Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles V (1500-1558) was a powerful European monarch of the sixteenth century, scion of the Hapsburg family. During his lifetime he acquired a very large empire on continental Europe through various means, including inheritance of monarchical titles, election, and annexation by military force or the threat thereof. The areas he ruled had few cultural or economic ties and did not coalesce into a cohesive political unit. Nonetheless, he maintainted control of each of them throughout his lifetime, and in many cases his descendants continued to rule for decades or even centuries to come.

Areas which Charles ruled include Spain (of which he was the first king to rule a united kingdom), Italy, the Holy Roman Empire, Burgundy, and the Low Countries. He also had suzerainty over Spain's fairly substantial colonial empire in the Americas. He was titular King of Jerusalem until abdicating in favor of Mary I of England, but the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem had been defunct for well over 200 years by the time he acquired that title.

Charles V in "Eyewear"
It was during the reign of Charles V that the Aztec and Inca were conquered. It was also during his reign that the Moorish slave Estevánico briefly possessed a form of the Mask of the Sun while on several expeditions in New Spain.