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In only a very few years the burden he bore had become too much for
him. At thirty-three he fell ill of gout, only to be plagued all too soon
by a host of other ills. And at fifty he marshalled many armies and ruled
vast territories of this world - yet he was hardly able to control his own
destiny. With neither his hands nor his feet nor his other faculties under
control, he was a broken man, beset as he was by so many afflictions.
Prudencio de Sandoval, On the Emperor Charles V, before 1620
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Although his physicians were appalled,
they could do nothing to stop their sovereign, Charles V,
from drinking ice-cold beer before breakfast and indulging in lavish
repasts. Contemporaries reported that he was fond of fresh oysters,
anchovies, eel pie, olives and hot, spicy Spanish sausages. Although his
fingers were stiff from gout, he refused to let anyone cut up his meat for
him.
The Holy Roman Emperor who, on the one hand, called for
heretics to be burnt at the stake and, on the other, loved birds and
flowers, was not admired — in fact he was often criticised and rejected.
Yet, there has hardly ever been a ruler who has held so many lands under
his sway. Born in Ghent in 1500, Charles V inherited the Duchy of Burgundy
at the age of six. At sixteen he held the Spanish crowns and with them the
Netherlands and the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily. His father bequeathed
the Austrian crown lands to him. At nineteen he was elected king of the
Germans and at thirty he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Bologna.
Because the Spanish overseas colonies were founded during his reign,
Charles V was also ruler of Mexico and Peru, while the Netherlands
conquests in the Pacific made him King of the Philippines. He had over
seventy titles and ruled an empire in which the sun never set. For all
that, Charles V was not power-hungry.
Everything his ancestors had not managed to conquer in
changing alliances and valiant campaigns simply fell into his lap through
inheritance and complex family genealogies. Perhaps he dreamt of a
worldwide Christian empire to which he might have wanted to add the coasts
of Africa and even more mythical
realms overseas, but his
strength was no longer equal to the task. A "pious prisoner of power", as
one French scholar called him, he was torn between the factions
quarrelling over his empire. At the age of fifty-five — seven years before
he had had
Titian
paint the present portrait — he abdicated and retreated to his Spanish
country estate.
The leading Venetian painter of his day,
Titian
had been appointed Court Painter to Charles V and created him Count
Palatine and Knight of the Golden Spur — an unprecedented honour for a
painter. The Emperor is depicted sitting in an armchair. In his youth, he
flaunted fashionable clothing; by now he has become a ruler who is so
miserly that a visitor to his Court reported his hat was shabby and his
cloak threadbare. He is contemplative, yet his eyes are blank, as if all
the doubts he has entertained in his life are mirrored in them.
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