Divine right: king was granted power to rule from God; king’s word was god’s word;

king has absolute power.

King James , Sherman page 49: says king has power over physical AND spiritual

Absolute rule: Kings MUCH more powerful than nobles

Sovereignty: the right to rule oneself; government has power over everyone within
their borders;

Germany, Italy, NOT sovergn

England, france, spain: defined set of boundaries, absolutism: singular structure;

Idea of government: sovergnty came from above (the divine)

WESTERN ABSOLUTISM

Spain : Habsburg Family

Ferdinand and Isabella

1474-1516: Their marriage began spain’s path toward absolutism

Still strong confederation of states

Restructered royal council INTENTIONALLY excluding nobles

Started consolidation process

King and Queen symbolized government

Church reforms

Inquisition (authorized by pope sixtus IV)

Had right to select bishops in spain

Wanted to APPEAR religious

1492 jews and muslims expelled from spain

Succeeded by Charles the I of Spain

R. 1516-1556

Is Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire

Gets Spain in 1516, becomes HRE in 1519

 Saw it as his duty to maintiain political/religious unity of europe

Saw Charlemagne as idol (Charlemagne was first HRE)

Resisted reforms

“The empire of old has not many masters but one, and it is our
intention to be that one”

Continued expansion

Ruled spain when Cortes, Pizzaro, Magellan,

Ruled Spain during the pinnacle of power (golden age) both in Europe
and expansion

Abdicates in 1556

Ferdinand I gets HRE

Phillip II gets Spain and New World territories

Phillip II

VERY devout

Married 4 times

First wife was his cousin Marie of Portugal 1453, died 2 years later in
childberth

Son: don Carlos, most historians think Phillip had him

assassinated

Second wife was Mary tudor (bloody Mary) also a cousin died 1555

Third wife Elizabeth Valois, died 1566 Sister to Cat de Medici’s kids

Marriage was part of treaty of Cateau cambresis

Supposed to marry Don Carlos

Dies 1556

Anne of Austria

Was a habsburg

Produces Phillip the third

Dies 1580
 Doesn’t marry again

Introduces permanent beuracracy

CRITICAL TO ABSOLUTISM

Creates permanent Standing Army

CRITICAL TO SOVERIGNTY AND ABSOLUTISM

Consolidates National Taxes (servesios)

Mainly affects lower class

Colonies

Four viceroys

New Spain

Peru (region)

New Grenada

La Plata

Raw materials being imported, HUGE demand, supply couldn’t

keep up with the demand, led to LOTS of inflation

Spreads throughout Europe,

Called the Price Revolution

Only group to benefit was middle class

VERY TINY middle Class in Spain

Signed Union of Utrecht, gives northern Nethrlands religious

Freedom

Phillip Launched armad

TURNING POINT FOR SPIN

Led to sense of defeatism

Had dominated Europe’s politics,

Phillip the III

Reings during Spanish decline

 1598-1622

Population declines and shifts towards the city

Further contributes to agricultural decline

Still saw Usery as a sin

Wasn’t POLITE to make money….

DEF does Not help the country

Starts rejecting GOOD ideas from Neth and Eng

The were protestant, therefore HERETICAL

VERY much in debt

1596-1680

Spain declares bankruptcy FIVE times

Miguel Cervantes writes Don Quixote

Satirizes Spanish crown and Chivalry

Country is falling apart, yet King still lives VERY luxurious

life

Other stuff too

Phillip IV

1622-1665

Was a “completely a moron in regards to being a ruler”

Recognizes own incompetence

Count duke of Olivares manages most stuff

Believed that to revive monarchy, solution went back to

imperialism

Thought that getting involved w/ thirty years war would revive

spain

Lost, BAD IDEA

Treaty of the Pirennes

 Btw French and Spanish Habsburgs

Officially ended Spanish dominance

Made them a “second rate power”

Thirty years war “Yay we won”, Treaty of Pirennes “boo

we lost”

Mercantilism

New economic policy, said that centralized gov controlled

economic policy

Had come from PROTESTANT contries, CATHOLIC

spain ignored it

Ceases to have any REAL influence on European politics

from this point on

Henry VII

New Monarch

Concerned with consolidation

Used diplomacy instead of war to control aristocracy

No war, no need to raise taxes, not bothered by parliament

Court of the Star chamber

Fur collar crime controlled

Middle class supported him

No standing army, relied on Justices of the Peace

Increased cloth and wool exports

Police force and army were 2 different entities.

Not fighting wars, maintains diplomacy through marriage

Arthur married Cat of aragon

Margerat marries Scotisch king

Not really interested in overseas expansion

Henry vIII

1509-1547

Married cat of aragon to maintain alliance w/ spain

DIVORCED, BEHEADED, DIED, Divorced, Beheaded, SURVIVED

English Reformation

Consolidated authority in the crown

Act in Restraint of Appeals,

Act for the submission of the clergy,

Dissolved monasteries

Sells monastical properties to middle class

Helps to avoid parliament

Would fight wars, used cash from monasteries, no need to raise

taxes

Forced to creater permanent government Beuaracracy

No tolerance for dissent

Thomas More was best friends with him, was executed

Edward VI

1547-1553

Died before 17th birthday

Continued Protestantism

Had Book of Common Prayer formalized

Mary Tudor (bloody Mary)

1553-1558

Tried to turn church back to Catholicism

Only serves to reignite Protestantism

Executed 100s of protestants

Mostly those who had helped Henry VII break w/ roman Papacy
Elizabeth I

1558-1603

Machiavellian

VERY SMART

Found the Middle ground between Catholics and Puritans

Formalizes Anglicanism

Official Title: Supreme governor of the Church of England, etc.

Elizabethan settlement: requires outward conformity

Had some semblance of religious tolerance,

If not Anglican, served with a fine, “a slap on the wrist”

Beginning of reign, you were catholic or you were protestant, at the end of
her reign, you were English.

Very shrewd at manipulating parliament

Let them think they had control when she did whatever she wanted

English aided Dutch

Called on the decendants of Wiliam of Orange (William the Silent) when rulers
after Elizabeth weren’t good enough

Defeat of Spanish Armada was HUGE moral victory for England

When she died

NO male heir, no heir PERIOD

Very large debt

Had patronized Shakespeare

James I (Stuart)

Scotich

VERY EXPERIENCED

r. 1603-1625

Couldn’t live up to Elizabeth’s reputation

 Scotish accent was offensive to English people!

Blatantly homo in a largely Puritan contry

Believed in Divine right, AND LECTURED THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

Still had big debt, offended Parliament (BIG MISTAKE)

House of Commons could have bought the House of Lords three

times over

Elizabeth an Henry VIII did to, didn’t lecture anyone

France (Valois and Bourbon Families)

Charles IX

1560-1574

Son of catherine de Medici

Took throne at age of ten

24 years old when he died

Henry III succeeded him

Reign was right in the middle of the war of the three henrys

15

Henry of Navarre (Henry the IV, Henry of BOURBON, Henri “le Grand”)

War of the three henrys

Charles made matters worse, issued contradictory orders

Started consolidation and absolutism

“Paris is worth a mass”

Edict of Nantes

Granted some religious tolerance

Had to deal w/ turmoil from the war of the three henrys

Genuinely wanted to help his people

“a chiken in every pot”

Only statue during the French Revolution not torn down

 Lowered taxes

Makes up for it by putting a fee on the hereditary royal

office,

To pass on an office, you had to pay a fee

Did away with the nobility of the robe

Stayed out of wars

Only war was with Savon, it was short and successful

Relied on Protestant advisor

Duke of Sully

Combined lots of indirect taxes

Subsidized trade company

Boosted economy

Organized national highway system

Visionary of the period

Had imagined an international peace keeping

committee

Killed by crazed fan

Succeeded by Louis XIII

Took the throne at age nine

R. 1610-1643

Marie (mother ruled)

Brought in cardinal richelau

Very strong influence

Three muskateers horribly inaccurate, richelau was

working FOR the king, not at all against him

Raison de tet’ (reason of state)

Destroyed castels as a sign to nobility that

feudalism was OVER
 Sets up intendons

Intendons were administrative peons in each

of the 32 districts

Nobility of the robe became intendons

Intendons could not work in the place

they were born or lived

Chief Minister of Royal council of Ministers to help

keep Nobles in Check

Worked side by side w/ richelaeu

Louis XIII took issue w/ Edict of Nantes

Huegeunot towns not allow catholics to worship in

their towns

Trying to consolidate power, H. towns were “states

within a State”

Forced towns to remove fortifications,

Does NOT take religious freedom away, tries to

weaken H. Nobles

Richealeua first to have Catholic mass in H. town

La Rochelle

Taxation of Peasants

Peasants targeted “arms” of king, b/c could not get to

king

Got at intendons

Local authorities respond weakly

Military not there to back them, feared

turning peasants into martyrs

Louis XIV fixes

Gains Arras and Alsace from 30 years

Goes back and forth from Germans to French from

this point on
 Increased French pride

Dominate international culture, politics

French academy

Standardizes French language

New Policies all cost money

Not easily available, authority to tax was limited

Gets nobles to cooperate by offering favors

Limited true absolutism, where nobles would have

ZERO power

Loius XIV

Grandson of Louis the XIV

1643-1715

HUGE FIGURE IN FRENCH HISTORY

Right now (from what we’ve talked about), can only be

compared to Elizabeth’s reign (in terms of Length)

Became king at age FIVE

Richelaeu had died in 1642

His replacement Cardinal Jules Mazarin

Takes power 1 year before Louis XIV comes to power

Mazarin ruling as Richealue had been

DIFFERENCE, Louis XIV stops relying on Mazarin as a sign

of Absolutism