What Was the Short Term Significance of Charles I of Spain’s Election as Holy Roman Emperor in 1519?

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The short term significances of Charles’ election as Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 had a huge impact on Spain and the way that Charles ruled including changes in his foreign policy, religion, finance and administration over the next twenty years. The fact that the election had a huge impact of these factors can be evidenced by the use of historical sources. The most significant of these factors is administration as Charles’ election in 1519 changed the way that Spain was ruled as the election led to him becoming absent from Spain for many years which had repercussions for Spain as it led to revolt. Although the importance of the other factors cannot be denied, one must conclude that the most important short term significance of Charles’ election was the changes to his Administration which had the most impact on Spain itself. Charles’ administration changed in many ways after the election. He became absent in Spain to tend to matters in the Holy Roman Empire and the Netherlands which forced him to place regents such as Adrian of Utrecht in Spain and his brother Ferdinand in the Holy Roman Empire. Ultimately, this led to the Comuneros Revolt in 1521-22 and a period of social unrest in Spain. The demands of the Comuneros stated that they wanted Charles to change the way in which he ruled Spain and shows the extent of the impact that the election had on Spain. Interestingly, one of the demands is that “no woman can succeed to the throne in this kingdom” . This is surprising after Isabella was a very popular Queen and suggests that these demands could have been just drawn up by the leader rather than the people. To reiterate, this source doesn’t tell us if any of these demands were actually met by Charles and it seems that they are just trying to shift the distribution of power. The evidence here limits the credibility of this source however this source becomes more
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