Rulers, Families, and Politics

ca 1450 – 1700

Italy• City-States• Struggles between HRE, Papacy and

merchants contributed to independence• Medici: Ruled Grand Duchy of Tuscany

(Florence being the main city)– Giovanni (founder of Medici dynasty):

Florence $$$– Cosimo: Unofficial ruler of Florence– Lorenzo: Pope– 2 Popes, many cardinals, 2 French queens

• Main places:– Grand Duchy of Tuscany (Republic of

Florence)– Republic Genoa– Duchy of Milan– Papal States– Naples (Kingdom of the two Sicilies)– Venetian Republic

• 1494 Charles VIII (France) invaded Italy to take Naples – succeeded but couldn’t hold on

• 1498 Louis XII (France) took Milan – he was great grandson of the Duke of Milan–Spain helped–French-Spanish alliance faltered and

Spain kicked France out of Milan

• 1508 a similar occurrence happened in Venice

• This continued for a long time!• England was occasionally involved

France

• Hundred Years War between France and England eroded nobility

• Kings grew stronger• Commerce brought $• National army under king formed

• Francis Valois–Rival to HRE Charles V

–Passed taille (direct tax on property)

–Concordat of Bologna Pope collect annates (1st year revenue from church) and French king had power to nominate high officials in church thus nationalizing the French church

• Henry II Valois persecute Huguenots

• Catherine Medici and controlled Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III–St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre

Catholic mobs slaughtered Huguenots

• France divided between Valois, Bourbon, and Guise as well as Catholic and Huguenot

• Henry IV (Navarre) Bourbon united Huguenots– Converted to Catholicism to finish reuniting

France– “Paris is worth a mass”– Edict of Nantes – guaranteed religious and

civil freedom to Huguenots– Tax system restructured to increase

prosperity (Duke of Sully = finance minister did this)

• Henry died and corruption set in

• Louis XIII Bourbon took over– Cardinal Richelieu was prime minister– Richelieu centralized gov’t and encouraged

commerce– Intendant system= bourgeoisie officials

answerable only to king supervised provinces

• Louis XIV (Sun King) Bourbon– Mother regent (Louis was 4 when VIII

died)– Italian Cardinal Mazarin was prime

minister

–Wars of the Fronde (nobles trying to limit the power of monarch – they failed)

–1661 Louis XIV declred himself prime minister “L’Etat c’est moi”

–Bishop Jacques Bossuet provided divine right philosophy

–Louis ruled over the French Golden Age• France strongest and most cultured

• French foreign policy–War of Devolution (1667-1668) –

unsuccessful attempt at seizing Spanish Netherlands (Belgium)

–Tried to expand border to Rhine river – failed

–Seizure of Luxemburg and attempt to take Alsace-Lorraine – largely countered by League of Augsburg (Alliance between HRE, Holland, Spain, & England)

–War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1714) – Bourbons tried to gain control of Spain upsetting the Balance of Power – he was opposed by the Grand Alliance (major states of West Europe)•Treaty of Utrecht settled the dispute – France and Spain forbidden from being ruled by same monarch

England• Henry VII Tudor won War of the

Roses–Related to both houses (Lancaster

and York)–Owed elevation to monarch to

Parliament–Regulated trade and raised revenues

from middle class

• Henry VIII Tudor– Impetuous, extravagant, passionate, short

tempered, ambitious– 6 Wives– Anglican Church– Worked with Parliament

• Edward VI Tudor (10 when dad died)– Duke of Somerset regent (Calvinist and

removed)– Another regent made Anglican Book of

Common Prayer official

–Edward died at age 16

• Mary Tudor (1553-1558)–Catholic and married to Philip II of

Spain

–English hated the Spanish

–Bloody Mary was her nickname (executed protestants)

• Elizabeth I Tudor (The Virgin Queen)– Last Tudor monarch

– Power balanced between Parliament and monarch

– Edge of Religious upheaval

– Wealth from arable land and excellence in trade

– Gentry (lesser nobles) mingle with middle class and became powerful through commerce

–Never married (hence Virgin Queen)

–Highly intelligent

–The Thirty-Nine Articles (1563) defined Anglicanism and pleased everyone but the Puritans

–Allied with the Dutch against Spain

–Privateers sent to prey on Spanish ships in the New World

–Spain conspired to put Mary Stuart on Eng throne (Eliz executed her)

–Spain declared war on England

–England defeated the Spanish Armada

–Golden Age of English literature• Shakespeare

• Marlowe

• Bacon

• Donne

• Spenser

–Eliz died without heir

• James I Stuart (1603-1625)– Believed in Divine Right and angered

Parliament– He angered the Puritans– Gunpowder Plot (1605) led by Guy Fawkes

failed to blow up James

• James I – James II was period of English Civil War– James I, Charles I, Oliver Cromwell,

Charles II, James II

Spain• Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of

Aragon unite (1479-1504)–Created Spain

–Catholics

–Reconquista – Kick out Jews and Muslims

• Following this, rulers invested in New World exploration–This brought massive wealth

–Navy strongest in world

–Colonies split with Portugal

• Charles V Hapsburg took over Spain–Ruled HRE, Italian provinces, Spain,

and New World

–Chose to have 2 heirs

–Ferdinand Hapsburg received HRE and other European holdings

–Philip II received Spain and New World holdings

• Philip II Hapsburg (1556-1598)–Married Mary I of England

–Deeply religious (Catholic)

–Laughed only once: when he heard of St Barth Day Massacre

–Devoted energy to making Europe Catholic again

–Philip, not the pope, led attacks on Protestants

–Portugal annexed by Spain in 1580

–Led Catholic Crusade in Low Countries

–Involved in 30 Yrs War and Netherlands Revolt

–Lost Armada and Naval might to England

–After Philip II, Spain never recovered from financial drain of Crusades and loss of overseas trade dominance

• Philip III – Carlos II Hapsburg –Largely uneventful

• War of the Spanish Succession–Carlos II died without heir

–Lineage connected Bourbons and Hapsburgs equally