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Charles V was born in Gent on 24 February 1500. He was the son of Philip I of Habsburg (' Philip the Clean ') and Johanna of Aragon ('the mad'). With the death of his father in in 1506 Charles received all his titles in the Netherlands. Regency came in the hands of emperor Maximilian, his father, who appointed Margaretha as a delegate. At the age of fifteen, Charles is inaugurated as a lord of the The Netherlands.

The Dutch districts formed however small part of empire of Charles V. On the 15th of April 1516 Charles was crowned king of Spain after his grandfather of mother side, Ferdinand V of Aragon died. After the the death of his grandfather emperor Maximilian in 1519 was elected by the German Kings to be emperor of Holy Roman Empire (the voters had been bribed!). On 23 October 1520 he was crowned in Aachen. At the same time the conquistadores were responsible for a breathtaking extension of the property in south - and middle-America. These colonies fell directly under the Spanish crown (therefore under Charles V). In 1526 Charles married Isabella of Portugal. They had one son, Philips II, and two daughters, Maria and Johanna.

By political and family developments Charles V acquired an unprecedented power which even exceeded by far that of Charles the Great. The young king made however, with his advancing chin opened mouth, white face and pale eyes, an unintelligent and unattractive impression which called associations at many with his mentally handicapped mother. He is indeed retarded: learned considerably slow in his youth, spoke lisping and difficult and only mastered the French language. But by his sense of duty and a infallible belief in himself. This little gifted and unattractive king succeeded nevertheless in dominating the generals and predominate diplomats of his time.

The Holy Roman Empire of Charles was certain no coherent whole. It existed from a large number of kingdoms and small monarchies, there was no capital to the realm and therefore no administrative centre. It was not easy for Charles to keep his large realm in score. Especially the enormous distances played him parts. Moreover Charles had enemies of flesh and blood in abundance. His largest rival was Frans I of France, who aspired in 1519 the emperorship. His territory, with exception of the Atlantic coast, was fully surrounded by Charles' Empire. The war with France turned out disastrous for the French. Frans I is taken captive in 1525 when his army is defeated in Paves (near Milan). Shortly after his release he resumed the fight. This time supported Hedrick VIII of the United Kingdom and pope Clemens VII, who would like the Imperial Troops to leave Italy. The pope is captured and held prisoner for seven months. The war ends in 1529 with the "peace of Cambria". Frans I abandoned his claims on Italy and Charles V signed Burgundy over to to France. The pope crowned Charles V, in 1530 in Bologna, officially to emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

The relationship the French remained however difficult, two wars were still to follow. The laborious relation with France was one of Charles's important points of interest. The others ere the fight the Turkish and North African Muslims and the rising of Protestantism. The interests of the The Netherlands affect to this subordinately. However Charles still attempted to centralise the governing board (institution of the three Collateral Councils in 1531, replacing of nobility by professional governors) and to push Protestantism back (establishment of an index with prohibited books as from 1526; issue of Heretic-posters ("ketterplakkaten") which outlined the details of heresy). In both ventures he did not succeed: the centralisation process caused opposition from the nobility and cities and led to insurrections (that of Ghent in 1540 is most known), whereas Protestantism extended itself increasingly further.

Eventually it were these the political and religious disorders, which led eventually to the large insurrection against his successor Philip II. During this period, Charles V, laid the foundation for the later prosecution of the Protestants in the The Netherlands. In Brussels the first heretics were burned at the stake in 1523, two years later in The Hague the pastor Jan de Bakker of Woerden is strangled and consequently burned.

The anti-heresy regulations are created one after the other end the famous "writ of blood" from 1550 is so strict the authorities have difficulties maintaining it (all forms of heresy are now punishable by death). The introduction of the Spanish Inquisition by Philips II , finished of the bloody task, Charles started

Charles strived to keep the Nether-lands together. For this reason the Habsburgish Netherlands were united, at the Treaty of Augsburg in 1548, in the so-called Burgundian Kreits, of which the link with the Empire was very loose. This way Charles made sure The Netherlands in its whole proceeded onto his son and would not be subdivided. On 25 October 1555, Charles instantiated himself from The Netherlands. A voluntary distance of the government was highly uncommon. A King derived his power from god and governed usually to his dead. Charles V wanted to prepare himself, as religious catholic, during his last years by retreating to a convent. Besides this there might have been a political reason:
During his last ruling years, more and more information came to his attention that in The Netherlands opposition to the to them unknown prince Philip II, who would succeed Charles, was growing. The tour of prince Philip in 1549 had not put him in real contact with the Dutch way of life and he, who knows, could therefore not at all be accepted as king when Charles V would die unexpectedly.

The large room in the palace in Brussels had not been decorated for the ceremony lively. The partitions were still covered with black cloths, as sign of mourning for the death of the mother of the emperor, Johanna the Mad. The emperor himself, though not mourning, also went out dressed in the black, in accordance with the Spanish clothing protocol that since 1515 had been used by the court. Although he was on paper the most powerful monarch of the world, this day seemed more like the bankruptcy of his policy. The Treasury was empty by the many wars which he had conducted and moreover he was tired of all conflicts. Fifty-five years old he was a tired man: by the presure of government, the many travels and by a spreading syphilis. In his last years the gout came to this as well. Charles V died, 58 years old, in the convent San Yuste at Exremadura in Spain on 21 September 1558.

Spain and the The Netherlands came in 1555 under the rule of his son Philips II and the Emperorship to his brother Ferdinand I. The image, which one has of Charles V, in the low Countries is very ambivalent. On the one hand he and he showed a large attachment to his birth region and strived for entity (unity) of the low Countries, but on the other hand he was not able to discuss the wishes of the population. Nevertheless his birth was commemorated solemnly in Ghent in the year 2000.