February 24, 1500: Charles V is born in Ghent, Belgium.

This famous European ruler was heir to three great dynasties - the House of Habsburg, the House of Valois-Burgundy, and the House of Trastámara - and at its greatest extent, his empire spanned all of the Holy Roman Empire, parts of France, the Spanish Empire (including the fledgling American colonies), the Kingdoms of Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia, and the Low Countries. 

As Charles I of Spain, it was under his rule that the Spanish Empire was first described as the “empire on which the sun never sets”. However, his hopes for a stable, united, universal empire were dashed early with the onset of problems that would plague his reign until his abdication - namely, the Protestant Reformation and constant wars with Francis I of France and Suleiman of the Ottoman Empire. In the 1550s, he delegated his territories and titles to his brother, Ferdinand, and his son, Philip II. 

Charles’ full titulature was as follows:

“Charles, by the grace of God, Holy Roman Emperor, forever August, King of Germany, King of Italy, King of all Spains, of Castile, Aragon, León, Navarra, Grenada, Toledo, Valencia, Galicia, Majorca, Sevilla, Cordova, Murcia, Jaén, Algarves, Algeciras, Gibraltar, the Canary Islands, King of Two Sicilies, of Sardinia, Corsica, King of Jerusalem, King of the Western and Eastern Indies, Lord of the Islands and Main Ocean Sea, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, Brabant, Lorraine, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Limburg, Luxembourg, Gelderland, Neopatria, Württemberg, Landgrave of Alsace, Prince of Swabia, Asturia and Catalonia, Count of Flanders, Habsburg, Tyrol, Gorizia, Barcelona, Artois, Burgundy Palatine, Hainaut, Holland, Seeland, Ferrette, Kyburg, Namur, Roussillon, Cerdagne, Zutphen, Margrave of the Holy Roman Empire, Burgau, Oristano and Gociano, Lord of Frisia, the Wendish March, Pordenone, Biscay, Molin, Salins, Tripoli and Mechelen.”