diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/MessageSourceAutoConfiguration.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/MessageSourceAutoConfiguration.java
index 8e7abe05fa0..accc34cd573 100644
--- a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/MessageSourceAutoConfiguration.java
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/MessageSourceAutoConfiguration.java
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 package org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.Set;
 
@@ -68,7 +69,7 @@ public class MessageSourceAutoConfiguration {
 	/**
 	 * Message bundles encoding.
 	 */
-	private String encoding = "utf-8";
+	private Charset encoding = Charset.forName("UTF-8");
 
 	/**
 	 * Loaded resource bundle files cache expiration, in seconds. When set to -1, bundles
@@ -83,7 +84,7 @@ public class MessageSourceAutoConfiguration {
 			messageSource
 					.setBasenames(commaDelimitedListToStringArray(trimAllWhitespace(this.basename)));
 		}
-		messageSource.setDefaultEncoding(this.encoding);
+		messageSource.setDefaultEncoding(this.encoding.name());
 		messageSource.setCacheSeconds(this.cacheSeconds);
 		return messageSource;
 	}
@@ -96,11 +97,11 @@ public class MessageSourceAutoConfiguration {
 		this.basename = basename;
 	}
 
-	public String getEncoding() {
+	public Charset getEncoding() {
 		return this.encoding;
 	}
 
-	public void setEncoding(String encoding) {
+	public void setEncoding(Charset encoding) {
 		this.encoding = encoding;
 	}
 
diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/freemarker/FreeMarkerAutoConfiguration.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/freemarker/FreeMarkerAutoConfiguration.java
index f0e6c113ced..6251f232941 100644
--- a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/freemarker/FreeMarkerAutoConfiguration.java
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/freemarker/FreeMarkerAutoConfiguration.java
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ public class FreeMarkerAutoConfiguration {
 		protected void applyProperties(FreeMarkerConfigurationFactory factory) {
 			factory.setTemplateLoaderPaths(this.properties.getTemplateLoaderPath());
 			factory.setPreferFileSystemAccess(this.properties.isPreferFileSystemAccess());
-			factory.setDefaultEncoding(this.properties.getCharset());
+			factory.setDefaultEncoding(this.properties.getCharsetName());
 			Properties settings = new Properties();
 			settings.putAll(this.properties.getSettings());
 			factory.setFreemarkerSettings(settings);
diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/jdbc/DataSourceInitializer.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/jdbc/DataSourceInitializer.java
index c0bcf36f7c8..e5d92d331bf 100644
--- a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/jdbc/DataSourceInitializer.java
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/jdbc/DataSourceInitializer.java
@@ -146,7 +146,9 @@ class DataSourceInitializer implements ApplicationListener<DataSourceInitialized
 		ResourceDatabasePopulator populator = new ResourceDatabasePopulator();
 		populator.setContinueOnError(this.properties.isContinueOnError());
 		populator.setSeparator(this.properties.getSeparator());
-		populator.setSqlScriptEncoding(this.properties.getSqlScriptEncoding());
+		if (this.properties.getSqlScriptEncoding() != null) {
+			populator.setSqlScriptEncoding(this.properties.getSqlScriptEncoding().name());
+		}
 		for (Resource resource : resources) {
 			populator.addScript(resource);
 		}
diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/jdbc/DataSourceProperties.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/jdbc/DataSourceProperties.java
index a3b9ba2baa5..490c084ee02 100644
--- a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/jdbc/DataSourceProperties.java
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/jdbc/DataSourceProperties.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2012-2014 the original author or authors.
+ * Copyright 2012-2015 the original author or authors.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 
 package org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.jdbc;
 
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
 import java.util.Map;
 
@@ -100,7 +101,7 @@ public class DataSourceProperties implements BeanClassLoaderAware, InitializingB
 	/**
 	 * SQL scripts encoding.
 	 */
-	private String sqlScriptEncoding;
+	private Charset sqlScriptEncoding;
 
 	private EmbeddedDatabaseConnection embeddedDatabaseConnection = EmbeddedDatabaseConnection.NONE;
 
@@ -256,11 +257,11 @@ public class DataSourceProperties implements BeanClassLoaderAware, InitializingB
 		this.separator = separator;
 	}
 
-	public String getSqlScriptEncoding() {
+	public Charset getSqlScriptEncoding() {
 		return this.sqlScriptEncoding;
 	}
 
-	public void setSqlScriptEncoding(String sqlScriptEncoding) {
+	public void setSqlScriptEncoding(Charset sqlScriptEncoding) {
 		this.sqlScriptEncoding = sqlScriptEncoding;
 	}
 
diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/mail/MailProperties.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/mail/MailProperties.java
index 34404af6e3b..bd2b54146c7 100644
--- a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/mail/MailProperties.java
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/mail/MailProperties.java
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 
 package org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.mail;
 
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Map;
 
@@ -32,6 +33,8 @@ import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;
 @ConfigurationProperties(prefix = "spring.mail")
 public class MailProperties {
 
+	private static final Charset DEFAULT_CHARSET = Charset.forName("UTF-8");
+
 	/**
 	 * SMTP server host.
 	 */
@@ -55,7 +58,7 @@ public class MailProperties {
 	/**
 	 * Default MimeMessage encoding.
 	 */
-	private String defaultEncoding = "UTF-8";
+	private Charset defaultEncoding = DEFAULT_CHARSET;
 
 	/**
 	 * Additional JavaMail session properties.
@@ -104,11 +107,11 @@ public class MailProperties {
 		this.password = password;
 	}
 
-	public String getDefaultEncoding() {
+	public Charset getDefaultEncoding() {
 		return this.defaultEncoding;
 	}
 
-	public void setDefaultEncoding(String defaultEncoding) {
+	public void setDefaultEncoding(Charset defaultEncoding) {
 		this.defaultEncoding = defaultEncoding;
 	}
 
diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/mail/MailSenderAutoConfiguration.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/mail/MailSenderAutoConfiguration.java
index af4494e788c..4bc7da2c3eb 100644
--- a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/mail/MailSenderAutoConfiguration.java
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/mail/MailSenderAutoConfiguration.java
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ public class MailSenderAutoConfiguration {
 		}
 		sender.setUsername(this.properties.getUsername());
 		sender.setPassword(this.properties.getPassword());
-		sender.setDefaultEncoding(this.properties.getDefaultEncoding());
+		sender.setDefaultEncoding(this.properties.getDefaultEncoding().name());
 		if (!this.properties.getProperties().isEmpty()) {
 			sender.setJavaMailProperties(asProperties(this.properties.getProperties()));
 		}
diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/mustache/MustacheAutoConfiguration.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/mustache/MustacheAutoConfiguration.java
index d6de3d5c999..82dd5dbab02 100644
--- a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/mustache/MustacheAutoConfiguration.java
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/mustache/MustacheAutoConfiguration.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2013-2015 the original author or authors.
+ * Copyright 2012-2015 the original author or authors.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ public class MustacheAutoConfiguration {
 	public MustacheResourceTemplateLoader mustacheTemplateLoader() {
 		MustacheResourceTemplateLoader loader = new MustacheResourceTemplateLoader(
 				this.mustache.getPrefix(), this.mustache.getSuffix());
-		loader.setCharset(this.mustache.getCharset());
+		loader.setCharset(this.mustache.getCharsetName());
 		return loader;
 	}
 
@@ -107,8 +107,8 @@ public class MustacheAutoConfiguration {
 			resolver.setSuffix(this.mustache.getSuffix());
 			resolver.setCache(this.mustache.isCache());
 			resolver.setViewNames(this.mustache.getViewNames());
-			resolver.setContentType(this.mustache.getContentType());
-			resolver.setCharset(this.mustache.getCharset());
+			resolver.setContentType(this.mustache.getContentType().toString());
+			resolver.setCharset(this.mustache.getCharsetName());
 			resolver.setCompiler(mustacheCompiler);
 			resolver.setOrder(Ordered.LOWEST_PRECEDENCE - 10);
 			return resolver;
diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/template/AbstractTemplateViewResolverProperties.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/template/AbstractTemplateViewResolverProperties.java
index 3efa1131048..f576c3a5d57 100644
--- a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/template/AbstractTemplateViewResolverProperties.java
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/template/AbstractTemplateViewResolverProperties.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2012-2014 the original author or authors.
+ * Copyright 2012-2015 the original author or authors.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@ public abstract class AbstractTemplateViewResolverProperties extends
 		resolver.setPrefix(getPrefix());
 		resolver.setSuffix(getSuffix());
 		resolver.setCache(isCache());
-		resolver.setContentType(getContentType());
+		resolver.setContentType(getContentType().toString());
 		resolver.setViewNames(getViewNames());
 		resolver.setExposeRequestAttributes(isExposeRequestAttributes());
 		resolver.setAllowRequestOverride(isAllowRequestOverride());
diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/template/AbstractViewResolverProperties.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/template/AbstractViewResolverProperties.java
index 4dc33ee6c2f..432ce6d5fa9 100644
--- a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/template/AbstractViewResolverProperties.java
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/template/AbstractViewResolverProperties.java
@@ -16,7 +16,14 @@
 
 package org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.template;
 
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
+import java.util.Collections;
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
+import java.util.Map;
+
 import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;
+import org.springframework.util.MimeType;
 import org.springframework.web.servlet.ViewResolver;
 
 /**
@@ -29,6 +36,10 @@ import org.springframework.web.servlet.ViewResolver;
  */
 public abstract class AbstractViewResolverProperties {
 
+	private static final MimeType DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE = MimeType.valueOf("text/html");
+
+	private static final Charset DEFAULT_CHARSET = Charset.forName("UTF-8");
+
 	/**
 	 * Enable MVC view resolution for this technology.
 	 */
@@ -42,12 +53,12 @@ public abstract class AbstractViewResolverProperties {
 	/**
 	 * Content-Type value.
 	 */
-	private String contentType = "text/html";
+	private MimeType contentType = DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE;
 
 	/**
 	 * Template encoding.
 	 */
-	private String charset = "UTF-8";
+	private Charset charset = DEFAULT_CHARSET;
 
 	/**
 	 * White list of view names that can be resolved.
@@ -91,22 +102,32 @@ public abstract class AbstractViewResolverProperties {
 		this.cache = cache;
 	}
 
-	public String getContentType() {
-		return this.contentType
-				+ (this.contentType.contains(";charset=") ? "" : ";charset="
-						+ this.charset);
+	public MimeType getContentType() {
+		return (this.contentType.getCharSet() != null ? this.contentType :
+				new MimeType(this.contentType, cloneParametersWithCustomCharset(this.contentType, this.charset)));
 	}
 
-	public void setContentType(String contentType) {
+	public void setContentType(MimeType contentType) {
 		this.contentType = contentType;
 	}
 
-	public String getCharset() {
+	public Charset getCharset() {
 		return this.charset;
 	}
 
-	public void setCharset(String charset) {
+	public String getCharsetName() {
+		return (this.charset != null ? this.charset.name() : null);
+	}
+
+	public void setCharset(Charset charset) {
 		this.charset = charset;
 	}
 
+	private static Map<String,String> cloneParametersWithCustomCharset(MimeType contentType, Charset charset) {
+		LinkedHashMap<String,String> clone = new LinkedHashMap<String, String>();
+		clone.put("charset", charset.name());
+		clone.putAll(contentType.getParameters());
+		return clone;
+	}
+
 }
diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/thymeleaf/ThymeleafAutoConfiguration.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/thymeleaf/ThymeleafAutoConfiguration.java
index a390a70fabf..00e7c44c5f6 100644
--- a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/thymeleaf/ThymeleafAutoConfiguration.java
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/thymeleaf/ThymeleafAutoConfiguration.java
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ package org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.thymeleaf;
 
 import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.Collections;
+import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
 
 import javax.annotation.PostConstruct;
 import javax.servlet.Servlet;
@@ -39,6 +40,7 @@ import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
 import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
 import org.springframework.core.Ordered;
 import org.springframework.util.Assert;
+import org.springframework.util.MimeType;
 import org.springframework.web.servlet.resource.ResourceUrlEncodingFilter;
 import org.thymeleaf.dialect.IDialect;
 import org.thymeleaf.extras.conditionalcomments.dialect.ConditionalCommentsDialect;
@@ -95,7 +97,7 @@ public class ThymeleafAutoConfiguration {
 			resolver.setPrefix(this.properties.getPrefix());
 			resolver.setSuffix(this.properties.getSuffix());
 			resolver.setTemplateMode(this.properties.getMode());
-			resolver.setCharacterEncoding(this.properties.getEncoding());
+			resolver.setCharacterEncoding(this.properties.getEncoding().name());
 			resolver.setCacheable(this.properties.isCache());
 			return resolver;
 		}
@@ -195,7 +197,7 @@ public class ThymeleafAutoConfiguration {
 		public ThymeleafViewResolver thymeleafViewResolver() {
 			ThymeleafViewResolver resolver = new ThymeleafViewResolver();
 			resolver.setTemplateEngine(this.templateEngine);
-			resolver.setCharacterEncoding(this.properties.getEncoding());
+			resolver.setCharacterEncoding(this.properties.getEncoding().name());
 			resolver.setContentType(appendCharset(this.properties.getContentType(),
 					resolver.getCharacterEncoding()));
 			resolver.setExcludedViewNames(this.properties.getExcludedViewNames());
@@ -206,11 +208,14 @@ public class ThymeleafAutoConfiguration {
 			return resolver;
 		}
 
-		private String appendCharset(String type, String charset) {
-			if (type.contains("charset=")) {
-				return type;
+		private String appendCharset(MimeType type, String charset) {
+			if (type.getCharSet() != null) {
+				return type.toString();
 			}
-			return type + ";charset=" + charset;
+			LinkedHashMap<String,String> clone = new LinkedHashMap<String, String>();
+			clone.put("charset", charset);
+			clone.putAll(type.getParameters());
+			return new MimeType(type, clone).toString();
 		}
 
 	}
diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/thymeleaf/ThymeleafProperties.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/thymeleaf/ThymeleafProperties.java
index 928d86f4b83..223b2d7ab7a 100644
--- a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/thymeleaf/ThymeleafProperties.java
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/thymeleaf/ThymeleafProperties.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2012-2014 the original author or authors.
+ * Copyright 2012-2015 the original author or authors.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -16,7 +16,10 @@
 
 package org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.thymeleaf;
 
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
+
 import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;
+import org.springframework.util.MimeType;
 
 /**
  * Properties for Thymeleaf.
@@ -27,6 +30,10 @@ import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;
 @ConfigurationProperties("spring.thymeleaf")
 public class ThymeleafProperties {
 
+	private static final Charset DEFAULT_ENCODING = Charset.forName("UTF-8");
+
+	private static final MimeType DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE = MimeType.valueOf("text/html");
+
 	public static final String DEFAULT_PREFIX = "classpath:/templates/";
 
 	public static final String DEFAULT_SUFFIX = ".html";
@@ -54,12 +61,12 @@ public class ThymeleafProperties {
 	/**
 	 * Template encoding.
 	 */
-	private String encoding = "UTF-8";
+	private Charset encoding  = DEFAULT_ENCODING;
 
 	/**
 	 * Content-Type value.
 	 */
-	private String contentType = "text/html";
+	private MimeType contentType = DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE;
 
 	/**
 	 * Enable template caching.
@@ -121,19 +128,19 @@ public class ThymeleafProperties {
 		this.mode = mode;
 	}
 
-	public String getEncoding() {
+	public Charset getEncoding() {
 		return this.encoding;
 	}
 
-	public void setEncoding(String encoding) {
+	public void setEncoding(Charset encoding) {
 		this.encoding = encoding;
 	}
 
-	public String getContentType() {
+	public MimeType getContentType() {
 		return this.contentType;
 	}
 
-	public void setContentType(String contentType) {
+	public void setContentType(MimeType contentType) {
 		this.contentType = contentType;
 	}
 
diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/ServerProperties.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/ServerProperties.java
index 430728dd230..38935c76fe8 100644
--- a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/ServerProperties.java
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/ServerProperties.java
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ package org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web;
 
 import java.io.File;
 import java.net.InetAddress;
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Map;
@@ -508,7 +509,7 @@ public class ServerProperties implements EmbeddedServletContainerCustomizer, Ord
 		/**
 		 * Character encoding to use to decode the URI.
 		 */
-		private String uriEncoding;
+		private Charset uriEncoding;
 
 		public int getMaxThreads() {
 			return this.maxThreads;
@@ -598,11 +599,11 @@ public class ServerProperties implements EmbeddedServletContainerCustomizer, Ord
 			this.remoteIpHeader = remoteIpHeader;
 		}
 
-		public String getUriEncoding() {
+		public Charset getUriEncoding() {
 			return this.uriEncoding;
 		}
 
-		public void setUriEncoding(String uriEncoding) {
+		public void setUriEncoding(Charset uriEncoding) {
 			this.uriEncoding = uriEncoding;
 		}
 
diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/WebMvcAutoConfiguration.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/WebMvcAutoConfiguration.java
index 5aca328b5a4..6abe0bc225c 100644
--- a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/WebMvcAutoConfiguration.java
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/WebMvcAutoConfiguration.java
@@ -52,7 +52,6 @@ import org.springframework.format.Formatter;
 import org.springframework.format.FormatterRegistry;
 import org.springframework.format.datetime.DateFormatter;
 import org.springframework.http.converter.HttpMessageConverter;
-import org.springframework.util.StringUtils;
 import org.springframework.validation.DefaultMessageCodesResolver;
 import org.springframework.validation.MessageCodesResolver;
 import org.springframework.web.accept.ContentNegotiationManager;
@@ -187,8 +186,7 @@ public class WebMvcAutoConfiguration {
 		@ConditionalOnMissingBean(LocaleResolver.class)
 		@ConditionalOnProperty(prefix = "spring.mvc", name = "locale")
 		public LocaleResolver localeResolver() {
-			return new FixedLocaleResolver(
-					StringUtils.parseLocaleString(this.mvcProperties.getLocale()));
+			return new FixedLocaleResolver(this.mvcProperties.getLocale());
 		}
 
 		@Bean
diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/WebMvcProperties.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/WebMvcProperties.java
index 224b55c64de..c2fb8844ce0 100644
--- a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/WebMvcProperties.java
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/WebMvcProperties.java
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@
 
 package org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web;
 
+import java.util.Locale;
+
 import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Value;
 import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;
 import org.springframework.validation.DefaultMessageCodesResolver;
@@ -39,7 +41,7 @@ public class WebMvcProperties {
 	/**
 	 * Locale to use.
 	 */
-	private String locale;
+	private Locale locale;
 
 	/**
 	 * Date format to use (e.g. dd/MM/yyyy).
@@ -65,11 +67,11 @@ public class WebMvcProperties {
 		this.messageCodesResolverFormat = messageCodesResolverFormat;
 	}
 
-	public String getLocale() {
+	public Locale getLocale() {
 		return this.locale;
 	}
 
-	public void setLocale(String locale) {
+	public void setLocale(Locale locale) {
 		this.locale = locale;
 	}
 
diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/mail/MailSenderAutoConfigurationTests.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/mail/MailSenderAutoConfigurationTests.java
index fd4bdb6a8d3..db6f0e3e16f 100644
--- a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/mail/MailSenderAutoConfigurationTests.java
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/mail/MailSenderAutoConfigurationTests.java
@@ -107,14 +107,14 @@ public class MailSenderAutoConfigurationTests {
 		String host = "192.168.1.234";
 		load(EmptyConfig.class, "spring.mail.host:" + host, "spring.mail.port:42",
 				"spring.mail.username:john", "spring.mail.password:secret",
-				"spring.mail.default-encoding:ISO-9");
+				"spring.mail.default-encoding:US-ASCII");
 		JavaMailSenderImpl bean = (JavaMailSenderImpl) this.context
 				.getBean(JavaMailSender.class);
 		assertEquals(host, bean.getHost());
 		assertEquals(42, bean.getPort());
 		assertEquals("john", bean.getUsername());
 		assertEquals("secret", bean.getPassword());
-		assertEquals("ISO-9", bean.getDefaultEncoding());
+		assertEquals("US-ASCII", bean.getDefaultEncoding());
 	}
 
 	@Test
diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/template/ViewResolverPropertiesTest.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/template/ViewResolverPropertiesTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..bc4fafa4a27
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/template/ViewResolverPropertiesTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2012-2015 the original author or authors.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.template;
+
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import org.springframework.util.MimeTypeUtils;
+
+import static org.hamcrest.MatcherAssert.assertThat;
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.hasToString;
+
+/**
+ * Tests for {@link AbstractViewResolverProperties}.
+ *
+ * @author Stephane Nicoll
+ */
+public class ViewResolverPropertiesTest {
+
+
+	@Test
+	public void defaultContentType() {
+		assertThat(new ViewResolverProperties().getContentType(), hasToString("text/html;charset=UTF-8"));
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void customContentTypeDefaultCharset() {
+		ViewResolverProperties properties = new ViewResolverProperties();
+		properties.setContentType(MimeTypeUtils.parseMimeType("text/plain"));
+		assertThat(properties.getContentType(), hasToString("text/plain;charset=UTF-8"));
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void defaultContentTypeCustomCharset() {
+		ViewResolverProperties properties = new ViewResolverProperties();
+		properties.setCharset(Charset.forName("UTF-16"));
+		assertThat(properties.getContentType(), hasToString("text/html;charset=UTF-16"));
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void customContentTypeCustomCharset() {
+		ViewResolverProperties properties = new ViewResolverProperties();
+		properties.setContentType(MimeTypeUtils.parseMimeType("text/plain"));
+		properties.setCharset(Charset.forName("UTF-16"));
+		assertThat(properties.getContentType(), hasToString("text/plain;charset=UTF-16"));
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void customContentTypeWithPropertyAndCustomCharset() {
+		ViewResolverProperties properties = new ViewResolverProperties();
+		properties.setContentType(MimeTypeUtils.parseMimeType("text/plain;foo=bar"));
+		properties.setCharset(Charset.forName("UTF-16"));
+		assertThat(properties.getContentType(), hasToString("text/plain;charset=UTF-16;foo=bar"));
+	}
+
+
+	private static class ViewResolverProperties extends AbstractViewResolverProperties {
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/ServerPropertiesTests.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/ServerPropertiesTests.java
index f1148ee98da..7d29b2cd8f0 100644
--- a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/ServerPropertiesTests.java
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/ServerPropertiesTests.java
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 package org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web;
 
 import java.net.InetAddress;
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.EnumSet;
 import java.util.HashMap;
@@ -204,7 +205,7 @@ public class ServerPropertiesTests {
 		Map<String, String> map = new HashMap<String, String>();
 		map.put("server.tomcat.uriEncoding", "US-ASCII");
 		bindProperties(map);
-		assertEquals("US-ASCII", this.properties.getTomcat().getUriEncoding());
+		assertEquals(Charset.forName("US-ASCII"), this.properties.getTomcat().getUriEncoding());
 	}
 
 	@Test
diff --git a/spring-boot/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/context/embedded/tomcat/TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory.java b/spring-boot/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/context/embedded/tomcat/TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory.java
index 06f22ff4cfc..d76cc6ac028 100644
--- a/spring-boot/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/context/embedded/tomcat/TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory.java
+++ b/spring-boot/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/context/embedded/tomcat/TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory.java
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
  * You may obtain a copy of the License at
  *
- * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
  *
  * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
  * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
@@ -89,6 +89,8 @@ import org.springframework.util.StringUtils;
 public class TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory extends
 		AbstractEmbeddedServletContainerFactory implements ResourceLoaderAware {
 
+	private static final Charset DEFAULT_CHARSET = Charset.forName("UTF-8");
+
 	private static final Set<Class<?>> NO_CLASSES = Collections.emptySet();
 
 	public static final String DEFAULT_PROTOCOL = "org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol";
@@ -111,7 +113,7 @@ public class TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory extends
 
 	private String tldSkip;
 
-	private String uriEncoding = "UTF-8";
+	private Charset uriEncoding = DEFAULT_CHARSET;
 
 	/**
 	 * Create a new {@link TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory} instance.
@@ -237,7 +239,7 @@ public class TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory extends
 			customizeProtocol((AbstractProtocol<?>) connector.getProtocolHandler());
 		}
 		if (getUriEncoding() != null) {
-			connector.setURIEncoding(getUriEncoding());
+			connector.setURIEncoding(getUriEncoding().name());
 		}
 
 		// If ApplicationContext is slow to start we want Tomcat not to bind to the socket
@@ -614,7 +616,7 @@ public class TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory extends
 	 * be used.
 	 * @param uriEncoding the uri encoding to set
 	 */
-	public void setUriEncoding(String uriEncoding) {
+	public void setUriEncoding(Charset uriEncoding) {
 		this.uriEncoding = uriEncoding;
 	}
 
@@ -622,7 +624,7 @@ public class TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory extends
 	 * Returns the character encoding to use for URL decoding.
 	 * @return the URI encoding
 	 */
-	public String getUriEncoding() {
+	public Charset getUriEncoding() {
 		return this.uriEncoding;
 	}
 
diff --git a/spring-boot/src/main/resources/META-INF/additional-spring-configuration-metadata.json b/spring-boot/src/main/resources/META-INF/additional-spring-configuration-metadata.json
index 560a8841e8b..2f233f71c61 100644
--- a/spring-boot/src/main/resources/META-INF/additional-spring-configuration-metadata.json
+++ b/spring-boot/src/main/resources/META-INF/additional-spring-configuration-metadata.json
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
   },
   {
     "name": "banner.location",
-    "type": "java.lang.String",
+    "type": "org.springframework.core.io.Resource",
     "description": "Banner file location.",
     "defaultValue": "classpath:banner.txt"
   },
diff --git a/spring-boot/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/context/embedded/tomcat/TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactoryTests.java b/spring-boot/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/context/embedded/tomcat/TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactoryTests.java
index 829c17d1cad..6bf67189c22 100644
--- a/spring-boot/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/context/embedded/tomcat/TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactoryTests.java
+++ b/spring-boot/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/context/embedded/tomcat/TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactoryTests.java
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
  * You may obtain a copy of the License at
  *
- * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
  *
  * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
  * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ package org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.tomcat;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
 import java.net.ServerSocket;
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Map;
@@ -226,7 +227,7 @@ public class TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactoryTests extends
 	@Test
 	public void uriEncoding() throws Exception {
 		TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory factory = getFactory();
-		factory.setUriEncoding("US-ASCII");
+		factory.setUriEncoding(Charset.forName("US-ASCII"));
 		Tomcat tomcat = getTomcat(factory);
 		assertEquals("US-ASCII", tomcat.getConnector().getURIEncoding());
 	}