his honor, and win the hand of the fair
maiden Dulcinea.
The novel attracted a wide audience
through down-to-earth language, realism,
sharply drawn characters, and its vivid de-
piction of the many ironic encounters that
arise from the hero’s delusions. The book
is seen as a break with the chivalric ro-
mances that were the dominant form of
literature in medieval Europe, and in this
way paves the way for the modern novel
and its basis in everyday experience and
the inner emotional and spiritual life of its
characters.Don Quixotehas been trans-
lated into dozens of languages and printed
in more than five hundred editions and
remains a landmark of Western literature.
SEEALSO: Lepanto, Battle of; Shakespeare,
William
Charles V .........................................
(1500–1558)
King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor,
Charles governed the largest realm in Eu-
rope since the time of Charlemagne. He
was the son of Philip I the Handsome (the
Duke of Burgundy) and Joanna the Mad
of Spain. He was grandson of Ferdinand
of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, the joint
rulers of Spain, and of Maximilian I, Hab-
sburg emperor of the Holy Roman states.
Born in Ghent, he was raised by an aunt,
Margaret of Austria. Charles inherited the
Netherlands, a part of Burgundy, on the
death of his father in 1506, but ruled
through Margaret, who served as his re-
gent until 1515. On the death of Ferdi-
nand II in 1516, Charles became the first
monarch of a united Spanish kingdom that
included Aragon, Navarre, Castile,
Granada, Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia, and
that also governed colonies established by
Spanish explorers and adventurers in the
Americas. As an outsider, Charles was at
first unpopular in Spain, where he levied
heavy taxes and appointed Flemish outsid-
erstogovern.
In 1519, on the death of his grandfa-
ther Maximilian, Charles was elected as
the Holy Roman Emperor, governing an
area that included Austria and other terri-
tories in central Europe. His election frus-
trated the ambitious King Francis I of
France, who also had claimed the title.
This encounter laid the seeds of a long ri-
valry between the two rulers that would
endure for decades. In 1522, finding the
huge realm too much for a single man to
rule, Charles gave up direct rule of his ter-
ritories in Austria to his brother Ferdi-
nand.
Charles still disputed control of Bur-
gundy and Navarre with Francis I; at the
same time, Italy was contested between theA 1548 portrait of Charles V by famed Ve-
netian artist Titian, “The Emperor Charles
V Riding at Muhlberg.” GIANNIDAGLIORTI/
CORBIS.REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION.Charles V