Charles V
Charles V, son of Joan I of Castille, known as Mad Joan, and Felipe the Handsome was born in Ghent on February 24, 1500. The premature death of his father and the incapacity of his mother made him heir to the crown at very young age. His grandfather, Ferdinand, and, after his death, Cardinal Cisneros, had to deal with the regency of the kingdom until 1518, the date on which the Cortes of Castille, meeting in Valladolid, swore him in as king.
Charles is an inexperienced young man who does not know the customs and the language, and surrounds himself with collaborators brought from the Netherlands, to whom he allotts high positions and access to income and wealth. The revolts of the comuneros and the germanías show the discomfort of certain sectors towards this "alien" king. Once these outbreaks of rebellion were put down, Charles V dedicates himself to organizing the administration of his lands. One he arrives, the expenses of the Royal House grow considerably due to the lavish parties and ceremonies that he introduces at court.
In 1526 he married Isabella of Portugal in Seville, a beautiful woman with whom he had five children, including the future Philip II and Princess Joan of Austria. The death of the empress, in 1539, left a deep mark on him.
Charles V is a staunch defender of the Catholic Church and, from the outset, opposes Lutheranism, although he cannot prevent the religious division of Europe into two blocks, Protestants and Catholics. This failure is, perhaps, the one that weighs on him the most throughout his life: because it is something that affects his deep religious sense and because the focus of the heresy is located in the lands of his ancestors. Of his piety there is no doubt. He hears mass every day and, on special days, attends vespers and other services; he keeps the fasts ordered by the Church and on Holy Thursdays he himself washes the feet of thirteen poor people and serves them food.
His fondness for good food is notorious, a habit that ends up giving him attacks of gout, and his interest in chivalric books and taking watches to pieces.
From the first moment the relationship and trust between Charles V and Francisco de Borja is complete. Both come from a cultured and religious family environment. Francisco respects and loyally serves the emperor, with whom he shares a fondness for horses. For six months they studied mathematics, history and cosmography together with the same teacher, the imperial cosmographer Alonso de Santa Cruz. Together they listened to music, and practiced hunting. Francisco de Borja will be, throughout his life, a man loyal to Charles and Charles will try by all means to enlist his services, first as Marquis of Llombai, then as Duke of Gandia and later as Jesuit.
Charles V cannot, in his retirement from Yuste, completely disregard what is happening in the world; letters and messengers arrive constantly informing him of what is happening in the world. The last months of his life are embittered by the discovery of Lutheran groups in Valladolid and Seville
Gout and malaria end the life of Carlos, who dies on September 21, 1558.
