Section 2.8
The New
Monarchies
Monarchs begin to crack Feudalism
• Guarantee protection of
law
• Heredity viewed favorably
– Bourgeoisie (town people)
• Begin to tax
– Pay for large armies
– feudal law and custom
• Incorporate Roman Law
for prestige
– title of majesty and
sovereign
Question: What would Machiavelli
think of the New Monarchs?
Origins, Nature, and Accomplishments
England’s New Monarchy
• Parliament controlled
by feudal lords
(blocked consolidation)
• Tudors (of York)
emerge victorious after
War of Roses
York
– Between houses of
York and Lancaster
• Had slowed trade,
agriculture, industry
Lancaster
England’s New Monarchy
• Henry VII (1485-1509)
– Passed laws against livery and
maintenance
– Weakens Barons
• Lords prevented from
maintaining private armies and
wearing livery (family insignia)
– Passed laws favoring upper middle
class
• Trade, money interests
• Star Chamber
– King’s private council
– No jury present
– Ignore parliament
– Decided property disputes,
disturbances of peace
– Accepted because it kept order
Clip for History of Britain on War of
the Roses
France’s New Monarchy
• Charles VII (1422-1461) and Louis XI of
Valois Family
– Charles expelled English in 1453
• Except Calais
– Reorganized royal council
• Gave more power to middle class
– Built up royal army
• Established regular companies of
cavalry, archers (paid by king)
– Controlled taxes
• Gabelle (salt tax) and Taille (land tax)
– Controlled clergy
• Concordat of Bologna
– Rescinded Pragmatic Sanction
(1438)
» Had denied Pope revenue
– Pope receives annates ($ from
French clergymen)
– Louis gets to appoint bishops and
abbots
Spain’s New Monarchy
• Aragon and Castile
– Ferdinand and Isabella unite Spain through marriage
– True unifying force was Catholicism
• Crusade against Moors
• Inquisition served as unifying legal force
• Catholicism viewed as Spanishness
– Reconquesta-Jews and Moors expelled in 1492
» Moriscos (Muslim converts) and Marranos
(Jewish converts) were viewed as “unfaithful”
» Inquisition tortured thousands
– Spain emerges as “defender of the faith”
• Exports Catholicism to New World
• Crusade mentality permeates society
Holy Roman Empire’s New Monarchy
• Comprised of 3 States
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•
•
•
Princely States- hereditary dynasties (Brandenburg)
Ecclesiastical- Abbacies (owned vast amounts of territory)
Imperial Free Cities- (about 50) bourgeoisie dominated
Imperial Knights-lords of small estates (loyal to HRE)
– Emperor
• Elected by Princes (fiercely independent/jealous)
• By 1452 had dwindled to 7 electors
– Elected Hapsburgs from Austria
• Rule until 1806
• Rise of Hapsburgs
Charles V
– Maximilian I (1493-1519) marries heiress of Burgundy and Netherlands
– Their Son Philip marries Joanna of Spain (heiress to Ferdinand and
Isabella)
– Their son Charles I inherits Austria, Netherlands, Burgundy, Spain, New
World
• Elected HRE in 1519 as Charles V
– His brother Ferdinand in elected King of Bohemia and Hungary
• Fear of Universal Monarchy spreads
– Results in Balance of Power
Stage is Set for Revolution
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•
•
•
Image of Church greatly diminished
Few reform-minded leaders in Church
Monarchs are centralizing power
Fear of Universal Monarchy ushers in new
allies