The story of Charles V is first and foremost the story of a legacy. His ancestry perhaps explains the quirks and contradictions of his character. The winner of the battle of Mühlberg proudly encamped on his battle horse as fixed for eternity by Titian's brush, he is the great-grandson of the terrible Charles the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy.

The melancholic prince haunted by the afterlife who renounces before his death "the empire on which the sun does not set" to retire to a convent in Extremadura, he is the son of Joan the Mad, the youngest daughter of the Catholic Kings Ferdinant II of Aragon andIsabella I of Castile.

A strong piety tinged with humanism

If his youth and his education took place in a Flemish environment, it should be noted that it had already been strongly marked by the Spanish and Austrian spirit. His aunt Margaret of Austria, daughter of Emperor Maximilian I, had been his first teacher. If his natural language was French and if he always had difficulty speaking correct German, he was by no means a Burgundian prince. He had inherited from the Dukes of Burgundy neither their physical exuberance nor their taste for a sumptuous life.

His tutors were Guillaume de Croy, lord of Chièvres, who will remain a trusted advisor, Charles de La Chaux and the dean of Louvain Adriaan Floriszoon, the future Pope Adrian VI. The latter, follower of the Devotio moderna, instilled in him a very lively faith, tinged with simplicity and a certain humanism.

Many studies insist on Charles' religiosity, on his “providentialism” which made him see the direct action of God in all events, a characteristic mental trait of this period. Another remarkable trait was his strong will, which asserted itself from his marriage in 1526 to Isabella of Portugal (1503-1539).

1.2. The heir to seventeen crowns

The legacy of Charles V, prepared by the skilful matrimonial policy of his paternal grandfather,Maximilian of Austria, these are also the possessions which, united, will form one of the greatest empires of modern times.

Maximilian, having marriedMary of Burgundy, has, in fact, prepared the transmission to Charles V of the dual Burgundian and Austrian heritage. From 1506, Charles, on the premature death of his father Philippe le Beau, became master of the Netherlands (from Flanders to Groningen) and of Franche-Comté (fiefdom of the Empire).

In 1519, when Maximilian died, he incorporated into his domains the Austrian territories of the Habsburgs (archduchies of Upper and Lower Austria, duchies of Styria, Carniola and Carinthia, county of Tyrol, landgraviate of Upper Alsace). In the meantime, he was put in possession, on the death of his maternal grandfatherFerdinand II of Aragon(1516), and to the detriment of his motherJoan the Mad, kingdoms ofCastile, ofAragon, Naples, Sicily, as well as the immense Spanish colonies in America. In addition, falls to him the New World, recently discovered byChristopher Colombuswhich gives it the name of "Western Indies", and soon entirely conquered.