"Masterly."—William Anthony Hay, Wall Street Journal

“An extraordinary man who achieves extraordinary things" requires an extraordinary biographer. In Parker, he has one. Seldom does one find a work of such profound scholarship delivered in such elegant and engaging prose. Drawing deftly on an astonishing volume of documentary evidence, Parker has produced a masterpiece: an epic, detailed and vivid life of this complex man and his impossibly large empire”—Susannah Lipscomb, Financial Times

“This biography is as majestic as its subject”—Daniel Johnson, The Sunday Times

"[Parker] brings the enigmatic, fascinating titan of 16th-century Europe blazingly to life in this superb portrait that is excellent, accessible and magisterial in both politics and humanity."—Simon Sebag Montefiore, Aspects of History Magazine 'Books of the Year 2020'

“This monograph is a magnum opus of what Marc Bloch called ‘the historian’s craft’, both in terms of archival research...and in its narrative power. Parker narrates with refreshing ease and in gripping detail a vast array of events, details and stages of the life of Charles V.”—Stefan Hanß, History: The Journal of the Historical Association
 

“A remarkable book, a panorama full of astounding and memorable details, and a gripping read. No other living scholar could have organised and analysed the vast and dizzying array of source materials. Parker is both psychologically astute and sets Charles in the huge canvas against which he operated, always presenting the diplomatic, religious, structural and systemic contexts of the decisions he had to make. A monumental achievement.”—Lyndal Roper, author of Martin Luther

"This is a splendid book. It’s well-written, engaging the reader, even while marshalling to good use a truly impressive erudition . . . [T]his is the only book I know that stands comparison with Brandi in that respect, and Parker covers a lot more ground."—James D. Tracy, author of Emperor Charles V

“Emperor leaves me in awe. It is an unprecedentedly thorough imperial, and indeed, global, biography. The book marshals a breath-taking quantity of evidence, while paying meticulous attention to its quality. Brilliant.”—Bethany Aram, author of Juana the Mad, professor of modern history at Pablo de Olavide University, Spain, and principal investigator of the interdisciplinary project An Artery of Empire: Conquest, Commerce, Crisis, Culture and the Panamanian Junction 1513-1671

“No one has understood the Habsburg emperor better than the master historian Geoffrey Parker. In this meticulously- researched and brilliantly- narrated account, Parker strikes a perfect balance, highlighting Charles’s strengths as a warrior-king together with his personal weaknesses as a family man. A tour-de-force.”—Richard L. Kagan, author of Clio and the Crown

“Geoffrey Parker’s biography of Charles V immediately takes its place as the premier study of the emperor available in English. Its significance, however, like the research that supports it, is global. I cannot remember reading anything that offered so much depth of perspective on both the emperor as a ruler and the age as a whole, the work of Karl Brandi included. It is a masterpiece of historical reconstruction.”—C. Scott Dixon, author of The Church in the Early Modern Age