In 1496 Lier was the setting of one of the most important marriages in European history. Philip the Handsome married Joanna of Castile, thus joining the respective Austrian and Spanish empires. Their son, Charles V, was born in Ghent and would later become the ruler of both empires, including the Spanish territories in the Americas, which under his rule were conquered by Cortés and Pizarro. It was one of the largest empires in history, nicknamed ‘the empire on which the sun never sets’.