A little more than seven centuries after the coronation of Charlemagne, Aachen was the setting chosen by the still Carlos I of Spain, monarch of the conglomerate of Hispanic kingdoms and of the set of possessions that had been annexed ‒from Naples to Cuba (1)‒ to receive the crown of King of Romans. This title, instituted by the Germanic emperors in the context of disputes with the papacy since the High Middle Ages, was intended to legitimize the emperor's heir reigning, which he would replace when he received the imperial title from the hands of the pontiff.
The papal ratification It was not a trivial matter, since it was not reduced to a simple honorific prebend:not being crowned by the pontiff, the head of the Empire could not even propose a successor for when, at his death, that dignity was vacant. This weakened, even more so, the position of the emperor proclaimed by that board of electors:as princes of the German Church, the archbishops of Cologne, Trier and Mainz; by the lay magnates, the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine, the Duke of Saxony, and the Margrave of Brandenburg.
Thus, when Maximilian I of Habsburg died just after the year 1519, his grandson and successor Charles of Austria [also holder of the Estates of Burgundy (2)] was doomed to a race for the imperial title against Francis I of France, the monarch who had begun his reign in 1515 achieving a victory over the Swiss in Marignano that had allowed him to annex the Milanese.
If Charles of Austria failed, the imperial series that the Habsburgs had been controlling uninterruptedly since 1438 would end; Otherwise, the kingdom of France, which had escaped in 1453 from an intermittent conflict of more than a hundred years against the English kingdom, would find itself surrounded overnight by the possessions of the Habsburgs . With Flanders to the northwest, Spain and the Italian possessions of Aragon in the south under Habsburg control, the coronation of Carlos as Roman-Germanic emperor would mean a quasi-total siege for the French crown, the result of the alliance that the Catholic Monarchs had sealed. by marriage with Maximilian I ‒an alliance that was reinforced by the good diplomatic relationship they maintained with England, whose king, a then young Henry VIII, was married to Catherine, the emperor's aunt.
The result of this race for imperial dignity is well known, but from a historiographical point of view we should not allow ourselves to be carried away by presentism:nothing was decided in favor of Carlos de Austria for its dynastic ties to the late Maximilian; Moreover, the halo of victory that enveloped the French king, a paradigm of the Renaissance monarch, could easily dazzle the prince-electors. Therefore, both rulers must deploy a long series of power levers in their favor:from diplomatic negotiations (and intrigues) to cold, but effective, economic pressure.
The coffers of France are poured ‒hands full‒, but Charles of Austria has two secret weapons:the Welsers and the Fuggers(3). Thus, the almighty German bank puts the gold that tilts the scales of the imperial election in favor of Carlos, who on July 6, 1520 receives the news in Barcelona:he can now be called King of Romans , emperor-elect.
So soon? Not yet. He must first receive the imperial insignia, but Carlos I ‒the one who will become Carlos V ‒ must previously solve the government affairs that retain him in Castilian lands:the Cortes. For this reason, he moves them, for the first time, to Galician territory, from where he can follow the development of the sessions while supervising the preparation of the navy in which on May 20 it will set sail for the North Sea from La Coruña . Gone is the discontent of the Castilians, which will lead to the outbreak of the Communities, and the troubled waters of the kingdom of Valencia, where the royal authorities will have to combat the Germanic movement.
But Carlos cannot postpone the assumption of the imperial crown any longer, since high international politics already covers too much space on the Carolina agenda. Barely six days later, Charles disembarks at Dover, where he is greeted by Henry VIII (with which his diplomats had signed a pre-agreement in the previous weeks), after which they held diplomatic talks in Canterbury. The emperor-elect leaves the English land a few days later, as does the Tudor monarch, who meets with Francis I in a few days full of courtly ritual and sumptuousness, in a place with a resounding name:Campo del Paño de Oro (4) . However, the brief stay of Carlos in England proves to be productive, because when the Anglo-French summit ends, Enrique maintains the friendship agreed with the monarch of Ghent, which will become a solid alliance thanks to the meeting held between
The imperial coronation of Charles V
Thus, being able to count on an ephemeral international stability, Charles of Austria prepares his coronation. In order to attend the ceremony with the pageantry corresponding to his new dignity, he gathers the Estates General with the aim of raising funds. In the meantime, he celebrates the commented meeting with Enrique VIII; finally, after closing the meeting of the States at the end of September, he leaves Brussels and enters the lands of the Empire, on his way to Aachen (6). But an actress with an obscure name for European history enters the scene, a disease that affects the Aix-la-Chapelle region:the plague.
The reaction must be quick and the most prudent advice is to quickly move away from the affected area, so the ceremony should be held in another city of the Empire. Can no city - Mainz, Cologne, Trier, Frankfurt, Augsburg, Speyer, Worms, etc. - compete in dignity with Aachen? Without a doubt, but Carlos is firm in his determination to be crowned in Charlemagne's capital.
Thus, the one in Ghent waits for the plague outbreak to be controlled; then, on the evening of October 22, he makes his entry into Aachen, for which he abandons his horse and mounts the steed offered by the city. After the parade, escorted by a guard of three thousand infantrymen and in the company of lay and ecclesiastical princes (who are joined by the Grandees of Spain), the imperial entourage listens to a solemn Te Deum laudamus in the cathedral and Charles of Austria confirms voters' privileges.
The next morning, October 23, the entourage heads for the cathedral, where Charles of Austria enters escorted by the archbishops of Mainz and Trier , until reaching the foot of the main altar of the temple, where the one from Cologne will officiate the pontifical mass. After the liturgical act, the archbishop directs the monarch the questions that are asked of anyone who, as in the novels, wanted to achieve the nobility of chivalry:Will the Church, Justice and the helpless - widows, orphans, etc. - defend? .? (7)
After the monarch answered affirmatively ("Volo"), the assembled assistance gives its approval to the new owner of the Empire ‒on three occasions, when asked by the archbishop, they chant:Fiat !‒ and Carlos is consecrated emperor by means of the holy oils, before going on to hold the symbols of the power that the divinity grants him:the scepter, the world, the ring and the sword (8). "Ungo te regem oleo sanctificato" proclaims the prelate; while Charles is proclaimed emperor, the antiphon "Unxerunt Salmonem..." sounds. The coronation ends with a "Vivat, vivat Rex in aeternum" (9).
Carlos V is already emperor, Caesar!, as his biographer would say, the oft-cited Professor Fernández Álvarez. Papal ratification is lacking, but no one can question the imperial dignity of the head of the House of Habsburg. When the Bologna ceremony occurs (February 22-24, 1530), he will become the last emperor to be crowned by the prince-electors and by the pope, making this double coronation a unique political event for modernity.
In short, we can say that this is how the Middle Ages ends:in a ceremony that mixes fully medieval chivalric ritual, modern devotio and the formation of one of the most important imperial formations of the 16th century. It ends with a heir emperor of the late medieval Burgundian court (that of the “Autumn of the Middle Ages”, in the words of J. Huizinga), who is born with the century and yet becomes a character halfway between two times. Carlos is a paradigm of nothing, always questioning his power, but also unique to this day, like the solitary figure crowned on the altar of the Aachen cathedral on October 23.
Notes
(1). Let us remember that, as of 1520, incursions into the “Terra Firme” of the American continent were sporadic and did not go beyond the coastline. Cortés will be one of the first to cross this pass, but, immersed in the conquest of the Mexica empire, he was not yet in a position to situate the future New Spain as a territory integrated into the Monarchy.
(2). The so-called "States of Burgundy" included the territory of the County of Burgundy (part of the Duchy of Burgundy not annexed by Louis XI of France after defeating Duke Charles the Bold at the Battle of Nancy in 1477) and the Flemish provinces:Flanders, Artois , Hainaut and Luxembourg, among others.
(3). Why do the two families of German merchant-bankers contribute the hundreds of thousands of guilders that Carlos needs? Manuel Fernández Álvarez affirms in his essay Carlos V. A man for Europe, Barcelona, Austral, 2010 (1975) that "German nationalism encourages them"; For our part, without wanting to amend the page of the renowned biographer of Caesar (a great expert, by the way, in the Hispanic Five Hundred), we see more feasible the influence of the propaganda poured against the Frenchman, who is portrayed as an enemy of the traditional German liberties (at least, those of their princes). In any case, the factors are multiple, since the arrival of one of the first large consignments of American gold, part of the "treasure of Moctezuma", sent by Cortés, could have had his influence. However, it is not the issue that concerns us here.
(4). Manuel Fernández Álvarez, Carlos V:César and Hombre, Madrid, Espasa Fórum, 1999, p. 127. 5 Louis-Prosper Gachard, Carlos V, Pamplona, Urgoiti Editores, 2015 (1872), p. 14.
(6). L-P Gachard, op. cit., p. 16.
(5). Gravelines and Calais a few days later, in July of the same year.
(7). M. Fernández Álvarez, Carlos V. A man for Europe, op. cit., p. 61.
(8). In imperial symbology, the scepter is the sign of power, but the orb conveys the idea of the universality of imperial power above the other temporal princes; likewise, Carlos V receives the imperial ring and the crown (of the elect emperor, in the absence of the iron one of the Lombards and the imperial one, received from the hands of the pope). Finally, and more than evident, the sword:the Roman-Germanic emperor is responsible for protecting the Church and the subjects of the Empire from him, as he has solemnly sworn in the secular-religious ceremony.
(9). M. Fernández Álvarez, Carlos V:the Caesar and the Man, op. cit., pp. 128-132.
Basic bibliography
- Johan HUIZINGA:The Autumn of the Middle Ages, Madrid, Alianza Essay, 2016 [1978, first ed. in Alliance; 1927, ed. original]. (Of special interest is Chapter IV, where the late medieval chivalric ideal that impregnates Carlos the Bold is described, which is taken as a model to imitate by Carlos V).
- John LYNCH:Spain under the Habsburgs (I), Barcelona, Ediciones Península, 1975 [1965].
- John LYNCH:Monarchy and Empire:the reign of Carlos V, Madrid, El País, Col. Historia de España, 2007.
Specific bibliography
- Manuel FERNÁNDEZ ÁLVAREZ:Carlos V:el César y el Hombre, Madrid, Espasa Fórum, 1999. (This is one of the most exhaustive studies on the figure and reign of the emperor , basic to understand this topic of study).
- Manuel FERNÁNDEZ ÁLVAREZ:Carlos V. A man for Europe, Barcelona, Austral, 2010 [1975]. (We find in this essay a tight biographical synthesis that, despite the time that has elapsed since publication, is still very useful).
- Louis-Prosper GACHARD:Carlos V, Pamplona, Urgoiti Editores, 2015 [1872]. With preliminary study by Gustaaf Janssens. (This text, originally published as a voice in a Belgian biographical dictionary, despite its length, is of special interest because it is the first text in modern historiography dedicated to César Carlos, as well as for the depth and rigor that the author displayed in him).