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STUDENT NOTES
I. Background to the Renaissance
Chapter 12 – Renaissance (not a lot of questions on the AP exam)
1. Effects of the Bubonic Plague/Black Death (first in Europe 1347 and with recurring epidemics until the 18th c.)
a. Was the result of God’s displeasure with growing worldliness of society; led to religious fanaticism
b. It was a warning to the clergy, because of their profligacy and moral laxity
c. Indication that death was near; so people should eat, drink, and be merry
d. Caused people to question the existence of God that would allow/cause such a thing to happen
e. Caused the abandonment of church-directed rituals of funeral and burial; loss of ceremony led by the
Church
f. The idea that death was a release from their earthly existence changed to an anxiety and a new selfconsciousness regarding the now
g. Art and poetry began to show visions of death, burial, and hell
h. Death became the great equalizer; people of all classes suffered (1/3 – ½ of total Eur. pop.)
i. Shortage of labor led to demand for workers = end of serfdom; shift to paid labor
j. Shortage of labor led to land that could not be worked = only the best land was used
k. Income for aristocrats declined due to paid wages and decreased demand from smaller pop.
2. Climate (Little Ice Age)
a. change led to famine and famine led to revolts (1358 Fr; 1381 lower classes in Eng.)
b. led to the creation of a constitutional monarchy in England
i. 1215 the barons in England imposed restrictions on King John and forced him to sign the
Magna Carta (related to taxes, trial by jury, etc.)
ii. 1265, the middle classes forced Henry III to allow them to participate in Parliament
3. Hundred Year’s War (1337-1453)
a. In a series of battles between France and England, most battles fought on the continent in France
b. Former hand-to-hand combat was replaced by gunpowder; chivalry became obsolete
c. Fr. outnumbered the Eng., Eng. resorted to ambush as a tactic; violated the medieval rules of war
d. Joan of Arc led French forces which forced the English to withdraw from Orléans; but her successes
led to her being burned at the stake for heresy in 1431
e. In the end, feudalism was dead
i. Knights and the feudal system became outdated; not necessary or feasible
ii. Nobles had no money left to fight or provide soldiers to the king
iii. Countries had to draft/conscript soldiers to fill their armies
4. The Decline of the Church
a. The Avignon Papacy (1309-1377)
i. Philip of IV of France set up the head of the Catholic Church at Avignon
ii. The Avignon Popes attempted to compete with secular rulers and to do that, they needed
money which led to:
1. simony – selling church offices
2. taxing the clergyman
3. nepotism – putting their relatives in church offices whether they were qualified or not
4. indulgences – purchasing pardons from penalties for sin, either now or in the hereafter,
or to the benefit of their relatives who were already dead
b. The Great Schism (1378-1417)
i. Two popes were elected--one in Rome and one at Avignon; each excommunicated the other;
laymen were worried whether they could go to heaven—who was the real Pope?
ii. A third pope was elected to replace the other two, in 1409, but then there were simply 3
claiming to be the real pope
iii. Critics of the Catholic Church evolved
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5. Literary Realism
a. Boccaccio’s Social Realism is depicted in Decameron which portrays high-spirited individuals who prize
cleverness, good humor, and the world of the flesh over the classic medieval virtues of chivalry, piety,
and humility
b. Christine de Pisan was a feminist writer (1365-1428?)
i. Married a French nobleman at 15
ii. He died and in order to support 3 children, she became the first female professional writer
iii. Attacked the views of women that demeaned them and denied them access to universities
iv. Book on the City of Ladies exalted the accomplishments of women thru history; used history to
correct misconceptions about women
1. Lucretia, an ancient Roman noblewoman, committed suicide rather than live with the
shame of rape, thus disproving the idea that rape did not bother women
2. stated the evils of civil war
3. praised Joan of Arc
c. Chaucer (1340-1400) – wrote in the vernacular in the style of Social Realism – Canterbury Tales was
the story of 29 individuals who set out to visit the shrine of Thomas á Becket at Canterbury; he
moralized and put down the clergy and hypocrites
d. Scholasticism – there were centers of education throughout Medieval Europe, but the focus was on
religion and the learning was static
6. Art and Music in Transition
a. Art in Italy Giotto’s New Realism (1266-1337) – uses chiaroscuro (light and shade) to show 3
dimensions
b. Devotional Realism and Portraiture
i. Religious scenes more intense and realistic with natural details; interest in human personality
c. Ars Nova (new art) in Music
i. Increased rhythmic complexity; began to think vertically about music rather than just
horizontally
ii. The Mass had been five separate compositions based on the Gregorian chant; but Machaut
(1300-1377) made the Mass a single composition and added a 6th movement; music thus
became as important as the liturgy
iii. Secular music became more important, as well, which paralleled the movement toward the
individual (ballads, rounds, madrigals)
II.
1.
Renaissance Society – a time of recovery from the calamitous 14th century with a revival of
antiquity, the “perfecting of the individual” and secularism. It was generally an urban experience.
Official end is 1527 with the sacking of Rome by Charles V (Early Renaissance - 1350-1450; High
Renaissance - 1450-1500)
The Renaissance began in Italy. Major Italian States: Milan, Venice, Florence, Naples, and the Papal States
a. Italians had benefited from the trade and movement between Europe and Asia and between Italy and
Northern Europe; thus, had the most vigorous city economies = Mediterranean Market
b. Wealthy individuals/families/communities had extra income to enjoy and buy new worldly things;
became patrons to artists, architects, etc.
i. Art was evidence of wealth and a visible extension of the ego in an age of the individual
c. There was a new interest in their history--the Greco-Roman culture/antiquity/classical period
d. There was a revived emphasis on individual ability, and high regard for human dignity and worth.
e. Not all Italians participated in the Renaissance—generally only the wealthy; if changes were occurring
in a city, then the general population could view or hear about accomplishments
f. Secularization – the development of a variety of interests and activities outside the sphere of religion
first appeared in Italy
g. A concept of “ancient” and “modern” times emerged
h. The power of the popes had begun to decline
i. Renaissance began to decline in Italy it remained divided into city-states
j. The idea was that the Greek and Roman civilizations were the beginning and the Renaissance
was bringing back antiquity = rebirth
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2. Economic Expansion
a. Revival in trade and manufacturing, in the 15th century across Europe
b. Many Italian cities were producing luxury items (silk, glassware, handcrafted items in metal and
precious stones). The production of these items, however, did not employ a lot of people.
c. Florence in Italy was particularly prosperous. The Medici family had an economic empire: textiles, real
estate, banking, and mining. Their empire collapsed in 1494.
d. New machinery was developed for digging deeper mines and separating ores
e. Rulers of countries allowed royal land to be mined by entrepreneurs
f. There were technological innovations in mining and metalworking
g. Iron production and metalworking led to better guns.
3. Social Changes
a. 3 social classes = estates
i. clergy was the 1st Estate
ii. nobility (2-3% of the total population of Europe) = 2nd Estate
1. dominated society by holding important political posts and advising the king
2. nobility saw education as the means to maintain their role in government
3. courtly society – the aristocracy developed its own rules for behavior
4. Castiglione
a. The Book of the Courtier by Italian Baldassare Castiglione from 1528
described the basic attitudes of the perfect courtier: impeccable character,
grace, talents, noble birth, participate in military and bodily exercises; have a
classical education, play a musical instrument, draw and paint, be modest but
not hide their accomplishments, be truthful, serve the “prince”; praised the
courtly life
b. Suggests that the Renaissance provided greater opportunities for education
among upper-class women, but they were carefully limited by men because
women were considered social and intellectual inferiors; “men should bring
things home and women care for them”
5. Women inherited fortunes and lucrative businesses which they managed successfully
6. banquets were used to express power and wealth
iii. Third estate – peasants, merchants, and artisans with a wide range of incomes
1. 85-90% of the total population
2. top – patricians who had gained their wealth from trade, industry, and banking
3. middle – merchants, shopkeepers, guildmasters, guildmembers, and artisans
(burghers/bourgeoisie) – provided goods and services
4. less serfdom; shift to rents (labor demand after the Black Plague); however, Eastern
Europe had the reverse issue, serfdom increased
iv. slavery had somewhat disappeared in Europe until the Black Plague and the wealthy needed
laborers so slavery expanded again; declined by end of 15th century; very few in the 16th c.
v. family
1. extended families (parents, children, servants, grandparents, widowed mothers, and
unmarried sisters)—a source of security in a dangerous world
2. family was important; explains the idea of vendetta – a crime committed by 1 family
member fell on the entire family; retaliation by the entire family of the victim occurred
3. marriages arranged by parents to strengthen business or family ties
4. dowry’s paid by the bride’s family; amount depending on whether the marriage inc. the
bride’s status or lowered it; societies org. to raise money for dowries of poor girls
5. father/husband the center of the family and had total control, especially over children
6. wife managed the household and had children; wealthy women had more children
because babies were generally wet-nursed; poor women had fewer children because
they nursed their own babies; 10% of mothers died in childbirth
7. 15th c. Florence, 50% of children born to merchant families died before the age of 20 =
more children to make sure there would be a surviving male to take over the business
8. generally an age difference of 13 years for married couples; men married later
9. accepted that upper class men would have affairs; not the women
10. prostitution flourished, partially because of the late marriage of men
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4. Duchy of Milan – in northern Italy
a. Ruled by Viscontis 1311-1447 and Sforzas 1450-1494 (condottieri – leaders of mercenary bands)
i. Both successful in creating a highly centralized governments
ii. Both successful in devising systems of taxation that generated enormous revenues for the govt
5. maritime republic of Venice
a. stable political entity governed by a small, elected oligarchy of merchant-aristocrats
b. commercial empire brought enormous revenues and gave it the status of an international power
c. major trade lane was to Byzantium
d. Venice offer the Byzantine Empire military support for tax concessions
6. republic of Florence – region of Tuscany
a. governed by a small merchant oligarchy of bankers, etc. that manipulated a republican government
b. Cosimo de’ Medici (1434) took control of this oligarchy
c. Lorenzo de’ Medici continued the family control until 1492
7. Papal States – individual cities and territories under control of the Pope
8. kingdom of Naples – most of southern Italy and usually the island of Sicily; generally a feudal monarchy with
unruly barons and really poor peasants – not much of the Renaissance going on there
9. Independent city-states
a. Mantua – under the Gonzaga lords
b. Ferrara governed by the d’Este family
c. Urbino – ruled by the Montefeltro dynasty; who served as condottiere; Federigo da Montefeltro was
honest and reliable, educated; created Urbino as an intellectual and cultural center
d. Role of women
i. Battista Sforza, niece of the ruler of Milan and wife of Federigo da Montefeltro, read and spoke
Greek and Latin, enc. learning in Urbino, governed when her husband was absent
ii. Isabella d’Este (1474-1539), daughter of the duke of Ferrara, married Francesco Gonzaga,
marquis of Mantua; educated; known for her intellectual and political wisdom; attracted artists
and intellectuals to the Mantuan court; created a huge library; helped rule Mantua and was a
clever negotiator
10. End of Italian Hegemony (1450-1527)
a. Political and military unrest – each of the Italian city-states expected each other to try to extend their
power over the peninsula; because intra-fighting was taking place, outsiders were able to invade the
peninsula; because of these foreigners, the city-states agreed to the Treaty/Peace of Lodi, 1454 – tried
to create an internal balance of power, so they wouldn't kill each other
b. After 1494, this alliance system, between Milan, Florence, and Naples versus Venice and the papacy,
kept the peace between themselves, but could not deal in common with other countries
c. France and Spain fought for control of Italy; Spain won
11. The growth of new monarchies led to invasions of Italy; Italians were never able to ban together; after 1527,
Spain dominated Italy
12. Birth of Modern Diplomacy – a product of the Italian Renaissance
a. During the Middle Ages, the idea of an ambassador was: usually temporary and generally regarded as
doing what was best for Christendom
b. During the Italian Renaissance, a large number of states existed, many so small that their security was
easily threatened; each state began to send “resident diplomats” to their neighbors to gain information;
“do, say, advise, and think whatever may best serve the preservation and aggrandizement of his own
state.” (Venetian diplomat) interests of the state supersede all other considerations
13. Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) and the New Statecraft
a. Secretary of the Florentine Council of Ten; diplomatic missions to France and Germany
b. With the control by the Spanish and reestablishment of Medici power in Florence, republicans,
including Machiavelli, were sent into exile and began to focus on political theory
c. Machiavelli witnessed the tragedy that foreign invaders brought to Italy and the continued division of
Italy into city states; realized that Italy needed to be unified and independent from foreigners and to that
goal the end justified the means
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d. Machiavelli wrote The Prince (1513) – famous treatise on political power in the Western world based on
his knowledge of ancient Rome and the political problems in Italy = a modern, secular concept of power
politics; written as a satire
i. By nature, human beings are “thankless..fickle,,,false,,,greedy,,,dishonest,,,simple” and needed
ruthless power to govern this “sorry breed” and personal morality needs to be guided by justice
and benevolence rather than collective morality
ii. The state should not be judged on morality
iii. Acquisition and expansion of political power as the means to restore and maintain order
iv. A ruler must understand human nature as self-centered
v. A ruler must do what is necessary/expedient
vi. Cesare Borgia was his example – destroy one’s enemies; secure allies; win wars by force or
fraud; make oneself feared and loved by his subjects
vii. the first to abandon morality as the basis for the analysis of political activity
e. His Discourses show that he personally preferred republicanism (elect representatives), like Rome
The Intellectual Renaissance of Italy
14. Italy was the cultural leader of Europe for @ 200 years; the product of a relatively wealthy, urban lay society
a. Humanism – form of education and culture based on the study of the classics/antiquity; actually an
educational program of “liberal arts” (grammar, rhetoric, poetry, moral philosophy or ethics, language,
and history – all based on an examination of classical authors); most humanists were laymen rather
than clergy; the beginning of literature in its modern sense; and an interest in civic and political
questions
i. Petrarch (1304-1374) – father of Italian Renaissance humanism
1. first intellectual to characterize the Middle Ages as a period of darkness, promoted the
mistaken belief that medieval culture was ignorant of classical antiquity
2. described intellectual life as one of solitude
3. rejected family life and a life of action in the community
4. searched for copies of Latin manuscripts
5. established the standards for the study of Latin classics
6. helped form the modern concept of the educated individual
7. raised considerations of moral philosophy without subordinating them to religious belief
8. acclaimed as the finest practitioner of the sonnet form
ii. Civic humanism arose in Florence – civic spirit and pride; Roman Cicero was their model;
active life for one’s state (An individual only “grows to maturity—both intellectually and
morally—through participation.) – humanists served as chancellors, councilors, and advisers
iii. Interest in Greeks – Plato, the Greek poets, dramatists, historians, and orators (Thucydides,
Euripides, Sophocles); these had been considered irrelevant to theological questions in the
Middle Ages
iv. “Consciousness of Being” Humanists
1. Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457) – educated in Latin and Greek; papal secretary to Pope
Nicholas V; focused on the literary criticism of ancient texts; found that the work of the
Donation of Constantine was a forgery (it had been used by popes to back their claims
of power); wrote The Elegances of the Latin Language as a effort to purify medieval
Latin and restore Latin to its proper position as the vernacular language of the day
2. Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459) reflected the cult of humanism at its best; served as
papal secretary for fifty years; collector of manuscripts; wrote Facetiae, a lighthearted
collection of jokes, which included a rather cynical criticism of the clergy
3. Generally wanted a simpler, purer, and more ethical Christianity
4. Neoplatonism - Florentine Platonic Academy founder and scholar was Marsilio Ficino
(1433-1499)
a. Tried to synthesize Plato and Christianity
b. Stated a hierarchy of substance = lowest level is physical matter; highest level
is God; and in the middle are humans
c. Promoted the theory of Platonic love or spiritual love
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v. Education in the Renaissance
1. books on education were written and schools developed; learning was important for
the advancement of human beings
2. Vittorino da Feltre (school for the elite males—only occasionally girls) – a core of
“liberal studies” and need for physical education (javelin, archery, dancing, running,
wrestling, hunting, and swimming); scriptures form the Bible and writings of the church
fathers; attended mass daily and was reverent in word and deed—to develop a
“Renaissance Man” who could be a well-rounded citizen and participate in the civic
activities of their country
3. Pietro Paolo Vergerio – wrote treatise Concerning Character stressing the importance
of liberal arts as the key to true freedom, enabling individuals to reach their full
potential (grammar, logic, poetry, mathematics, astronomy, music, Greek and Latin);
produce individuals who followed a path of virtue and wisdom and possessed the
rhetorical skills to persuade other to take that path
4. Female writers: Isotta Nogarola from Verona, Cassandra Fedele of Venice,
vi. Humanism and History
1. humanists’ believed that classical civilization had been followed by an age of
barbarism (the Middle Ages), which, in turn, had been succeeded by their own age
with its rebirth of the study of the classics, which enabled them to think in terms of the
passage of time; they divided time into the ancient world, the dark ages, and their own
age = periodization
2. humanists’ influenced the writing of history, because of their emphasis on political,
economic, and social forces that explain events
3. they secularized the writing of history: wanted to use documents and critical skills in
their analysis
4. focused on explaining change over time
5. they deemphasized divine intervention in favor of human motives, stressing political
forces of the role of individuals in history
6. Bruni showed a sense of the need for authentic sources
7. Pico della Mirandola (1463-1499) in Oration on the Dignity of Man, looked for truth
outside the Christian scriptures; humans can choose to be either earthly or spiritual
8. Erasmus was the greatest of the northern humanists
vii. Impact of Printing
1. Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz printed the Bible By 1500, there were more than 1,000
printers in Europe and had published 8-10 million books
2. encouraged the development of scholarly research and the desire to attain knowledge
3. facilitated cooperation among scholars and helped produce standardized and definitive
texts
4. stimulated the development of the lay-public reading
5. gave western civilization (Europe) a clear advantage over the rest of the world
III.
The Artistic Renaissance
1. A realistic form of art develops; differs from Medieval art by its realism and use of nudes; experimenting with
perspective; aerial perspective was created by a subtle blurring of details and less color at a distance;
a. Masaccio (1401-1428) in Florence produces the first masterpiece of Early Renaissance art; frescoes in
the Bancacci Chapel with a realistic relationship between figures and landscapes
b. Sandro Botticelli – int. in Greek and Roman myths – well-defined figures that also present an otherworldliness; Birth of Venus portrays Venus as a goddess of earthly love and a goddess of platonic
(divine) love
c. Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) – artist and architect - developed the first laws of linear perspective –
all parallel lines in a given visual field appear to converge at a single vanishing point on the horizon
2. Art in Italy was generally for the church as opposed to Northern Renaissance art which was for the individual
3. advances in sculpture as 3 dimensional Donato Bardi “Donatello” (1386-1466) – sculptor (ex. David – was the
first free-standing life-sized nude since antiquity (Church portrayed the human body as sinful)
4. the dome is a shift from the Gothic spire
5. Portraiture: a new assertion of the individual (portraits of nobility to show power and wealth)
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6. High Renaissance Art – increasing importance of Rome as the cultural center
a. Leonardo da Vinci – studied everything; dissected human bodies to see how nature worked; Last
Supper brilliant in its organization of space, use of perspective to depict subjects 3 dimensionally on a 2
dimensional work, with a psychological dimension
b. Raphael – paintings of “madonnas”-- his attempt to achieve the depiction of ideal beauty
c. Michelangelo – painter, sculptor, and architect – paintings of ideal human being David hands and head
were powerful rather than graceful; painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling
7. The Artist and Social Status
a. wealthy upper classes determined content/purpose of paintings and sculptures they commissioned
b. The artist became an artistic genius rather than an artisan in a workshop
c. Society excused their eccentricities and valued their creative genius
d. Artists profited economically and became accepted into upper class social circles
8. Northern Artistic Renaissance
a. in northern Europe, the cathedrals required the emphasis on illuminated manuscripts and wooden
panel painting; northern painters became master of details, not masters of perspective
b. Jan van Eyck from Flanders – most influential of the Northern European artists
i. was among the first to use oil paint, a medium that enabled the artist to use a varied range of
colors and make changes to create fine details; not as true to perspective
ii. Marriage of Giovanni (1434) – used lots of symbols: apples = union of the first couple in the
Garden of Eden; single candle = Christ/divine light and the traditional nuptial candle; dog =
fidelity; convex mirror shows 2 witnesses (and written above the mirror is “Jan van Eyck was
here”) and represents the all-seeing eye of God; the shoes (to the left) are appropriate for the
muddy streets of Bruges, are off, indicating that this couple is standing on holy ground; ripening
peaches to the left on the chest and windowsill represent fertility and perhaps paradise lost; on
the post of a chair near the bed is a carved Margaret, patron saint of childbirth; he is
dominating by his frontal pose and she is deferential turned toward him; not pregnant—could
afford extra fabric
c. Some northern artists studied in Italy and learned from them: Albrecht Dürer
d. The Northern Renaissance differed from the Italian Renaissance in that the north was more influential
in its writings on science, medicine and mathematics
e. Michelangelo judged that the Northern European Renaissance art was pleasing to the eye, but was
without power or distinction
9. Music in Renaissance Art – music was also more secular
a. Musicians were not held in as high esteem as painters, sculptors, or architects
b. Composers sought more natural sounding music
c. The trends was toward consonant sounds and the use of intervals of thirds in place of the traditional
medieval and ancient intervals of fourths and fifths
d. The printing press also facilitated the spread of music by distributing the music itself, as well as, “howto-play” books
e. Guillaume Dufay (1400-1474) Franco-Flemish composer– changed the composition of the mass from
Gregorian chants as the fixed melody and used secular tunes for the melody; he also composed
secular songs; music moved from cathedral to courts of the wealthy; set the verses of Petrarch to
music for the Medici’s
f. Madrigal is a poem set to music (Italy and France); technique of text painting that tried to portray the
literal meaning of the text, thus, the melody would rise for the word “heaven” or be wavelike for “water”;
spread to England by the middle of the 16th c.; composed for 4-6 unaccompanied voices
g. Josquin des Prez (1440-1521) was composing during the High Renaissance
i. Josquin favored complex designs in which melody and harmony were symmetrical
ii. Practiced “word/text painting”
iii. Practiced imitation – melodic fragments are introduced in the 1st voice and repeated closely,
though usually at a different pitch = integration of multiple voice lines
h. Instrumental music
i. Most Renaissance music was meant to be sung
ii. A lot of music for solo instruments: lute, shawms, cromornes, cornets, trumpets, trombones
iii. Music written for small organs, the clavichord (metal tangents strike strings) and the
harpsichord (quills pluck the strings)
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10. Dance in the Renaissance
a. Dance used in town pageants, courtly rituals, festal displays, and any non-church celebration
b. Folk dances – encouraged the sense of community
c. Court dances – stressed grace and poise
d. “balli” – performed by members of the court, not professional dancers
11. Architecture in the Renaissance – architects were trying to reinterpret, not copy, classical Greco-Roman
architecture; shift from Gothic spire to the dome
a. Leon Battista Alberti – wrote 10 volumes on architecture; designs based on squares and circles
b. Brunelleschi and Alberti felt the human microcosm was the natural experience of a divine macrocosm
and the underlying harmonies; you could use these harmonies to cultivate a rational individual
c. Donato Bramante from Urbino– designed the Tempietto (little temple) with Doric columns which
summarized the architectural ideals of the High Renaissance (columns, dome, and sanctuary form a
monumental and harmonious whole); chosen by Pope Julius II to design St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome
d. The popes wanted to aggrandize Rome and hired famous architects and painters
e. Andrea Palladio (1518-1580) wrote Four Books on Architecture
IV.
The European “State” of the Renaissance
1. attempts were made in the middle of the 15th century to reestablish the centralized power of monarchical
governments (Renaissance States or New Monarchies) – purpose was to acquire and expand power
a. new in their concentration of royal authority; their attempts to suppress the nobility; their efforts to
control the church and their lands; and their insistence upon having the loyalty of the people living
within definite territorial boundaries; however, in central & eastern Eur. decentralization was the case
b. France
i. Hundred Year’s War left France prostrate; depopulated, desolate farmlands, ruined commerce,
and independent unruly nobles made it difficult for the kings to assert their authority; war left a
feeling of nationalism; France will actually strengthen its monarchy
ii. The need to strengthen the monarchy came with war; for Charles VII, with the consent of the
Estates-General, he received
1. the right to levy the taille (annual direct tax usually on land or property) without the
permission of the Estates-General
2. established a royal army of cavalry and archery
3. Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (1438) – an agreement with the papacy that
strengthened the liberties of the French church at the expense of the papacy which
enabled the king to assume control over the French church
4. King Louis XI (1467-1477) - retained the taille as a permanent tax imposed by royal
authority and had a secure source of income; did not repress the nobility; threatened
by Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, who attempted to create a middle kingdom
between France and Germany; Louis eventually added Burgundy, as well as, Anjou,
Maine, Bar, and Provence
c. England
i. The Hundred Years’ War affected many countries, but for England, the loss was not only in
paying for the war, but in the loss of manpower = economic problems and a stronger nobility
ii. civil war also broke out between the families of the Lancaster and York called the War of the
Roses; ended with the Battle of Bosworth Field, 1485
iii. The Tudors took over from the Yorks in 1483 – Henry VII;
1. Henry eliminated “livery and maintenance – the practice by which wealthy aristocrats
maintained private armies of followers dedicated to the service of their lord; English
aristocrats had always relied on the nobles to provide their armies giving the nobles
their own armies to fight the king
2. Henry also controlled the irresponsible activity of the nobles by establishing the Court
of Star Chamber, which did not use juries and allowed torture to be used to extract
confessions
3. Successful in gaining income from: crown lands, judicial fees and fines, and customs
duties; used diplomacy to avoid wars; did not have to call Parliament to ask for funds;
did not overburden the landed gentry or the middle class with taxes = stable, and
strong monarchy
4. Encouraged commercial activity; increasing wool exports = more income
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d. Spain - Iberian Peninsula was occupied by several independent kingdoms: Aragon, Castile, Portugal,
Navarre, Granada
i. The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1469, united the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile;
however, both kingdoms maintained their own parliaments, courts, laws, coinage, speech,
customs, and political organizations
1. they did strengthen the Royal Council in Castile, which had been filled with aristocrats,
and the new rulers filled it with middle-class players trained in Roman law who believed
that the monarch was the state
2. used the hermandades (“brotherhoods”) of the local towns as a national militia to stop
the wealthy landed aristocrats from disturbing the peace; a goal of the middle class, as
well; they were disbanded in 1498 when the royal administration could deal with
lawlessness
3. corregidores were appointed by the crown to replace corrupt municipal officials and
extend royal control into the towns
4. Determined to replace the feudal levies for soldiers, Ferdinand and Isabella developed
a strong infantry; by the 16th century it was the best army in the world
5. Knew they needed to control the church; arranged with the Pope so they could appoint
the most important churchmen in Spain – the chief minister and Cardinal Ximenes
restored discipline and eliminated immorality among the monks and secular clergy and
encouraged uniformity
6. Jews and Muslims existed in Spain; some Jews converted; the Spanish Inquisition
(1478) was to guarantee that converts were sincere; in 1492, Jews and Muslims could
convert to Catholicism or leave Spain
7. Added Navarre and Granada to their territories; their grandson ruled over the area as
Charles I in 1516
e. Holy Roman Empire/Habsburgs
i. failed to develop a strong monarchical authority; Habsburgs ruled the area after 1438
ii. Success due to marriages as a way to gain territories and power;
1. Philip of Burgundy was Maximilian and Mary’s son and was married to Joanna, the
daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella
2. Philip and Joanna’s son became heir to all three lines (Habsburgs/HRE,
Burgundians/France, and Spanish
iii. France feared being surrounded by the HRE
iv. Maximilian I (1493-1519) became emperor and tried to centralize the administration; German
princes opposed this; power of the independent princes increased: Bavaria, Hesse,
Brandenburg, and the Palatinate; they built up bureaucracies, developed standing armies,
created fiscal systems, and introduced Roman law; they were also a threat to the Church, the
emperor, and other smaller independent bodies within in the HRE
f. Eastern Europe
i. Problems in establishing successful monarchies: ethnicity and religion (mostly Slavic, but with
Muslims, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, pagans
ii. Poland had a history of control issues
1. Marriage of Jagiallo (Lithuania) and Jadwiga of Poland (Poland) united the territory
2. Problems with Bohemia and Hungary and wars with Russia and the Turks
3. Serfdom created in 1511
4. No strong monarchy
iii. Bohemia was part of the HRE, but distrust of the Germans and close ethnic ties to Poles and
Slovaks encouraged association to the east; the Hussite Wars led to further dissension and
civil war; no strong monarchy
iv. Hungary tended to be Catholic; only under King Matthias Corvinus was there a strong ruler
v. Russia was under the domination of the Mongols from the 1200s to @1480; Ivan III took
advantage of Mongol dissension to remove them; he also added Lithuania/Poland, Kiev,
Smolensk, and Chernigov to his new Muscovite state
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Southeastern Europe
g. Ottoman Turks and the end of Byzantium
i. The Byzantine Empire controlled the eastern end of the Mediterranean
ii. The Ottoman Turks began seizing territory. In 1453, they took over Constantinople and moved
into the Balkans; by the end of the 15th century, the Ottoman empire extended north to
Austria/Hungary and Poland/Lithuania
h. Result of the “New Monarchies”
i. The future belonged to states organized by national monarchies (dynastic states, not nationstates)
ii. The interests of the state were of its ruling dynasty
iii. Loyalty was owed to the ruler, not the state (subjects of the king)
iv. parliaments, Estates-General, Cortes, or Reichstag limited monarchs
v. Henry VII (Eng.), Ferdinand and Isabella (Spain), Louis XI (France) were the most successful
of the “New Monarchists”
V.
The Church in the Renaissance
1. Council of Constance (1415-1417) had 3 major objectives: mend The Great Schism, eradicate heresy, and
reform the church in “head and members”
a. John Wyclif, an Oxford theologian
i. was disgusted with clerical corruption; there was no basis in Scripture for papal claims of
authority, and suggested that the popes be stripped of their authority and property;
ii. denounced the pope as the Antichrist
iii. the Bible should be the sole authority for Christians
iv. condemned pilgrimages, the veneration of saints, and all the ritual and rites created by the
Church because they were not in the Bible
v. his followers were called Lollards; Wyclif and his followers were attacked for their beliefs
b. a marriage between the royal families of England and Bohemia allowed the spread of Lollard ideas
i. John Hus, chancellor of the university at Prague, urged the elimination of worldliness and
corruption of the clergy and attacked the excessive power of the papacy; was burned at the
stake in 1415
ii. many people in Bohemia resented the Church because of the land it owned and the fact that
so many of the clergymen were German
c. Reform of the church in “head and member” – created a legislative system within the church
i. Sacrosancta stated that a general council of the church received its authority from God; hence,
every Christian, including the pope was subject to its authority
ii. Frequens provided for the regular holding of general councils to ensure that church reform
would continue
iii. Subsequent popes did not execute the decrees to actually make changes within the church
iv. In 1460, Pope Pius II issued the papal bull Execrabilis which condemned appeals to a council
over the head of a pope as heretical – NOTHING CHANGED except the small loss of moral
prestige
2. Renaissance Papacy (from the end of The Great Schism, 1417 to the Reformation) - Used intrigue, deceit, and
open bloodshed to maintain control
a. Pope Julius II “warrior pope” (1503-1514) personally led armies against his enemies
b. Sixtus IV made five of his nephews cardinals (nepotism from Latin for nephew)
c. Alexander VI was famous for his debauchery
d. Not ruling dynasties, used nepotism to support their families making them cardinals over wealthy
territories
e. Supported the Renaissance artists (architects, painters, sculptors)
f. Involved with temporal authority and interests
g. Combated church councils
Conclusion:
The Renaissance was a period of transition that witnessed a continuation of the economic, political, and social
trends that had begun in the High Middle Ages. Intellectuals and artists had a new vision of mankind enjoyed by
the wealthy. Questions were raised about existing institutions.
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