CHARLES V revision recap notes 5th sept

CHARLES V simple revision notes 5th Sept

THEMES: Religion; Foreign Policy; Finance; Personality

Charles was:

1) Distracted. 

a) Holy Roman Emperor 1519-1554 (until abdication) therfore imperial interests

b) 'universal monarch' therefore universal distractions, simultaneously

2) Absent.

a) He had to control everywhere simultaneously therefore was always travelling to other places

b) longest time spent in Spain was 7 years, 1522-29, to pacify civil unrest left over from Revolt of teh Communeros and Germanicas 1521-22.

c) Bureaucratization

d) King Cobos as authority of Spain

e) Wife Isabella acts as regent, then heir Philip II

3) Financially weak.

a) Reliant on juros

b) Reliant on Diets in Germany; Cortes in Spain: which only agree to meet every 3 years, and place a cap on their loans to Charles V

c) New World therefore hyperinflation

d) Philip declares multiple bankruptcies

4) Incapacitated due to his obsessive chivalry.

a) Charles has an inability to respond correctly in 3 examples:

i) 1525 Battle of Pavia- upon capturing Francis I of France, he could have successfully vanquished the Hapsburg Valois conflict. Yet he let Francis go, bound by his brand of Catholicism and personal chivalry. Battle of Landriano against France in 1529. Charles also fought French forces in the…