the Fugger's, and it was these bankers that bribed the prince electors to choose Maximilian's grandson Charles as his successor. One tradition he did away with was the centuries-old custom that the Holy Roman Emperor had to be crowned by the Pope in Rome. Unable to reach Rome, due to Venetian hostility, in 1508, Maximilian, with the assent of Pope Julius II, took the title Erwählter Römischer Kaiser ("Elected Roman Emperor"). Thus his father Frederick was the last emperor to be crowned by the Pope in Rome. Charles I and Ferdinand I (1519–1564) Since Philip the Fair (1478–1506) died before his father, Maximilian, the succession passed to Philip's son, Charles I (1519–1521) who became the Emperor Charles V, on Maximilian's death in 1519. He reigned as emperor from 1519 to 1556, when in poor health he abdicated, dying in 1558. Although crowned by Pope Clement VII in Bologna in 1530 (Charles had sacked Rome in 1527) he was the last emperor ever to be crowned by a Pope. Although he eventually fell short of his vision of universal monarchy, Charles I is still considered the most powerful of all the Habsburgs. His Chancellor, Mercurino Gattinara remarked in 1519 that he was "on the path to universal monarchy ... unite all Christendom under one sceptre" bringing him closer to Frederick V's vision of AEIOU, and Charles' motto Plus ultra (still further) suggested this was his ambition. Having inherited his father's possessions in 1506, he was already a powerful ruler with extensive domains. On Maximilian's death these domains became vast. He was now ruler of three of Europe's leading dynasties—the House of Habsburg of the Habsburg monarchy; the House of Valois-Burgundy of the Burgundian Netherlands; and the House of Trastámara of the Crowns of Castile and Aragon. This made him ruler over extensive lands in Central, Western, and Southern Europe; and the Spanish colonies in the Americas and Asia. As the first king to rule Castile, León, and Aragon simultaneously in his own right, he became the first King of Spain. His empire spanned nearly four million square kilometers across Europe, the Far East, and the Americas. A number of challenges stood in Charles's way, and were to shape Austria's history for a long time to come. These were France, the appearance of the Ottoman Empire to its East, and Martin Luther (see below). Following the dynastic tradition the Habsburgs' hereditary territories