ABSTRACT
The sixteenth century is traditionally regarded as the age o f the break-up o f the medieval unity o f Christian Europe and o f the rise o f the new monarchies. Yet, in the first half o f the century, there appeared in Europe no less than three empires with universalist claims; and these claims were better founded in political reality than those o f any political structure in Europe during the previous 500 years or more: that is in the area these empires controlled, in the influence they wielded beyond their borders and in the hold they won over m en’s minds. These three empires were the empire of Charles V, the O ttom an Empire o f Selim I and Suleiman the Mag nificent, and the Muscovite Empire o f Ivan IV, the Terrible. The first and the last o f these grounded their claims ultimately on their succession to the Roman Empire; and even the second, the O ttom an Empire, did so to a certain extent. Furthermore, two European nations, the Spaniards and the Portuguese, conquered empires on the basis o f a somewhat different universalist claim, a claim based on a papal grant to them o f ‘all islands or mainlands whatever, found or to be found . . . in sailing towards the west and south . . . ’ (Dudum siqiudem, the last o f four successive and ever more comprehensive papal bulls, 1493). This claim, being Christian and Europe-centred, was therefore closely related to the universalist claims o f two o f the three European empires, and, o f course, especially to that o f Charles V. Thus Hernan Cortes, the conqueror o f Mexico, wrote to Charles in 1524 about his plans on the coasts o f the Pacific Ocean which, he
said, would make the emperor ruler over more kingdoms and dominions than were known hitherto and ‘that if I do this, there would be nothing more left for Your Excellency to do in order to become ruler o f the w orld’.
