ENGLAND
England's political situation began to change along with the end of the Middle Ages and the emergence of the Renaissance.
It all started when Henry IV didn't have a big enough piece of pie.
By pie, of course, we mean power. Instead, the nobility and the church had a lot of that.
After a big messy secession of Henry IV, V, and VI...
These divisions of pie lead to a royal civil war. Who gets to be king?
This war, a competition between the house of York and the house of Lancaster (two noble families) as to who is going to become king, is called the War of the Roses.
An essential fight between the crown and aristocracy, the lack of central power (not enough pie!!!) allowed for the War of the Roses to occur.
Eventually, at the conclusion of the war, Henry VII comes to power (one of the first New Monarchs).
Even after the war, however, these tools of the king serve as evidence of remaining tension between the royal and the aristocratic:
The Royal Council - excludes noblemen; made up of middle class, whom the king trusts; more important than Parliament
The Court of Star Chamber - deals with real or potential aristocratic threats to the crown through a judicial offshoot; effectively reduced aristocratic trouble making; procedures ran directly counter to English common law (customary "laws" agreed upon without being written)
Thus, Henry VII squashes the power of the aristocrats in order to centralize the power of the crown.
FRANCE
CHARLES VII -- Following the Hundred Years' War, France was left depopulated, commercially ruined, and agriculturally weak. Charles VII managed to expel almost all remaining English from French soil, reconcile with the Burgundians and the Armagnacs, and reorganize the council.
Under his rule, many taxes were imposed to attempt to fix France's economic situation.
Gabelle - tax on salt
Taille - land tax
These taxes were the ultimate source of revenue for France up until the Revolution.
Look, a PIE chart.
Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges - gives French population the power to elect bishops, thus essentially (through a chain of later elections) elect the pope; this gives the French Crown major control over the appointment of clergy, depriving the pope of French ecclesiastical revenue.
Then comes LOUIS XI (He's a new monarch, too)
Louis XI promoted new industries and trade with other nations to improve the army and increase tax revenue, as well as invaded neighboring areas to increase French Territory.
Concordat of Bologna - takes away the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges; enforces the general council as more important than the pope; gives more money to the pope
NEW MONARCHS
Along with Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, the royal rule of Louis XI and Henry VII are the new monarchs.
New monarchs invested kingship with a strong sense of royal authority and national purpose, characterized by the belief that the crown was the one institution that linked all classes and people within definite territorial boundaries.
New monarchs were essentially characterized by a reassertion of ideas and practices used by Monarchs earlier in the Middle Ages.
Basically...
No comments:
Post a Comment