Emperor cover art

Emperor

A New Life of Charles V

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Emperor

By: Geoffrey Parker
Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

The life of Emperor Charles V (1500-1558), ruler of Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and much of Italy and Central and South America, has long intrigued biographers. But the elusive nature of the man (despite an abundance of documentation), his relentless travel and the control of his own image, together with the complexity of governing the world's first transatlantic empire, complicate the task.

Geoffrey Parker, one of the world's leading historians of early modern Europe, has examined the surviving written sources in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish, as well as visual and material evidence. He explores the crucial decisions that created and preserved this vast empire, analyzes Charles' achievements within the context of both personal and structural factors, and scrutinizes the intimate details of the ruler's life for clues to his character and inclinations. The result is a unique biography that interrogates every dimension of Charles' reign and views the world through the emperor's own eyes.

©2019 Geoffrey Parker (P)2019 Tantor 16th Century Europe Medieval Modern Politicians Politics & Activism Royalty Middle Ages Italy Biography Imperialism Global Crisis

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Imprudent King cover art
The Thirty Years War cover art
Metternich cover art
Byzantium cover art
Brigham Young cover art
A Brief History of Western Philosophy cover art
Achaemenid Empire: A Captivating Guide to the First Persian Empire Founded by Cyrus the Great, and How This Empire of Ancient Persia Fought Against the Ancient Greeks in the Greco-Persian Wars cover art
Matilda cover art
The Field of Blood cover art
King of the North Wind cover art
Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China cover art
Picasso and the Painting That Shocked the World cover art
Revelations cover art
Lancaster and York cover art
Uncovering Greek Mythology: A Beginner's Guide into the World of Greek Gods and Goddesses cover art
The Sea Wolves cover art

Critic reviews

"This is a splendid book. It's well-written, engaging the reader, even while marshalling to good use a truly impressive erudition...." (James D. Tracy, author of Emperor Charles V)
All stars
Most relevant
Well written and researched, academic and readable and never loses sight of the aim of biography. First class narration too, particularly the latin and spanish!

Outstanding

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Geoffrey Parker is a distinguished historian of the early modern period, and he has again written an exceedingly good biography of a Hapsburg monarch.

Alongside this, the narrator has to be praised for the best performance I’ve ever listened to. He enlivens every page with his lilt, and his pronunciation of the array of different European places is a joy to listen to.

Well done to both!

Exceptional narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Geoffrey Parker delivers remarkable insights into a man who should receive greater recognition from history buffs for his mostly successful efforts at preserving & expanding his patrimony. In my opinion, the best history books present their audiences with facts & connect seemingly separate events/ideas together which Emperor does in chapter after chapter, bringing the late 15th & early-mid 16th centuries into sharp relief for audiences today. Listeners who are looking for a history of emotions, instead of just facts, will be glad to know that Parker devotes significant attention to personal correspondence from the historical personages analysed in his work - giving audiences more than a glimpse into the inner lives of these historical icons. The cast of 'supporting characters' whose actions are explored in detail - from foes such as François I of France & Martin Luther to loyal ministers such as Chancellor Gattinara & an unexpected frenemy in England's Henry VIII - should be of interest to other fans of European political history too. Nigel Patterson's narration was definitely engaging too - evocative but not theatrically so.

An Imperial Endeavour

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Bit too long and could have done with tighter editing. But excellent in depth look at the life and times of a remarkable man

Needed some editing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Highly ‘readable’, confidently bringing to life the Emperor, his court (and his enormous Empire). Kudos to the outstanding narrator and his command of French, Spanish, Latin and German.

Excellent in every way

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews