A World of Empires

In the 1500’s, there was a boy who was really lucky. His name was Charles, and two of his grandfathers ruled Spain and Germany, as well as his father, who ruled over the Netherlands. He had three kings in his family! When he turned six his father died, then when he was sixteen, his Spanish grandfather died and when he was nineteen, his German grandfather died. All these lands he inherited and now he was king of three countries! Now that he had most of Europe, he asked the pope for the title of Holy Roman Emperor. The pope was not sure if he wanted to give this title to Charles and the power that comes with it. The pope was not alone in this, the king of France and the princes of Italy were worried about their independence. So, they allied together against Charles and declared war on him. He wasn’t scared however, for he had a plan to make the pope give him the title. During this time, Catholics and Protestants fought each other, and Charles was a Catholic, so he persecuted Protestants. But since he knew the Protestants were willing to fight the pope, he hired a protestant army to go to Italy to attack the pope. This plan worked, and the pope was going to hold a ceremony to give Charles the title “Holy Roman Emperor”. With this the war ended and he got his title. But wars cost money, and he was almost bankrupt. So, he decided to give his lands to his brother and his son. After he resigned, he lived in a monastery until he died.