REN - New Monarchies (Lesson)

The New Monarchies

During the Renaissance period and up to 1648,  monarchs and other leaders were determined to consolidate political power. This effort allowed these leaders to organize society with a variety of effects. Some used religious actions to affect change while others turned to political changes to strengthen their control over their countries.

 

I am Henry VIII, I am 

In England both Henry VIII and, later, his daughter, Elizabeth I instituted religious changes to control the religion and morality of their subjects. As you will study in the next module (The Reformation), Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church in order to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon but that move also allowed him to remove England from Catholic control and institute a new church, the Anglican church, with Henry VIII as king. Later, after his daughter, Mary, returns England to Catholicism and dies, his younger daughter, Elizabeth I returns England to Protestantism. Religion is forever tied to the throne and political power. The Book of Common Prayer is used to guide the Anglican faith and was developed during this time period. Henry also used the Star Chamber, a court that was made up of councilors and judges who were supposed to ensure that the nobles and other socially important people would be held accountable in civil and criminal matters. The fear was that the prominent people would not be tried in a robust manner.

 

 

 

Spanish Control Grows

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain also labored to increase their religious and political control. They recaptured the Iberian Peninsula and forced all Jews to convert to Catholicism or leave Spain while gaining the right to select the most important Spanish church officials. When it was thought that the Jews who had converted were secretly practicing Judaism, they instituted the Spanish Inquisition to assure compliance with the faith through cruelty. They also wrested power from the nobles by reforming the tax code to increase their revenue which they used to fund a standing army and navy.

As a result of exploration (to be covered later in this module), trade grew tremendously across the continent of Europe. Because of this, commercial and professional groups gained power in the area of politics. This merchant class eventually usurped the power of the nobles because they had the wealth to do so. This unequaled wealth allowed them to gain leadership roles. Examples of leaders who rose from the merchant/financier class would be Cosimo de Medici of Florence, Italy and the Arnolfini’s of Northern Europe. In France, non-nobles with the financial means could become a member of the Nobles of the Robe. This title was given to those who held certain judicial or administrative positions. However, these positions were not hereditary and when the crown needed to raise funds, they could offer these positions to those who could afford them. This allowed those from the lower classes the ability to influence political outcomes in France

The continuous changes in European politics during the Renaissance led to the development of new concepts of the secular, or theocratical state. As mentioned before, Niccolo Machiavelli proposed that successful leadership traits were not tied to religion, or even to the humane treatment of subjects. Rather, he believed that leaders must take all necessary steps to obtain and retain power. Hugo Grotius, another secular political theorist, had a less harsh approach than Machiavelli. Grotius was the theorist who introduced the concept of rights and that rights belonged to individuals instead of objects.

 

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