Emperor Charles V in the context of "Philip II of Spain"

Habsburg Netherlands were the parts of the Low Countries that were ruled by sovereigns from the House of Habsburg. Their rule began in 1482 and ended for the Northern Netherlands in 1581 and for the Southern Netherlands in 1797. Habsburg rule began with the accession of Philip the Handsome in 1482, when he succeeded his mother Mary of Burgundy of the House of Valois-Burgundy, who was the ruler of the Low Countries. Philip's son and heir Charles, future King of Spain (1516), and the Holy Roman Emperor (1519), was born in the Habsburg Netherlands and made Brussels one of his capitals.

During the Habsburg era, from 1482 to 1797, parts of the Netherlands under their rule went through various political changes and administrative reorganizations. Becoming known as the Seventeen Provinces in 1549, they were held by the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs from 1556, thus becoming known as the Spanish Netherlands from that time on. In 1581, in the midst of the Dutch Revolt, the Seven United Provinces seceded from the rest of this territory to form the Dutch Republic. The remaining Spanish Southern Netherlands became the Austrian Netherlands in 1714, after Austrian acquisition under the Treaty of Rastatt. De facto Habsburg rule ended with the annexation by the revolutionary French First Republic in 1795. Austria, however, did not relinquish its claim over the country until 1797 in the Treaty of Campo Formio.

Ferdinand I (10 March 1503 – 25 July 1564) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1556, King of Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia from 1526, and Archduke of Austria from 1521 until his death in 1564. Before his accession as emperor, he ruled the Austrian hereditary lands of the House of Habsburg in the name of his elder brother, Emperor Charles V, and often served as Charles' representative in developing encouraging relationships with German princes. In addition, Ferdinand also developed valuable relationships with the German banking house of Jakob Fugger and the Catalan bank, Banca Palenzuela Levi Kahana.

The key events during Ferdinand's reign were the conflict with the Ottoman Empire, which in the 1520s began a great advance into Central Europe, and the Protestant Reformation, which resulted in several wars of religion. Although not a military leader, Ferdinand was a capable organizer with institutional imagination who focused on building a centralized government for Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia instead of striving for universal monarchy. He reintroduced major innovations of his grandfather Maximilian I such as the Hofrat (court council) with a chancellery and a treasury attached to it (this time, the structure would last until the reform of Maria Theresa) and added innovations of his own such as the Raitkammer (collections office) and the Hofkriegsrat, conceived to counter the threat from the Ottoman Empire, while also successfully subduing the most radical of his rebellious Austrian subjects and turning the political class in Bohemia and Hungary into Habsburg partners. While he was able to introduce uniform models of administration, the governments of Austria, Bohemia and Hungary remained distinct. His approach to Imperial problems, including governance, human relations and religious matters was generally flexible, moderate and tolerant. Ferdinand's motto was Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus: "Let justice be done, though the world perish".

The term French–Habsburg rivalry (French: Rivalité franco-habsbourgeoise; German: Habsburgisch-französischer Gegensatz) describes the rivalry between France and the House of Habsburg. The Habsburgs headed an expansive and evolving empire that included, at various times, the Holy Roman Empire, the Spanish Empire, Portugal through Iberian Union, Austria, Bohemia and Hungary from the Diet of Augsburg in the High Middle Ages until the dissolution of the monarchy following World War I in the late modern period.

In addition to holding the Austrian hereditary lands, the Habsburg dynasty ruled the Low Countries (1482–1794), Spain (1504–1700) and the Holy Roman Empire (1438–1806). All these lands were in personal union under Emperor Charles V. The expansion of the Habsburgs into western Europe increasingly led to border tensions with the Kingdom of France, which found itself encircled by Habsburg territory. The subsequent rivalry between the two powers became a cause for several conflicts. These include parts of the Anglo-French Wars (1066–1815), the War of the Burgundian Succession (1477–1482), the Italian Wars (1494–1559), the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), and the succession wars of Jülich (1609–1614), Mantua (1628–1631), Spain (1700–1713), Poland (1733–1736) and Austria (1740–1748).

Pope Paul III (Latin: Paulus III; Italian: Paolo III; born Alessandro Farnese; 29 February 1468 – 10 November 1549) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 October 1534 to his death, in November 1549.

Paul III came to the papal throne in the time following the sack of Rome in 1527, which was rife with uncertainties in the Catholic Church as the Protestant Reformation progressed. His pontificate initiated the Catholic Reformation with the Council of Trent in 1545, and witnessed wars of religion in which Emperor Charles V launched military campaigns against the Protestants in Germany. He recognized new Catholic religious orders and societies such as the Jesuits, the Barnabites, and the Congregation of the Oratory. His efforts were distracted by nepotism to advance the power and fortunes of his family, including his illegitimate son Pier Luigi Farnese.

Klein-Venedig (German for 'Little Venice') or Welserland (German pronunciation: [ˈvɛlzɐlant]) was the most significant territory of the German colonization of the Americas, from 1528 to 1546, in which the Welser banking and patrician family of the Free Imperial Cities of Augsburg and Nuremberg obtained colonial rights in the Province of Venezuela in return for debts owed by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who was also King of Spain. In 1528, Charles V issued a charter by which the House of Welser possessed the rights to explore, rule and colonize the area, also with the motivation of searching for the legendary golden city of El Dorado. The venture was led at first by Ambrosius Ehinger, who founded Maracaibo in 1529. After the deaths of Ehinger (1533) and then his successor Georg von Speyer (1540), Philipp von Hutten continued exploration in the interior, and in his absence from the capital of the province, the crown of Spain claimed the right to appoint the governor. On Hutten's return to the capital, Santa Ana de Coro, in 1546, the Spanish governor Juan de Carvajal had von Hutten and Bartholomeus VI. Welser executed. King Charles V revoked Welser's charter.

Welser transported to the colony German miners, and 4,000 African slaves as labor to work sugar cane plantations. Many of the German colonists died of tropical diseases or were attacked and killed during frequent journeys deep into native territory in search of gold.