The New Monarchies and Renaissance Politics

This is Unit Fourteen of Western Civilization One: the new monarchies and Renaissance politics, from the French invasion of Italy in fourteen ninety-four to the Ottoman and Safavid empires. Carry one idea through this unit. The anchor's chain runs from guns to money to officials. Gunpowder let a peasant kill a knight and cannon ended the castle, so kings needed mercenaries and fortresses, and those needed money. Kings levied territory-wide taxes for the first time since Rome and staffed the offices with humanist-trained townsmen, the new men, who owed everything to the crown and aimed at the nobles and the Church. Spain, England and France became states by that chain. The Empire, elective and unable to tax its princes, went the other way. East of them all stood the state the anchor calls the model of the age, the Ottoman Empire. By the end you will be able to tell how Italy fell and the Renaissance moved. To explain the tools. To describe the three kingdoms. To describe the Empire and the East. And to classify, map, compare, and state the chain.

Two entries on Italy's fall and the Renaissance's move: the invasion that broke Lodi's peace, and the bureaucrats and painters who carried humanism north.

Lodi's balance breaks.

WC1 1301 1494: The Italian Wars End Italian Independence

Lodi's balance broke in fourteen ninety-four when the French king invaded for Milan, and France, the Empire and Spain fought over Italy into the fifteen thirties, the papacy one more warlike state and the Medici exiled. Italy was drained, only the Papal States stayed independent, and Italy lay under foreign shadow to the nineteenth century. The Renaissance did not end.

Governments wanted bureaucrats trained in the classics.

WC1 1302 How the Renaissance Went North: Bureaucrats and Painters

Humanist education spread because royal governments wanted bureaucrats trained in classics, letters and commercial mathematics, and because the Church added humanism to scholastic training; Erasmus and Luther were both humanist-trained. Artists studied in Italy and returned, and Low Countries painters formed a Northern Renaissance. The anchor calls humanistic education the greatest achievement, attributed.

Three entries on the tools: the shift from first among nobles to monarch, what gunpowder did to the knight and the castle, and the taxes and new men that paid for it.

Loyalty to the king, not the territory.

WC1 1303 From First Among Nobles to Monarch, 1350 to 1500

The medieval king was first among nobles, drawing power from his own lands while vassals fielded armies as large as his, with no standing forces and limited wars. From thirteen fifty to fifteen hundred the largest monarchies funded better armies, expanded, and absorbed smaller states such as Burgundy and the Italian cities. Loyalty ran to the king, not the territory.

A peasant could kill a knight.

WC1 1304 Gunpowder: Pike, Musket, Cannon, and the End of the Castle

Gunpowder, Chinese in origin, reached Europe by the fourteenth century. Early guns were inaccurate but lethal and easy to learn, so a peasant could kill a knight. By the late fifteenth century pike squares with muskets stopped cavalry and cannon ended the castle, Constantinople in fourteen fifty-three the famous case. Many historians reject the phrase gunpowder revolution, the anchor says.

Taxes on salt, heads and hearths, and men who could be dismissed.

WC1 1305 The Financial Revolution: New Men and New Taxes

Guns, mercenaries and fortresses demanded revenue, so kings levied territory-wide taxes on salt, heads and hearths. Humanist-trained townsmen staffed the offices, the new men, dismissable unlike nobles, and their targets were nobles and the Church, the French crown naming French bishops. Consent came from Parliament and the Estates General; the anchor's parlements were courts.

Five entries on Spain, England and France: a marriage and Granada, the expulsions, the War of the Roses and Henry the Seventh's courts, Tudor order, and a professional army paid by the taille.

Two crowns by marriage, and Granada.

WC1 1306 Spain United: Isabella, Ferdinand, Granada, 1492

Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon married in fourteen sixty-nine by convention, the anchor's fourteen seventy-nine being Ferdinand's accession, and their grandson Charles inherited both crowns. Granada fell in fourteen ninety-two, castles were razed, and the army became Europe's most feared by fifteen hundred, Isabella the bolder ruler. The kingdoms stayed separate in their lifetimes.

Convert or leave.

WC1 1307 The Expulsions of 1492 and 1502

In fourteen ninety-two the Alhambra Decree, a witness name, expelled Spain's Jews or forced conversion; in fifteen oh two Muslims faced the same, under the Catholic monarchs. Most emigrated to North Africa or the Ottoman Empire, which the anchor calls highly tolerant by the standards of European kingdoms. The comparison is the anchor's, attributed; the expulsions are the record.

A civil war's winner breaks the nobility.

WC1 1308 England: The War of the Roses and Henry VII's Council Courts

Lancaster and York fought the War of the Roses, fourteen fifty-five to eighty-five. Henry Tudor beat Richard the Third in fourteen eighty-five and as Henry the Seventh broke the nobility with royal judges, conciliar courts, seized lands and a ban on private armies. The battle's and the court's names are course disclosures, and the anchor's Star Court is not voiced.

The gentry as partner, and staggering official violence.

WC1 1309 Tudor Order: Gentry, Gallows, and a Centralized Kingdom

The Tudors allied with the gentry, local landowners with local power, and ruled through them. Official violence was staggering, the anchor says, citing about twenty thousand executions from fifteen eighty to sixteen ten, with whipping and branding to inspire terror. By mid-century England was a centralized kingdom. The execution count is the anchor's, attributed.

The first professional royal army, and the Spider.

WC1 1310 France: Charles VII's Army, the Taille, and Louis XI the Spider

Charles the Seventh, fourteen twenty-two to sixty-one, raised the first professional royal army, paid by the taille, from which nobles were largely exempt, and the gabelle. Louis the Eleventh, fourteen sixty-one to eighty-three, the Spider, made both permanent and mastered nobles and towns. The anchor's fourteen thirty-one for Louis is wrong, and it credits him with Philip the Fourth's acts.

Eight entries on the Empire and the East: seven electors, Charles the Fifth's inheritance, the Ottomans to fourteen fifty-three and beyond, millets, Safavid Iran, and economies that honored merchants.

Elective, and Habsburg by every election but one.

WC1 1311 The Holy Roman Empire: Golden Bull, Seven Electors, Habsburgs

Germany was hundreds of principalities, cities and church lands, and the imperial title was elective under the Golden Bull of thirteen fifty-six: seven electors, four princes and three archbishops. From fourteen thirty-eight the Habsburgs won every election but one until eighteen oh six, and decrees held only with Habsburg arms. The title was an exclamation mark after dynastic lands, the anchor says.

More than any ruler in Europe, and ungovernable.

WC1 1312 Charles V: The Inheritance Too Big to Govern

Charles the Fifth, emperor from fifteen nineteen, grandson of Isabella and Ferdinand, inherited Spain, the Netherlands, Austria and the New World through marriages. At war with France and the Turks, unable to contain the Reformation, he abdicated in fifteen fifty-six, Austria and the title to Ferdinand the First and Spain to Philip the Second. The anchor's fifteen fifty-eight is his death.

Rome's heirs, by their own claim.

WC1 1313 The Ottomans to 1453: Osman to Mehmed II

The Ottomans rose from post-Mongol Turkic kingdoms under Osman in the early fourteenth century, taking Byzantine Anatolia, then Greece and the Balkans. Mehmed the Second took Constantinople in fourteen fifty-three and made it his capital, the largest city in Europe by sixteen hundred, the Ottomans as Rome's heirs. The most powerful state of the period, the anchor says, attributed.

Egypt, Hungary, and a failure before Vienna.

WC1 1314 Selim, Suleiman, Mohacs, Vienna, and the Janissaries

Selim the Grim, fifteen twelve to twenty, took Egypt and the holy cities. Suleiman, fifteen twenty to sixty-six, crushed Hungary at Mohacs in fifteen twenty-six, a witness name, failed before Vienna in fifteen twenty-nine, and took Mesopotamia. The Janissaries were Christian boys levied by the devshirme and raised as elite slaves. Palace-raised sons meant unfit heirs later, the anchor says.

Secondary, and better than Christian Europe.

WC1 1315 Millets and Dhimmis: Ottoman Tolerance and Its Limits

Non-Muslims lived as dhimmis, taxed and uncompelled, organized in millets: the Orthodox patriarch, the chief rabbi and the Armenian patriarch each ran schools and taxes for their community at court, and governors were dismissed for provoking rebellion. Secondary status, yet vastly better than minorities in Christian Europe, the anchor says. Attribute the comparison; keep the secondary status.

A Turkic warlord makes Iran Shia for good.

WC1 1316 Safavid Iran: Ismail, 1514, and a Shia State

Shah Ismail, a Sufi clan leader, took Tabriz in fifteen oh one with Qizilbash warriors and named the kingdom Iran after the Sasanians. The Ottomans crushed him in fifteen fourteen, the battle's name a disclosure, but the Shia ulama made Iran a Shia state for good: Turkic warlord, Shia master, heir of Persia. The anchor's aside on present consequences is not voiced.

A treasury built on silk.

WC1 1317 Shah Abbas and the Silk Monopoly

Abbas the First, fifteen eighty-seven to sixteen twenty-nine, seized real power, built a royal silk monopoly as the treasury's base, protected Armenian and Hindu merchants, and raised slave soldiers with firearms on the Ottoman model, a golden age exceeded in sixteen hundred only by Ming China, the anchor says. After Abbas, persecuting the merchant minorities ended it.

Merchants honored, and silver flowing east.

WC1 1318 Merchants Honored: Middle Eastern Economies and American Silver

Ottoman and Safavid rulers built roads, caravanserais and markets and honored merchants, unlike Europe outside Italy, and protected useful non-Muslims by the agreements later called capitulations. From the early sixteenth century American silver flowed through their economies toward India. Conquests cost more than they yielded, the anchor says, a brake on empire.

Three procedures and the capstone: a royal tool classified by what the king gained, two shaded blocks on the map, the three kingdoms compared, and the chain from guns to money to officials.

What did the king gain control of.

WC1 1319 Classifying a New Monarchy's Tool: Army, Tax, Official, Court, Church

For a royal policy, ask what the king gained control of. A standing army: force independent of vassals. A territory-wide tax: revenue independent of estates. A salaried official: administration independent of nobles. A royal court: justice independent of lords. Church appointments: religion independent of Rome. Paid companies kept in peacetime and funded by a salt tax are army and tax together, Charles the Seventh's France. Council judges trying nobles with private armies are the court, Henry the Seventh's England. Townsmen trained in rhetoric filling the treasury and dismissed at will are the new men. A king naming his own bishops is the Church, France. Castles razed and nobles doing homage at court is force on the nobility, Spain. The tools arrived together because each paid for the next, and the Empire is the counter-case.

Inheritance by marriage, conquest by reign.

WC1 1320 Reading a Map of Charles V's Lands and the Ottoman Empire

For the Habsburgs, read inheritance by marriage: Spain from Isabella and Ferdinand, the Netherlands and Burgundy from Mary of Burgundy, Austria from the Habsburg line, plus the New World. For the Ottomans, read conquest by reign: Anatolia and the Balkans by fourteen fifty-three, Egypt and the holy cities under Selim, Hungary and Mesopotamia under Suleiman. Scattered territories under one ruler with no common border are the Habsburg inheritance. A block from the Danube to the Nile is the Ottomans after Selim. The Danube city where the blocks meet in fifteen twenty-nine is Vienna. A shaded Iran separate from both is the Safavids. The line through France between Habsburg Spain and the Habsburg Netherlands is why France fought on two fronts. After fifteen fifty-six the Habsburg block splits, so the date decides.

Unified, nobles, tax, religion.

WC1 1321 Spain, England, France Compared as New Monarchies

Compare on four paired features. Unified: Spain by a marriage of two crowns and Granada; England by a civil war's winner in fourteen eighty-five; France by a professional army that finished the Hundred Years' War. Nobles: Spain razed castles and shipped rebels overseas; England allied with the gentry and banned private armies; France made nobles exempt from the taille and dependent on the crown. Tax: Spain trade reform; England seized rebel lands; France the taille and gabelle made permanent. Religion: Spain expelled Jews and Muslims; England under Henry the Seventh left the Church alone; France appointed its own bishops. Expulsion is Spain; gentry justices are England; a permanent salt tax is France. The Empire fits none, elective and unable to tax its princes, and the exam uses it as the contrast.

Guns, money, officials, and one empire that could not follow.

WC1 1322 Why States Got Stronger: Guns, Money, Officials, and the Church's Wealth

The exam's questions on the new monarchies and the Habsburg and Ottoman rivalry come from one chapter, and the anchor's chain runs through it. Begin with the Italian Wars: when France invaded in fourteen ninety-four, Lodi's balance broke, and for forty years France, Spain and the Empire fought over Italy with the new weapons; Italy lost its independence, and its Renaissance went north in the baggage of bureaucrats and painters. Next, the weapons. Gunpowder let a peasant kill a knight, pike and musket stopped cavalry, and cannon ended the castle, so kings needed mercenaries and fortresses, and those needed money. Next, the money. Kings levied territory-wide taxes for the first time since Rome, with the consent of parliaments and estates, and staffed the offices with the new men, who owed everything to the crown and took aim at the nobles' privileges and the Church's wealth. Then the three kingdoms. Spain united by marriage and Granada and expelled its Jews and Muslims; England came out of the War of the Roses under a Tudor who broke the great lords and ruled with the gentry; France kept the army and taxes the Hundred Years' War had made and gave them to a Spider king. The Empire went the other way, elective under the Golden Bull, unable to tax its princes, so that Charles the Fifth could not govern what he inherited and divided it in fifteen fifty-six. And east of all of them stood the Ottoman Empire, which took Constantinople in fourteen fifty-three, Egypt and Hungary after, honored merchants, ruled its minorities as millets, and stopped only at Vienna, while Safavid Iran became a Shia rival and American silver ran through both toward India. The exam does not ask whether the gunpowder revolution was a revolution, and the anchor says many historians reject the term; the course gives the pattern and the doubt. It asks what the Golden Bull did, what the taille was, what happened in fourteen ninety-two, fifteen twenty-six and fifteen twenty-nine, what a Janissary was, what a millet was. The anchor's figures are attributed, its errors are corrected, and Bosworth, Chaldiran and the Star Chamber are named only as disclosures.

Look at what you can now do. You can tell how fourteen ninety-four ended Italian independence without ending the Renaissance, which went north with bureaucrats and painters. You can explain the king becoming a monarch, a peasant killing a knight and cannon ending the castle, and the taxes that new men collected. You can describe Spain united by marriage and Granada and emptied of Jews and Muslims, England's Tudor ruling with the gentry, and France's army paid by the taille under the Spider. You can describe an Empire elective under seven electors and an inheritance Charles could not govern, and the Ottomans from fourteen fifty-three to Vienna, their millets, Safavid Iran made Shia, and economies that honored merchants. And you can classify a tool, read two blocks, compare three kingdoms against one exception, and state the chain, guns, money, officials, which is this unit's one idea. Unit fifteen opens on what the new men aimed at last, the Church's wealth, and on a humanist-trained monk named Luther.