A200 Block 1 Unit 3 Flashcards
State expansion - taxes
Valois Burgundy - taxation (producers and consumers), powerful political tool, income - ‘aides’
France - regular universal (modern style) taxation, income - ‘taille’, sales - ‘aides’), salt (food preservation) - ‘gabelle’
Clergy and nobility exempt so happy to raise taxes
Formation of councils of Estates, ruler and ruled talk through general assemblies
Crown, courtiers, civil strife and state formation, France, England and Burgundy in the 1440s and 1470s
After 1453…
French centralised state develops and conflict for pre-eminence with Burgundy (main benefactor of Hundred Years’ War?) Philip the Good, Charles the bold
England - only Calais held, wars of the roses
Burgundian state? Brown - The Valois dukes of Burgundy, lands independent of French royal control, taxation on a general scale, military service and administration North and South territories, free of homage, knights of the Golden Fleece
State expansion - troops
Troops = growth in taxation, Charles VII ordinance on the ‘taille’ 1439 = regular companies of mounted men and archers, disciplined and garrisons locally & paid by the region’s ‘taille’. 1439 ordinance forbids private armies, nobles paid captains of the king
Ditto Burgundy 1473-76, Charles the Bold under command of Captains ‘conducteurs’, appointed by the Duke, strict training, discipline, ban on blasphemy, gambling and women in camp + finest artillery in Europe
State expansion - administration
Distance a problem, Burgundy 500 miles North to South, France three weeks journey north most to south most tip, therefore effective local administration essential, centralised difficult (modern not possible), Royal or Ducal service at ‘Court’ used to cajol loyalty from nobles, local nobles used as officers of The State, buying of office, ‘nobility of the robe’
Burgundian attempt at court control, Charles the Bold sets up supreme law court for his Northern lands at Parliament of Malines (Mechelen) - Ordinance of Thionville, Luxembourg, December, 1473 (for the good of the public weal) supplant Paris’ judicial role, independence from France
The Nobility and the chivalric orders
Chivalry used to build common interest clique of intense loyalty, Christian piety, protection of the weak and the church and brotherhood with ruler at head
Burgundy, Order of the Golden Fleece, Dijon based, Philip the Good, 1430, 24-31Knights, legitimate, parents and grandparents must be noble open to all in Philips territories, Origin Jason’s Golden Fleece and biblical story Gideon (judges 6.36-40) + romance, cannot be a member of another rival order, Knights CPD review by order’s members
Other orders
Order of the Ermine - Duke of Brittany, 1381, highlighted claims of autonomy within France
Order of St Michael, France, 1469, 30 Knights, strictly controlled by Louis XI
ALL influenced by English Order of the Garter, 1348, Edward III, the Plantagenet kings international ambitions ‘shame on him that thinks evil of it’ , Edward as King Arthur
England During the Wars of the Roses 1455 1487
Loss of French possessions and prestige by Henry VI and wine trade, bankruptcy of Kingdom, but opens up trade with Burgundy as opposed to France, begins to evolve as a nation and more outward looking
Edmund Beaufort Duke of Somerset (illegitimate but Henry VIs closest male heir) and champion of Margaret of Anjou v Richard Duke of York,
Edward III has five sons which create conflicts and several possible claimants for throne giving younger sons important estates creating ‘over mighty subjects’ able to challenge king’s authority
Ills of the kingdom
Caused by deposition and Murder of Richard II (anointed king).
Henry IV leprosy, Henry V dysentery, Henry VI madness, inability to choose good councillors creating a core of rival claimants - Richard Duke of York and his son Edward IV
Keen 1973 thought people would support king if he ‘could hold his own’ - I.e. Henry V, support withered with weakness
R L Storey 1999 blames start of wars on aristocratic rivalries caused by ‘bastard fudelism’
Bastard Fudelism
AKA Lordship, ‘patronage and clientage’
Lords keep retainers who give military and other service for a wage (clothing with a badge) and social standing, good lordship (protection and board) - ‘livery and maintenance’ = Bastard Feudalism Relationship between Lord and retainer
Caused aristocratic rivalries and social disorder
The Paston Family (gentry - lawyers) of Norfolk and their letters a source of English social history,
“Despite the fact that John III and John II had recently supported the Yorkist cause, they hoped to benefit from the restoration of Henry VI.”
Not everybody was involved in The Wars if the Roses and gentry and men of talent and education began to be needed by Nobles
Played on both sides Edward IV and Henry VI and Warwick depending on advantage. Sir William Stanley, Bosworth, 1485
Bastard fudelism, consolidation of local positions, ride out the wars
“small-landholders to prominent local gentry within one or two generations. William Paston I (1378–1444)”
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