THE HISTORY OF THE RE I IGN OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES V. By WILLIAM ROBERTSON, D. D. VOL. II. LONDON: Printed by W. and W. STRAHAN, For W. STRAHAN; T. CADELL, in the Strand; and J. BALFOUR, THE HISTORY OF THE RE I G GN OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES V. C BOOK I HARLES V. was born at Ghent on the twenty- Book I. fourth day of February, in the year one thousand five Birth of hundred. His father, Philip the Handfome, Archduke Charles V. of Austria, was the fon of the Emperor Maximilian, and of Mary, the only child of Charles the Bold, the last prince of the house of Burgundy. His mother, Joanna, was the fecond daughter of Ferdinand and Ifabella, king and queen of Caftile and Aragon. nions, and the A LONG train of fortunate events had opened the way for His domi this young prince to the inheritance of more extenfive demi-events by VOL. II. B nions, which he acquired them. Book I. nions, than any European monarch, fince Charles the Great, had poffeffed. Each of his ancestors had acquired kingdoms or provinces, towards which their profpect of fucceffion was extremely remote. The rich poffeffions of Mary of Burgundy were deftined for another family, fhe having been contracted by her father to the only fon of Lewis XI. of France; but that capricious monarch, indulging his hatred to her family, chofe rather to strip her of part of her territories by force, than to fecure the whole by marriage; and by this misconduct, fatal to his pofterity, threw all the Netherlands and Franche Comté into the hands of a rival. Ifabella, the daughter of John II. of Caftile, far from having any prospect of that noble inheritance which the tranfmitted to her grandfon, paffed the early part of her life in obfcurity and indigence; but the Caftilians, exafperated against her brother Henry IV. an ill-advised and vicious prince, publickly charged him with impotence, and his queen with adultery; and, upon his demife, rejecting Joanna, whom the king had uniformly, and even on his death-bed, owned to be his lawful daughter, and whom an affembly of the states had acknowledged to be the heir of his kingdom, they obliged her to retire into Portugal, and placed Ifabella on the throne of Caftile, Ferdinand owed the crown of Aragon to the unexpected death of his elder brother, and acquired the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily by violating the faith of treaties, and disregarding the ties of blood. To all these kingdoms, Christopher Columbus, by an effort of genius and of intrepidity, the boldest and most fuccessful that is recorded in the annals of mankind, ådded "a new world, the wealth of which was one confiderable fource of the power and grandeur of the Spanish monarchs. Philip and. Joanna, is. father and mother widt Spain. DN JOHN, the only fon of Ferdinand and Ifabella, and their eld daughter, the queen of Portugal, being cut off in the lot flower flower of youth, all their hopes centered in Joanna and her Book I. pofterity. But as her husband, the Archduke, was a stranger to the Spaniards, it was thought expedient to invite him into Spain, that by refiding among them, he might accuftom himfelf to their laws and manners; and it was expected that the Cortes, or affembly of states, whofe authority was then fo great in Spain, that no title to the crown was reckoned valid unlefs it received their fanction, would acknowledge his right of fucceffion, together with that of the Infanta, his wife. Philip and Joanna, paffing through France in their way to Spain, were entertained in that kingdom with the utmost magnificence. The Archduke did homage to Lewis XII. for the earldom of Flanders, and took his feat as a peer of the realm in the parliament of Paris. They were received in Spain with every mark of honour that the parental affection of Ferdinand and Isabella, or the respect of their fubjects, could devife; and their title to the crown was foon after acknowledged by the Cortes of both kingdoms. 1502 jealous of Philip's power. BUT amidst these outward appearances of fatisfaction and joy, Ferdinand some secret uneafinefs preyed upon the mind of each of these princes. The stately and referved ceremonial of the Spanish court, was fo burdensome to Philip, a prince young, gay, affable, fond of fociety and of pleasure, that he foon began to express a defire of returning to his native country, the manners of which were more fuited to his temper. Ferdinand, obferving the declining health of his queen, with whofe life his right to the government of Castile must ceafe, easily forefaw, that a prince of Philip's difpofition, and who already discovered an extreme impatience to reign, would never confent to his retaining any degree of authority in that kingdom; and the profpect of this diminution B 2 |