User reviews

This TV series recreates faithfully the historical facts about Carlos I . Historical series about the great emperor of Spain and V of Germany, who ruled the crowns of Castile , including the Kingdom of Navarra and Aragon between 1516 and 1556 , and was also Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1520 to 1558 . This TV series recreates faithfully the historical facts about Carlos I and other known characters as Francisco De Borja (Victor Clavijo) , Germana De Foix (Nathalie Poza) , Adriano De Utrecht (Francesc Orella) , Papa León X (Carlos Kaniowsky) , Leonardo Da Vinci (Carlos Álvarez-Nóvoa) , Tiziano , (Fernando Conde) , Francisco Cisneros (Eusebio Poncela) , Enrique VIII (Àlex Brendemühl) , Fernando De Habsburgo (Eric Balbàs) , Maria Pacheco , Ponce De León , Pizarro , Cardenal Thomas Wolsey , Catalina de Aragón , Jeromín (future Juan De Austria) , and , of course , Felipe II (Marcel Borràs) , as well as essential happenings : conquest by Castillian conquistadors of the Aztec and Inca empires, as Mexico conquest by Hernan Cortes (Jose Luis Garcia Perez) and his taking on Moctezuma (Christian Esquivel) , marriage to Mary Tudor (Angela Cremonte) , fights against French army , Saint Quentin , against Turks .. . This is the environment in which occurs intrigues , emotions , feats , betrayal and spectacular battles . Many years separate us from the events are to narrate , but the shadows still hide from the public this great historic moment , and the significance of such deeds .¨Carlos I¨ TV series is filled with those lights and shadows , gathers such very important known events recreated in the artistic frames , characterized and inspired by the ideas of a new world . The series contributes to historical , artistic and cultural memory of an era , with a look back to the past , offering us an interesting adaptation on important facts . This is an enough budget flick with a very good cast . Nice acting by Alvaro Cervantes as a great emperor whose willpower , tenacity and determination is well shown in the series and his first wife Isabel de Portugal , Blanca Suárez , who gives a convincing character as sensitive and intelligent queen , she is marvelously photographed throughout and gives her big opportunity to really shine . Support cast is pretty well ; as Alfonso Bassave is fine as astute Francisco I , Víctor Clavijo as Francisco De Borja , Irene Montalà as Isabel De Osorio , Mónica López as Margarita De Habsburgo , Laia Costa as María De Austria , Fadrique De Alba (Ramón Barea) . And special mention for Laia Marull as Juana I De Castilla . The series displays a breathtaking as well as evocative musical score by Federico Jusid . Colorful and atmospheric cinematography by David Azcano and Alfonso Segura . Being compellingly directed by Oriol Ferrer , Salvador García Ruiz and Jorge Torregrossa .

This costumer movie is well based on real events , these are the followings : Charles I was born in 1500 and died in 1558 . Carlos was the grandson of Ferdinand (Rodolfo Sancho) and Isabella (Michelle Jenner) and son of Philip the Handsome and Joanna I of Castile (Irene Escolar and Laia Marull) . Charles become the most powerful man in Europe, despite the hostility that surrounds it and the large size of its rivals such as Francisco I and Enrique II of France . He was ruler of the Spanish Empire from 1516 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1519, until he voluntarily stepped down from these and other positions by a series of abdications between 1554 and 1556 . Through inheritance, he brought together under his rule extensive territories in central, western, and southern Europe, and the Spanish colonies in the Americas and Asia . As a result, his domains spanned nearly four million square kilometers , and were the first to be described as "the empire on which the sun never sets". His reign was dominated by war, and particularly by three major simultaneous conflicts : the Habsburg-Valois Wars with France, the struggle to halt the Ottoman advance, and the Protestant Reformation resulting in conflict with the German princes . The wars with France, mainly fought in Italy, resulted in recovery of territory lost at the beginning of his reign and included the decisive defeat and capture of Francis I of France at the Battle of Pavia in 1525. France recovered and the wars continued for the remainder of Charles's reign. Enormously expensive , they led to the development of the first modern professional army in Europe, the Tercios. The struggle with the Ottoman Empire was fought in Hungary and the Mediterranean . After seizing most of eastern and central Hungary in 1526, the Ottomans' advance was halted at their failed Siege of Vienna in 1529.Charles was unable to prevent the Ottomans' increasing naval dominance and the piratical activity of the Barbary Corsairs . Charles opposed the Reformation and in Germany he was in conflict with the Protestant Princes of the Schmalkaldic League who were motivated by both religious and political opposition to him. He could not prevent the spread of Protestantism and although he won a decisive victory against the Princes at the Battle of Mühlberg, 1547, he was ultimately forced to concede the Peace of Augsburg of 1555 which divided Germany on confessional lines. Charles was only 56 when he abdicated, but after 34 years of energetic rule he was physically exhausted and sought the peace of a monastery of Yuste where he died at the age of 58 .

It's OK, the cast is good, they don't go The Tudors way, it's obvious there going to be some nudes (as in most Spanish movies, when I watch a French one I do expect to see someone smoking) but they try to do it by the book which is great, it's wonderful if you a bookworm who loves History as I am and you can tell they are doing it right, of course, some licenses should be taken out of a making this appealing to the audiences but that's fine, one thing I didn't like is that they chose to summon a lot of time within 17 episodes, that means some characters are introduced and killed or vanished within the same episode or two to say the most. This should have been scheduled as Isabel but I guess budged was an issue here, that was a pity, the whole thing felt rushed. Also, another concern here, Alfonso seems at the very end an old brother to his son Felipe (II of Spain) rather than his father, in those cases I guess is better to hire two actors, one young, one older for sometimes is puzzling to forget in spite of so much make up their real age. I'd advice anyone who loves history to watch this but If I have to choose, I will always go for Isabel instead of Carlos.

TVE kind of continue their successful "Isabel" series with this one on her grandson Charles, known in Spain as King Charles I and in Austria/Germany as Emperor Charles V (whence the series name, Charles King & Emperor). They decided to jump ahead some 25 years after Queen Isabella's death, leaving Joan the Mad's reign aside and going straight on to Charles's arrival in Spain from Flanders, where he had grown. The series is very well made, although of course TVE don't seem to have the seemingly limitless budget of, say, HBO's Game of Thrones (which has nothing to do with this one on Emperor Charles V, but doubtlessly budgetary restrictions do impose some restrictions). Charles's reign was one of not only significant turmoil in continental Europe, but also the real beginning of Spain's conquest of the Americas, so he had quite a lot in his hands, from Luther in Germany to revolt in Castile (where he was seen by many local noblemen as some kind of foreign usurper) to the conquest enterprise. Each chapter is thus followed by a supplementary programme called "Charles's world", in which what was seen in that day's chapter is commented on by historians, TVE's staff and the actors themselves and thus illuminates further what the viewer has just seen and not only history-wise. I would urge viewers in the non-Spanish speaking world to pressure their cable or satellite TV providers to incorporate this series, or in the case of regular broadcasting, the likes of the BBC, the CBC, the ABC or PBS to air this show, a great example of what TV should be like.

I have to date, only watched episode 1 but that is because my Spanish is appalling and I have to take it slow, I would LOVE to watch this with English subtitles. The story picks up after the death of Ferdinand (Fernando) and Charles' V arrival in Castile to a less than enthusiastic crowd. The costumes are wonderful and the acting is as I have seen so far very good, even if Álvaro Cervantes is not my idea of what the Holy Roman Emperor would have looked like. I am looking forward to watching the rest of this show I enjoyed Isabel so much and having watched what she and Ferdinand went through to unite Spain I am so invested in this story! A great watch for anyone interested in this period of time.On a side note I would love to see a future production on Philip II, Charles' son.

So well written and well executed. And I freaking loved Blanca Suarez role in this series. Her whole love story with Carlos the emperor.

For those interested to know more details/stories from the Ottoman's point of view can see from Turkish series Magnificent Century. Try searching on YouTube.. "Magnificent Century Battle of Mohacs" (Grand Battle scene!) "Magnificent Century siege of Vienna" (details of Ottoman retreat, with Charles and Ferdinan in it)

History lovers would enjoy them 🙂