King Henry VIII & Emperor Charles V

The In-Law

Like most European royals, Charles V was related to Henry VIII both by blood (each was descended from King Edward III of England) and by marriage. Charles was a grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, making Henry's first queen, Catherine of Aragon, his aunt.

The Holy Roman Empire that Charles ruled over has been called neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. It was a hodgepodge of territories, the most important of which were Austria, Spain, and the wealthy Low Countries (approximately today's the Netherlands and Belgium). Only Charles' dynastic heritage tied them together, but combined they made him the most powerful ruler in Europe. Charles was not a natural athlete like his rivals Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France, and he approached power politics and war as a chess game, not a sporting match.

Henry and Charles started out as natural allies, linked not only by Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon but by shared antagonism toward France. Both were also fiercely opposed to Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. In the mid-1520s, however, their relationship started to go downhill. Henry wanted to dump Catherine of Aragon (technically an annulment, not a divorce) and marry Anne Boleyn. Charles, loyal to his aunt, disapproved, and used all his influence with the papacy to keep Henry from getting the marriage annulled.

Charles was successful in blocking a papal annulment, in large part because of a brutal mishap. For all his Spanish silver, Charles had trouble paying his armies, and in 1527 his mercenary troops in Italy ran amok. They attacked Rome and sacked it, slaughtering thousands of men, women, and children. All of Europe was horrified, but once Charles got his troops under control he had the pope under his thumb. No annulment would be granted to Henry.

Henry had his own solution: He broke the English church away from Rome, put himself in charge, and got his annulment. Charles was furious, but the only way he could stop Henry was to invade England. That was the one thing he would not do, either for Aunt Catherine or the Catholic Church. Charles was most of all an expert player of power politics, and the struggle with France came first.

Gradually Charles and Henry patched things up, a diplomatic task made easier when Henry grew tired of Anne Boleyn and had her beheaded. Even as Henry drifted into the Protestant camp, Charles blustered but held back from war. It was left to his son, Philip II of Spain, to attempt the forcible return of England to Catholicism, a generation after both Henry and Charles were dead. The fate of the Spanish Armada was belated proof that Charles V had been wise to hold back.