f France and Charles V of Spain. Henry, Francis, and
Charles were all young, all ambitious, and all exceedingly capable men.
Henry had the fewest subjects, Charles by far the most. Francis had a
compact kingdom well situated for a great European land power. Henry had
one equally well situated for a great European sea power. Charles ruled
vast dominions scattered over both the New World and the Old. The
destinies of mankind turned mostly on the rivalry between these three
protagonists and their successors.
Charles V was heir to several crowns. He ruled Spain, the Netherlands,
the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and important principalities in
northern Italy. He was elected Emperor of Germany. He owned enormous
oversea dominions in Africa; and the two Americas soon became New Spain.
He governed each part of his European dominions by a different title and
under a different constitution. He had no fixed imperial capital, but
moved about from place to place, a legitimate sovereign everywhere and,
for the most part, a popular one as well. It was his son Philip II who,
failing of election as Emperor, lived only in Spain, concentrated the
machinery of government in Madrid, and became so unpopular elsewhere.
Charles had been brought up in Flanders; he was genial in the Flemish
way; and he understood his various states in the Netherlands, which
furnished him with one of his main sources of revenue. Another and much
larger source of revenue poured in its wealth to him later on, in
rapidly increasing volume, from North and South America.
Charles had inherited a long and bitter feud with France about the
Burgundian dominions on the French side of the Rhine and about domains
in Italy; besides which there were many points of violent rivalry
between things French and Spanish. England also had hereditary feuds
with France, which had come down from the Hundred Years' War, and which
had ended in her almost final expulsion from France less than a century
before. Scotland, nursing old feuds against England and always afraid of
absorption, naturally sided with France. Portugal, small and open to
Spanish invasion by land, was more or less bound to please Spain.
During the many campaigns between Francis and Charles the English
Channel swarmed with men-of-war, privateers, and downright pirates.
Sometimes England took a hand officially against France. But, even when
England was not officially at war, many Englishmen were privateers and
not a f
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