ABSTRACT
There was one personage whose activities cover all the most important years of the century, and whose position was so abnormal and unprecedented that at the first glance it might seem that he ought to have become the dictator of Europe, and to have set his impress on the whole of Christendom. Yet he failed to do so. Napoleon, whose knowledge of history was somewhat sketchy, once expressed his surprise that Charles V did not succeed in mastering the world. Certainly his opportunities appeared to be great, and his personal character was high : though not a genius, he was a most level-headed, intelligent and hardworking monarch, not plagued with vices like his contemporaries Francis I and Henry VIII, and entirely destitute of the megalomania or ‘kaiserwahnsin ‘which ruined many princes of less ability in all ages. On the whole he was a moderate, well-meaning, religious man, with a strong sense of duty and an infinite capacity for hard work.
