Charles' Early Difficulties and Acceptance Flashcards
Who was Charles’ chief tutor? and what did he instil in him?
- Adrian of Utrecht
- installed a genuine devotion to Church eg. regular mass attendance and confession
- he was a member of the devotio moderna, a religious and educational reform movement promoting literacy among the masses
What was a great desire of Charles?
- to reclaim the heart of the Burgundian lands that were lost to France in 1477
What did Chievres instil in Charles?
- political ambition and duty in state affairs
What did the 1516 Treaty of Noyon achieve?
- meant Charles could travel to Spain because it established better relations with France
What was a similarity of Spain and the Netherlands?
- both consisted of a collection of lands united by name of leader (ie. the lands were of separate laws and institutions)
What were differences between Spain and the Netherlands?
- Spain lacked festivities and ceremony
- Spain had a history very different to Netherlands (eg. the recent memory of fighting Islam, Castilians had great pride in achievements and were especially distrustful of foreigners)
Who was really preferred as king by a lot of Spaniards? and why? How did Charles deal with this?
- Charles’ brother Ferdinand who was born and raised in Castile
- shipped to Flanders, to deprive the grandees of a potential figurehead
Why was Charles’ status as a foreigner a problem?
- people doubted his ability to rule
- concerned that he wouldn’t have Spanish interests at heart
What evidence is there that Charles wasn’t really in the best position to rule Spain?
- didn’t speak any Spanish language
- never visited Spain before
- didn’t have much knowledge of Spain/ Spanish affairs
Who was Charles’ chief advisor and why was this resented?
- Chievres
- because he was Burgundian
How was Cisneros treated?
- he was dismissed even though he had maintained control of Spain during Charles’ absence
Which important positions were given to Burgundians instead of Spanish?
- Adrian of Utrecht given Bishopric of Tortosa
- Chievres’ nephew 16-year-old Jacques de Croy given main archbishopric in Castile - the Archbishop of Toledo
What did people complain about Charles handling money?
- some Spanish money was sent out of Spanish to the Burgundian court
Why did Charles’ 1519 election as HRE cause dissatisfaction?
- it was seen by many as drawing attention from Spain
Who had Ferdinand left the regency of Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia to?
- his illegitimate son
How did the great nobles attempt to take advantage of Cisneros’ regency in Castile?
- number of Spaniards had already travelled to Charles’ court in Brussels to criticise Cisneros’ regency and ingratiate themselves to Charles
- death of Ferdinand led others from the Aragonese kingdoms to journey to Brussels and lobby Charles for positions and power
- in Castile, local factions vied for control
What did Cisneros do in an attempt to control the local factions vying for control in Castile?
- attempted to establish a citizen militia which would have made the king independent of the great nobles
- resistance and risings against this by Castilian towns and nobility led Cisneros to abandon plans
What are the opposing views about Cisneros’ regency?
- MacDonald: a time where royal authority all but collapsed
- Lynch: Cisneros “saw Spain safely through the critical months that followed”
At Charles’ first Cortes in Valladolid, he was very ill-advised and thus chose a Burgundian (Jean de Sauvage) as president of the Cortes. What were the reactions to this?
- town representatives immediately expressed their resentment and protested against inclusion of foreigner at their Cortes meeting
Requested that Charles:
- respect the laws and privileges of Castile
- administer justice
- remove foreigners from his service
- learn to speak Castilian
- prohibited from taking precious metals from Castile
- respect the rights of his mother, Queen Joanna
- called him ‘su Alteza’ and reserved ‘Magestad’ for Juana
How did Charles fare with the Cortes in the Crown of Aragon?
- Cortes of Aragon was resistant - January 1519 finally gave him 200,000 ducats
- Cortes of Catalonia, assembled in Barcelona, took over a year to be agreed - reluctantly gave 250,000 ducats
- no time to visit Valencia as he received news that he was elected HRE
Why was the Cortes at Santiago (and later Corunna) called in 1520?
- to obtain money for Charles to pay the expenses incurred in becoming HRE
Why was the calling of the Cortes such an issue?
Choice of meeting place was an annoyance:
- chosen because of its convenience for Charles
- no Cortes had ever been in such a remote place before
- Santiago didn’t even have the right to send representatives to the Cortes
- Toledans refused to appear
- previous subsidy had been granted less than three years ago
- many town representatives tried to obtain discussion before granting the money but as this didn’t suit Charles some of them were bribed, eventually majority approved grant (many of the delegates were disowned from their hometowns, and one in Segovia was murdered by an angry mob)
- Crown insisted on full powers - Salamanca refused
What mistake did Charles make in 1520 as he left Castile?
- appointed a foreigner, Adrian of Utrecht, as regent in his absence
What is an example of a fortress that was given to a Flemish courtier?
- Castle of Lara in Burgos to Cotannes
Why did the nobles initially allow the revolt to remain unchecked?
- they were still resentful about Charles’ pursue of the imperial title, which they believed was inferior to that of ‘king of Castile’
- especially resented Archbishopric of Toledo being given to Jacques de Croy and Adrian of Utrecht as regent
Accusations of the greed (rapacity) of the Flemish have been treated with scepticism. Identify challenges and supports
C: information about their greed came mainly from humanist writers eg. Martire who hated aristocratic world - deliberately distorted for propaganda
S: Chievres wife was given a passport to take 300 horses laden with clothes, bullion and jewellery
Why was the cortes later moved to Corunna?
- Gattinara hoped to gain time to pressure individual procuradores
