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THE NEW
CAMBRIDGE MODERN HISTORY
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
G.N.CLARK I.R.M.BUTLER J.P.T.BURY
THE LATE E.A.BENIANS
VOLUME III
THE COUNTER-REFORMATION AND
PRICE REVOLUTION
1559-1610
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
THE NEW
CAMBRIDGE MODERN
HISTORY
VOLUME III
THE COUNTER-REFORMATION AND
PRICE REVOLUTION
1559-1610
EDITED BY
R. B. WERNHAM
CAMBRIDGE
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1968
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
Published by the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press
Bentley House, 200 Euston Road, London, N.W. I
American Branch: 32 East 57th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022
© Cambridge University Press 1968
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 57-14935
Standard Book Number: 521 04543 6
Printed in Great Britain
at the University Printing House, Cambridge
(Brooke Crutchley, University Printer)
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION {page i)
By R. B. WERNHAM, Professor of Modern History, Worcester College,
Oxford
CHAPTER II
THE ECONOMY OF EUROPE 1559-1609
By F. C. SPOONER, Professor of Economic History, University of Durham
The international economy recuperates after Cateau-Cambre'sis .
.
. page 14-15
Economic phases have their own character
15-16
The effects of historical geography
16-17
Contemporary opinions on inflation
18-19
Prices in France between 1471 and 1598
19
The disparity of different sectors
20
Wage levels hard to assess. A fall in living standards
20-2
Varying incidence of inflation
22
Dearth and disease: plague
23
The balance of gold and silver. Effect on the economy
24-6
Spanish importation and exportation of bullion
26-8
Moneys of account. The adjustment of currencies
28-30
30-1
The inflationary effect of credit. Shift to the North
Population as an economic factor. Expansion of cities
32-5
Cereals and livestock inadequate to demand. Fisheries
36-8
Industry: luxury products and local production
38-9
Expansion considerable but still insufficient
40-2
Assessment of the century
42-3
CHAPTER III
THE PAPACY, CATHOLIC REFORM, AND
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS
By T. M. PARKER, Fellow, Chaplain, and Praelector in Theology and Modern
History, University College, Oxford
44
The Council of Trent formative, with little innovation
The combating of heresy and the definition of doctrine
45
Reform of abuses insufficient to reconcile the Protestants
45-7
Obstacles to progress and achievement
47-8
The regulation of clerical life
49
Centralisation: the growth of papal authority
49-51
Lay control of the Church in Germany
51-2
Church and State in France and elsewhere in Europe
52-4
Missionary work in the New World
54-5
The influence of the State therein
55-7
Estimate of conversion to Christianity
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The Catholic position in Germany, Poland and Hungary
Revival towards the end of the century
Causes of this: nationalism and the Inquisition
The Spanish Inquisition and the pope
The share of preachers and teachers in revival
The educational work of the Jesuits
The part of University teaching
Controversy: grace and salvation
The attainment of sanctity. Spiritual literature
.
.
.
.
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CHAPTER IV
PROTESTANTISM AND CONFESSIONAL STRIFE
By T. M. PARKER
I. LUTHERANISM AFTER LUTHER
The characters of Luther and Melanchthon
The growth of differences
Efforts at compromise with the Catholics
Conflict within the Lutheran party: Melanchthon's position
.
The Adiaphoristic controversy
Problems of salvation and free will
Lutheranism endangered by disputes
The shadow of Calvinism
Attempts to restore unity
Concord achieved. A definitive statement of Lutheran theology .
Factors for survival in German Lutheranism
Protestantism and Catholicism in Scandinavia
The ethos of Lutheranism
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
2. THE DEVELOPMENT AND SPREAD OF CALVINISM
The character of Calvinist Geneva. The Academy
Calvin and Luther compared
The course of Calvinism in France. Organisation
Huguenots and the Guises
The rights of the laity
A Huguenot state within the State
Religion and political tyranny: writings
Calvinism in the Netherlands
Calvinism as a system: discipline in face of trouble
Insurrection and violence
The two Unions. Roots of religious allegiance
Doctrinal disputes among Calvinists
Developments among the Marian exiles
Their situation as bishops return to England
Church reform: Puritan hopes and frustrations
The political background in Scotland
The early career of John Knox
The crisis at Perth and in Edinburgh
Ecclesiastical revenues in Scotland
The settlement of 1560-1. The General Assembly
Steps towards presbyterianism
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King James and the Kirk
Calvinism in Germany, Poland and Eastern Europe
Some characteristics of Calvinism
Anabaptists and Familists
Socinianism
page 118-19
120-1
122
123-4
125
CHAPTER V
SOCIAL STRUCTURE, OFFICE-HOLDING
AND POLITICS, CHIEFLY IN WESTERN EUROPE
By J. H U R S T F I E L D , Astor Professor of English History, University College, London
The pressure of population and prices
Irregular effect upon the economy
Social services inadequate to needs. The immobility of labour .
The financial devices of impecunious governments
Political effects of the Reformation in Germany
.
The contradictory function of aristocracy: relation to crown
The crisis of government in France
The economic situation of the English aristocracy
Their declining role in the constitution
Taxation in England and France: relation of crown and estates .
English customs dues
The weakness of crown revenues in Western Europe
The conflict for political control in France and Spain
Fiscal manoeuvres of European governments
The sale of office and economic controls
Increased need for a bureaucracy
The tenure and disposal of appointments
Revenue from specially created posts
Indirect taxation in England. Wardship
The varying facets of'corruption'
Patronage and government
The growth of professional civil service: a new aristocracy
Features of the period
The salvation of parliament in England
.
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145-6
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CHAPTER VI
INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY AND
INTERNATIONAL LAW
By the late G. MATTINGLY, formerly Professor of History, University of Columbia
The issue of the Italian Wars: Spain and France
Diplomacy matches warfare in development
Four methods of diplomatic action
The risks of royal interviews. Other channels
The machinery for permanent contacts
A decline in contacts. The Conference of Bourbourg
Divisiveness of the religious struggle
Protestant ambassadors leave Italy and Spain
The deterioration of Anglo-Spanish relations
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The limits of Iberian monopoly in the New World
Religion a stronger force than nationalism
The dominant factor affecting ambassadors
Retrograde means of diplomacy adopted
Contacts with Russia and Turkey
No successes outside Europe
A revival of embassies towards the close of the period
The regulation of international behaviour
The common law of Christendom
Changing modes of thought
Rationalisation of conduct: rejection of the recent past
.
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. 168-70
CHAPTER VII
ARMIES, NAVIES AND THE ART OF WAR
By J. R. HALE, Professor of History, University of Warwick
The insistence on war and its justification
Just causes of war defined
The enlistment of science and the arts
Difficulties of recruitment. Conditions of service
The dilemma of security: propaganda
Military books and their effect
The mathematical foundations of warfare
Methods and abuses of recruitment
Obstacles to efficiency of service
Migrations of man-power
Arguments against and in favour of mercenaries
The question of permanent forces
The command and organisation of armies: Spanish pre-eminence
.
.
Administrative and tactical units
The regulation of armies: military laws
The maintenance of morale
The use, development and decoration of armour
Arms: caliver and musket, pistols
Artillery: cannon, culverins and mortars
International trade in munitions
Organisation: artillery, cavalry, infantry
The example of ancient Rome
• .
.
.
Tactics and drill
Tactical formations of infantry and cavalry. Artillery
The theory and practice of fortification
Methods of paying for fortifications
Siegecraft. Parma's siege of Antwerp
Strategy not much considered
Private enterprise in peace and war
The subsidiary part of navies
Galleys, galleasses and galleons
Naval ordnance and tactics. Design
Naval strategy and organisation
The atmosphere of war
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER VIII
THE BRITISH QUESTION 1559-69
By R. B. WERNHAM
The strategic importance of the British Isles
page 209-10
Rivalries for succession and control
210-11
The position of Elizabeth. Her bold and independent policies . . . .
211-12
Revolution in Scotland.'Lords of the Congregation'
212-13
French interests. Elizabeth's counter-measures
213-15
Uncertain approaches to Scottish independence and amity with England .
.
215
Instability in Scotland and in France
216
The return of Mary Stuart
217
Protestant lords and ministers. The policy of Moray
217-18
Mary's claim to the English succession: the attitude of Elizabeth
.
.
.
219
Elizabeth's reaction to the French War of Religion
220-1
The illness of Elizabeth and subsequent pressures
221
Developments affecting the question of Mary's marriage
222
Mary marries the Earl of Darnley
223-4
The subsequent crisis: her appeals to the Continent
224-5
She turns to Rizzio, who is murdered
226
Mary favours Bothwell. The death of Darnley
227-8
Presumptions against Mary and Bothwell
228
Mary loses her throne. Moray becomes regent
229
British unity delayed by English policies
229-30
Elizabeth's reservations sustain the Marian party
230-1
Mary a focus for the discontents of Northern England
231-2
Failure of the rebellion. British security strengthened
233
CHAPTER IX
WESTERN EUROPE AND THE POWER OF SPAIN
By H. G. KOENIGSBERGER, Professor of Early Modern European
History, Cornell University
The growth of religious confrontations
Religious emotion and politics.'Fifth columns'
234-5
236-7
I. SPAIN AND ITALY
Spain and the concept of empire
Unification: the Councils. Correspondence
Personnel: viceroys and governors
Philip's absenteeism: Granvelle's insight and advice
Consultas: the power of ministers and secretaries
Philip's indecisiveness and personal inaccessibility
The rivalries of factions
Protestantism in Spain
The situation of the Moriscoes
Events leading to their revolt
Revolt and settlement.
Portugal: the succession question
Philip annexes Portugal: Alva's campaign
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CONTENTS
The terms and conditions of union
Eastern Spain: Catalonia
Revolt in Aragon: antecedents and results
Spaniard and Turk in the Mediterranean
Pius V's Holy League. The significance of Lepanto
Truce arrived at
The situation in Sicily, Naples and Milan
Genoa's service and prosperity
Spanish relations with the papacy
The challenge of Borromeo
Piedmont-Savoy: the absolutist rule of Emmanuel Philibert
The rule of the Medicis in Florence
The trade and culture of independent Venice
Venetian politics: France, the papacy, Spain
.
.
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.
2. THE PROBLEMS OF THE NETHERLANDS
AND FRANCE TO I585
Netherlands: the period of Philip's residence
The appointment of Margaret of Parma: her task
Religious problems
Philip's plan for reorganisation of the Netherlands Church
The emergence of William of Orange and his friends
Financial crisis and opposition to Granvelle
The situation after Granvelle's departure
Unemployment and famine lead to riots
Alba supersedes Margaret. The Council of Blood
His administrative and financial problems
Purpose, preparations and failure of William and Louis
Progress of Calvinist Sea Beggars in Holland and Zeeland
Requesens succeeds Alba. A further financial crisis
Aerschot and the politiques. The Pacification of Ghent
The governorship of Don John .
.
Opposition to Spain: unity without harmony
The coming of Parma
The two Unions. The Duke of Anjou
Parma embarks on re-conquest
William's death. An assessment
France: the situation after Cateau-Cambresis
The organisation of Calvinist communities
The French nobility: Guise, Bourbon, Montmorency
Rising passions in the reign of Francis II
Catherine de Medici: her aims
Civil War: the first round. Conde's part
Catherine's increased authority. The second war
The third war
Catherine and Coligny
The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve. The fourth war
The politiques. The nobility's vested interest in war
Huguenots and Catholics. The Peace of Monsieur
The Catholic League: its aims and terms
Renewed warfare and the Peace of Bergerac
Temporisation and intrigue
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. 293-4
CONTENTS
3. THE FRENCH SUCCESSION AND THE WAR WITH ENGLAND
Manoeuvres for the succession in France
Philip's designs upon England. The war becomes European
His financial position: loans
The Earl of Leicester's Netherlands expeditions
Particularism of the northern provinces
Preparations for the English invasion
Philip and the Guises
The defeat of the Armada. Philip's reaction
Henry rid of Guise. The League and the King
Disturbances in Paris. The death of Henry III
The character and claims of Henry of Navarre
Philip and the papacy
Mayenne. Divisions within the Catholic League
Navarre enters Paris and reverts to Catholicism
The character of sixteenth-century revolutionary movements
The emergence of a European state system
Changes in Spain's external situation
Her war with England. The Irish rebellions
The Spanish position in the Netherlands
Division: the rule of the archdukes .
Economic expansion of the north. The East India Company
The economic weakness of the Spanish government
Philip II: the achievements of his reign
France: the Edict of Nantes
Reconstruction, economic and political. Officials
Spain, France and the Spanish Road
The interventions of Henry. His assassination
.
.
.
.
.
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CHAPTER X
THE AUSTRIAN HABSBURGS AND THE EMPIRE
By G. D . R A M S A Y , Fellow and Tutor in Modern History, St Edmund Hall,
Oxford
Ferdinand's inheritance and its condition
Assessment of Ferdinand, Maximilian and Rudolf
Territorial divisions and family solidarity of the Habsburgs
The significance of the Turkish menace
The religious position in Habsburg lands
The religious policies of the successive emperors
Progress of the Counter-Reformation
The imperial title: electoral process
The estates of the Empire
The constitution of the Reichstag and its practical authority
The Empire's lawcourts
The basis of administration and enforcement
The German principalities and their rulers
The Electorate of Saxony under Augustus and Christian
The Palatinate: Frederick III and his successors
Bavaria: religion and politics under the dukes
.
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Some causes of political tension in Germany
The ecclesiastical principalities:'ecclesiastical reservation'
Breaches of the peace: the episode of Grumbach
The abbot of Fulda and the bishop of Wurzburg
The struggle for the electorate of Cologne
The marriage and the warfare of Archbishop Gebhard
Successes of the Counter-Reformation in north-west Germany
The uncertainty of the free cities
Conclusion
.
.
.
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.
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345-6
CHAPTER XI
THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE 1566-1617
By V. J. PARRY, Lecturer in the History of the Near and Middle East,
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
The Sultan's household: recruitment and training
347-8
Sipahls: their organisation and rewards
348-50
Decline: the criticisms of Hasan al-Kafland K05U Beg
351-2
Expansion gives place to a static frontier
352
The War of Cyprus. The battle of Lepanto
352-4
Spain and the Ottomans in North Africa
354
Antagonism of Ottomans and Persians
355
The Muscovite advance and the Astrakhan campaign
355-6
Difficulties of the eastern campaigns
356-7
The internal crisis of Persia
357-8
The Persian War: Mustafa Pasha and the first campaign
358-9
The successes of Osman Pasha: Derbend and after
359
The later campaigns and the end of the war. Renewed feuds in Persia.
.
. 359-60
The Ottomans and Austria. Systems of defence
360-1
The Hungarian War. Losses and gains on the Danube
362
The Ottomans suffer a rout and make a recovery
363
Sieges, a final campaign and peace
.
363-4
Significance of the place and the terms
364-5
Effect of the wars on Ottoman institutions: the Janissaries
365-6
New factors in the economic
field
366-7
English merchants in the Mediterranean
367-8
Trade in war materials: propaganda against England
368-70
Financial difficulties of the Ottomans. Causes of the 'price revolution'
.
. 370-1
Consequences of the fiscal troubles
371-2
Discontents and quarrels lead to revolt
372-3
The years of rebellion. Murad Pasha
373-4
The renewed conflict with the Safawids
374-5
A decline noted
376
CHAPTER XII
POLAND AND LITHUANIA
By P. SKWARCZYNSKI, Reader in Central European History, School
of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London
Extent a n d population of t h e realm at Sigismund I P s death
D e g r e e s , differences a n d d i s t r i b u t i o n o f t h e n o b l e s
T h e clergy. T h e peasants a n d t h e countryside
.
.
.
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The towns. Privileges of Danzig
page 380-1
Differences of religion and of language
381
The election of kings: contrasting occasions
381-2
Henry of Valois, Stephen Bathory, Sigismund Vasa: their policies and problems
383
Henry comes and goes. Stephen and the townsmen of Danzig .
384
The challenge to Sigismund. Treaty with the Habsburgs
• 384-5
The conception of kingship: powers and prerogatives .
.
.
.
•
385-7
Sigismund's proposed reforms lead to rebellion
.
387-8
Religion: the Catholic and Orthodox Churches
. 388-90
Calvinists, Lutherans and other Protestants
• 390-1
Relations between the different Churches: a policy of moderation
• 391-3
Foreign policy: Russia and the Smolensk question .
.
.
.
•
393-4
Habsburg intrigues for the crown of Poland
•
394-5
Prussia and the Hohenzollerns
•
395-6
Polish relations with Turkey
396
Defence: the army and the use of mercenaries
397
The economy. Agriculture and industry. Mining
397-9
•
The importance of the large estates
. 399-400
Trade and transport. Danzig and Eastland Company .
.
.
.
400-2
Luxury and poverty. The Court
402
Patronage and the Arts. Historical writing
402-3
.
CHAPTER XIII
SWEDEN AND THE BALTIC
By I. A N D E R S S O N , lately Director, the Riksarkivet,
Member of Swedish Academy
Contrasts between Mediterranean and Baltic lands
Economics and strategy: the background to Sweden's advance .
The foreign policies of Gustavus Vasa and of Eric XIV
.
.
War with Denmark: its beginnings
The Seven Years War and the Peace of Stettin
War with Russia. Poland secures Livonia
The external policies of John III
Internal dissensions. John's death
Sigismund and the Swedish crown. Duke Charles and the Council
Duke and commons: the breach with Poland. Russia
The character and policy of Charles DC as king. War in Livonia.
Unrest in Russia. The war shifts onto Russian soil
.
.
Sweden, Poland and Russia: moves and counter-moves
Denmark and Sweden. War and the death of Charles
The succession of Gustavus Adolphus and the new constitution .
Peace with Denmark: its terms harsh for Sweden
Peace with Russia: acquisitions and failures
The ransoming of Elfsborg, and the Dutch pact
.
.
The economy and the administration. The view ahead
Stockholm,
.
.
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CHAPTER XIV
EDUCATION AND LEARNING
By R. R. BOLGAR, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge
Popular education: reading, writing and counting
Apprenticeship: vernacular training and handbooks
Universities: the revolt of the humanists
Care for moral training
The impact of the Reformation. The work of Sturm
Loyola and the Jesuit schools
The development of schools and adjustment with the Universities
.
The grammar school (lower forms): methods and textbooks
.
.
.
.
The grammar school (higher forms): curriculum and books
Greek as an ancillary study. The school course assessed
.
.
Universities become local: the constricting forces of theology
A growth in higher education, but with narrowed scope
The influences affecting learning
Theological debate. Study and translations of the Bible
Developments in philosophy
Political thought and historical writing. Historical method
Legal studies. Civil law. International law
Classical learning. Textual criticism. Ciceronianism. Aristotle's Poetics
Archaelogy. Linguistics. Academic humanism
The study of European and Asian languages. Science
The distribution of educational facilities and of learning
Summary. Vernacular literature and the diffusion of culture
.
.
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.451-2
CHAPTER XV
SCIENCE
By MARIE BOAS HALL, Reader in History of Science and Technology,
Imperial College, London
A bridge period: from tradition to innovation
The popularisation of science. Scholars and craftsmen
Works on mechanics and navigation. Cartography
Travel literature
Progress in mathematics. Algebra
Astronomy: the impact of Copernicanism
English interest in Copernicus
Religious objection: the case of Bruno
Tycho Brahe: his career, beliefs and system
Astronomy and the calendar
Navigation: new devices. The invention of the log
Compass variation. The dip
Charts, tables and maps. The Mercator projection
Physics
Botany and zoology
Medicine: blood circulation
Medical practice. Chemistry. Surgery
Magic: its nature and scope
Magnetism. The loadstone
The achievement of the period. A changing outlook
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CHAPTER XVI
POLITICAL THOUGHT AND THE THEORY AND
PRACTICE OF TOLERATION
By Miss M. J. T O O L E Y , formerly Lecturer in History, Bedford College, London
Individual choice. The problems of 'heresy'
The Inquisition. The burning of Servetus
Persecution condemned. Truth and the individual conscience
.
.
Socinus: the disjunction of theology and ethics
Castellion: truth and heresy
Bodin on the need for belief. Heptaplomeres
The futility of persecution
The political repercussions of religious disputes
The sovereignty of the state: Bodin and Machiavelli
Sovereignty in France and in Germany
England: the reconciling of free conscience with national order .
.
Belief and practice. Jesuit trials. The Separatists
Royal supremacy: the English version of state sovereignty
Bilson, Cartwright, Whitgift
Hooker: government and the care of religion
.
The Calvinists and the doctrine of resistance
Secular theories of state. Beza. The Vindiciae
Buchanan's egalitarianism
Forms of constitution. Bodin
Representative institutions. Hotman
The shift from obligation to rights. Individualism
.
.
.
.
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490-1
.
.491-2
492-3
493-4
494-5
495-9
499-500
500-2
502-3
503-4
504-5
.
505-6
CHAPTER XVII
COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT AND INTERNATIONAL
RIVALRIES OUTSIDE EUROPE
I. AMERICA
By J. H. P A R R Y , Professor in Oceanic History and Affairs,
Harvard University
Expeditions of the conquistadores. Limits to extension
Portuguese settlements
A slowing down of Spanish expansion
The imperial policy of Philip II
Civil administration. Revenue
Population and labour problems
Food-shortages and their effect on the economy
Haciendas. Changes in policy towards the Indians
Economic and demographic crises in Spain and the Indies
Piracy and illicit trade. The plans of John Hawkins
Pedro Menendez: fortifications and the convoy system
The plans and the achievements of Francis Drake
The'Indies Voyage'1585-6. The capture of Santo Domingo
Limited success of subsequent raids
The reluctance of England and France to plant settlements
New motives for colonisation: Gilbert's Newfoundland
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
xv
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507-8
508
508-9
509-11
511-12
512-13
513-14
514-15
515-16
516-17
518-19
520-1
521-2
522-3
523-4
524-5
CONTENTS
.
Grenville a n d Raleigh. R o a n o k e a n d the G u i a n a ventures .
T h e c o n d i t i o n s vinfavourable t o E n g l i s h a n d F r e n c h c o l o n i s a t i o n
A c h a n g i n g c o n c e p t . C a u s e s p o l i t i c a l , e c o n o m i c a n d social
P r o p a g a n d a for western settlements. H a k l u y t
E n g l i s h c o l o n i s a t i o n : t h e ideal a n d t h e reality
.
.
.
F r e n c h trade a n d settlements. Champlain .
.
.
.
525-6
526
527-8
528
529-30
530-1
By J. B. HARRISON, Reader in History of South Asia,
School of Orientafand African Studies, University of London
Portugal's eastern problems. Estado da India
The eclipse of Antwerp-based marketing
Rivalries of the spice trade
Operations and defence of the Estado .
Revenues of the Estado. Private trading
Portuguese interests in Africa and Arabia
Developments in India
Problems and profits of the Portuguese in Malacca
The crown and the spice trade. Failure of the Estado
Trade with China and Japan. Macau. Silver
The capacity of the Estado for defence and offence
The conquest of Ceylon: revolt and restoration
Syriam. Ternate. Amboina
Missionary work in India and the Middle East
The Jesuits in Japan and China
The Spanish Philippines. Traders and missionaries
The eastward expansion of Russia
The Asian trade interests of England
The Dutch enter the field. The United East India Company
. . . .
532-3
533-4
534-6
536-7
538-9
539-40
540-1
541-2
542-3
543-5
545-6
546
546-7
547-50
550-3
554-6
556
556-7
557-8
.
.
page
.
.
.
2. ASIA AND AFRICA
INDEX
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
T
HE half century between 1559 and 1610 must assuredly rank as one of
the most brutal and bigoted in the history of modern Europe. The
massacre in Paris on St Bartholomew's day in 1572; the calculated
savagery of the duke of Alba's Council of Blood and the wild atrocities of
the Calvinistic Beggars in the Netherlands; the persecution of the Moriscos
in Spain—these were merely the more spectacular barbarities of an age
unsurpassed for cruelty until our own day.
Yet what, in the history of the later sixteenth century, is just as striking
as man's inhumanity to man is man's impotence before events, his inability to control his circumstances or to dominate his destiny. Thus in
the political field the greatest monarch of his time, Philip II of Spain, was
unable to conquer a weak England or a disunited France; could hold only
half his rebellious Netherlands; and ended his reign, as he had begun it,
in bankruptcy.1 His noblest opponent, William the Silent, died knowing
that a union of his beloved fatherland upon a basis of mutual toleration
between rival religions was a dream as remote as the hopes that Sir Edward
Kelley and Marco Bragadino cherished of transmuting base metals into
gold. With others the gap between aspiration and achievement was
narrower only because they pitched their ambitions lower, and indeed for
the most part the rulers of this time did pitch their ambitions much lower
than those of the preceding generation. Was not one of the most successful
of them, Elizabeth I of England, renowned above all for her chronic indecision and her dexterity in avoiding action?
If, however, European rulers and statesmen of the later sixteenth century seemed lesser men than their fathers, this was precisely because their
fathers had aimed too high and attempted too much. At the beginning of
the century a series of fortunate—or perhaps unfortunate?—marriages
had made the young ruler of the Netherlands king of Spain in 1516 and
then in 1519 head of the Austrian Habsburg house and, by election, Holy
Roman Emperor. So, for the next forty years this man, the Emperor
Charles V, became involved, almost continually and generally as a principal, in almost every conflict in every corner of Europe—in that in Hungary,
the Mediterranean, and North Africa between Christians and Moslems;
in that, centred mainly in Germany, between Protestants and Catholics; in that, centred mostly in Italy, between the French monarchy
and the Spaniards; even, through his sister's marriage to the Danish king,
in the struggle for Baltic supremacy. Every local quarrel, therefore, easily
1
I
See also the description of Philip II, below, pp. 239 ff.
I
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COUNTER-REFORMATION AND PRICE REVOLUTION
took on a European significance and princes' ambitions readily swelled to
continental dimensions. While Charles V took his imperial role very
seriously, the French king, too, saw visions of empire and even Henry VIII
of England dreamed of marrying his daughter to the emperor with 'the
whole monarchy of Christendom' as their inheritance.
Yet while the ends that princes pursued grew ever higher and wider, the
means of pursuing them grew vastly more expensive every year. The
expense of the new spreading network of diplomatic and intelligence
agents could perhaps by itself have been borne easily enough by all except
the poorest. But the cost of the new armies and navies, made necessary by
the increasing use of firearms, was so great that by mid-century it had
brought even the emperor and the king of France up to and over the edge
of bankruptcy. The Turks, too, had almost shot their bolt by the time that
Sulaiman the Magnificent died in 1566, while lesser powers had long since
abandoned all attempts at keeping up with the Habsburgs and the Valois.
England, for example, exhausted by the efforts of Henry VIII and Protector Somerset to dominate Scotland, had become first little better than
a French satellite under Northumberland and had then seemed doomed
to absorption in the Habsburg aggregate under the half-Spanish Mary
Tudor.
So the great conflicts that had torn Europe during the first hah" of the
sixteenth century died away as the combatants one by one sank down
exhausted. In the east the long struggle between Christians and Moslem
Turks slowly cooled into a bickering and still explosive co-existence. In the
centre, in the Holy Roman Empire, the Augsburg settlement of 1555 consecrated a triple balance, precarious but generally treasured, between
Lutheran princes, Catholic princes, and a Habsburg emperor whose power
(such as it was) rested more and more upon the far eastern frontiers of the
empire, on the Austrian duchies and Bohemia. In the west the settlement
of Cateau-Cambresis in April 1559 recognised a rough and unstable
balance between the French monarchy and the Spanish branch of the
house of Habsburg, the two leviathans that still towered over all the other
powers and whose long quarrel was now rather suspended than ended.
Each of these conflicts, as it died away, thus left behind it its own
particular political system and after 1559 each of these systems went more
and more its own way in growing isolation from the rest. Their insulation
from one another was further encouraged by the fact that Charles V,
when he abdicated (1555-6), divided his unwieldy inheritance between his
son Philip II—who received Spain, Spanish Italy, Franche-Comte, the
Netherlands, and the New World—and his brother Ferdinand I—who,
with Bohemia, the Austrian lands, and the title of Emperor, was left to
salvage what he could of imperial authority in Germany and on the
eastern marches of Christendom. The partition removed the link between
the various systems and conflicts which had given unity to the political
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INTRODUCTION
history of Charles V's time, and for fifty years and more after 1559 there
is no longer one focal point or personality through which we can view the
affairs of Europe as an interrelated whole. And the change also lessened
the temptation for statesmen of the time to look too far afield and encouraged them to confine their ambitions to their own particular part of
the continent.
Other circumstances further encouraged, almost imposed, such a limitation. The financial difficulties, the near-bankruptcy, which governments
had brought upon themselves by their wars and their over-ambitious
foreign policies, were continued and often worsened after the mid-century
by monetary inflation. We no longer regard the 'price revolution' as
solely the product of the sudden influx of silver from America after the
opening of the Potosi mine in 1543, any more than we think of the Renaissance as caused by the sudden influx of Greek scholars after the fall of
Constantinople in 1453. Nevertheless, the flood tide of American silver,
pouring in on top of other deeper and longer-term movements of population, of trade, and of finance, did quicken and steepen the price rise and
make this a more than ever difficult time for governments and for all whose
incomes were comparatively inflexible.
It was the more difficult because the dying down of the wars left many
of the nobility and gentry without employment in the only profession for
which most of them were trained, the profession of arms. They now looked
to their government for lucrative occupations, or at least for subsidies and
rewards that would enable them to go on living in the style to which they
had grown accustomed. When government failed or fell short in its
expected role of aristocratic provider, nobles and gentry were ready
enough to turn against it. So did many of Mary Tudor's subjects turn
against her and look hopefully to the heir presumptive Elizabeth who was
thought—before her accession—to be 'a liberal dame and nothing so
unthankful as her sister is'. Much of the discontent of the French noblesse
against their Valois kings, and of the Netherlands nobility against their
Spanish overlord, sprang from similar sources. Aristocratic discontent,
indeed, became a major cause of tension in almost every country, at least
of western Europe.
What made it the more dangerous was that government, while drawing
in its horns abroad, was becoming more and more active and interfering
at home. It was intruding more and more into those local affairs which the
landed aristocrats had long regarded as their own peculiar concern, as
franchises where the royal writ ran in practice only by their consent. As its
intrusions often threatened other local interests and classes as well, and
invariably brought to both townsman and peasant an increased burden of
taxes and exactions, the landed nobility and gentry often found themselves
standing forth as popular leaders of local particularism and ancient
liberties against an encroaching central power.
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COUNTER-REFORMATION AND PRICE REVOLUTION
Nor was that all. The growing activity of government required a growing number of government servants. Their loyalty and efficiency had to be
assured by adequate rewards. Yet few governments had sufficient revenues
to be able to pay their servants proper salaries, and few could now dare to
staff their civil service so largely with ecclesiastics as they had done in the
past. More than ever, therefore, they appointed men to offices upon the
tacit understanding that they might supplement a nominal stipend by such
fees, gifts, or plain bribes as their consciences would allow and their clients
would pay. From this it was but a short step to selling offices, monopolies,
privileges, and functions, the purchasers recouping themselves at the
expense of the public without too many questions asked. It was an even
shorter step thereafter to the creation of offices, even inheritable offices,
for the admitted purpose —even the sole purpose—of making money by
their sale. This venality of offices, this sale of privileges and prerogatives
of government, was common, though in varying degrees, to the whole
continent. Abuse of it was all too easy, for the thing itself was an expedient
born of poverty-stricken necessity. How great an outburst of anger it
could provoke, even where its abuse was by no means most flagrant, was
shown by the uproar over patents of monopoly in the 1601 English parliament. Moreover, around the system there grew a tangled connection of
patronage and 'clientage' that could all too easily degenerate into internecine faction, as again was shown during the last years of Elizabethan
England by the Essex-Cecil rivalry.
Equally, however, common burdens and shared grievances could spread
local and aristocratic discontents nation-wide and weld them into something like a national opposition. This happened most easily where the
ruling dynasty was alien and absentee, as in the Netherlands against
Philip of Spain, and in Sweden against Sigismund of Poland; or where the
marriage of a female sovereign threatened to absorb her realm in some
wider political combination, as with England under Mary Tudor and with
Scotland under Mary Stuart. It was in such places that the ancient and
largely negative hatred of foreigners was most readily and rapidly transmuted into something not far removed from a new and positive spirit of
nationalism.1 Yet everywhere this new spirit was beginning to show itself
more or less strongly and wherever it appeared it gave men a new awareness of the distinction between love of country or nation and personal
loyalty to prince or dynasty. William Shakespeare's 'blessed plot, this
England', and William the Silent's 'entire fatherland' were beginning to
inspire in men affections and loyalties not much less ardent than those
inspired by a Virgin Queen or a Most Catholic King. The sharper the
distinction became, the more readily and the more dangerously opposition
to the central government could spring up.
Moreover, while disgruntled aristocrats could thus provide the leaders
1
For a somewhat different view, however, see chapter vi below.
4
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INTRODUCTION
for wide movements of political discontent, there were always hungry poor
to provide those movements with a dangerously undisciplined rank and
file. The great majority of mankind have always lived very close to the
borders of starvation and the later sixteenth century was no exception to
this rule. Indeed, the growth of population was then, it seems, outstripping
the growth of industrial and agricultural production. And the growth of
trade, if it enabled the surplus of one region rather more often than before
to relieve the dearth of another, also left a larger number of people at the
mercy of market fluctuations, tended to depress or hold down real wages,
and increased the gap between rich and poor. Much of England's trouble
in the late 1540s and the 1550s resulted from the economic and social
repercussions of a glut in the Antwerp cloth market; some at least of the
violence of Netherlands disorders in the middle 1560s sprang from the
dearth of corn caused by Baltic wars and from the unemployment in the
cloth industry caused by a quarrel with England. Indeed, it was never very
difficult anywhere to start a riot and the fears of social revolution aroused
by the German Peasants' Revolt and by the excesses at Miinster were kept
keenly alive by such episodes as the Netherlands' image-breaking riots of
1566 or the later violence of the Paris mob and the banditry of the peasants
in other parts of France. In the long run, no doubt, these fears of mob
rule helped to drive the propertied classes back into support of the central
governments—we can see that happening both in the Netherlands and in
France. Nevertheless, it was the opposition of those propertied classes,
or portions of them, to the central power that had opened the fissures
through which these under-surface social discontents could erupt. And
their eruption added still further to the tensions that were straining the
fabric of government.
Last and not least among the problems that caused uneasiness in
crowned heads, there was religious opposition, and in particular Calvinist
opposition. For now, in western Europe especially, the conservative, compromising, and generally prince-loving Protestantism of the Lutherans
and the anarchic and fragmenting radicalism of the Anabaptist sects were
both being shouldered aside by a radical and uncompromising Calvinism.
The leadership of active Protestantism was passing to men who put their
trust not in princes but in the strength and resilience of their own church
organisation and who, despite Calvin's own hesitations, became increasingly quick to assert themselves by force of arms. Flowing outwards
from the fountain-head at Calvin's Geneva, this militant faith spread
fastest along the lines of least political resistance, through those regions
where governments were weakest or most heavily challenged. Its chief
successes thus came in the politically fragmented Rhineland; among the
nation-wide oppositions to Spanish rule in the Low Countries and to
French rule in Scotland; and in France itself, where feeble rulers and royal
minorities gave it the chance to link up with and exacerbate the mounting
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COUNTER-REFORMATION AND PRICE REVOLUTION
feuds of noble and local factions. To the Huguenot faction in France, to
the 'Lords of the Congregation' in Scotland, to the Beggar party in the
Netherlands, Calvinism gave a cohesion and a driving force that no mere
political or economic or social grievances could have provided. For, by a
bond of faith that was stronger than any bonds of blood or interest or
connection, it bound noble and burgher and peasant, men of one province
and men of another, in a common cause that overrode class distinctions
and local particularism. It gave an unprecedentedly effective organisation,
and the self-confidence of an uncompromising faith, to factions that were
already beginning to adopt violent methods to achieve political ends.1
But violence begets violence and the vigour of Calvinism soon provoked
vigorous reactions. The German Lutheran princes hated its theology,
feared its missionary work among their subjects, and trembled lest its
militancy should upset the precarious peace prevailing in the empire since
Augsburg. Soon, in Germany, the controversies between Lutheran and
Calvinist became sharper than the disputes between Protestant and
Catholic. In England, too, Elizabeth I, despite her reluctance to make
windows into men's souls, had to set the Anglican bishops and the Court
of High Commission upon those Puritan agitators who 'would deprive
the Queen of her [ecclesiastical] authority and give it to the people'. In
Scotland James VI found considerable support, and not only among the
northern conservatives, for his resistance to the kirk's attempt to treat
him as 'God's silly vassal'. Even in tolerant Poland the Roman church
was by the end of the century mounting its counter-attack and calling the
government to its aid.
It was, however, in France and the Netherlands that the influence of
religion was seen at its most vicious and that the reaction to Calvinist
violence was sharpest. The Calvinists' resort to arms and their desecration
of churches in the image-breaking riots of 1566 provoked a Catholic
reaction that ruined the first Netherlands opposition and opened the way
for Alba to come in unopposed with the Spanish army and the Council
of Blood. Catholic alarm at Calvinist aggression a decade later undermined the Pacification of Ghent and in 1579 split the momentarily united
Netherlands into the rival Unions of Arras and Utrecht. In France in 1572
the mobs of Paris and other cities needed little incitement to vent their
fury upon a Huguenot minority that looked like becoming more influential
than the Catholic majority could tolerate. Later the prospect of a Huguenot
succeeding Henry III upon the throne provoked the last, longest and
bitterest of all the French wars of religion, that between Henry of Navarre
and the Catholic League, a war that saw Spanish troops invited into Paris
by French rebels and that threatened to sacrifice France's independence
upon the altar of religious fanaticism.
From the 1550s onwards an acute awareness of all these various
1
See also below, chapter ix.
6
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INTRODUCTION
tensions and passions combined with a plain lack of money to restrain
most rulers to modest ambitions in their foreign policies. In the far north
kings of Sweden and of Denmark might still dream of, and fight for,
dominium maris Baltici; and kings of Poland, having achieved a union
with Lithuania, might still regard wider unions, first with Sweden, then
with Muscovy, as practical aims. But the Baltic countries had been less
crippled by wars than the lands farther south and in the Swedish kings
and Sigismund of Poland the tendency of the Vasa family to megalomania
was always liable to break surface. Most of Europe's rulers were more
restricted by circumstances and less adventurous by temperament. Well
aware of how limited were their means for dealing with the growing strains
and discontents within their own dominions, the last things that most of
them wanted to do were to add a large-scale foreign war to their burdens
or to offer their foreign rivals any opportunity to send assistance to their
own rebels. The English intervention in Scotland in 1560, the AngloFrench meddlings in the Low Countries in 1572 and 1578, the Spanish
assistance to the Catholic League in France during the earlier 1590s,
showed only too clearly how dangerous could be the combination of
foreign hostility with domestic opposition.
There was therefore a widespread, indeed for many years an almost
universal, desire to avoid any renewal of the general large-scale warfare
that had been so common during the first half of the century. Yet dynastic
and national jealousies did not, of course, now cease; commercial rivalries
still exploded from time to time; strategic interests remained as sensitive as
ever and princes as prickly about personal and dynastic prestige. Moreover, the existence of discontent and organised opposition within a country
was a standing temptation to its neighbours. And as there was, in greater
or less degree, discontent and opposition in almost every country of
Europe, the governments of the later sixteenth century could almost
always expect to find friends, even perhaps armed allies, within their
enemy's camp, such as the previous generation had found only upon rare
occasions. The fostering of 'fifth columns', the underhand helping of
rebels, thus became regular and recognised instruments of later sixteenthcentury statecraft. They were instruments resorted to all the more readily
because it was so easy for one government to give help to another's rebels
unofficially and without committing any overt act of war. Yet they were
dangerous instruments precisely because the line between underhand help
to rebels and open war between governments was so blurred and uncertain
that even the most cautious and skilful statesmen could easily overstep it
unintentionally.
So a mood of nervous and irritable timidity ruled the foreign policies
of most governments and dominated much of the diplomatic correspondence of their agents—Alba's letters from the Netherlands in 1567-73,
at least so far as they concern the danger of an open break with England,
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COUNTER-REFORMATION AND PRICE REVOLUTION
are a remarkable example. In domestic matters, on the other hand, there
was an increasing tendency to rush into panic measures and violent
solutions—Philip II's despatch of Alba and his army to the Netherlands
in 1567; Catherine de Medici's drastic attempt to remove Admiral Coligny,
which led into the massacre of St Bartholomew's day; the severity of the
English parliament's legislation against the Catholic missionaries; the
growing resort to arms by Rhenish and south German Catholics to uphold
their endangered cause at Cologne, Aachen, and Donauworth. Yet these
desperate remedies did not by any means always solve the problems and
did almost always make the internal conflicts far more bitter and irreconcilable. They thus served all too often only to make the rebels more
ready to call foreign powers to their aid and to strengthen the temptation
for foreign powers to answer their calls.
Worse still was the ready way in which political factions tended to
identify themselves with rival international religious sects—the Guise
faction in France with the church of Rome, the Beggars in the Low
Countries with Calvinism. The tendency did not, of course, prevail everywhere, for religious faith was still a stronger force than political or party
allegiance—hence the reluctance of the Catholic Portuguese to accept the
help of Protestant England against Catholic Spain after 1580 and rebel
Aragon's lack of interest in a Huguenot king of France in 1591. Nevertheless, it did mean that all Protestant rebels—French, Netherlands, Scottish—looked more and more to protestant England for help; all the
Catholic rebels—French, English, Scottish, Irish—looked to Catholic
Spain. By the 1580s the role of Protestant champion was being thrust
upon the very reluctant Elizabeth I; that of Catholic champion upon
Philip II, who until recently had been hardly less reluctant. Unofficial and
underhand intervention now turned gradually into open war and the
various local and national feuds began to coalesce into a new general
conflict.
As yet, during the period with which we are concerned in this volume,
this conflict involved only western Europe directly, only that part of the
continent whose statute had been laid down at Cateau-Cambresis in 1559.
The central, 'Augsburg', area for the most part slumbered on in uneasy
peace. The Baltic states, too, still went their own way, not greatly affected
by the turmoil of western Europe, though the Protestantism of the north
German Hanse towns was sorely tried during the 1590s by English interference with their lucrative trade to Spain in naval stores and corn. Yet
already that turmoil was beginning to spread into the western fringes of
Germany, to the Rhineland, where the establishment of Calvinism in the
Palatinate and the spread of militant Tridentine Catholicism from Bavaria
were striking sparks that could easily touch off a conflagration. The danger
was all the greater because of that region's importance to the communications of the Spanish army in the Netherlands. Trouble in the Rhineland
8
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