Denis Crouzet is a professor of modern history at the Sorbonne, Paris, and Director of the Institute of Research on Modern Western Civilisation. He is considered one of the most eminent specialists on the 16th century and on the French Wars of Religion. He is well known as the author of Les Guerriers de Dieu — La violence au temps des troubles de religion ["Warriors of God — Violence in the times of religious conflict"] (Champ Vallon, 2008); La Nuit de St Barthélemy ["The Night of St Barthelemy"] (Parrin, 2012); Le Haut Cœur de Catherine de Médicis ["At the Heart of Catherine de Médicis"] (Albin Michel, 2005). He lives in Paris.
This book brings us a totally new vision of Charles V by setting out to show his difficult and complicated complex relationships with power. Even if he incarnates for us the image of the authoritarian sovereign, dominating Europe and even the world, in reality Charles V cherished a quite different ideal: that of a pacified and unified Christianity. But instead, he had to deal with the Wars of Religion and a terminally divided Europe.
Dennis Crouzet puts forward a new point of view and paints a surprising portrait of this major figure of the Renaissance.
The reign of Charles V takes place during the most crucial years of the 16th century while humanism was confronting a different absolute: religious fanaticism and zealotry.