At the beginning of the 16th century, Charles V (aka Carlos I) became the Holy Roman Emperor, King of Spain and monarch of the Netherlands through inheritance, creating the powerful "" Habsburg Dynasty." He once said a famous saying, ""The sun never sets on my land." It was he who created Spain in its heyday and made it dominate Europe. In my opinion, Charles V did have great achievements in military expansion. Extraordinary achievements, but lackluster internal political governance. The long-term war overwhelmed the Spanish people, the economy suffered a serious decline, leaving his son Philip II with an empty treasury, and his rule in Germany was even worse. Charles V, the product of the marriage of the Habsburg family, was the son of Philip I, Crown Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, and Juana, Queen of Castile. , the grandson of the Spanish twin kings Ferdinand II and Isabella I, was entirely the result of the extensive marriages of the Habsburg family. When he ascended the throne as King of Castile, her mother, Queen Juana, was not yet there. Although he was once considered a usurper, he was finally recognized by the dignitaries of Castile and Aragon and became the legitimate king of Spain, which also allowed the Spanish people to truly begin to unify. Although Charles V was born in Utrecht (located in today's Netherlands), received a French education, did not understand Spanish at all, and knew nothing about Spain's national conditions, the Spanish people initially regarded him. Still have very high expectations. Why is such an interesting phenomenon formed? This is because after the death of Queen Isabella, there has been a protracted game between the political privileges of the Spanish local nobles and the central royal power. Stability of Spanish economy and social life. They hoped that Charles V could establish a stable centralized state and encourage economic development so that people could live and work in peace and contentment. However, reality quickly slapped the Spanish people hard. After Charles V became King of Spain, not only did he delay coming to Madrid to rule, but in order to realize his ambition of establishing a great Christian empire, he actively expanded the army and intensified the exploitation of the people. He did not focus on appeasing the people and encouraging economic development. . In addition, he also broke his promise when he ascended the throne and appointed Flemish people as ministers of the Kingdom of Spain. They were domineering and arbitrary internally, which aroused fierce conflicts between the people, the nobility and the royal family. By allowing the outflow of state-owned assets, his cronies and ministers continued to transport wealth from Spain to Flanders. The king's perverse behavior soon aroused strong opposition from all walks of life in Spain to the decadence and absurdity of the Spanish monks. The Flemish people couldn't bear it anymore and publicly criticized them and asked the Flemish people to resign and reorganize the Communist Party. Castile's parliamentarians also expressed that the kingdom could not return to the imperial era. But Charles V. This fell on deaf ears, because although these voices against him came and went, one wave after another, they did not pose any actual threat. In May 1520, he appointed Cardinal Utrecht to handle Spanish affairs, and he sailed to Aachen, Germany, to attend the coronation ceremony held by the Pope for him. Of course, the Spanish people still paid for this "pleasant trip". The king imposed additional indirect taxes and commercial taxes, which aroused strong dissatisfaction among the bourgeoisie and aristocrats. The uprising of the Spanish Communes and Charles V's indifference to Spain's internal affairs This attitude triggered communal uprisings in the cities. Burgos, Segovia and Guadalajara took the lead in riots. It didn't take long for the uprising to spread across the country. Depadilla, a representative of the communal uprising, led the crowd to rush in. Tordesillas found the "madwoman" Juana (the mother of Charles V) who was under house arrest there, accused the Flemish people of their evil deeds, and asked her to return to power, and received the latter's support. . The city of Toledo took the lead in establishing the special city of Junda, and 14 of the 18 rebellious cities joined in. At this time, the power of the rebel army reached its peak, and they exercised power in the name of Juana. functions and powers of Parliament, and declared that no additional taxation would be allowed by the Crown, no tax exemption on the lands of the nobles, and no official office in the city.

The uprising failed. However, the ideas of the Commune rebels not only threatened the rule of the Habsburg family, but also might divide the cakes of the nobles, which the nobles, churches and courtiers could not tolerate. As the saying goes, the lesser of two evils should be chosen. The nobles did not want their own interests to be harmed, so they turned their guns and chose the side of Charles V. Charles V also realized the seriousness of the problem and chose to make a conditional compromise with the nobles, appointing two military generals to return to Spain to assist Utrecht in managing the government. The situation reversed for a while. First, Burgos announced his withdrawal from Honda, and then the king's army drove the rebels out of Tordesillas. The self-defense forces organized in various cities were quickly disintegrated. Finally, in February 1522, A rebel army announced its surrender, and Charles V finally eliminated his worries. The people were in dire straits. The outbreak of the Commune Uprising did not make Charles V realize his shortcomings in domestic political governance. He still carried out the militaristic policy in his own way. For the Spanish people, life has become more difficult. At the beginning of the 16th century, there were about 30 high-level nobles (referring to dukes, counts, marquises, etc.) in Spain. By the end of the 16th century, the number of such nobles increased to 60, such as the families of Enrique and Alvarez Toledo. These nobles not only enjoyed a very high social status, but also had many economic privileges, such as tax exemptions. In addition, ordinary nobles such as knights, gentry, and feudal lords have also increased exponentially. In Burgos, these ordinary nobles actually accounted for a quarter of the city's total population. What does the increase in nobility mean? As we all know, the total amount of wealth in a society is limited. The continued growth of the number of aristocrats means that the burden on the people at the bottom is getting heavier and heavier. While the aristocrats obtain tax exemption rights, the common people must pay more taxes to satisfy Charles V's continuous demands. military operations. In addition, in order to support the military expansion of the Habsburg dynasty, Charles V used the method of buying and selling official positions and titles to concentrate wealth, which has formed a mature system. The income from the sale of official titles has almost become an indispensable part of the national fiscal revenue. Those who bought official positions with money will intensify their efforts to exploit the people in order to further their rise to prominence, thus forming a vicious circle and causing serious damage to the national economy. The reign of Charles V in Spain, a place under German rule, still had the glory of military expansion and the achievement of unifying the Iberian Peninsula. Although he was once in trouble due to the Commune Uprising, driven by interests, the nobles unexpectedly On his side. However, the situation in Germany is very different from that in Spain. It is impossible for the dukes who uphold local separatism to have the same interests as the dictatorial Charles V. The strengthening of the German royal power must be at the expense of local power. To put it bluntly, his rule in Germany was a piece of cake. The Protestant Counterattack When Charles V ascended the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, it coincided with the height of the Lutheran Reformation. He had hoped to take this opportunity to weaken the power of the local dukes, but he missed the best opportunity. Like the previous Holy Roman Emperors, Charles V also focused his goals on Italy and mobilized all available resources to launch the protracted Spanish-French War. At the Nuremberg Imperial Conference held almost at the same time, the Protestant evangelical group supported by the Elector of Saxony openly defied the Pope and refused to implement the "Edict of Worms" (the content of which was to declare that Martin Luther was not protected by the law. The publication of his works was prohibited). In 1525, the year that Charles V captured French King Fran?ois I at the Battle of Pavia, the Prussian Religious Order declared secularization and adopted Lutheranism as the religion of the territory. In 1526, the princes headed by the Elector of Saxony and the Earl of Hesse formed the Torgau League, an organization sympathetic to Lutheran Protestantism, and passed some laws that were beneficial to the development of Protestantism. The Struggle of Charles V In 1529, Charles V won a temporary victory against France on the Italian battlefield. He reiterated the importance of the "Edict of Worms" at the Speyer Imperial Conference in the same year and declared a strict prohibition. The Reformation was not tolerant of Protestants. But the princes did not buy it. The Elector of Saxony, the Elector of Brandenburg, the Earl of Hesse, and 14 cities including Nuremberg and Strasbourg jointly drafted an "Augsburg Confession". Expressed firm opposition to Charles V. At this time, Turkey's massive invasion of Vienna helped them a lot. Charles V needed the old and new religions to unite and deal with the outside world, but in the end he did not stick to his decision.

In 1546, Charles V finally defeated France and shifted his focus back to the German religious reform, but it was too late. Not only did the princes of the Protestant group oppose him, but even the allies of the Catholic group did not welcome him. he. This is a very puzzling phenomenon. Charles V himself was a devout Catholic and had always advocated the legitimacy of Catholic rule at the Imperial Council. Why did he lose the trust of the Catholic group? It turned out that the reason why Charles V supported Catholicism was not out of faith, but a desire to re-establish the supreme imperial power of the German emperor within the empire and even Europe. He defeated the coalition of Protestant princes at the Battle of Belmig and occupied the entire Saxony region. But surprisingly, he did not grant the position of Elector of Saxony to the Catholic princes, but to a Protestant allied with him, Maurice of the Aberdeen family of Saxony. The most ridiculous thing is that it was this Morris who first jumped out to oppose Charles V's centralization plan. After sadly abdicating the throne in 1552, the combined forces of the Protestant princes stormed the southern German region. Charles V was forced to flee. His plan to establish a centralized German empire came to nothing. He had to give up everything he had gained when he won the Battle of Markalden. The "Augsburg Religious Pact" became a dead letter. In 1556, Charles V abdicated and divided his empire into two, passing the throne of the German Holy Roman Empire to his brother Ferdinand, and the territories of Spain and Italy to his son Philip. . At this point, the Habsburg family also split into two branches: Spanish and Austrian. General Comment: How do you evaluate Charles V’s “empire on which the sun never sets”? My evaluation is that “behind the hegemony is a pile of chicken feathers.” We must admire Charles V’s achievements in military expansion and the issue of unifying Spain. But other than that, I don’t have any good impressions of this emperor. Whether in Spain or Germany, he is mediocre in terms of domestic politics and has made no achievements. Countless people should have happy families and happiness. The common people achieved his grand hegemony at the expense of their families and their lives. He restricted freedom, bought and sold official titles, and increased exorbitant taxes to satisfy his uncontrollable ambition. His hegemony at the expense of the people's happiness was destined to be short-lived, and he even had to pay for it. Paying a more expensive price. If there is something admirable about Charles V's Spanish Empire, then his rule in Germany can be summed up with the word "failure". He was not a man of faith; He would not be stupid enough to lose his own capital for the orthodox status of Catholicism. All he did was to establish supreme imperial power in Europe. However, he neither controlled the development of Protestantism nor allowed the Catholic princes to see clearly his intentions. True to his intentions, it can be said that his sad abdication announced the failure of his rule in Germany.