ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at Charles's response to the Protestant Reformation in Germany. It explores Charles efforts to retain the Netherlands under Habsburg control. Charles's inability to reassume a position of dominance in Germany before the promised Diet met was compounded by failure on the international stage. In the last months of 1552, the Emperor assembled a 64,000 strong army to win back the town of Metz seized by Henry II earlier that year. Thwarted in Germany and humbled by military failure elsewhere, Charles was in no position to resist the demands of the princes that a permanent religious settlement should now be found. Ironically though, and against Charles's wishes, Ferdinand issued the final proclamation of peace and of unalterable confessional division as the Emperor's command. Thus, the Peace of Augsburg was sealed in Charles's name as the last act of his imperial reign.
