THE HAPSBURG ERA: TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY 47
The Hapsburg Era: Triumph
and Tragedy
Isabella’s death in 1504 placed all of the Iberian
Peninsula except Portugal under the rule of Fer-
dinand. Isabella’s will named her daughter Juana
as successor, with the provision that Ferdinand
should govern in case Juana proved unable to.
Since Juana’s growing mental instability made her
unfi t to govern, Ferdinand assumed the regency.
Juana’s husband, Philip the Handsome of Bur-
gundy, supported by a number of Castilian nobles,
challenged Ferdinand’s right to rule Castile, but
Philip’s sudden death in 1506 left Ferdinand un-
disputed master of the kingdom. Ferdinand himself
died in 1516. To the Castilian throne ascended his
grandson Charles, eldest son of Juana and Philip.
Through his maternal grandparents, Charles in-
herited Castile, Naples and Sicily, and the Castil-
ian possessions in Africa and America. Through
his paternal grandparents, Marie of Burgundy and
the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian, he inherited
the territories of the house of Burgundy, which in-
cluded the rich Netherlands and the German pos-
sessions of the house of Hapsburg.
THE REIGN OF CHARLES
The Catholic Sovereigns, whatever their errors,
had attempted to foster the kingdom’s economic
development and its partial unity; their prudent
diplomacy set for itself limited goals. They had ad-
vanced toward absolute monarchy discreetly, re-
specting both the sensitivities of their peoples and
those traditions that did not stand in the way of
their designs.
A solemn youth with the characteristic jut-
ting underjaw of the Hapsburgs, Charles (fi rst of
that name in Castile and fi fth in the Holy Roman
Empire) had been born and reared in Flanders and
spoke no Spanish. Reared at the court of Burgundy
in a spirit of royal absolutism, he had a different
notion of kingship. On his arrival in Castile, he im-
mediately alienated his subjects by his haughty
manner and by the greed of his Flemish courtiers,
whom he placed in all key positions. He aroused
even greater resentment by attempting to make
the Castilians pay the bill for his election as Holy
Roman Emperor to succeed his grandfather Maxi-
milian. Having achieved his ambition by expend-
ing immense sums of money, which placed him
deeply in debt to the German banking house of
Fugger, Charles hurried off to Germany.
For Castilians, the election appeared to mean
an absentee king and heavier tax burdens. Popu-
lar wrath burst forth in the revolt of the Castilian
towns, or communes, in 1520–1521. The revolt of
theComuneros has been called the fi rst bourgeois
revolution in Europe, but it began as an essentially
conservative movement. The rebels demanded that
Charles return to Castile and make his residence
there, that the drain of money abroad end, and
that no more foreigners be appointed to offi ces in
the kingdom. Many nobles supported the rebellion
at this stage, although the grandees remained neu-
tral or hostile. But the leadership of the revolution
soon fell into more radical hands. Simultaneously,
there arose in Valencia a revolt of the artisans
and middle classes against the great landowners.
As a result of these developments, the Comunero
movement lost almost all aristocratic support. In
April 1521, the Comunero army suffered a total
defeat, and the revolt began to fall apart. In July
1522, Charles returned to Castile with four thou-
sand German troops at his side. The last effort of
the Castilian people to turn back the political clock,
to prevent the fi nal success of the centralizing and
absolutist policies initiated by the Catholic Sover-
eigns, had failed.
For a time, at least, the dazzling successes of
Charles V in the New and Old Worlds reconciled
Castilians to the new course. They rejoiced over
the conquests of Cortés and Pizarro and the victo-
ries of their invincible infantry in Europe. They set
to dreaming of El Dorados, universal empires, and
a universal church. The poet Hernando de Acuña
gave voice to the kingdom’s exalted mood:
One Fold, one Shepherd only on the earth...
One Monarch, one Empire, and one Sword.
War dominated Charles’s reign—war against
France, against the Protestant princes of Germany,
against the Turks, even against the pope, whose