Emperor Charles V passed away on 21 September 1558. In his retirement, he kept himself informed about state affairs but was no longer actively involved in them.
Nearly five decades on the Imperial throne had left Charles exhausted and embittered. Alongside remarkable achievements, he also had to endure political and dynastic failures and had made numerous enemies. His religious policy in particular alarmed the German princes, who could not accept the Emperor’s uncompromising and intemperate stance on the Protestantism in Germany. In their opposition, they found support in Charles’s brother Ferdinand, who firmly resisted the Emperor’s plan to secure the imperial succession for his son Philip. It was Ferdinand’s efforts that led to the legal recognition of the new confession (cuius regio, eius religio) in the Peace of Augsburg of September 1555. The settlement also marked the princes’ final victory over imperial centralism.
That same month, frustrated, Charles initiated his abdication. He passed the Netherlands, Spain with its overseas territories, and the Italian estates to his son Philip (from then Philip II of Spain). Ferdinand, on the other hand, took over the Austrian hereditary lands and Bohemia. This decision divided the Habsburg family into its Spanish and Austrian branches.
Charles withdrew from German politics, paving the way for Ferdinand’s election as his imperial successor. The retired Emperor lived three more years in a convent in Spain, where he died at the age of 58. His brother ascended the throne as Emperor Ferdinand I.
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