The Unofficial Cheat Sheet Huge FRQ TEST #1 on 15Th and 16Th Century European History

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The Unofficial Cheat Sheet – Huge FRQ TEST #1 on 15th and 16th Century European History

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Q1. New Monarchs

· New monarchs consolidated power and created the foundation for Europe’s first modern nation states

· Reduced the power of the nobility through taxation, confiscation of lands, and hiring of mercenary armies or the creation of standing armies

· They tried to reduce the political power of the clergy. Instead of the Church being supreme, they wanted the king to be supreme.

· Tried to create more efficient bureaucracies

· Professional armies were paid for by the royal treasury

Important New Monarchs

1. Charles VII of France r. 1422-1461

* Concluded the 100 Years war and expelled the English from France

* Strengthened royal finances through taxes like the Taille (on land) and the Gabelle (on salt).

2. Louis XI (the Spider King) France r. 1461-1483

* further enlarged the royal army

* encouraged economic growth with new industries like silk weaving

* was ruthless with nobles

* encouraged foreign merchants and craftsmen to immigrate to France

3. Francis I (of France) r. 1515-1547

* made the Concordat of Bologna with Pope Leo X, which authorized the king to appoint bishops, abbots and other high officials in the Catholic Church in France

England’s New Monarchs

4. Henry VII r. 1485 – 1589

* had a special court – the Star Chamber

*used it as a political weapon

* he tried prominent nobles

* court sessions were held in secret with no right of appeal, no juries, no witnesses, torture

* he encouraged the wool industry and expanded the English merchant marine

5. Henry VIII r. 1509 – 1547

* he declared the king the supreme head of the Church of England, thus severing England’s ties with the Catholic Church

* dissolved monasteries and confiscated their land and wealth

Spanish New Monarchs

1. Ferdinand and Isabella

*The marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile created a dynastic union of the Iberian Peninsula’s most powerful royal houses

*They completed the Reconquista, by conquering Muslim territory Grenada and incorporating it into the Spanish kingdom

*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.

* In 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella issued an edict expelling Jews from Spain. Ten years later they demanded that all Muslims adopt Christianity or leave Spain.

Consequences

1. New monarchs consolidated royal power and created the foundation for modern nation states in France, England and Spain.

2. Remember that new monarchs did not gain absolute power. The age of absolutism did not occur until the seventeenth century.

Q2. Religious Policies of 3 Women Rulers

Elizabeth I of England

· Inherited a difficult religious problem. Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church. Her sister Mary I tried to re-impose Catholicism.

The Elizabethan Settlement

· Elizabeth was a Politique

· Strove to find a middle course which both Catholics and moderate protestants would accept

· While Elizabeth and Parliament insisted on Anglican worship, Catholicism was tolerated

· Elizabeth instituted the Book of Common Prayer in 1559

· Services were given in English

· Monasteries not re-established

Catherine de Medici of France

· France was predominantly Catholic

· There was an increase of Huguenots or French Calvinists

· Catherine tried at first to allow religious toleration

· The Catholic League, headed by the Guise family forced her to accept only Catholicism in France.

· Catherine didn’t intervene when the Guise family led the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre against the Huguenots. This led to 15 years of religious wars in France

Isabella I of Spain

· Isabella ruled over Spain, which was mostly Catholic, with a large Muslim center in Grenada and a scattered number of Jews.

· Isabella sought to drive out the Muslims and Jews from Spain during the Reconquista.

· She instituted the Spanish Inquisition to root out the conversos who returned to Judaism after claiming to convert to Christianity.

· Tomas de Torquemada led the Spanish Inquisition at the behest of Isabella

· Isabella declared that in a Christian state there could be only “one king, one law, one faith”

Comparing these female rulers

· Each of these women wanted to rule over a united country but followed different religious policies to do so.

· Isabella forced people of divergent religions out of her country

· Elizabeth was a Politique and tried to avoid destructive religious civil wars.

· Both Elizabeth and Isabella’s rule marked the beginning of a golden age for their countries

· Catherine de Medici tried to be religiously tolerant, but had to change her policy to support only Catholicism so that she could survive politically

Q3. Spain’s Rise and Decline

· In 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella united Spain

· They drove out Muslims and Jews in the Reconquista and unified Spain under Catholicism

· Ferdinand and Isabella sponsored Columbus’ journey to America, thus making a claim on valuable land and colonies

· They used the encomienda system to enslave Native Americans and enrich their nation by mining for silver and gold.

· Phillip II of Spain had goals of increasing Spanish power, and wealth.

· Phillip built Escorial, a large palace in Madrid, to demonstrate Spanish superiority

· Phillip defeated the Ottoman forces at the Battle of Lepanto, thus gaining control of the Mediterranean Sea trade.

· Phillip desired to spread and protect Catholicism.

· As a result, he sent the Duke of Alva to invade the Spanish Netherlands.

· The Duke of Alva executed heretics and raised taxes. This resulted in Dutch rebellion led by the territory of Holland and William of Orange.

· Phillip sent the Duke of Parma to try a less hostile tactic in the Netherlands.

· Parma used diplomacy instead of force. The result was that he recovered some of the southern provinces of the Netherlands for Spain.

· In 1581, the Dutch declared their independence from Spain, this reducing Spain’s power

· Phillip II also attacked England, using the Spanish Armada. He met strong resistance from Queen Elizabeth I

· Elizabeth sent Sir Francis Drake to attack Spanish ships as a privateer.

· When the Armada approached England, Elizabeth gave her famous speech to the troops at Tilbury.

· England had smaller, faster ships which defeated slower moving Spanish ships. A storm also sank many Spanish ships. This defeat of the Armada weakened Spanish power.

Conclusion

· Phillip’s defeats began Spain’s long period of economic and political decline.

· The independent Dutch and English began a golden age and took over some of the Spanish trade and political dominance. Both the Dutch and English shipping grew, while the Spanish declined.

Q4. Protestant Reformation was Economic

Lutheran Reformation

· Sale of Indulgences – angered Martin Luther

· Frederick the Wise of Saxony wanted to, “keep Saxon coins in Saxon pockets”

· German leaders resented money from indulgences going to a foreign country, to another leader, to build a cathedral that many of their people would never see.

· Sale of indulgences would destroy the economies of German towns and territories

· Johann Tetzel, “as soon as coin in coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs”

The English Reformation

· Henry VIII was married to Catherine of Aragon for 18 years. She could not produce a male heir

· The Pope would not annul Henry’s marriage

· Anne Boleyn’s pregnancy complicated things

· Henry VIII was encouraged by Bishop Thomas Cranmer to break away from the Catholic Church

· Henry VIII issued the Act of Supremacy, which made England break from the Catholic Church. It made the Henry the head of the Anglican Church

· Henry confiscated all Catholic Church lands, monasteries and tithes.

· Henry could now appoint all church officials, thus increasing his power and wealth.

Q5. The Catholic Counter Reformation

· The Lutheran Reformation challenged the Catholic Church by rejecting the sale of indulgences, rejecting the infallibility of the Pope, rejecting all but 2 of the 7 sacraments, rejecting clerical celibacy, monasteries, and abuses of church authority.

· Luther believed in Justification through faith alone and said that the Bible should be the sole authority for Christians.

· The Catholic Counter Reformation was begun by Pope Paul III and happened largely at the Council of Trent.

· The Council of Trent rejected Luther’s doctrine of Justification by faith and re-affirmed that salvation is achieved by both faith and good works.

· The Council rejected the Protestant belief in the supremacy of the Bible and re-affirmed that equal weight should be given to Scripture and to traditional Catholic teachings.

· It rejected Luther’s contention that there were just two sacraments and reaffirmed that there were seven sacraments.

Reformed church abuses

· The Council decreed that indulgences should no longer be sold in exchange for financial contributions.

· It forbade simony, the sale of church offices

· The council instructed bishops to live in the dioceses they served

· It reaffirmed the veneration of relics and images as valid expressions of Christian piety.

· It confirmed the Vulgate as the authoritative Catholic edition of the Bible.

· It decreed that Latin continue to be the language of worship.

· It preserved the papacy as the center of Catholic unity

· A new order was formed called the Society of Jesus (or Jesuits)

· Their leader was Ignatius of Loyola

· Ignatius wrote The Spiritual Exercises, which detailed a system of disciplined meditation, prayer and study.

· Their mission was Catholic education, missionary work and spreading Catholicism, and to combat Protestantism.

· The Catholic Church also created an Index of Forbidden Books, which forbade, among other things, Protestant writings.

Q6. Mercantilist Systems

· An economic philosophy calling for close government regulation of the economy. Mercantilist theory emphasized building a strong, self sufficient economy by maximizing exports and limiting imports. Mercantilists supported the acquisition of colonies as sources of raw materials and markets for finished goods. This favorable balance of trade would enable a country to accumulate reserves of gold and silver.

· The search for spices and profits. Access to lucrative Asian markets.

· Desire to cultivate cash crops. I.e. tobacco from the Americas

· Facilitated by new technologies like: Caravels, astrolabe, compass, lateen sails, better maps, Prince Henry the Navigator, sextant, use of gunpowder, muskets, and cannons.

· Joint Stock companies were involved in mercantilist trade.

· Some countries gave monopolies to certain companies, which represented the crown and which also profited the crown. I.e. The Dutch East India Company

· Big mercantilist countries: England, France, and the Dutch. These countries had colonies in the Americas and all over the world.

Q7. Monarchy in England – English Civil War

· King Henry IV of France had a finance minister named the Duke of Sully. He helped Henry IV to gain a large treasury by advocating mercantilism.

Duke of Sully (1560-1641): Finance minister

a. His reforms enhanced the power of the monarchy

b. Mercantilism: increased role of the state in the economy in order to achieve a favorable balance of trade with other countries

· Granted monopolies in the production of gunpowder and salt

· Encouraged manufacturing of silk and tapestries

· Only the government could operate the mines

c. Reduced royal debt

· Systematic bookkeeping and budgets

· In contrast, Spain was drowning in debt

d. Reformed the tax system to make it more equitable and efficient.

e. Oversaw improved transportation

· Began nation-wide highway system

· Canals linked major rivers

· Began canal to link the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean

King Louis XIV of France had a finance minister named Jean Baptiste Colbert

French mercantilism reached its height under Louis’ finance minister, Jean Baptiste Colbert (1661-

1683)

3. Colbert’s goal was economic self-sufficiency for

France

a. Oversaw the construction of roads & canals

b. Granted gov’t-supported monopolies in certain industries.

c. Cracked down on guilds

d. Reduced local tolls (internal tariffs) that inhibited trade

e. Organized French trading companies for international trade (East India Co., West India Co.)

4. By 1683, France was Europe’s leading industrial country

a. Excelled in such industries as textiles, mirrors, lace-making and foundries for steel manufacturing and firearms.

b. Colbert’s most important accomplishment: developing the merchant marine

5. Weaknesses of mercantilism and the French economy

a. Poor peasant conditions (esp. taxation) resulted in large emigration out of France

b. Louis opted for creating a massive army instead of a formidable navy

· Result: France later lost naval wars with

England

c. War in later years of Louis’ reign nullified Colbert’s gains

Q7. How Monarchy Evolved in England

· On Queen Elizabeth’s death, there was no Tudor heir to the throne

· Parliament invited James I (Stuart) to rule England

· James I believed in the Divine Right of Kings

· His belief in the Divine Right to rule began an important struggle between the kings of England and Parliament.

· James published The True Law of Free Monarchies in which he asserted that royal authority came from God. In fact he said, “kings are not only God’s lieutenants on Earth, and sit on God’s throne, but even by God himself they are called gods”.

· James I struggled with Parliament. Parliament wanted him to purify the church of its “popish remnants” from the Catholic Church, including the authority of bishops.

· James I wanted royal control of the church and summed up his opposition by declaring, “No bishops, no king”

· Charles I also believed in the divine right of Kings.

· He was supported by writers like Thomas Hobbes, who wrote Leviathan. In it Hobbes asserted that humans living in a state of nature would lead a life which was, “Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”.

· Hobbes implied that we should fear anarchy more than tyranny, and that the best form of government was an absolute monarchy

· Charles I tried to avoid calling Parliament so he raised money for his wars using extra parliamentary measures like raising old taxes such as ship money, and by using forced loans

· Charles I needed money for his wars with Spain, so he convened Parliament.

· Parliament would only give Charles money if he signed the Petition of Right

· The Petition of Right declared that the king could not raise taxes without consent of Parliament and he could not arrest people without due process

· When Charles and Archbishop Laud tried to force the Anglican Prayer Book on the Scots, it led to war

· Charles now needed money more than ever

· He called the Short Parliament, which had an angry list of demands

· He later called the Long Parliament, which passed the Triennial Act which said that he could no longer disband parliament and that they would meet at least once every three years.

· This heightened the struggle between the king and Parliament

· The Long Parliament told Charles I that he couldn’t be trusted with an army. The ensuing struggle led to the beheading of Charles and the Interregnum of Oliver Cromwell