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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 57 Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 CONTENTS 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 . . . . page 58-9 59-6o 60-2 62-3 63-5 65-6 66-7 67-9 69-71 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 vi Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 . . 72-3 74 75-7 77-8 78-9 79-8o 80-1 81-2 82-3 83-4 84-5 86-8 89 89-90 91 92-4 94-5 95-6 96-7 97-9 100 101-2 103 103-4 104-5 106-7 107-8 108-11 112 113-14 114-15 115-16 116-17 117-18 CONTENTS 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 . . . . . . . . . 126-7 127 127-8 129 129-30 130-2 132 133 134 134-5 136-7 137-8 138-9 139-40 140-1 141 142 143 143-4 144-5 145-6 146-7 147-8 148 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 vii Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 150 150-1 151-2 152-3 153-4 154-5 155-7 157-8 158-9 CONTENTS 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 . page 159-60 160-1 161-2 162-3 163-4 164-5 165 165-6 166-7 167-8 . . 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 Vlll Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 171-2 172-3 174 174-6 176-7 177-8 178-9 179-80 180 181 181-2 182-3 . 183-4 184-5 185-6 186-7 187-8 188-9 189-90 191 191-2 . 193 193-4 194-5 195-7 197-8 198-200 200-1 201-2 202 202-3 204-5 206 206-8 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 ix Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 237-8 238-9 239-40 240-1 241-2 242-3 243-4 244 244-5 245-6 246-7 247-8 248 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 . . page 248-9 249-50 250-1 251-2 252 253 254-6 257 257-8 258-9 . 259-60 260-1 261-2 263 . 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 Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 . 264 265 265-6 266-7 267 267-8 268-9 269-70 270-1 271-2 273-4 274 275 275-6 276 277-8 278 279 280 280-1 281 282 283-4 284-5 285-6 . 286 286-7 288 288-9 290 291 292 292-3 293 . 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 . . . . . page 295 296 296-7 297-8 299 299-300 300-1 301 301-2 302-3 303 303-4 305-6 306 . . 306-7 307-8 308 3°8-9 309-10 310-11 . . 311 312 3'3 . . 313-14 314-16 317 317-18 . . . . 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 . . . . . . . . . xi Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 319 320 320-2 322 323-4 324-5 325-6 326-7 327-8 328-9 329-30 33°-i 331-2 332-3 333-4 334-6 CONTENTS 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 . . . page 336-7 337-8 338-9 339-40 340-2 342-3 . 343-4 344-5 345-6 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 . . . xii Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 . 377 378-9 379-8o CONTENTS 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, . . . . . . . Xlll Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 404-5 405-7 407-8 408-9 409-11 411-12 412-13 414 415 416 417-18 418 418-20 420-2 422 423 423-4 424-5 425-6 CONTENTS 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 . . . . . . . . page 427-8 428-9 429-30 430 430-1 431-2 . 432 . 433-5 . 435-7 437-8 . 438-9 439-40 440 440-1 441-3 443-5 445-6 . 446-7 447-8 448-9 450-1 .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 xiv Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 453-4 454-5 455-6 456-7 457-9 459-6i 461-2 462 462-5 465-6 466-8 468-9 469-71 471 471-2 472-3 473-5 475-7 477-8 478-9 CONTENTS 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 . . . . page 480-1 481-3 . . 483-4 484-5 485-6 486-7 487-8 488-9 490 490-1 . .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 Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 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 559 Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 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 Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 NMH3 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 Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 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. Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 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 Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 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 Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 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 Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 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, Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 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 Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008