King Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, was nothing if not a drama-queen. It was indeed befitting of him, he was an emperor, you see. You do not rule through power alone, no no, you rule through perception of said power. And this requires a certain amount of flamboyance that well suits a man who was born on the toilets of a palace but would inherit half the world. The drama had been scripted in advance by higher powers, one could be led to believe. And the drama truly comes alive at Charles’ home-coming. He leaves the Low Countries around 1517 to make the crossing to Spain and steal the crown actually belonging to his mother. So much of his father in him. Charles would not return to Ghent for almost 25 years. And when he finally does, the return would be… Dramatic. Charles V was Emperor of an empire in name alone. The vast, expansive area of terrain he ruled over was in fact, in the sixteenth century, almost incomprehensible, let alone manageable. Wars erupted on all sides. He fought the French, the Ottomans, he faced Maarten Luther, his religious nemesis and most of all he spent money. He spent tons and tons of money. He burned right through all the gold that was being imported from Latin America. Quite the achievement, mind you. All that raw gold coming into the empire and still he managed to pile up debts of up to 6 times whatever he had coming in. The debt kept going up, together with the inflation (which sounds painfully familiar) and Charles V gravely needed some dolladollabills. And so he came to remember the dear city that had celebrated his birth with a golden dragon breathing fire over its rooftops. He now remembered Ghent, that proud city of which famous humanist Erasmus said, in 1529, there was no city in Christendom to match it in size, power, organisation and character. He remembered the city and he remembered its riches. He could damn well use some of it. What Would Charles Do? Probably not this => Taxes, taxes, taxes… So, he levies a tax. Oh no, not just from Ghent. He levies a tax from all the cities of the Netherlands. In 1537 it is made official through his sister, Maria of Hungary. She sits as regentess of the Netherlands in Charles’ name. One day soon I will talk of her ridiculously outrageous collections, such as the entire palace she had just for her large group of dwarves, as in dwarves she owned. Let’s call it a good reason to come back to the podcast at a later date. When confronted with the tax, Ghent flat-out refused and asked amnesty, citing poverty, high food prices and lack of trade. Ghent offered troops instead of money, but it was money Charles craved. Things start going bad fast. While Ghent is still trying to negotiate through Maria, urging to see Charles in person, they are also secretly offering their fealty to his arch-nemesis, the French King Francois I. He went to tattle on the Ghentians to the big-chin himself. Charles did not receive the news with pleasure, to say the least. Now there was no wiggle room left for negotiating, things started escalating. The takeover The craft guilds of Ghent had reached a collective decision it seemed, they would do as they did with Charles’ grandfather and as they had done many times before. They will rise up and take back their city. With Charles’ grandfather, the rebellion actually didn’t go too well for Ghent. Ghent won the battle but not the war and they end up signing a treaty that strips them of their sovereignty in 1492. They will reclaim their independence now, once and for all! All crafts except the free boatmen, butchers and fishmongers went on strike, and their deans occupied the city gates in August 1539 and organised the defence. Lieven Pyn, a former alderman and chief dean, was arrested on 19 August, tortured for five days and beheaded, accused of betraying Ghent in the tax negotiations. The hated document that took away their independence, the Calfvel, was fetched from the archive and publicly torn up. The heat was on. Charles and Mary feared Ghent would ignite the powder keg of Flanders again. Oudenaarde, Kortrijk, Geraardsbergen and Ninove declared solidarity, which echoed the scenario under Maximilian fifty years earlier. Mary wrote a letter to Charles stating that the question was whether he would keep his power or end up master or servant. The rebels threatened to lock her up in a convent to get rid of her. On 26 September 1539 she had to sign an accord returning all old privileges. Just like her grandfather did, she signs the documents under duress. It was official; Ghent was back, baby! The Return of the Charles Charles was not doing too great, really. On top of having an empire the size of half of the world to rule, so not a lot of leisure, he was also physically declining. Maybe due to the bad genetics incest wreaks upon a man, maybe due to the tremendous work-related stress. Either way, he suffered from serious bouts of gout. He had gout attacks that left him temporarily paralysed with pain and bedridden. According to the chroniclers, he often sought solace in the sinful behaviour of gluttony. In Spanish they summed it up thusly; “de la misa a la mesa”, from the Mass to the table. Everyone needs something to relax and for Charles it was stuffing his face. Charles’ wife, Isabella, passed away on 1 May 1539. To add to this painful lot, she had given birth to a stillborn son. She herself lived on for ten days after losing the baby, fully conscious right until the moment of her death. Charles, however, did not arrive on time to say goodbye. Though their relationship is chronicled to be little more than diplomatic, her death left Charles quite devastated. Much like his aunt Margaretta, he would don the black of mourning for the rest of his days and never remarry. Now all of the pain in his heart and the pain in body would crystallize and be concentrated on this thorn in his side. Ghent would be taken care of. A Good Preparation is Half the Work To get from Spain to Ghent, there was either a big mother loving ocean or a big frankenfurting hostile kingdom in between. The ocean of winter holds many dangers that Charles did not feel fantastic about facing. The French King François I on the other hand had only just moments ago tattletaled on the Ghentians so maybe the kingdom wouldn’t be so hostile after all. It turned out not to be, in fact. Quite chummy in fact. François I not only let Charles pass, he accompanied him for most of the trip! They went hunting together many times and even spent a night in the same room according to the chroniclers. He travelled with Charles from Paris till Saint-Quentin and supposedly waved him off at the border. Really romantic. When Charles gets to Valenciennes to meet his sister he starts to plan. He has a mind of celebrating his 40th birthday in style. Much like 40 years before his baptism had been in style. He would have it be a day the Ghentians would never forget. Instead of going to Ghent, he waits with his troops and sends Adriaan van Croÿ ahead as a last warning. Feigning Charles isn’t close at all, Van Croÿ presents his case and is welcomed warmly by shackles and the threat of a prison cell. He manages to escape nonetheless. On 14 February 1540 Charles entered with an army of nearly 4,000 knights, 4,000 archers and 800 officers, in an entry that took only six hours. There is told to be as many as 15,000 horses stampeding through the streets. Four German regiments took the Vrijdagmarkt and cannons were placed on every street corner. The city was firmly taken. Now Charles would make his point and fix it so it stayed made. He went to the Prinsenhof, where he had been born nearly forty years earlier, and waited patiently for ten days till his special day, 24 February, his 40th birthday. That’s when he had the magistrates come for an audience and demanded that the aldermen be punished and replaced. Arrest warrants for 25 leaders were issued and read. What a way to spend your birthday. Blood & Verdict In total, nine of the accused were publicly beheaded on the Sint-Veerleplein, a market square in Ghent I pass every day. Afterwards, their bodies were bound to wheels and left to wither and serve as food for the crows. Their heads in turn were mounted on spikes for all to see at the Muidepoort. All other sixteen rebels met their bloody end one after another soon after. Constant surveillance, soldiers and cannons everywhere, blood in the streets, Ghent caved. On Sunday 21 March the magistrate read a petition for mercy and Charles refused to answer, saying the rebellious will of Ghent was not yet broken. He took a month to consider. On 29 April he announced the verdict in a public session, with the accused deans kneeling before the throne. The charges were faithlessness, disobedience, breach of treaties, sedition, rebellion and lèse majesté. The Concessio Carolina had 75 articles and was presented as a concession, but Ghent and the crafts lost all their privileges and liberties. Processions and feasts were banned, the city charter was surrendered, and the Roeland bell was taken from the Belfry to be destroyed. Charles himself later reversed the destruction, but no bell rang from the Belfry for years. Ghent never again regained its independence and was never again a city state. Charles’ point stayed made longer than the Spanish Habsburg line would survive. Duke Alva, a famous general that served Charles, advised razing the city and burning it to the ground. Charles refused. He decided instead to fill all the moats and reuse the gates for a brand-new citadel in his own honor. The citadel would be built on the powerful and ancient Sint-Baafs abbey grounds. Which meant, the abbey itself had to go. And so, hundreds of years of history were demolished and made room for something known as ‘het Spanjaardenkasteel’ i.e., the Spaniards’ castle. It held a good 2,500 soldiers whose cannons could be aimed permanently at the city. Charles proudly laid the
