The end was near, and a tired and ill Emperor decided to abdicate in his son Philip and his brother Ferdinand. The Monastery of Yuste awaited his retreat, away from the great centres of conflict and power. The last trip between Laredo and Jarandilla de La Vera (before retiring to Yuste he spent a few months in the castle of the Counts of Oropesa), gave Charles one last opportunity to travel through Castile, through Las Merindades in Burgos, the fields of Burgos, Palencia, Valladolid and the Sierra de Gredos until he reached the temperate and quiet region of La Vera.
