The Development of Monarchial States and the Holy Wars

Question 1

What were the new powers of a monarch starting in the 16th century?

Answer 1

The monarch’s power was God-given and therefore absolute. Thought shifted away from limiting the power of kings to allowing absolute law.

Question 2

What was the best example of this power shift?

Answer 2

The French monarchial state. By the time of Louis XIV, the government was a centralized monarchy in which the power of the king was absolute.

Question 3

What was an example of this power shift failing?

Answer 3

The English government. Several English rulers were interested in becoming absolutist kings, but the English Parliament stood in their way. Ultimately, the result was the supremacy of Parliament over the monarchy.

Question 4

What were the three major characteristics of a new nation-state?

Answer 4

Growing bureaucratization, the existence of a permanent mercenary army, and a growing need to tax.

Question 5

Why did new nation-states need a growing bureaucracy?

Answer 5

Salaried officials began to depend on the new monarchy for their livelihood. New officials were employed to collect taxes on behalf of the monarch. Corruption also existed, where offices were bought and sold.

Question 6

Why did new nation-states need a new permanent military?

Answer 6

Gunpowder and new technology eroded the need for traditional warfare units like knights. The rising cost of warfare played into the hands of the monarchial states.

Question 7

Why did new nation-states need to increase taxes?

Answer 7

Monarchs were in need to pay taxes for permanent armies, and permanent armies were needed to ensure control the peasantry who disliked the high rate of taxation.

Question 8

What was an area that did not follow this trend?

Answer 8

Italy. it remained divided throughout this state and the battling ground between Spain and France.

Question 9

What was the Treaty of Lodi?

Answer 9

It was a treaty that maintained the balance of power among the major city-states by creating an alliance between Milan, Naples, and Florence. It occurred in 1454.

Question 10

How was the Treaty of Lodi broken?

Answer 10

Ludovico il Moro, the despot of Milan, invited the French into Italy to let them conquer Naples. King Charles VIII of France promptly invaded Italy in 1490.

Question 11

Who was Savonarola?

Answer 11

He was a radical Dominican preacher who overthrew the Medici rulers of Florence just as Charles’ forces crossed into Florence. His uprising marked the end of Florence’s leading role in the Renaissance.

Question 12

How were the French pushed out of Italy?

Answer 12

Ludovico il Moro joined an anti-French Italian alliance that expelled the French from Italy and returned the Medicis to the throne of Florence.

Question 13

What did the French invasions inspire a famous Italian author to write?

Answer 13

The French invasions inspired Niccolo Machiavelli to write the first work of modern political thought, The Prince. His work valued Italian independence above all else and believed only a strong leader with ruthless means could unite Italy and drive out the foreigners.

Question 14

What was the War of the Roses?

Answer 14

They were a series of civil wars between the House of York and the House of Lancaster over who would dominate the monarchy. The Lancasters under Henry Tudor (Henry VII) won central authority when he defeated Richard III at the battle of Bosworth Field.

Question 15

How did Henry VIII strengthen the power of the crown?

Answer 15

He created a small but efficient bureaucracy and created the Church of England. Moreover, most aristocratic opponents were wiped out during the Wars of the Roses.

Question 16

Who was Queen Elizabeth and what did she do?

Answer 16

She was the greatest Tudor and was Henry VIII’s daughter with Anne Boleyn. She was intelligent and was educated humanistically, and surrounded herself with able ministers. She used the prospect of marriage as a diplomatic tool. Elizabeth treated Mary Stuart well, but was forced to execute her after she plotted to kill her. Elizabeth created political stability in England, which allowed the development of the English Renaissance.

Question 17

The marriage of which two leaders laid the groundwork for the reconquest of Spain?

Answer 17

After Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile married, they laid the groundwork for the consolidation of Spain.

Question 18

What was the Reconquista?

Answer 18

It was a military movement in 1492 Spain that conquered the last Islamic outpost in Spain, Grenada.

Question 19

What also occurred during 1492?

Answer 19

It was the beginning of a new wave of religious bigotry, as the Catholic Ferdinand and Isabella demanded religious uniformity. They expelled the Jewish population and allowed the Inquisition to hound Jews and Moors, and later Protestants.

Question 20

Who was Ferdinand and Isabella’s son?

Answer 20

Charles V. He controlled both the Holy Roman Empire and other Spanish possessions.

Question 21

How was the Habsburg land divided after Charles V abdicated?

Answer 21

He gave Spain, the Netherlands, southern Italy, and the Americas to his son Philip and Bohemia, Austria, Hungary and the title of Holy Roman Emperor to Ferdinand.

Question 22

How did the Spanish establish dominance in the Mediterranean?

Answer 22

The Spanish navy beat the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Lepanto.

Question 23

Why did Philip experience debt problems?

Answer 23

He spent immense amounts of money increasing the size of the military, especially the navy. He also attempted to put down a revolt in the Netherlands that resulted from Philip attempting to impose the doctrines from the Council of Trent in the Calvinist land. Finally, the Spanish Armada was sent to conquer England, but was beaten back by Elizabeth’s navy.

Question 24

Who were artists of the Golden Age of Spain?

Answer 24

Cervantes was Spain’s greatest writer, who wrote Don Quixote, which longed for the past traditional values of Spain? El Greco also painted Spain that seemed to be dominant but could not maintain its power. However, the Golden Age of Spain was ended by the collapse of the Spanish economy as a result of the Price Revolution.

Question 25

How was the Holy Roman Empire politically organized?

Answer 25

After the Golden Bull of Emperor Charles IV, seven German princes selected the emperor, often a weak ruler who would not stand in the way of the princes’ ambitions.

Question 26

What happened to the structure of the Holy Roman Empire after the Golden Bull?

Answer 26

The empire continued to splinter into numerous semi-autohomous territorial states, and the emperor had very little actual authority over the states.

Question 27

What were the religious wars in the Holy Roman Empire, and how were they resolved?

Answer 27

Charles V attempted to establish genuine imperial control over the states, but German states used Lutheranism as a justification to avoid losing their independence, forming the Schmalkaldic League. The League and Charles V engaged in war, ended by the Peace of Augsburg.

Question 28

What was the Peace of Augsburg and when was it?

Answer 28

The Peace of Augsburg stated that the prince could decide the religion of the territory, but did not grant recognition to Calvinists. It was signed in 1555.

Question 29

Who was Frederick III?

Answer 29

He was the ruler of the Palatinate who converted to Calvinism. He inspired other German princes to challenge the status quo of the Peace of Augsburg.

Question 30

How did the Thirty Years War begin? When was it?

Answer 30

It began when Ferdinand of Styria was appointed King of Bohemia and pursued anti-Protestant policies, prompting a crowd to defenestrate some of his advisors. Frederick of the Palatinate was declared ruler, but he was quickly deposed by the Duke of Bavaria. It was from 1618-1648.

Question 31

What were the phases of the Thirty Years War?

Answer 31

The Bohemian Phase, the Danish Phase, the Swedish Phase, and the Franco-Swedish Phase.

Question 32

Why did the Danish Phase begin?

Answer 32

The perceived threat to Protestants in Germany drew others into the fight. Other territories were concerned about the structure of the Holy Roman Empire when the Palatinate was stripped away of its rights, which were deemed an attack on German liberties.

Question 33

Who was the best general for the Habsburgs?

Answer 33

Albrecht von Wallenstein

Question 34

What was the Edict of Restitution and when was it? What response did it prompt?

Answer 34

In 1629, it outlawed Calvinism in the empire and forced Lutherans to turn over all property. As a result, the Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus entered the war.

Question 35

What was the character of the last phase of the war?

Answer 35

It consisted of the French and Swedes fighting against the Austrian Habsburgs and their Spanish allies. It was the most destructive phase of the war, as German towns were decimated and an agricultural collapse and famine occurred.

Question 36

How was the Thirty Years War ended?

Answer 36

The Thirty Years War was ended by the Peace of Westphalia.

Question 37

What did the Peace of Westphalia entail?

Answer 37

The Holy Roman Empire maintained its political divisions, and therefore the emperor was ineffectual. It reaffirmed the Augsburg formula of a prince deciding the religion of his territory, but it now recognized Calvinism. Spain also was no longer able to claim to be the protector of Catholicism.

Question 38

What were the French Wars of Religion?

Answer 38

They were a series of civil wars that initially concerned religious ideas but was also demonstrative of the aristocracy and monarchy battling for supremacy.

Question 39

Who dominated the rule of the last Valois kings?

Answer 39

Catherine de’ Medici, their mother.

Question 40

What power struggle occurred in France during this time?

Answer 40

Because the aristocracy had declined as a result of the development of the centralized nation-state, the Guises, a strong Catholic family, struggled with Admiral Coligny, the leader of the Montmorency family, and the Prince of Conde, who was the leading Bourbon. The latter two converted to Calvinism.

Question 41

How did the Wars of Religion begin in France?

Answer 41

The Guises attacked a group of Huguenots, sparking years of combat where the Duke of Guise and the Prince of Conde were killed. The Huguenots were winning, and Henry of Navarre, a Calvinist Bourbon prince, married the sister of King Charles IV.

Question 42

How did the Wars of Religion unfold?

Answer 42

It took several years of combat in which the Duke of Guise and the Prince of Conde were killed. The Huguenots were winning, and Henry of Navarre, a Calvinist Bourbon prince, married the sister of King Charles IV. However, Catherine encouraged her son to carry out the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, which killed countless Huguenots in Paris and in the rest of France, although Henry of Navarre’s life was spared. The new King Henry III then turned to the Huguenots for help against the Catholic League and made Henry of Navarre his heir.

Question 43

How were the French Wars of Religion resolved?

Answer 43

After Henry III was assassinated, Henry of Navarre became Henry IV. Faced with war with Spain and a majority Catholic Parisian population, Henry converted permanently to Catholicism.

Question 44

What was a politique?

Answer 44

It was a ruler that put the interests of the nation above their own wishes and religious unity.

Question 45

What was the Edict of Nantes?

Answer 45

It granted Huguenots freedom of worship and assembly as well as the right to maintain fortified towns for their protection.