Editing History of Spain (section)

====Charles I, Holy Emperor====
[[File:Emperor charles v.png|thumb|[[Charles I of Spain]] (better known in the English-speaking world as the [[Holy Roman Emperor]] Charles V) was the most powerful European monarch of his day.<ref name="Patrick2007">{{cite book|first=James|last=Patrick|title=Renaissance and Reformation|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=i6ZJlLHLPY8C|page=207}}|access-date=19 August 2013|year=2007|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|isbn=978-0-7614-7651-1|page=207}}</ref>]]
Spain's world empire reached its greatest territorial extent in the late 18th century but it was under the [[Habsburg]] dynasty in the 16th and 17th centuries it reached the peak of its power and declined. The [[Iberian Union]] with Portugal meant that the monarch of Castile was also the monarch of Portugal, but they were ruled as separate entities both on the peninsula and in Spanish America and Brazil. In 1640, the [[House of Braganza]] revolted against Spanish rule and reasserted Portugal's independence.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lockhart|first=James|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1048770408|title=Early Latin America : a history of colonial Spanish America and Brazil|date=30 September 1983|isbn=978-0-521-29929-9|oclc=1048770408|page=250|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref>

When Spain's first Habsburg ruler [[Charles I of Spain|Charles I]] became king of Spain in 1516 (with his mother and co-monarch Queen Juana I effectively powerless and kept imprisoned till her death in 1555), Spain became central to the dynastic struggles of Europe. Charles also became [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor]] and because of his widely scattered domains was not often in Spain.

In 1556 Charles abdicated, giving his Spanish empire to his only surviving son, [[Philip II of Spain]], and the Holy Roman Empire to his brother, Ferdinand. Philip treated Castile as the foundation of his empire, but the population of Castile (about a third of France's) was never large enough to provide the soldiers needed. His marriage to [[Mary I of England|Mary Tudor]] allied England with Spain.