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EUROPE IN 1500: THE AGE
OF THE NEW MONARCHS
• The early 16th century was the
age of the prince, the first stage
of nation building that would last
for 300 years
• The New Monarchs consolidated
territories that were divided
culturally, linguistically, and
historically
• These New Monarchs started the
process of building European
nation-states
EUROPE
1500
EASTERN
EUROPE
• In the East, three great empires
dominated the political
boundaries
• The Mongol, the Ottoman, and
the Russian (Muscovy)
• Poland-Lithuania also
comprised an enormous
territory
• Eastern lands were less fertile
than the west and the climate
was more severe
CENTRAL
EUROPE
• The middle of the continent
was defined by the HRE
• Politically, central Europe
was comprised of numerous
principalities, Church lands,
and free towns
• By the end of the 15th century
, the HRE was an empire in
name only
• Central Europe was rich in
minerals and timber
WESTERN
EUROPE
• The Iberian
Peninsula, the
French territories,
and the British Isles
formed the
westernmost
borders of Europe
• Agriculturally, the
French lands were
the richest in all of
Europe
THE FORMATION OF
STATES
Caution! Europe
under construction!
• Factors involved in the
formation of states in
Europe in the late 15th and
early 16th century included
geography, population,
natural resources, social
characteristics, language,
and religion
• Furthermore, advances in
warfare made consolidation
easier -- what could not be
inherited or married could
be conquered
• In combination these factors
slowly moved Europe
toward formation of states
EASTERN
CONFIGURATION
• At the beginning of the 16th
century, the principality of
Muscovy was the largest political
unit in Europe
• Under Ivan III, “the Great” (14621505), Muscovy expanded greatly
largely due to deterioration of the
Mongol Empire
• Ivan III extended the privileges of
the nobility and organized a
military class
Ivan III
Russia’s greatest historian, Sergei
Platonov wrote:
“The Grand Duke Ivan, endowed with
quick wit and a will of iron completed the
unification of the Russian lands under
Moscow’s hand… “
IVAN THE TERRIBLE
• The military and political
achievements of Ivan the
Great were furthered by his
grandson Ivan IV, “the
Terrible” (1533-1584)
• Ivan IV defeated the
Mongols on his SE border
and incorporated the entire
Volga river basin into
Muscovy
• During his reign Muscovite
society was divided into
three groups: heredity
nobility (boyars), the
military service class, and
the peasantry
IVAN IV WAS TERRIBLE
• Ivan the Terrible had a
mistrust of the nobility (it
was rumored they had
poisoned his mother) and
it was his treatment of
them that earned him the
nickname
• Ivan massacred thousands
of boyar families and
forcibly relocated
thousands of others
IVAN IV’S ADMINISTRATION
• Ivan IV’s most important
achievement was a system of
central administration
• He created departments of state
which resulted in more efficient
management of military and
revenues
• Russian surfs lost their right of
movement from estate to estate
and overall had far fewer rights
than their western counterparts
Russian peasants
POLAND-LITHUANIA
1569
Union
• At the end of the 15th century, Casimir IV (1447-1492) ruled the kingdom
of Poland and the grand duchy of Lithuania
• The formal union of Polish and Luthuanian crowns in 1569
decentralized the states and gave the nobles more power
• In the end, the states split and Russia took most of Luthuania while the
Ottomans took most of Hungary
THE WESTERN POWERS
• No common pattern
emerged in the
consolidation of
western European
states
• England by
administrative
centralization, France
by good fortune, and
Spain by dynastic
marriage
THE TAMING
OF ENGLAND
Subduing the nobles was critical to
the Tudors success in
consolidating England
• With the natural defenses of an
island nation, England could
have been the first European
nation to consolidate had it not
been for noble ambition and a
weak crown (see War of the
Roses, 1455-1485)
• Henry Tudor as Henry VII and
his son Henry VIII put an end to
dynastic instability and created
a new nobility that owed their
titles and loyalty to the Tudors
• The English monarch were
supposed to live “on their own,”
that is, off the revenues from his
own estate
• Parliament defended the English
landed class interests and had
to OK taxes proposed by the
crown
• It wasn’t until Henry VIII
confiscated Church lands did
the crown become solvent
• Additionally, Henry VIII minister
Thomas Cromwell created state
departments and cleverly
manipulated Parliament
FINANCIAL ISSUES
IN ENGLAND
Parliament in England has long
played a pivotal role in English
politics
THE
UNIFICATION OF
FRANCE
Count Markward of Reisenberg.
Battle of Nancy, 1477
• Threats to France unification
were significant
• The English were finally
subdued by the Hundred Years’
War
• On France’s eastern border,
were the estates of the dukes of
Burgundy
• The kings of France and the
dukes of Burgundy were both of
the House of Valois
• Luckily for France, the
Burgundians were defeated in a
war against Swiss forces in 1477
LOUIS XI CONSOLIDATES
FRANCE
• Louis XI vastly increased
the territories under
France domain and he
subdued the nobles
• His enemies constantly
underestimated his
abilities, earning him the
nickname “the Spider”
• He gained Brittany and
Orleans by marriage and
in 1527 when the lands
of Bourbon fell to the
crown, the French
monarch ruled a unified
state
Louis XI, 1461-1483
LOUIS XI FAILS TO NAB LOW
COUNTRIES
• One misstep by Louis XI was
the failure to gain the
Burgandian Low Countries for
France after the death of
Charles the Bold in 1477
• The marriage of Mary of
Burgundy to Maximilian of
Hapsburg was a significant
turning point in European
history
• It initiated the struggle for
control of the Low Countries
that lasted for more than two
centuries
FRANCE FINANCES
• The long years of wars established the principle of royal
taxation that was critical to nation building in France
• It allowed the crown to raise money for defense and
consolidation
• Most of the tax burden fell to the commoners, the so-called
Third Estate
• Taxes included the taille (land), gabelle (salt) and the aide
(various goods including meat and wine)
FRENCH NATIONAL ARMY
• The French
monarchy was the
first to establish a
national army
• From the nobility
were recruited the
cavalry, from the
towns and
countryside the
massive infantry
THE MARRIAGES OF SPAIN
• Before the 16th century
there was little hope of a
unified Spain
• The Spanish people were
divided in several
separate states
• The two dominant states
were Castile, the largest
and richest, and Aragon,
which was composed of
a number of quasiindependent regions
FERDINAND
AND ISABELLA
• In 1469, teenagers
Ferdinand (Aragon) and
Isabella (Castile) exchanged
wedding vows
• In 1479, the two crowns
were united and the
Catholic monarchs ruled the
two kingdoms jointly and
took the first steps toward
forging a single Spanish
state
Ferdinand and Isabella, Artist: David Galchutt
THE RECONQUISTA
• The most notable
achievement of the
Spanish monarchs was the
recovery of the lands that
had been conquered by the
Moors (what the Spanish
called the Muslims)
• For centuries, the Spanish
kingdoms had fought
against the North African
Muslims, who had
conquered large areas of
the southern peninsula
RECONQUISTA COMPLETE
• The final stages of the
reconquista began in 1482
and lasted a decade
• The struggle was wages as
a holy war and funded in
part by the pope and
Christian princes of
Europe
• After much blood loss,
Granada finally fell and the
province was absorbed
into Castile
JEWS PERSECUTED IN SPAIN
• The idea of a holy war
had other consequences
– Jews who had risen to
prominence in
government and in
skilled professions in
Spain were now attacked
• Even conversos (Jews
who converted to
Catholicism) fell prey to
the Spanish Inquisition
as Jews across Spain
were expelled in 1492
The Spanish Inquisition used torture,
public humiliation, and burnings at the
stake to rid Spain of non-Catholics
FERDINAND AND ISABELLA
CONSOLIDATE SPAIN
• Addition unifying
measures undertaken
by the Spanish
monarchs included:
 Making Castile the
official language
 A single coinage
 Traveled the kingdom
extensively to promote
loyalty
CHARLES V INHERITS VAST
EMPIRE
• Ferdinand and Isabella’s
grandson became the Emperor
Charles V (1516-1556)
• Charles had been born and
raised in the Low Countries,
where he ruled over Burgundy
and the Netherlands
• Through a series of dynastic
accidents, he became heir to
the Spanish crown with its
possessions in the New World
and to the vast Habsburg
estates that included Austria
Charles I of Spain
AKA Charles V of the
Holy Roman Empire,
1516-1556
CHARLES V USHERS IN SPAIN’S
GOLDEN AGE
• The single most
important factor in
Charles’s success in
unifying the Spanish
kingdoms of Iberia was
the fact that he had
brought Spain into the
forefront of European
affairs
• Spanish pride in their
success and prominence
had replaced regional
identity
• Gold and silver from the
New World finance
Charles’s great empire in
the16th century
DYNASTIC STRUGGLES
•
•
•
The formation of large states throughout Europe led inevitably to conflicts
among them
The 16th century was a period of general warfare on the European continent
State’s were an extension of a Prince’s heritage, thus the wars of the 16th
century were dynastic wars
CHANGES IN WARFARE
• The New Monarchs waged
war in a some new and
improved ways from their
medieval counterparts
 Gold and Silver from New
World meant larger
professional armies
 Transport and supply
improvements
 Communication
(dispatches) allowed for
quicker, more effective
movement
German and Swiss soldiers
sold their services to the
highest bidders
THE MAIN PLAYERS
• The three main players in
the dynastic wars of the 16th
century were Charles V
(HRE, Spain), Francis I
(France) and Henry VIII
(England)
• As the three monarchs
matured their youthful wars
of conquest turned into
strategic warfare designed
to maintain a continental
balance of power
THE ITALIAN WARS
• The struggle for European
supremacy in the 16th
century pitted the French
House of Valois vs. the
empire of the Habsburgs
• The battle ground was Italy
• In the late 15th century,
France seized Naples only
to have the Spanish
reclaim it soon after
• Thus when Francis I came
to the French throne and
Charles V to the Spanish,
Naples was just one
source of friction
BATTLEFIELD:
MILAN
• In 1515, Francis I stunned
Europe with a victory over the
Swiss mercenaries at the battle
of Marignano (Milan)
• Milan soon appealed to Charles
V to help against the France
• Charles V then allied with
Henry VIII against the French
• Francis I himself was captured
at the Battle of Pavia as
Charles V won a decisive
victory
FRANCIS’S FORTUNES TURN
• Despite being captured and
forced to sign the Treaty of
Madrid granting the HRE
many concessions,
Francis’s fortunes soon
changed
• He returned to France,
renounced the treaty,
formed new alliances with a
dissatisfied Henry VIII and
most importantly with the
powerful Ottoman sultan,
Suleiman the Magnificent
(1520-1566)
An alliance with Suleiman made
Francis I a formidable foe
FIGHTING
OVER
The Peace of Cateau-Cambresis,
ending the Italian Wars, was agreed
there on April 2-3, 1559
• In the end, the French
could not dislodge the
Habsburgs from Italy
nor could the
Habsburgs dislodge
the Ottomans from
Hungary
• Finally, the Treaty of
Cateau-Cambresis in
1559 ended 60 years of
European conflict
• Both France and Spain
were bankrupt for
decades of fighting
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS ON
THE NEW MONARCHS
• Charles V abdicated his
throne in 1555 and divided
his empire between his
brother Ferdinand I (Austria,
German lands) and his son
Philip II (Low countries,
Spain, New World)
• The New Monarchs
consolidated European
nations while forever ending
any dream of a unified
Christian Europe