 Furthermore, his reign encompassed both the long-lasting Spanish and short-lived German colonizations of the Americas.The personal union of the European and American territories of Charles V was the first collection of realms labelled "the empire on which the sun never sets".Charles was born in Flanders to Philip the Handsome of the Austrian House of Habsburg (son of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, and Mary of Burgundy) and Joanna the Mad of the Spanish House of Trastámara (daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon).