After the treaty of Cambray in 152.9, which gave a short repose to Europe, Charles meditated an expedi tion against the piratical states of Africa. The famed Horne Barbarossa. who from a private corsair had raised himself by his singular valour and address tabe king of Algiers and Tunis, had become terrible by his depredations from the Straits of the Dardanel les to the rock of Gibraltar. Daily complaints were made to the emperor by his subjects, both in Italy and Spain; and all Christendom seemed to look to him for deliverance from this new and odious species of oppression. For this enterprise, which was very popular among all classes, he obtained abundant sup plies; and having embarked with the flower of the Spanish nobility for Cagliari, which was the general place of rendezvous, he from thence sailed for Tunis with a fleet of 500 sail, having on board 30,000 regu lar troops. Barbarossa was prepared for the attack. Ile had strongly fortified the fortress of Goletta, which is situated on a neck of land, and commands the bay of Tunis, and in the strength of which he placed his chief confidence. Charles on his landing laid siege to this fortress, and after a month of daily skirmish ing, took it by storm on the 25th of July 1535, when the whole piratical fleet fell into his hands. Ile then proceeded to Tunis, but was met upon the march by the army of Barbarossa, which he completely routed, when his troops, flushed with victory, and eager for plunder, rushed into the city, and, in spite of all his exertions to restrain them, committed every species of excess and cruelty. Thirty thousand innocent in habitants perished on that occasion, and ten thousand were carried away as slaves. Having restored Muley Hassan, the former monarch, and bound him by trea ty to hold the kingdom of Tunis as a vassal of the crown of Spain, he garrisoned the Goletta with Span ish troops, and returned to Europe.
The expedition of Charles against Algiers, howe ver, about six years afterwards, was not so fortunate_ Hedisembarked his army on the coast of Africa at too advanced a season of the year; and before the pro visions and warlike stores could be landed, his fleet was dispersed by a tempest, in which 13 ships of war, and I-10 transports, with 8000 men perished. Such of his vessels as had escaped, received his dispirited troops, but being overtaken by another storm, the em peror with difficulty reached Carthagena, extremely mortified at the failure of his favourite scheme.
On his return, Charles found himself embroiled in new wars. Having committed the government of Spain to his son Don Philip, who, as heir apparent, had received the oath of fidelity from the cortes, he passed over to Flanders, and the remainder of his reign was spent in his contest with France and the Pro testants of Germany. At the same time, however, that he was prosecuting his plans of conquest and of aggrandizement on the continent, he formed the am bitious project of adding England to the dominion of his family. Ile succeeded in accomplishing a treaty of marriage between his son and Mary of England, by which it was stipulated that their heirs should, togeth er with the crown of England, inherit the duchy of Burgundy and the Netherlands; and if Don Carlos, Philip's son by a former marriage, should the out issue, they should succeed also to the crown of Spain, a ith the emperor's hereditary dominions.
Worn out at length by his arduous duties and the ravages of the gout, and conscious or his inability much longer to direct with vigour the multiplicity of affairs which called for his attention throughout his extensive dominions, he resolved to resign his hered itary states to his son Philip, who had now attained his 28th year, and having been early accustomed to.
business, had discovered both inclination and capacity sufficient to sustain the weighty burden which was about to devolve upon him. For this purpose he re called Philip from England, and having assembled the states of the low countries and of Brussels, Charles seated on a chair of state, and surrounded by a splen did retinue of the princes of the empire and grandees of Spain, with great solemnity surrendered to his son all his territories, jurisdiction, and authority in the low countries. A few weeks afterwards, he resigned with great solemnity, and in an assembly no less splen did, the crown of Spain, " reserving, of all his vast possessions, nothing for himself but an annual pen sion of one hundred thousand crowns to defray the charges of his family, and to afford him a small suns for acts of beneficence and charity." In the follow ing year he returned to Spain, and retired to the mon astery of St. Justus, near Placentia. Here in a mean retreat, lie forgot the ambitious thoughts and projects which had so long engrossed his mind, and which for hall' a century, had filled with terror all the king doms of' Europe, and devoting the evening of life to innocent amusements and religious exercises, died on the 21st of September I 558.
Philip II., though his father, with all his power and influence, was unable to obtain for him the imperial crown, succeeded to a sceptre more powerful perhaps than that of any monarch of the age. Besides his dominions in Europe, including Spain, the duchy of Milan, and the Netherlands, lie possessed in the new world territories of such vast extent, abound ing in inexhaustible veins of wealth, and opening such boundless prospects of every kind, as must have rous ed into action a mind much less ambitious and enter prising than that of Philip. He inherited with his crown a war with France and the pope. hut this was but of short duration; and the treaty of Chateau Cam bresis left him without an enemy. In memory of the battle of St. Quintin, fought in this war, "on the day consecrated to St. Laurence, he built the splendid and magnificent palace of the Escurial, in honour of that saint and martyr, and so formed the plan of the work as to resemble a gridiron, which, according to the legendary tale, hail been the instrument of St. Lau rcncc's martyrdom." This prince, however, was not of a disposition to remain long inactive; and though lie was not desirous of military glory, yet in other respects, he was not inferior to his lather either in ambition or abilities; and during a long reign, he gave more disturbance to his enemies by his politi cal intrigues, than the emperor had ever done by his arms.
The severity of Charles's government in the Ne therlands, with respect to religious matters, had es tranged from him the affections of his subjects in that country; and the violent and bigoted principles of Philip's administration, under the Duke of Alva, ex asperated them into open rebellion. This afforded employment to the arms of Spain for nearly half a century, and at last lost to that crown one half of its most valuable possessions in the low countries. (See