Power and authority
Gabriel Glickman
Key points
• Sovereignty in European states divided and
contested.
• Royal power vs other forms of authority –
quasi-autonomous regions, representative
institutions, territorial nobilities.
• Clashes between princes and their opponents
have religious/ideological undertone.
Kingship in Europe
• Strongest states c. 1500-1600 are dynastic
hereditary monarchies – England, France,
Spain.
• Kings possess largest armies and
bureaucracies.
• Kingship rests on spiritual and legal claims to
power.
Constraints upon Kings
• Europe of ‘composite monarchies’ (Elliott).
• Diversity of languages, institutions, systems of
law, regional identities.
• Principal checks on royal power =
representative institutions, power of
aristocracies.
Holy Roman Empire – the Imperial Circles
Italian city states c. 1500
Italian city states
• Greater civic participation, though still
domination of elites/oligarchies.
• Republican/humanist ideology – claim to
preserve political ethics of Republican Rome.
• Spread of humanism= influence of Italian civic
writings over wider part of Europe.
Expansion of royal power
• Meaning of concept ‘empire’ / ‘imperium’ in
Early Modern Europe = total dominion,
absolute sovereignty, not territorial conquests.
• External ambition proceeds simultaneously
with internal centralisationc.1500-1650.
• Monarchs seeking to make territories less
‘composite’.
Key themes of royal
expansion/centralisation 1500-1650
• Control over the Church – in Catholic as much
as Protestant states.
• Expansion of the court into a major centre of
government.
• Expansion of control over the regions –
attempt to create legal and political uniformity
Kings and rebels
• Most rebellions are regional/ national –
opposition to central control, officials, courtiers.
• Aristocratic-led but with significant elements of
popular participation.
• Richelieu in France faces urban and peasant
rebellions, as well as noble unrest.
• Rebels adopt rhetoric of legal and political
conservatism – but often reality is more radical.
Religious rebellions
• Most explosive rebellions occur when a region
has a different religious identity to its prince.
• Radical doctrines in both Reformation (e.g.
Calvinism) and Counter-Reformation suggest
that heretic ruler can be resisted or even
overthrown.
• Clash between the ideology of the European
Reformations (Catholic and Protestant) and
the ideology of the Divine Right of Kings.