Charles V Mistakes

It is 1555 and on 25 October, at 3 o’clock in Brussels, Charles V, Ruler of the Spanish Netherlands, King of Spain, Holy Roman Emperor, and Master of Europe, abdicates from the throne, handing the reigns to his son, Philip II. His father had reason to abdicate; when Philip was handed the throne, he discovered that the empire had incurred an enormous debt, and was threatening to break due to the conflicts which arose from the rise of Protestantism. Everybody thought that he was as prepared as the best of them for the challenges that lay down the road. Examining the means by which he attempted to deal with the revolts in the Netherlands, one can come to understand how his efficacy as a ruler was far from adequate. His arrogance and lack of foresight, …show more content…
At the time of his accession, the Spanish crown at accrued millions of florins in debt, due to Charles V’s nigh on constant wars and Philip was involved in many wars himself. The Netherlands, being the wealthy state in the empire, has always been burdened with the highest taxes but as the decades before the revolts wore on, people started to believe that the taxes they paid were going almost exclusively to fund Spanish interests. Once the revolts began, Netherlanders saw the treatment their fellow countrymen were receiving from the Spanish, so many stopped paying their taxes, cutting off a large portion of Philip’s money supply. When he wasn’t playing at crusader in the Mediterranean, he was trying to ensure that France remained a catholic state. This cost him a lot of money and eventually he could no longer pay all the bills. He decided that, since the Dutch revolts were on the bottom of his list of priorities, that he would stop paying his soldiers fighting in the North. This inevitably led to the Spanish mutinying countless times throughout the course of the revolts. During these mutinies the Spanish sacked cities, plundering and raping as they went. There are many things that Philip could have done to mitigate the financial problems that he faced, chief of which being negotiation with the rebels. It leaves one quite amazed, because the Netherlands were his wealthiest problem but instead of doing what …show more content…
Philip was born in to luxury and, having been pampered as a baby, ego grew and grew; being carefully cultivated over many years of fortune. This ego grew into arrogance which grew to be Philip’s principal flaw. He refused to negotiate with anybody, and instead tried to rely on brute force which was something that helped him not a bit. Furthermore, his inability to properly manage finances severely handicapped the effectiveness of his troops. Foresight, and an ability to multi-task is crucial in a leader, especially in one who rules an empire the size of Philips, but foresight was not one of his gifts. He consistently focused on just one task, first the Ottomans, then the French, ignoring all of the myriad problems that would arise later on and, ultimately, be his downfall. The Netherlands became not only an independent state, but throughout the course of the seventeenth century, they became one of the most powerful nations on the planet and if Philip was less arrogant, smarter with money, and able to multi-task, that might never have

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