In the 16th century, Charles V was crowned King of Spain. There were only two problems with this, he didn’t speak Spanish or live in Spain. When he was crowned king, he had to move from the Low Countries (modern day Netherlands/Belgium area) to Spain and he brought an entourage. The Dutch (people from the Low Counties) viewed themselves as superior to the Spanish. Needless to say, the Spanish didn’t appreciate this. A little after Charles was crowned, he was nominated Holy Roman Emperor (that’s basically King of Germany, but with a really cool title). He had to leave Spain to be crowned and while he was away, the Spanish revolted. At first, the Spanish nobility sided with their countrymen, however, the uprising turned into an uprising against all people in power, rather than just against the king. This left the nobility no other choice than to assist Charles in stopping this uprising. Charles crushed the rebellion, and then changed his policies to be friendlier toward the Spanish.

Charles’ son, Phillip, became King of Spain after Charles died. Phillip was a devout Catholic. He was so devout that at one point in his reign he said he would rather not rule Spain, than rule a non-Catholic Spain.  Phillip reigned during the Protestant Reformation, so he had a few problems. He heavily persecuted anyone who was suspected of not being Catholic. Some went along with this, but others, specifically the Dutch, disagreed with his policies. His religious persecution, along with his high taxes, was ruining business. This problem had to be solved, so the Dutch revolted and successfully broke away from Spain.

The Protestant Reformation was quite destructive to Spain, but it caused wars elsewhere as well. In France this fighting was termed The Wars of Religion. There were three major groups with opposing beliefs in France: the Huguenots (Protestants), the Catholics, and the Politiques, who believed that the cost to unite France under one religion wasn’t worth the reward. During a truce between the Huguenots and the Catholics, the Catholics suspected an attempt on the King’s life, so they killed a Huguenot leader. This triggered a massacre of Huguenots in most of France. The massacre was termed The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. The war finally ended with the Edict of Nantes which granted religious toleration to both sides.

Not all the kings and queens of the time disagreed with Protestantism. In England, Queen Elizabeth I supported Protestantism. She didn’t have a lot of choice in the matter, because according to Catholicism, she was illegitimate. She persecuted Catholics, but simultaneously persecuted a branch of Protestantism known as the Puritans.