slaves.
The resulting inflow of South American precious metals to the imperial treasury ensured the New World empire would keep the Old World one flush with funds. But rebellions from the indigenous populations over their treatment turned out to not be the only concern. There were also clashes between the Spanish settlers themselves, as men like Gonzalo Pizarro and Pedro de la Gasca were frequently at loggerheads and the vast distances from Europe often made directives from Charles irrelevant by the time their destination was reached.
Both the New World angle and Charles’s 1535 conquering of Tunis in North Africa add a global angle to a European continent heavy storyline.
The book also advances the case that luck played a role in the successes Charles experienced. Parker states that “biologically, a sequence of marriages, births and deaths between 1488 and 1509…conspired to leave the young duke of Luxembourg (Charles) as sole heir to four previously separate states...In 1545 the death of the duke of Orleans saved him from surrendering either Milan or the Netherlands, as the treaty of Crepy obliged him to do.” Unfortunately for the empire, the disastrous 1552 siege of Metz was one situation where luck failed to smile on Charles’s army.
Charles’s post-abdication years at Yuste close out the book, and even in this portion Parker gives due diligence to the details of the then former emperor’s living arrangements.
Geoffrey Parker did fantastic work writing a book of such breadth, bringing together a lot of information into a readable format. He saves a lot of his opinions for the closing section, instead choosing to present both the good and bad of Charles’s reign as Emperor throughout the bulk of the book. No effort is made to conceal shortcomings or hide leadership mistakes, while at the same time Parker does not go overboard in worshipful reverence at the Emperor’s accomplishments.
There is an expose on the women with whom Charles fathered illegitimate children. One such relationship was with Barbara Blomberg, who was the same age as his son Philip. The appalling treatment of his mother, who was technically Queen of Castile, was particularly hard to overlook. Struggling with what certainly was mental illness, Charles and his cohorts allegedly locked her away in Castile and created a fake reality, details of which they fed to her in her lonely room. This sad situation certainly did little favor to posterity's assessment of Charles's commitment to the principles of his faith. At the very least these sorts of poor decisions certainly do not hold up well to modern scrutiny.
Readers may rest assured that Emperor: A new Life of Charles V is a worthwhile addition to any collection of Europe's storied past. The writing is top notch and what could have become bogged down in a confusing array of warring principalities instead becomes a simple to follow recounting of interesting familial and royal rivalries. The excellent supporting cast and a willingness to balance the political with the personal of Emperor Charles V's reign create an intensely readable look at the closing acts of the Late Middle Ages.
-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado
April 10, 2022
Geoffrey Parker's magnificent biography of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V is an exemplary work of fine scholarship, supported by full references, and written in clear, fluent prose, which in a fast moving narrative tells how the young heir to the German empire, the kingdoms of Spain and Castile's American settlements, Naples and Milan, and the Netherlands, where he was born, a Habsburg archduke in 1500, became, by his multiple inheritances, the ruler of Europe's largest empire, and how he ultimately, despite his admirable efforts and personal charisma, failed to reconcile the several parts of this whole, leaving at his abdication in January 1556 an impossible inheritance for his son, Phillip II, in Spain, the Netherlands, and Italy, and to his brother Ferdinand in Germany a nation permanently divided upon confessional lines.
Charles V was a product of his inheritances, and throughout his long reign, from his emancipation by his grandfather in 1515 to his abdication forty years later, everything he did was conditioned by the dynastic imperative of holding onto that to which he was born, and, accordingly, he must be regarded, along with his contemporaries Francis I and Henry VIII, as at heart a medieval king, who regarded his subjects bound to him by his family title and personal bonds and not national identity, rather than an exemplar of the administrative, national kingship which was to develop later in the early modern period, and towards which his son Philip provides a failed transitional figure, unable to reconcile his Spanish, Netherlandish, and Italian dominions or accept the emergence of national, confessional states. Philip II, while not, as Henry Kamen has shown, the recluse of El Escorial of popular belief, did however become the prisoner of an increasingly unwieldy bureaucratic monarchy largely because he could not manage the multiple inheritances his father left him, nor his enormous debts, and it is that which provides the evidence of the ultimate failure of Charles V's imperial vision, although that it lasted so long can in part be explained by the personal settlement upon his inheritances that the emperor spent much of his reign imposing. However, that settlement was a hark back to the Middle Ages and one soon shown to be out of date by the aspirations of the Habsburgs' subjects.
Charles V's character lies somewhat between those of his more politically and religiously adaptive imperial predecessor and grandfather, Maximilian, and brother, Ferdinand, who succeeded him as emperor, and his more stubborn and doctrinaire son, and while he was capable of more politique actions than Philip, particularly in his preparedness to reach temporary accommodations with Lutherans for short term imperial aims, he, like his Spanish successor, was too willing to support the Inquisition and exploit the financial resources of Spain to its long term detriment, while clinging to a too narrow late medieval Catholicism and dogmatism that precluded the compromises with Protestants in Germany that were necessary to maintain the Empire, and which Ferdinand sensibly recognised at Augsburg in 1555. However, unlike Philip, who was born in Valladolid and educated as a Spanish Infanta, Charles was born and brought up in the Netherlands as a French speaker in the tradition of the great fifteenth century duchy of Burgundy to which, after his father's early death, he was heir. And so, while Philip II is easily identified within the narrow framework of sixteenth century Spanish, inquisitional Catholicism, his father, despite his retirement to and burial in Yuste, remained a more Burgundian, indeed European, figure, always recognising that his primary inheritance was the Burgundian Netherlands (and never ceasing to claim French Burgundy, lost in 1477), with a chivalric and cultural loyalty to that great late 'middle kingdom', exemplified by the seriousness with which he took the Order of the Golden Fleece, while, as he succeeded to the rule of the Spanish kingdoms, the Empire, and Naples and Milan, unlike the more narrow Philip, he was also successful in broadening his cultural and linguistic understanding. His vision, for all its faults, was both more attractive and more realistic than that of his son. If there is one major difference between Charles and Philip, it is that the former always understood that the Netherlands remained the key to maintaining his empire, while his son's failure to understand this, and his spending insufficient time in the north learning about his Dutch and Flemish subjects, was a principal cause of the Revolt of the Netherlands, which was to ultimately destroy Habsburg Spain's pretensions as a great power. Of course, it is historically nonsensical to blame Charles for events after his death, but it was his decision to make of his surviving son a Castilian prince, and, while himself considering that the dynastic union of Spain and the Netherlands might not be sustainable after his death, to never make provision for separation of the two or put in place a devolved structure of government in the Netherlands, which would satisfy the local needs of the people, while maintaining their loyalty to a Habsburg emperor or king absent in Spain (or Germany or Italy). Charles, in his unwillingness to deal with the existential threats to his empire, failed to construct a political settlement which would outlast him, and built an empire whose only real union was in its dynastic connection through his personal rule, which meant that when he died, and with him died his charismatic leadership, bolstered by the Imperial title as the recognised leader of Catholic Christendom, so too did the Habsburg imperial condominium, regardless of Philip's efforts, who from the very beginning in 1558 did not even attempt to contest his uncle's claim to the Empire or his right of succession thereto (he never sought election as King of the Romans, for which the Family Compact provided). The empire of Charles V was, therefore, always a temporary political construct built upon the inheritance and the agency of the emperor himself, without structural permanence, and his reign was not just the apogee of Habsburg power, but also the point of hubris from which nemesis would ensue, slowly during the reign of his hardworking son, but quickly thereafter.
However, despite all these structural flaws, Charles V was successful in managing his empire as long as he was in charge: his failures were more historical than personal, and due to his need, and indeed preference, to seek temporary solutions to what were permanent problems. Parker's Charles is an attractive and engaging personality, when considered within the mores of his age, but in the end the task which he inherited and to which he dedicated his active life was beyond him, yet that is because it was almost certainly beyond any man, since no ruler of his time could have permanently maintained Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, and large parts of Italy within a single political structure, while the confessional disputes caused by the Reformation would take two centuries, and huge political, social, and intellectual change, to be settled. Charles V as a man and emperor was a man of great flaws and ultimate failures, but, nonetheless, as Parker's superb biography reveals, he was also one of the great figures of European history, and the towering figure of his age, eclipsing popes, Francis I and Henry VIII, and, unfortunately for Spain and the Netherlands, Philip II.
Charles V was a product of his inheritances, and throughout his long reign, from his emancipation by his grandfather in 1515 to his abdication forty years later, everything he did was conditioned by the dynastic imperative of holding onto that to which he was born, and, accordingly, he must be regarded, along with his contemporaries Francis I and Henry VIII, as at heart a medieval king, who regarded his subjects bound to him by his family title and personal bonds and not national identity, rather than an exemplar of the administrative, national kingship which was to develop later in the early modern period, and towards which his son Philip provides a failed transitional figure, unable to reconcile his Spanish, Netherlandish, and Italian dominions or accept the emergence of national, confessional states. Philip II, while not, as Henry Kamen has shown, the recluse of El Escorial of popular belief, did however become the prisoner of an increasingly unwieldy bureaucratic monarchy largely because he could not manage the multiple inheritances his father left him, nor his enormous debts, and it is that which provides the evidence of the ultimate failure of Charles V's imperial vision, although that it lasted so long can in part be explained by the personal settlement upon his inheritances that the emperor spent much of his reign imposing. However, that settlement was a hark back to the Middle Ages and one soon shown to be out of date by the aspirations of the Habsburgs' subjects.
Charles V's character lies somewhat between those of his more politically and religiously adaptive imperial predecessor and grandfather, Maximilian, and brother, Ferdinand, who succeeded him as emperor, and his more stubborn and doctrinaire son, and while he was capable of more politique actions than Philip, particularly in his preparedness to reach temporary accommodations with Lutherans for short term imperial aims, he, like his Spanish successor, was too willing to support the Inquisition and exploit the financial resources of Spain to its long term detriment, while clinging to a too narrow late medieval Catholicism and dogmatism that precluded the compromises with Protestants in Germany that were necessary to maintain the Empire, and which Ferdinand sensibly recognised at Augsburg in 1555. However, unlike Philip, who was born in Valladolid and educated as a Spanish Infanta, Charles was born and brought up in the Netherlands as a French speaker in the tradition of the great fifteenth century duchy of Burgundy to which, after his father's early death, he was heir. And so, while Philip II is easily identified within the narrow framework of sixteenth century Spanish, inquisitional Catholicism, his father, despite his retirement to and burial in Yuste, remained a more Burgundian, indeed European, figure, always recognising that his primary inheritance was the Burgundian Netherlands (and never ceasing to claim French Burgundy, lost in 1477), with a chivalric and cultural loyalty to that great late 'middle kingdom', exemplified by the seriousness with which he took the Order of the Golden Fleece, while, as he succeeded to the rule of the Spanish kingdoms, the Empire, and Naples and Milan, unlike the more narrow Philip, he was also successful in broadening his cultural and linguistic understanding. His vision, for all its faults, was both more attractive and more realistic than that of his son. If there is one major difference between Charles and Philip, it is that the former always understood that the Netherlands remained the key to maintaining his empire, while his son's failure to understand this, and his spending insufficient time in the north learning about his Dutch and Flemish subjects, was a principal cause of the Revolt of the Netherlands, which was to ultimately destroy Habsburg Spain's pretensions as a great power. Of course, it is historically nonsensical to blame Charles for events after his death, but it was his decision to make of his surviving son a Castilian prince, and, while himself considering that the dynastic union of Spain and the Netherlands might not be sustainable after his death, to never make provision for separation of the two or put in place a devolved structure of government in the Netherlands, which would satisfy the local needs of the people, while maintaining their loyalty to a Habsburg emperor or king absent in Spain (or Germany or Italy). Charles, in his unwillingness to deal with the existential threats to his empire, failed to construct a political settlement which would outlast him, and built an empire whose only real union was in its dynastic connection through his personal rule, which meant that when he died, and with him died his charismatic leadership, bolstered by the Imperial title as the recognised leader of Catholic Christendom, so too did the Habsburg imperial condominium, regardless of Philip's efforts, who from the very beginning in 1558 did not even attempt to contest his uncle's claim to the Empire or his right of succession thereto (he never sought election as King of the Romans, for which the Family Compact provided). The empire of Charles V was, therefore, always a temporary political construct built upon the inheritance and the agency of the emperor himself, without structural permanence, and his reign was not just the apogee of Habsburg power, but also the point of hubris from which nemesis would ensue, slowly during the reign of his hardworking son, but quickly thereafter.
However, despite all these structural flaws, Charles V was successful in managing his empire as long as he was in charge: his failures were more historical than personal, and due to his need, and indeed preference, to seek temporary solutions to what were permanent problems. Parker's Charles is an attractive and engaging personality, when considered within the mores of his age, but in the end the task which he inherited and to which he dedicated his active life was beyond him, yet that is because it was almost certainly beyond any man, since no ruler of his time could have permanently maintained Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, and large parts of Italy within a single political structure, while the confessional disputes caused by the Reformation would take two centuries, and huge political, social, and intellectual change, to be settled. Charles V as a man and emperor was a man of great flaws and ultimate failures, but, nonetheless, as Parker's superb biography reveals, he was also one of the great figures of European history, and the towering figure of his age, eclipsing popes, Francis I and Henry VIII, and, unfortunately for Spain and the Netherlands, Philip II.
August 7, 2021
Muy interesante biografía del emperador escrita, como no, por un inglés. Con abundantísimas notas no estamos ante un aburrido manual histórico -como me pasó con la biografía de Manuel Fernández Álvarez-si no que se lee como una novela más bien. Consigue acercar y humanizar un personaje fundamental en la historia Europea. Recomendable.
February 17, 2020
A good read about Charles V and his place in history.
Charles time over lapped both the Holy Roman Emperor a Martin Luther.
He lived and ruled during a turbulent time and did a minimal job in dealing with it.
Charles time over lapped both the Holy Roman Emperor a Martin Luther.
He lived and ruled during a turbulent time and did a minimal job in dealing with it.
January 13, 2024
I listened to this on audible and liked it so much I bought a physical copy! (Might use that as a foundation brick if I ever build a house because it's huge!)
Great book, and for a weighty tome it didn't feel too heavy going.
Great book, and for a weighty tome it didn't feel too heavy going.
March 16, 2024
I read a few pages of this book each night to help get to sleep. As a consequence I can barely remember it already ! I do remember that it was very well researched and didn’t make me envy the life of an emperor.
February 17, 2020
I rather enjoyed this book. It presents a rather detailed account about Charles V and his reign. If you are into European history, I would highly recommend it.
June 13, 2020
An impressive biography about Emperor Charles V (1500-1558), in which the author discusses the most important events in the life of his protagonist as well as paying ample attention to his character traits in order to give a good sense of who Charles was as a person. Included as annexes are notes on the most important archives that Parker consulted during his research and a table of chronology to help the reader keep track of the timeline, which I both found really helpful.
History buffs: dig in!
History buffs: dig in!
December 7, 2020
A staggering feat of historical biography. As well as the engaging narrative of an unparalleled life that both informs and entertains, we see a clear picture of a man who possessed more than any other in the world and yet died with so little of what, in the end, really matters. We see a man who desired to live forever through a legacy built upon dynastic supremacy, palaces and portraits; but who tarnished that legacy forever in his failure to adhere to simple, timeless principles like selflessness, forgiveness and integrity. A must read for anyone interested in the value of values.
December 10, 2020
A remarkable biography of a remarkable person between his egoism, his strong personal convictions (especially to his dynasty and his faith), and the naked realpolitik. Charles V was the first person to inherit his far-reaching possessions, increased them even further, and was the last person who had at least some claim of having mastered this empire (even though many of his designs in Germany and against France fell apart around 1550). Useful maps and genealogical tables as well as a plethora of pictures round out this magisterial work.
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