HISTORICAL DICTIONARY A–Z - Spain and Portugal: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 150

claimed for Castile by C HRISTOPHER C OLUM -
BUS and his successors had been merely a
subsidiary dimension of Spanish policy
until the reign of Charles I. It was in his
name that H ERNÁN C ORTÉS conquered the
Aztec and F RANCISCO P IZARRO the Inca,
opening up the vast mineral world of the
Americas to finance Spanish military enter-
prises. It was under the banner of Charles I
that Spanish ships completed the first cir-
cumnavigation of the world and established
an imperial foothold in Asia. Reports from
conquistadores of new terrain explored and
new outposts founded flowed into Charles
I and mingled with the coded dispatches
from his ambassadors and the triumphant
bulletins from his generals.
Fifty years after the child Charles had
become nominal king of Castile, the prema-
turely aged king-emperor decided to lay
down his multiple burdens. Again and
again he had sought to stabilize the situa-
tion in Europe only to be challenged by a
new Turkish onslaught or the latest French
repudiation of a peace treaty. The Religious
Peace of Augsburg (1555), by conceding
equality between Catholics and Protestants
in Germany reflected his inability to rees-
tablish papal and imperial dominance in
the Holy Roman Empire. Exhausted and
frustrated, Charles abdicated his multiple
titles in 1556, leaving the central European
territories to his brother Ferdinand (who
would continue the Austrian Habsburg
line) and the Spanish inheritance to his son
P HILIP II. Choosing to spend his last days in
his adopted country, Charles took up resi-
dence at the monastery of Yuste in
E XTREMADURA and died there in 1558.
As befitted a monarch who was essen-
tially an adopted Spaniard, Charles I
remained a truly cosmopolitan figure. His

perspective was European. Neither his base
in Spain nor the newly discovered exten-
sions of Spain around the world were the
prime concerns of his policy. Charles did
not view his vast and complex dominions
as components of a Spanish empire. Instead
he thought of them as distinct territories,
for which he had assumed the responsibil-
ity of a sovereign. Although there were
bureaucratic attempts to consolidate and
rationalize the management of the lands
under his jurisdiction, there was no genu-
ine imperial government. Some of his advis-
ers (who themselves were of various
nationalities) favored the concept of an
empire of individual units linked by the
possession of a common monarch. Other
counselors promoted the idea of a spiritual
empire, in which Catholicism, fully restored
in Europe and constantly expanding over-
seas would be the universal bond. If any-
thing, Charles seems to have favored the
latter concept. His attitude, so far as can be
ascertained, was more influenced by medi-
eval Catholic traditions than by “modern”
anticipations of a “United States of Europe”
or even a “global Spanish Empire.” Charles
was not a political sophisticate but a prince
who felt that he must preserve what had
been confided to him by God and his ances-
tors. To fail in that task of preservation
would be a betrayal of a sacred trust. It was
perhaps a sense that he had at least partially
failed in his duty, rather than mere weari-
ness, that compelled him to pass on the
mission to the next generation.

Charles II (Carlos II) (1661-1700)
king of Spain
The only surviving legitimate son of P HILIP
IV, Prince Charles was sickly from the time