| Charles V was born Charles I, the grandson of Ferdinand of Castile and Isabella I and heir to Burgundy and Spain. He then inherited Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia. He bribed the electors of the Holy Roman Empire to name him emperor, crowning him Charles V and giving him rule over more territory than any other European monarch. Charles V, Seated (1548) by Titian hangs in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, Germany. |