The Renaissance
V. The New Monarchs
- A. Characteristics of Medieval Kings
- 1. Medieval kings received most of their income from their own estates and from grants of money from their vassals.
- 2. Medieval kings marched to war followed by an army of vassals who owed military service in exchange for land.
- 3. Medieval kings relied upon nobles for advice and counsel.
- 4. Medieval kings shared power with the church and were often subordinate to the pope.
- B. Characteristics of the New Monarchs
- 1. The new monarchs retained their feudal income while also taxing towns, merchants, and peasants.
- 2. The new monarchs created professional armies that were paid from the royal treasury.
- 3. The new monarchs created a more centralized administrative bureaucracy that relied upon educated and loyal middle-class officials.
- 4. The new monarchs negotiated a new relationship with the Catholic Church.
- C. France
- 1. Charles VII (reigned 1422-1461)
- a. Charles VII successfully concluded the Hundred Years' War by expelling the English from France.
- b. He strengthened royal finances through such taxes as the taille (on land) and the gabelle (on salt). These two taxes were the main source of royal income for the next three centuries.
- c. He created the first permanent royal army.
- 2. Louis XI (reigned 1461-1483)
- a. Louis XI further enlarged the royal army.
- b. He encouraged economic growth by promoting new industries such as silk weaving.
- 3. Francis I (reigned 1515-1547)
- a. Francis I was the first French king to be called "Your Majesty."
- b. He reached an agreement with Pope Leo X known as the Concordat of Bologna (1516), which authorized the king to nominate bishops, abbots, and other high officials of the Catholic Church in France. This agreement gave the French monarch administrative control over the church.
- D. England
- 1. Henry VII (reigned 1485-1509)
- a. Henry VII created a special court known as the Star Chamber as a political weapon to try prominent nobles. Court sessions were held in secret with no right of appeal, no juries, and no witnesses.
- b. He used justices of the peace to extend royal authority into the local shires.
- c. He encouraged the wool industry and expanded the English merchant marine.
- 2. Henry VIII (reigned 1509-1547)
- a. Henry VIII declared the king the supreme head of the Church of England, thus severing England's ties with the Catholic Church.
- b. He dissolved the monasteries and confiscated their land and wealth.
- E. Spain
- 1. The Iberian Peninsula in the mid-fifteenth century
- a. During this time, the Iberian Peninsula enjoyed a rich cultural diversity that included prominent Jewish and Muslim communities.
- b. The kingdoms of Castile and Aragon dominated Navarre and Portugal. The Muslims held only the small kingdom of Granada.
- 2. Ferdinand (reigned 1479-1516) and Isabella (reigned 1474-1504)
- a. The marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile (1469) created a dynastic union of the Iberian Peninsula's two most powerful royal houses.
- b. Ferdinand and Isabella reduced the number of nobles on the royal council.
- c. Ferdinand and Isabella completed the Reconquista by conquering Granada and incorporating it into the Spanish kingdom.
- d. Isabella decreed that in a Christian state, there could be only “one king, one law, one faith.” She and Ferdinand established the Inquisition to enforce religious conformity.
- e. In 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella issued an edict expelling all practicing Jews from Spain. Ten years later, they demanded that all Muslims adopt Christianity or leave Spain.
- F. Consequences
- 1. The new monarchs consolidated royal power and created the foundation for modern nation-states in France, England, and Spain.
- 2. It is important to remember that the new monarchs did not gain absolute power. The age of absolutism would not occur until the seventeenth century.
