Divine right: king was granted power to rule from God; king’s word was god’s word; king has absolute power.
King James , Sherman page 49: says king has power over physical AND spiritual
Absolute rule: Kings MUCH more powerful than nobles
Sovereignty: the right to rule oneself; government has power over everyone within their borders;
Germany, Italy, NOT sovergn
England, france, spain: defined set of boundaries, absolutism: singular structure;
Idea of government: sovergnty came from above (the divine)
WESTERN ABSOLUTISM
Spain : Habsburg Family
Ferdinand and Isabella
1474-1516: Their marriage began spain’s path toward absolutism
Still strong confederation of states
Restructered royal council INTENTIONALLY excluding nobles
Started consolidation process
King and Queen symbolized government
Church reforms
Inquisition (authorized by pope sixtus IV)
Had right to select bishops in spain
Wanted to APPEAR religious
1492 jews and muslims expelled from spain
Succeeded by Charles the I of Spain
R. 1516-1556
Is Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire
Gets Spain in 1516, becomes HRE in 1519
Saw it as his duty to maintiain political/religious unity of europe
Saw Charlemagne as idol (Charlemagne was first HRE)
Resisted reforms
“The empire of old has not many masters but one, and it is our intention to be that one”
Continued expansion
Ruled spain when Cortes, Pizzaro, Magellan,
Ruled Spain during the pinnacle of power (golden age) both in Europe and expansion
Abdicates in 1556
Ferdinand I gets HRE
Phillip II gets Spain and New World territories
Phillip II
VERY devout
Married 4 times
First wife was his cousin Marie of Portugal 1453, died 2 years later in childberth
Son: don Carlos, most historians think Phillip had him assassinated
Second wife was Mary tudor (bloody Mary) also a cousin died 1555
Third wife Elizabeth Valois, died 1566 Sister to Cat de Medici’s kids
Marriage was part of treaty of Cateau cambresis
Supposed to marry Don Carlos
Dies 1556
Anne of Austria
Was a habsburg
Produces Phillip the third
Dies 1580
Doesn’t marry again
Introduces permanent beuracracy
CRITICAL TO ABSOLUTISM
Creates permanent Standing Army
CRITICAL TO SOVERIGNTY AND ABSOLUTISM
Consolidates National Taxes (servesios)
Mainly affects lower class
Colonies
Four viceroys
New Spain
Peru (region)
New Grenada
La Plata
Raw materials being imported, HUGE demand, supply couldn’t keep up with the demand, led to LOTS of inflation
Spreads throughout Europe,
Called the Price Revolution
Only group to benefit was middle class
VERY TINY middle Class in Spain
Signed Union of Utrecht, gives northern Nethrlands religious Freedom
Phillip Launched armad
TURNING POINT FOR SPIN
Led to sense of defeatism
Had dominated Europe’s politics,
Phillip the III
Reings during Spanish decline
1598-1622
Population declines and shifts towards the city
Further contributes to agricultural decline
Still saw Usery as a sin
Wasn’t POLITE to make money….
DEF does Not help the country
Starts rejecting GOOD ideas from Neth and Eng
The were protestant, therefore HERETICAL
VERY much in debt
1596-1680
Spain declares bankruptcy FIVE times
Miguel Cervantes writes Don Quixote
Satirizes Spanish crown and Chivalry
Country is falling apart, yet King still lives VERY luxurious life
Other stuff too
Phillip IV
1622-1665
Was a “completely a moron in regards to being a ruler”
Recognizes own incompetence
Count duke of Olivares manages most stuff
Believed that to revive monarchy, solution went back to imperialism
Thought that getting involved w/ thirty years war would revive spain
Lost, BAD IDEA
Treaty of the Pirennes
Btw French and Spanish Habsburgs
Officially ended Spanish dominance
Made them a “second rate power”
Thirty years war “Yay we won”, Treaty of Pirennes “boo we lost”
Mercantilism
New economic policy, said that centralized gov controlled economic policy
Had come from PROTESTANT contries, CATHOLIC spain ignored it
Ceases to have any REAL influence on European politics from this point on
Henry VII
New Monarch
Concerned with consolidation
Used diplomacy instead of war to control aristocracy
No war, no need to raise taxes, not bothered by parliament
Court of the Star chamber
Fur collar crime controlled
Middle class supported him
No standing army, relied on Justices of the Peace
Increased cloth and wool exports
Police force and army were 2 different entities.
Not fighting wars, maintains diplomacy through marriage
Arthur married Cat of aragon
Margerat marries Scotisch king
Not really interested in overseas expansion
Henry vIII
1509-1547
Married cat of aragon to maintain alliance w/ spain
DIVORCED, BEHEADED, DIED, Divorced, Beheaded, SURVIVED
English Reformation
Consolidated authority in the crown
Act in Restraint of Appeals,
Act for the submission of the clergy,
Dissolved monasteries
Sells monastical properties to middle class
Helps to avoid parliament
Would fight wars, used cash from monasteries, no need to raise taxes
Forced to creater permanent government Beuaracracy
No tolerance for dissent
Thomas More was best friends with him, was executed
Edward VI
1547-1553
Died before 17th birthday
Continued Protestantism
Had Book of Common Prayer formalized
Mary Tudor (bloody Mary)
1553-1558
Tried to turn church back to Catholicism
Only serves to reignite Protestantism
Executed 100s of protestants
Mostly those who had helped Henry VII break w/ roman Papacy
Elizabeth I
1558-1603
Machiavellian
VERY SMART
Found the Middle ground between Catholics and Puritans
Formalizes Anglicanism
Official Title: Supreme governor of the Church of England, etc.
Elizabethan settlement: requires outward conformity
Had some semblance of religious tolerance,
If not Anglican, served with a fine, “a slap on the wrist”
Beginning of reign, you were catholic or you were protestant, at the end of her reign, you were English.
Very shrewd at manipulating parliament
Let them think they had control when she did whatever she wanted
English aided Dutch
Called on the decendants of Wiliam of Orange (William the Silent) when rulers after Elizabeth weren’t good enough
Defeat of Spanish Armada was HUGE moral victory for England
When she died
NO male heir, no heir PERIOD
Very large debt
Had patronized Shakespeare
James I (Stuart)
Scotich
VERY EXPERIENCED
r. 1603-1625
Couldn’t live up to Elizabeth’s reputation
Scotish accent was offensive to English people!
Blatantly homo in a largely Puritan contry
Believed in Divine right, AND LECTURED THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
Still had big debt, offended Parliament (BIG MISTAKE)
House of Commons could have bought the House of Lords three times over
Elizabeth an Henry VIII did to, didn’t lecture anyone
France (Valois and Bourbon Families)
Charles IX
1560-1574
Son of catherine de Medici
Took throne at age of ten
24 years old when he died
Henry III succeeded him
Reign was right in the middle of the war of the three henrys
15
Henry of Navarre (Henry the IV, Henry of BOURBON, Henri “le Grand”)
War of the three henrys
Charles made matters worse, issued contradictory orders
Started consolidation and absolutism
“Paris is worth a mass”
Edict of Nantes
Granted some religious tolerance
Had to deal w/ turmoil from the war of the three henrys
Genuinely wanted to help his people
“a chiken in every pot”
Only statue during the French Revolution not torn down
Lowered taxes
Makes up for it by putting a fee on the hereditary royal office,
To pass on an office, you had to pay a fee
Did away with the nobility of the robe
Stayed out of wars
Only war was with Savon, it was short and successful
Relied on Protestant advisor
Duke of Sully
Combined lots of indirect taxes
Subsidized trade company
Boosted economy
Organized national highway system
Visionary of the period
Had imagined an international peace keeping committee
Killed by crazed fan
Succeeded by Louis XIII
Took the throne at age nine
R. 1610-1643
Marie (mother ruled)
Brought in cardinal richelau
Very strong influence
Three muskateers horribly inaccurate, richelau was working FOR the king, not at all against him
Raison de tet’ (reason of state)
Destroyed castels as a sign to nobility that feudalism was OVER
Sets up intendons
Intendons were administrative peons in each of the 32 districts
Nobility of the robe became intendons
Intendons could not work in the place they were born or lived
Chief Minister of Royal council of Ministers to help keep Nobles in Check
Worked side by side w/ richelaeu
Louis XIII took issue w/ Edict of Nantes
Huegeunot towns not allow catholics to worship in their towns
Trying to consolidate power, H. towns were “states within a State”
Forced towns to remove fortifications,
Does NOT take religious freedom away, tries to weaken H. Nobles
Richealeua first to have Catholic mass in H. town
La Rochelle
Taxation of Peasants
Peasants targeted “arms” of king, b/c could not get to king
Got at intendons
Local authorities respond weakly
Military not there to back them, feared turning peasants into martyrs
Louis XIV fixes
Gains Arras and Alsace from 30 years
Goes back and forth from Germans to French from this point on
Increased French pride
Dominate international culture, politics
French academy
Standardizes French language
New Policies all cost money
Not easily available, authority to tax was limited
Gets nobles to cooperate by offering favors
Limited true absolutism, where nobles would have ZERO power
Loius XIV
Grandson of Louis the XIV
1643-1715
HUGE FIGURE IN FRENCH HISTORY
Right now (from what we’ve talked about), can only be compared to Elizabeth’s reign (in terms of Length)
Became king at age FIVE
Richelaeu had died in 1642
His replacement Cardinal Jules Mazarin
Takes power 1 year before Louis XIV comes to power
Mazarin ruling as Richealue had been
DIFFERENCE, Louis XIV stops relying on Mazarin as a sign of Absolutism