Descripción
Folio (18 x 13 4/8 inches). Limitation page, title-page printed in red and black, with lithographed allegorical vignette portrait of Charles V. Illustrated throughout with reproductions of contemporary and early portraits of Charles V, and from the works describing his campaigns (some occasionally heavy spotting). Original publisher's yellow and black patterned cloth (a bit worn with some loss to the extremities). Provenance: with a printed presentation to George Tomalin, M.P. (1813 1889), and member of the Philobiblon Society, from author on the limitation page. Limited issue, number 32 of 200 copies. Born at Ghent in 1500, Charles V was the last Holy Roman Emperor to be crowned by the Pope. A Hapsburg, and sovereign over so many lands that it was said of him that the sun never set on his dominions, to many of which he succeeded in 1506. However his entitlement to much of his kingdom was contested throughout his life, and was hard won. "In 1520 Charles left Spain to take possession of the German Empire to which he had been elected. The French king, Francis I, had been his rival for the dignity; Leo X thought that his interests in Italy were endangered by Charles' election. The Kingdom of Navarre was already a matter of contention between France and Spain, while France and the Netherlands wrangled over the original Dukedom of Burgundy as well as Tournai, Flanders, Artois, and some lesser territories. War had not broken out over these questions, and nothing indicated that Charles would be a warlike prince; but he had broken the alliance with France made under Chièvres. The Holy See opposed the election of Charles even more vigorously than France. As King of Aragon, Charles was heir to the Kingdom of Naples, a papal fief; the investiture had not yet taken place, but it could not be withheld. If he should also become emperor, and thus obtain a title to Milan as well, there would result a political condition against which the popes since Innocent III had constantly fought the union of Milan and Naples in one hand". Charles V became embroiled in a great war, much of which is illustrated in this book, but none more controversially than the Sack of Rome on May 6th 1527. As early as 1524, the year after Clement VII became Pope, Francis I of France's conquest of Milan prompted the Pope to change his allegiance from Imperial Spain and to ally himself with other Italian princes (including the Republic of Venice) and France in the January of 1525. This alliance acquired Parma and Piacenza for the Papal States, the rule of Medici over Florence and the free passage of the French troops to Naples. However at the Battle of Pavia in February of 1525 Francis was captured by his bitter enemy Charles V and held captive in Madrid. So Clement re-affirmed his loyalty to Charles, signing an alliance with the viceroy of Naples. Once Francis was freed after the Treaty of Madrid in 1526 Clement changed sides again, and entered into the League of Cognac together with France, Venice, Florence, and Francesco Sforza of Milan. Then he issued an invective against Charles, who in reply declared him a "wolf" instead of a "shepherd", menacing a council convened to discuss the Lutheran question. Meanwhile troops loyal (but unpaid) to Charles, led by Cardinal Pompeo Colonna pillaged Vatican City and sacked Rome on May 6th 1527. Clement was held prisoner in the Castel Sant'Angelo, and was forced to change sides for one last time. On June 6, he surrendered, and agreed to pay a ransom of 400,000 ducati in exchange of his life. Clement conceded Parma, Piacenza, Civitavecchia and Modena to the Holy Roman Empire. In June of 1528 the warring parties signed the Peace of Barcelona. The Papal States regained some cities and Charles V agreed to restore the Medici to power in Florence. And, at last, in1530 Pope Clement VII crowned Charles V as Holy Roman Emperor: the pinnacle of Habsburg power, when all the family's far flung holdings were united under one ruler. Having s. N° de ref. del artículo 72lib1193
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