Global Studies
Unit: Development of Democracy
HW: Rise of National Monarchies
Name ____________________________
Date _______________ Period ________
Powers of Government
(Note: Not defined in the article but used.)
Legislative Power
Executive Power
Judicial Power
Rise of National Monarchies Vocab
Cortes
Council of Castille
War of the Roses
Star Chambers
Parliament
Inquisition
Reconquest
Justices of the Peace
The Rise of National Monarchies
The modern nation is a recent phenomenon that began to emerge only a few hundred
years ago. To understand this development, we must look to Europe of the Middle Ages, a time
when there were no national governments and no national leaders. Instead, regionalism was a
dominant factor in life. Why? There are several reasons. Communications were nonexistent, and
transportation facilities were poor. People of one area had almost no contact with people only a
few miles away. Also, most regions were under the control of feudal lords, and the official ruler
of the kingdom was only as strong as the lords allowed him to be. The kings had to rely on the
lords for their revenues (money) and for their military strength-- and the feudal lords sought to
prevent the kings from assuming too much power. Finally, the Catholic Church was a pervasive
element in life—a person’s ultimate loyalty was to the church and the pope, not to a king. But
this was changing in the later Middle Ages. Trade, which had begun to increase after the
Crusades, was increasing in volume, and the contacts it created between people were breaking
down the barriers of regionalism. The middle class emerged and became a wealthy and
influential force in the cities, challenging the position of feudal lords. The intellectual awakening
of the Renaissance was beginning, and many new ideas disagreed with the teachings of the
church.
It was in this period of change and confusion that the first national monarchies arose in
France, England, and Spain. The kings in these countries sought to put everyone in the state
under their control. Their methods were often brutal. The statement that “the ends justify the
means” was used to support their brutality. These rulers won the support of powerful merchants
in the cities. These merchants, like the kings, wanted to weaken the strength of the feudal lords.
The strong monarchies that emerged would form the basis of government for generations.
France
Charles II, king of France began the task building the French state and increasing the
power of the French monarchy. He set about to free himself from reliance on the feudal lords. He
established a permanent royal army. And he sought new sources of revenue. One of these
sources was the church. Charles limited the power of the pope in Catholic France by taking over
control of tithes and appointing church leaders. Some of the money that used to flow to Rome
now enriched the royal treasury. But Charles II was unable to overcome the power of the feudal
lords. During his reign, large areas of France were still outside his control, ruled by men who
defied the authority of the king. It was Charles’ son Louis XI who finally subdued the feudal
lords and established himself as the first national monarch in Western Europe. He did so with the
support of most of his subjects. Louis, a crafty and devious ruler, was called the “universal
spider” because he skillfully trapped his victims—his opponents—and disposed of them. He
forced his subjects to pay him higher taxes, but he softened the blow by creating positions in his
government to be granted to those who were loyal to the king. Thus he won even the strongest
protestors over to his side. Louis enlarged the royal army, but he limited its use to times of real
national emergency. During his 22-year reign, he hired many of the feudal lords and brought
their territory under royal control. The feudal territories would ALL have to be brought under the
royal domain if Louis were to ensure his control. The strongest was the duchy of Burgundy,
comprising what is now Belgium, Holland, and Northern France. Charles the Rash, sometimes
called Charles the Bold, was the ruler of Burgundy. If Louis XI were to succeed as a ruler, and
establish control over all the feudal lords, he would have to subdue Charles the Rash. But Louis
couldn’t risk defeat at the hand of his chief rival, and so he subsidized a Swiss army to attack
Burgundy. The Swiss went to war willingly, and on three occasions defeated the Burgundian
forces. Charles the Rash was killed in the last of these battles, and, as he left no male heirs, his
territory was divided. The duchy of Burgundy was added to the royal holdings of Louis XI. The
king of France was finally assured of his authority over the feudal lords—he had proved his
strength to them.
Great Britain
In England, the growth of the national monarchy developed later than in France. England
had no immensely powerful feudal lords near the end of the fifteenth century, but there was a
council of nobles who, by tradition and law, advised the king. This council was called
Parliament. The War of the Roses, a civil war fought between two noble families, raged
throughout England for thirty years. During that time, most of the powerful lords were either
killed, or their fortunes depleted. In 1485, King Richard III was defeated by Henry Tudor, who
became king. The War of the Roses had ended.
Henry Tudor was confirmed as King Henry VII by Parliament. He unified England under
his rule and strengthened the bonds that tied his subjects to him. Henry married Elizabeth of
York, who was a member of Richard III’s family, and thus ended the conflict that had split
England into two warring sides. Moreover, he dealt firmly with those who threatened his
position, but he kept men loyal to him with the unspoken promise of future favors. Only
Parliament was empowered to approve new taxes, and its members hoped to gain power over the
king in other matters, too. But Henry called Parliament only when he could not find other
sources of revenue; it met only seven times in his 24 year reign. On the local level, government
was changing, too. Henry increased the duties of the justices of the peace, and made these local
executives directly responsible to him. For the first time, the position became an honorable and
attractive one. A special court, known as the Star Chamber, enforced the royal will. Henry was
careful not to let it interfere with the older common law courts. For the most part, the English
people approved. Yet, in this time period, there were two distinct laws: the King’s law, and the
church law. Henry, like Louis XI, sought to control the church by appointing one of strongest
supporters, a lawyer named Morton, to be archbishop of Canterbury. And the crown used the
church to build up its strength and reputation. Henry doubled royal revenue when the archbishop
agreed to contribute church tithes to the royal treasury. Thus, Henry seldom had to call upon
Parliament to raise taxes, a fact greatly appreciated by his subjects.
Henry VII also won the support of businessmen, thanks to his shrewd commercial
policies. The king sought to make England a commercial power. England was an important
producer of wool and wool cloth, but at the time of Henry VII, the country didn’t have the ships
or the finances to control exports. So, English merchants couldn’t compete with the Italians who
carried the bulk of English foreign trade, and had long been granted special privileges. Henry VII
gained guarantees for English merchants abroad by threatening to take back these privileges. He
made a number of commercial treaties which strengthened the power of the English merchants.
All in all, England was rapidly becoming a financial success. And when Henry VII died in 1509,
he left behind a prosperous and orderly country, a country in which the vast majority of the
people supported the monarchy, a country destined to become one of the most powerful in the
world in the course of the 16th century.
Spain
To understand the Spanish story we have to look back several hundred years. In the
eighth century, Muslims from North Africa began invading Spain, and by 910 they had
conquered most of the Iberian Peninsula, leaving only the tiny kingdoms of Leon and Navarre
and the county of Barcelona in the north in the hands of Spanish rulers.
The succeeding centuries of warfare are known as the Reconquest, during which
Christian princes drove the Muslims southward and established small feudal states throughout
the peninsula. It was a disjointed effort. There were long periods of peace, and Christian states
often fought each other rather than the enemy, but eventually the Muslims were contained in the
kingdom of Grenada, where they held out until 1492. By the middle of the 14th century, three
kingdoms dominated the peninsula: Castille, Portugal, and Aragon. Portugal had won its
independence in the 12th century. Castille, the leader of the Reconquest, became the largest and
most populous kingdom on the peninsula. Aragon had grown out of the county of Barcelona, and
was a strong Mediterranean power with interests in Italy and France. But in both Aragon and
Castille, the power of the monarchy was limited by the power of the local nobility and by the
Cortes, Spain’s legislature, which had to be called every two years.
Before a national monarchy could be established in Spain, national unity had to be
achieved. The first step occurred when Prince Ferdinand of Aragon married Princess Isabella of
Castille. Together, Ferdinand and Isabella raised Spain to the rank of the most powerful nation in
Europe. They did so through their power in the two kingdoms. Creating strong government was,
for the most part, the work of the Queen. Isabella was to become an absolute monarch, firm in
the belief that her power as a ruler was God-given. The first task was to drive the Muslims from
Spain, and the Muslim kingdom of Grenada finally surrendered in 1492, the same year that
Columbus sailed to America and claimed its vast territories for Isabella. The queen also sought to
control the nobility, the Cortes, and the local town government. She called the Cortes
infrequently, and formed a “Council of Castille” whose members she appointed. The council was
given executive power, subject, of course, to the power of the queen. Isabella also allied herself
with owners of industry and businessmen, the economically powerful people of her kingdom,
who resented the power of the nobles and sought advancement for themselves. Most important,
she allied herself with the church, which became a powerful weapon.
The pope gave the Spanish rulers virtual control over the Catholic Church in all their
lands. Under Isabella, the office of the Inquisition was introduced. The Spanish Inquisition was a
church court. It was a tool of royal power, more political than religious in nature. Its purpose was
to try, convict and punish known heretics. The primary targets of the Inquisition were the
Muslims and the Jews. Isabella used the Inquisition for her own political power by accusing
many innocent people of heresy.
Thus, by the beginning of the 16th century, national monarchies were well-established in
three Western European countries: England, France, and Spain. The face of Europe had changed,
as trade brought people together and broke down medieval regionalism, as the power of church
and pope was weakened, as kings brought people together under one rule. A political renaissance
was under way in Western Europe, and the ground was laid for colonial expansion of the
national monarchies, and for the transfer of European institutions and ideas to America.
Global Studies 10
Unit: Europe
Rise of National Monarchies
Questions:
1. In general: During the early Middle Ages, what barriers prevented kings from governing
a clearly defined country?
2. In general: What characteristics of the modernizing medieval society fostered or
promoted the development of strong national monarchies?
FRANCE
1. What two kings helped create the strong monarchy in France?
2. How did the monarchy gain power from the church?
3. How did the monarchy gain power from the nobles?
GREAT BRITAIN
1. What king was most responsible for gaining power for the monarchy?
2. How did the monarchy gain power from the nobility?
2.1. Magna Carta
2.2. The War of the Roses
2.3. Parliament
2.4. Creating the position of justice of the peace
3. How did the monarchy gain power from the church?
3.1. Star Chamber
3.2. The appointment of the archbishop of Canterbury
4. How and why did the middle class help the kings?
SPAIN
1. Who was responsible for creating a strong monarchy in Spain?
2. How did the monarchy use religious issues to gain power?
2.1 Muslims
2.2 Christian Church
3
How did the monarchy gain power from the nobles?
3.1 The Cortes
4
How did the middle class help the monarchy gain power?
Global Studies 10
Unit: Europe
Venn Diagram: Rise of Monarchies
Name ______________________________
Date _____________ Period ____________
DIRECTIONS: Use the Venn diagram to compare and contrast the centralization of power in
Britain, France and Spain. Then write a conclusion.
FRANCE
SPAIN
CONCLUSION:
GREAT BRITAIN