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New Monarchs (Politics & the State in the Renaissance 1450-1521)
► Monarchs who invested kingship with a strong sense of royal authority and
national purpose, stressing that the monarchy was the one institution that linked all
classes and peoples within definite territorial boundaries.
 emphasized royal majesty & royal sovereignty, and insisted on the respect
and loyalty of all subjects
► France
 Charles VII (r. 1422-1461) – ended the Hundred Years’ War in 1453 &
consolidated the authority of the French crown
 reorganized the royal council (increased influence of middleclass men)
 strengthened royal finances through taxes: gabelle (on salt) &
taille (land tax)
 established the first permanent royal army
 published the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (1438) –
asserting the superiority of a general council over the papacy,
giving the French crown major control over the appointment of
bishops, and depriving the pope of French ecclesiastical
revenue

Louis XI “Spider King” (r. 1461-1483) – son of Charles VII
-
Faced with feudal disorder (opposition of the aristocracy to a
centralized state)
 Louis promoted new industries (silk weaving) & welcomed
foreign craftsmen as well as entered into commercial treaties
with England, Portugal, & the Hanseatic League – to raise
revenue through royal taxes
 Used his improved army to stop aristocratic brigandage & to
cut into urban independence.

Louis XII (r. 1498-1515) – marriage to Anne of Brittany added the
duchy of Brittany to the monarchs state.

Francis I & Pope Leo X – Concordat of Bologna, rescinded the
Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges returning papal authority over the
church in France, but allowed for the Monarchs appointment of French
bishops & abbots effectively giving French kings control of
appointments & policies of the church in France.
► England
- Monarchy vs. Parliament (House of Lords & House of Commons)
 Monarchs were dependent on Parliament for revenue
 Edward IV & Tudor monarchs avoided this relationship by
following a policy of diplomacy with foreign states rather than
costly wars.
-

thereby undercutting the source of aristocratic influence
Edward IV (r. 1461-1483) – defeated the Lancastrian forces in the War
of the Roses (York – white Rose / Lancaster – Red Rose) winning
control of the crown

Richard III (r. 1483-1485) Welsh house of Tudor – brother of Edward
IV

Henry VII (r. 1485-1509)
- Royal Council: became the center of royal authority to govern at
the national level
 very few great lords were allowed to serve as advisors to
the king
 majority of the 12-15 members of the council were of the
middle class (lesser landowners who had primarily
studied law)
- court of Star Chamber: royal court who applied principles of
Roman law
(accused not entitled to see evidence against them, trials held in
secret, torture was commonly used, juries were not called)
 primarily used to reduce aristocratic opposition to the
monarchy
 held executive, legislative, and judicial power under the
monarchy
- justices of the peace: unpaid local officials (influential landowners
in the
shires who handled all the work of local government)
 took the place of a standing army or professional service
bureaucracy which the Tudor’s did not have & could not afford
 they apprehended & punished criminals, enforced
parliamentary statues, fixed wages & prices, maintained
weights and measures
-
Tudor monarchs were successful because they were supported
by the upper middle-class who wanted to maintain peace in the
wake of years of anarchy.
-
Henry VII rebuilt the monarchy by:
 encouraging the cloth industry & building up the English
merchant marine
thereby increasing government revenue through the taxation
of the wool industry.
 crushing the invasion from Ireland & securing peace with
Scotland through the marriage of his daughter Margaret to the
Scottish king
► Spain
 Reconquista – the wars of northern Christian kingdoms in Spain to
recapture control of the Iberian peninsula from the Muslims (Moores)
- military & religious objective was to expel the Muslims & Jews
and gain political control of the south.

1469 – Marriage of Isabella of Castile to Ferdinand of Aragon:
constituted a dynastic union of two royal houses, not a political union of
two states.
- Spain existed as a loose confederation of separate kingdoms until

Ferdinand & Isabella (r. 1474-1516)
- Hermandades: “brotherhoods” popular groups in towns given
authority to act as local police forces and as judicial tribunes.
 Used by Ferdinand & Isabella to curb rebellions and warring
1700
aristocracy
-
To curb aristocratic powers – Ferdinand & Isabella restructured
the royal council to exclude Aristocrats & powerful landowners –
reducing the influence of the nobility on state policy
 the council held full executive, judicial, and legislative
powers under the monarchy & supervised local
authorities
 members of the council were of middle-class background
and were trained in Roman Law – which exalted the
power of the Crown as the embodiment of the state.
-
Establishment of a national church through a diplomatic alliance
made b/w the Spanish pope Alexander VI & the Spanish
monarchy creating the “Catholic Kings of Spain”
 allowed the monarch to raise revenues from
ecclesiastical estates to create an army capable of
continuing the reconquista
- which concluded in 1492 with the conquest of Granada
 anti-Semitism: Jewish persecutions due to economic
dislocation, anti-Jewish preaching, and the plague (14th15th cen.)
- New Christians – conversos & Maranos: Jews &
Moors who converted to Christianity under duress.
- Inquisition – used by Ferdinand to punish converts
who secretly continued to practice their religion (mostly used
as a way to deflect popular demands on the state to
persecute conversos)
- Absolute religious orthodoxy and purity of blood
served as the theoretical foundation of the Spanish national
state.
○ following the fall of Granada – Ferdinand &
Isabella issued an edict expelling Jews from
Spain (approx.150,000 of 200,000 fled)
Politics and the State in the Renaissance (ca. 1450-1521)
A. Some scholars have viewed Renaissance kingship as a new form,
citing the dependence of the monarch on urban wealth and the
ideology of the “strong king” – the New Monarchs.
1. The social group that most resisted the centralizing efforts of
the New Monarchs was the nobility, who would lose power to
them.
2. In France Charles VII (r. 1422-1461) centralizing efforts
included:
a. creating the first permanent royal army
b. setting up new taxes on salt and land
c. allowing increased influence in his bureaucracy from
middle-class men.
d. publicizing his right to appoint bishops in the Pragmatic
Sanction of Bourges.
i. The Concordat of Bologna institutionalized the
French king’s control of the French church.
3. Charles’s son Louis XI (r. 1461-1483) fostered industry from
artisans, taxed it, and used the funds to build up his army. He
brought much new territory under direct Crown rule.
4. In England Edward IV ended the War of the Roses between
rival baronial houses.
5. Henry VII ruled largely without Parliament, using as his
advisers men with lower-level gentry origins.
a. His Court of the Star Chamber dealt with noble threats
to royal power in England by putting aristocrats on trial
and using methods on them that contradicted common
law, such as torture.
6. Although Spain remained a confederation of kingdoms until
1700, the wedding of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of
Aragon did lead to some centralization.
a. Ferdinand and Isabella stopped violence among the
nobles, recruited “middle-class” advisors onto their royal
council, and secured the right to appoint bishops in
Spain and in the Spanish empire of America.
b. The last Muslim outpost in Spain at Grenada was
conquered.
c. They supported Columbus’ voyage to the Americas.
7. Popular anti-Semitism increased in 14th century Spain.
a. In 1478 Ferdinand and Isabella invited the Inquisition
into Spain to search out and punish Jewish converts to
Christianity who secretly continued Jewish religious
practices.
b. To persecute converts, Inquisitors and others
formulated a racial theory – that conversos were suspect
not because of their beliefs, but because of who they
were racially: That Jews could be nothing but Jews.
c. In 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the Jews from
Spain.