Charles I of Spain, Charles V of Germany, Prince of Austria or Habsburg was born in  Ghent on 24^th February 1500. He was raised according to the Court of  Burgundy.

He was the son on Juana I, the crazy one,  from Castilla and Felipe el Hermoso, the handsome one. And on his father’s side  Maximiliano I from Austria (Habsburg) and María de Borgoña (Burgundy). From these he inherited the Low Countries, the Austrian territories and the right to the Imperial Throne. On his mother’s side his grandparents were the Catholic Kings.  From them he inherited the Kingdom of Castilla, Naples, Sicily, overseas possessions Aragon and Canaries. He himself obtained the Duchy of Milan and the Kingdom of Hungary. 

Charles’ Titles

At fifteen years of age he was the Count of Flanders and at sixteen he was the King of Spain with the  name Charles I (1516 –1556)  and at nineteen he was the Emperor of Holy  Roman-Germanic Empire under the name Charles V (1520-1558).

Charles wasn’t very impressive physically. He was of  average height with a long face and a rather dominating large pointed nose, and very expressive eyes. His most prominent feature was a protruding lower jaw.

He was married at the age of 26  to his cousin, the beautiful princess Isabel of Portugal. In the beginning the marriage was one of convenience producing six children.  Later, they  fell in love and remained so until her death in 1539.

In 1556 Charles I of Spain and V of Germany unexpectedly abdicated in favour of his son Felipe II, becoming the first king to abdicate in the history of Spain.

He left behind 41 years of hard work convincing Europe of the need to unite in order to survive the two dangers that threatened them: the advance of the Turks and unity of ideology within Europe. He spent the last eighteen months of his life  in the Monasterio de San Jerónimo in Yuste.

The Palace of Charles V  can be visited in our guided tour at the Alhambra. It’s a symbol of  imperial power and was never used as a Royal Residence.