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THE

HISTORY

OF

THE REIGN

OF THE

EMPEROR CHARLES V.

WITH

A VIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF SOCIETY IN EUROPE,

FROM

THE SUBVERSION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE TO THE BEGINNING

OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

BY

WILLIAM ROBERTSON, D.D. F.R.S.E.

PRINCIPAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, AND HISTORIOGRAPHER
TO HIS MAJESTY FOR SCOTLAND.

IN FOUR VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. RICHARDSON & CO., G. OFFER, J. SHARPE,

T. TEGG, ROBINSON & CO., J. JONES, AND J. JOHNSON;
ALSO, J. CARFRAE, AND J. SUTHERLAND, EDINBURGH;
AND R. GRIFFIN & CO. GLASGOW.

1822.

DR GAND.

Printed by ROBERT HARDIE, Parliament Stairs, Edinburgh.

ΤΟ

THE KING.

I

SIR,

PRESUME to lay before your Majesty the History of a period, which, if the abilities of the writer were equal to the dignity of the subject, would not be unworthy the attention of a Monarch, who is no less a judge than a patron of literary merit.

HISTORY claims it as her prerogative to offer instruction to Kings as well as to their people. What reflections the reign of the Emperor CHARLES V. may suggest to your Majesty, it becomes not me to conjecture.

But your subjects cannot observe the various calamities which that Monarch's ambition to be distinguished as a conqueror brought upon his dominions, without recollecting the felicity