Survey: Power and Authority in early-modern Europe (HCB)
‘European World’ 03/11
Aristotle- fourth-century BC Greek philosopher: his Politics could be used to defend monarchy,
aristocracy or broadly based
St Augustine : his City of God offers main alternative to the classical tradition in political thinking
(Aristotle and Cicero)
Cicero: principal 1st century BC Roman republican political theorist
Justinian: sixth century AD Emperor who ordered the great compilation of all surviving Roman Law
texts (The Body of Civil Law)- great source of ideas about the State, sovereignty and other key political
concepts
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527): Florentine political theorist who emphasised the role of ‘reputation’
as the basis of all power
Reputation – What a government’s subjects (or foreign rivals) thought of it: either from the moral point
of view, or from the toughly practical point of view (i.e. what can it do? What are its resources? Is it
going to last? Etc.)
Composite Monarchies: monarchical states composed of varied territories and peoples (eg. Habsburg or
the English monarchy)
Case Study 1: Republics (BK)
Term: from Latin res publica (public affair); used for political regimes governed by (a more or less extensive
proportion of) the people. Building on classical models, (male) members are viewed as equal ‘citizens’ rather than
‘subjects’. They enjoy political rights in return for (financial/military) obligations and ideally serve the common
good with a strong sense of civic virtue.
1. Historical manifestations
 Greek polis, high medieval Italian commune, late medieval Imperial Free Cities, early modern
urban (and rural) federations and ‘special cases’ of mixed (aristocratic power in PolandLithuania) and temporary republics (English Commonwealth).
2. Strands of political thought
 Classical division into 3 (monarchy, aristocracy, democracy; Aristotle); Renaissance distinction
beween 2 (principalities and republics; Machiavelli) forms of government
 Early modern ascendancy of ‘absolutist’ thinkers, according to whom human self-interest and
need for order requires strong ruler (Bodin/Hobbes), but resistance theories emerge in context of
religious wars; calls for a separation of powers and adherence to the ‘general will’ grow in the
Enlightenment (Montesquieu, Rousseau).
3. The Dutch Republic
 Highly urbanized and distinguished by (overseas) trade, (shipping) industry and commercialized
agriculture; reluctant coexistence of Calvinist majority and Catholics. Authoritarian Spanish rule
triggers military resistance and ultimately declaration of independence 1581; resulting
government de-centralised, based on representative assemblies (States General) with princely
figurehead (stadholders/House of Orange). Relatively tolerant and ‘middling’ culture, with urban
patrons; large print industry, extensive art market catering to mass demand for ‘moralistic’
everyday scenes.
 Meteoric rise in 17thC linked to colonial expansion, trading wealth, entrepôt services and military
innovation/naval power.

In comparison, the Swiss Confederation had a stronger rural component and more agricultural
character. It was officially bi-confessional and stayed neutral in military conflicts (often fought
with Swiss mercenaries). There was no princely court.
4. Historiographical perspectives
 Some historians stress intellectual traditions from Antiquity via Renaissance to Atlantic
Revolutions (Pocock), others constitutional affinities between communal self-government and
modern democratic regimes (Blickle), some link growing republican self-consciousness and
representation with need for status/legitimacy in system of sovereign states after Peace of
Westphalia 1648 (Maissen).
Conclusion
 Early modern Europe was dominated by strong monarchies and Empires, but republican forms of
government built on a long tradition and provided a viable alternative (in a variety of formats).
Indirectly, at least, elements like regular elections, decentralised government and civic virtues
formed precedents of modern democracy.
Holenstein, A., Prak, M. and Maissen, Th. (eds), The Republican Alternative: The Netherlands and Switzerland Compared
(Amsterdam, 2008);
Pocock, J.G.A., The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition (1973)
Case Study 2: Science and Politics (CStein)
Question: What are the historical origins of our current quasi-religious belief in the ‘utility’ of the
natural sciences for the political and economic well-being of a nation?
1. Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1629); Lord Chancellor
a) New Organon (1620): purports a wholesale replacement for the complex apparatus of
Aristotelian knowledge. The corpus of Aristotelian logical writings was traditionally called
‘organon’, a Greek word meaning ‘tool’ or ‘instrument’. In announcing his new organon, Bacon
signaled his belief that the Aristotelian approach to logic pursued in universities at the time was a
thoroughly inadequate instrument for the purpose of generating natural knowledge.
b) New Atlantis (1629): Bacon’s vision of the political organization of knowledge-making. The
book is a fabulous account of a mysterious island in the Pacific, unknown to Europeans, with its
capital Bensalem. Everything is geared towards the production of ‘useful’ knowledge.
Bacon’s overall aim: a renewed, practically-orientated natural philosophy in the service of the state.
State institutions should be founded, he argued, that would be dedicated to the improvements of the
crafts and trades. All knowledge (and that of the natural world in particular) should be ‘useful’.
2. Cabinets of Curiosity
Such cabinets served many functions within the courts of transalpine Europe. They were sites of
magnificent aesthetic display of natural and artificial objects but also pragmatic tools of economic
statecraft, repositories of ready funds for unexpected wars and disasters, sites of cultural and
technological production, and practical laboratories for a variety of crafts and others investigations of
nature (e.g. alchemy). But above all they were active instruments of politics and diplomacy.
Discussion topics
- In which ways would the political landscape have affected people’s lives?
- What were the major transformations in the political landscape of early modern
Europe?