An increase of taxes took place, which together with their unequal incidence among different classes, was to have bad effects in the long run. The increase in governmental activity brought the growth of a bureaucracy with the abuses inherent in such bodies. Most serious of all was the failure to curb the economic and social privileges of the aristocracy. The nobles kept their traditional rights of feudal jurisdiction, they were exempt from taxes, and they had vast land holdings. Together with the high churchmen and the upper class in the cities, they comprised less than 2 percent of the population, yet these groups possessed about 95 to 97 percent of the land of Castile. Over half of this land belonged to a small number of immensely wealthy families. When Granada was conquered, most of it was granted to the nobles. This power from the nobles would allow them to exert un-opposable authority over the lower classes.
This all suggested a long standing between the towns and the nobility. In 1516 the towns felt threatened by an aristocracy keen to dominate or erode them, and the vacuum created by an absent king invited only further conflict: the unrest during Charles' initial absence set an important, but historically repetitive, precedent that helped spur the revolt. Additionally, royal authority and administration were now maintained in the towns through officials called 'corregidores'. However, these individuals were either unable to stop the aristocracy corrupting legal and fiscal procedures, or they were themselves corrupt, bias in favour of particular families.
The resentments between the towns and the nobility were to be increased with Charles I. The succession itself caused slight divisions within Spain. Most wanted Joanna to remain as Queen until she died, with Charles acting only as a regent. Charles' personage also caused discontent, although historians disagree as to whether these included major grievances. He was seventeen and had never been to Iberian Peninsula. Charles was also the heir of Emperor Maximilian, from whom he stood to inherit the large Habsburg lands and a claim on the imperial title. Many Spaniards feared that Charles' 'foreign' lands and imperial ambitions would leave him little time for Spain, causing him to be absent for large periods as he focused his attention, and Spain's money, elsewhere. Some worries began to be thought as real problems when Charles crowned himself King of Spain in March 1516, but not arriving to Spain until September 1517. During his absent 18 months many parties began to exploit this power vacuum. Spain was well known for its diverse communities, and although under Ferdinand these rivalries and divisions were suppressed, with the new king absent countless rivalries began to resurface. One in particular was the nobility attempting to regain the power and rights it had lost years before. These would be at the expense of the crown, and most importantly the towns. Members of the towns decided to defend their privileges and assert themselves. They fought internally, but as there were little attempts to stop this, it was clear there would be a much larger reaction, the revolt itself.
Eventually Charles arrived and summoned the Cortes. Luckily they were not hostile, but did make a list of requests. Problematically, Charles began appointing Burgundians to important positions in both the church and government, including a seventeen-year-old - Guillaume Jacques de Croy - as Archbishop in Toledo, the richest see in Spain. Some historians, such as Henry Kamen, are deeply critical of this, claiming that Charles and his advisors "received and distributed honours as though they were in a conquered country." This upset a lot of Spaniards, especially the grandees who would normally expect such appointments, but there was a greater complication: Charles had promised the Castilian Cortes that he wouldn't appoint foreigners. Technically he didn’t, Charles had issued appointees with letters of naturalization making them officially Spanish. However, within the minds of the Spanish, they were still foreigners. The appointments themselves caused great resentment, but Charles's trickery caused outrage. These upsets were exacerbated by the death of Cisneros soon after the king's arrival: he may not have been universally popular, but the Cardinal had been a Spaniard in the upper echelons of power and, unlike Charles and much of his entourage, he knew Spain well.
Charles’ financial demands also caused major discontent. Charles demanded a large payment of 600,000 ducats to be paid over the three years. The reaction to the Cortes accepting this was swift. Many Cortes deputies were severely criticised by the towns they had represented.
The actions of Charles during 1516 - 20 upset and alienated a good deal of Spain's ruling society, especially Castile's servicio paying towns, by proving their worst fears to be true. Charles was late arriving and swift to depart, appearing to be the absent monarch they had first envisaged. He favoured Burgundians over local men and women, giving them key positions, and he imposed a large financial drain for projects outside the Spanish sphere of influence. Charles exacerbated existing internal conflicts through both his weak leadership and general absence, while doing nothing to quell such rivalries. In a country where the greatest power struggle was between the grandees and the towns, Charles allied with neither and angered both. Riots had occurred before the king's departure, and these soon turned into rebellions. He inflamed a strong and long-running conflict and the towns, the side that was losing power, exploded into rebellion against both the king, and the government of Castile itself.
