Erosion of traditional powers of aristocracy/towns

1. religious wars transferred power to the king

    - required so much money and arms that no one could pay for that except the govt. = govt. ruler

Transformation of perceiving the monarchy in the 17th century

a. used to be that the king was a personal lord

   - had a personal relationship with each other

b. now king became an office of state 

   - an official function

Anthony Van Dyck

- court artists

- painted Steward Kings in England

Diego Velasquez

- court artist

- painted Hapsburgs in Spain

Peter Paul Reubens

- Belgian artist

- painted Medicis

- war scenes

William Shakespeare

1. a royalist

    a. killing the king is the first kind of crime

    b. empower the crowds/public - chaos 

        - irrational "herd mentality"

2. playwrite

    - Julius Caesar

    - Hamlet

Divine Right

- King = G-d's agent on earth because of divine right

             - pure heresy to go against them

Expansion of the royal bureaucracy in the 17th c.

*constellation of all officials that run an organization*

1. run centralized war

    ex) buy food, count food, pay right people, raise money

2. run the tax system

3. king sold offices to raise money

4. king needs ppl to administer justice 

    - more lawyers to run judicial system

Cardinal Richeleiu

- loved power and ran France for Louis XIII

- power behind the throne

- 30 years war couldn't reach a real peace settlement (Peace of Westphalia) until his death

Louis XIII of France

- French king who loved the limelight but didn't like responsibility 

- Richelieu ran France for him while he ran around and had fun

- self-made younger son who tried who tried to centralize power for his king

Olivares

1. power behind the throne of Philip IV

2. excesses/mistakes for which he was dismissed by Philip IV 

    a. his attempt to raise an army failed 

        - ppl refused to come

    b. tax collecting failed

        - ppl stubborn

    c. foreign policy failed and brought war

3. self made younger son who tried to centralize power for his king

Duke of Buckingham

1. power behind the throne of Charles I and James I

2. everyone hated him

  - was assassinated

3. self made younger son who tried to centralize power for his king

'nobility of the robe'

• members of the Parlement of Paris
• members of expanding provincial parlements

(called this because of the long gowns lawyers and judges wore)

assizes

- semiannual sessions of the county court

- held for those who had committed serious offenses that could not be settled in court by mere Justices of the Peace

(- also were occasions for edifying obedience sermons)

Intendants

- French central officials who were relied upon to perform many of the tasks of the provincial governments

- had become a vital part of royal government by mid-century after Richelieu expanded use of them

difficulties in centralizing Spain in 17th century

1. separate regions over which the king presided made and kept to their own laws and privileges
2. application of Castilian rules of implanting of Castilian officials = hostility and opposition from other regions

effects from 1550-1650 war

A. Financial Crisis

    1. wars cost a lot of money to finance

    2. peasants and middle class paid the required taxes

        - nobility and church were exempt from taxes

French govt fundraising strategies

- tax on office holding "paulette"

- make more offices to put taxes on

milliones drawbacks

- became permanent (only supposed to last 6 years)

- hit urban areas particularly hard

success of Imposition tax in England

- taxes were replaced on luxury goods

   (instead of basic commodities)

annoyance at revival of "Ship Money"

(Charles I did this)

1. Gentry mostly annoyed

    - money came mostly from them

    - king had no right to what belonged to his subjects except in case of a national emergency

Spanish mid-17th century revolts

1. rebellion of Catalonia

    - 12 year long rebellion

2. Portugal broke off and became independent  

French mid-17th century revolts

1. members of the aristocracy rose up against the child monarch and his regent

Italian mid-17th century revolts

1. revolts in Naples

2. revolts in Sicily

English mid-17th century revolts 

• constitutional crisis gave way to Civil War and the 1st political revolution in European history

parlements

- Parlement of Paris = main law court of the state

- powerful institution

- contested with courtiers for the right to advise the monarch

letrados

• University-trained Spanish lawyers
• usually members of the Spanish nobility
• the backbone of the royal government

Olivares's Spanish centralization plan

• Spain = very involved in European warfare
• fighting in Holland/Germany = need for large armies and larger sums of money
• Olivares ordered that all regions in the empire had to contribute to his plan for a Union of Arms
• not all provinces were persuaded
• Olivares still able to establish a priniciple of unified cooperation

 causes of population decline in the 17th century

1. 30 years War
2. disruption of agriculture
3. spread of disease - severe outbreak of plague

king's immunity to popular discontent

- because they ruled by divine right.

Philippe Duplessis-Mornay

1. wrote A Defense of Liberty against Tyrants (1579)

    - one of the most influential writings of the time that tried to limit the power of the king by arguing that a king who violated divine law could be resisted and punished

resistance theory started with the Reformation

Luther/Calvin: If divine law is misadministered, you can challenge the authority of the Church.

   - same applies with the monarchy

Juan de Mariana

1. a Jesuit professor

2. wrote The King and the Education of the King

3. further advanced resistance theory

    a. if magistrates can rebel against the crown, so to regular people can rebel against the crown

        - magistrates = people's representatives

        - if its the duty of the magistrates to resist tyranny, then it must also be the duty of every individual citizen

John Milton

1. Background

    a. English poet who defended the English Revolution

2. Contribution to resistance theory

    a. kings = instituted by the people to uphold piety and justice

     b. lesser magistrates had the right to resist monarchs

     c. an unjust king forfeited his divine right and was to be punished as any oridinary citizen

causes of open Catalonian rebellion

• Catalonia refused to be taxed by Olivares
• Olivares was forced to send in troops (needed taxes since it was wartime)
• angered the peasants
• REBELLION - peasant riots

Causes of the Frond

1. child king = Louis XIV

  a. regent = Anne of Austria, assisted by Italian advisor Cardinal Mazarin

2. time period = circumstances of war, agricultural crisis, financial stringency 

  a. Anne and Mazarin made situation worse with taxes   

     - office holders, Parisian landowners, and nobility united against them

3. Parlement tried to take control of the crown's financial policy

  a. A and M arrested many leading members of Parlement

     - barricades went up in Paris

     - entire royal court including the king fled the capitol

the Fronde

*French aristocratic rebellion*

- aimed not at the king (who was 9 years old at the time) but at his advisors

- direct challenge to the underlying authority of the state

- was the office holders, Parisian landowners, and nobility against the harsh new taxes

(got its name from slingshots aimed through Mazarin's window)

- ended when Louis XIV was declared old enough to rule and his forces recaptured Paris, where he was welcomed as a savior

hostility towards James I's reign

1. he succeeded a legend (Elizabeth I)
2. was Scottish

- even though he showered gifts of social elevation on English Gentry, prejudice still prevailed

money source for the English crown in the 16th c.

• sold lands that had been confiscated from the Chruch by Henry VIII
• reduced the crown's long term revenues
• made it dependent on extraordinary grants of taxation from Parliament

Petition of Right

A. Cause

    1. royal demands for money = met by Parliamentary demands for political reform

        - provoked unintentional political controversies

B. Purpose

    1. restated traditional English freedoms

        a. arbitrary arrest and imprisonment

        b. noparliamentary taxation

        c. confiscation of preperty by marital law

Puritans

1. wanted Church reform

    - congregations to nominate their own representatives to a national assembly

2. were refused this by the Stuart kings

    - the King is the supreme head of Church of England = this is an attack on the monarchy

Archbishop William Laud

1. was a Calvinist (more lenient)

2. inspired rebellion

    a. established a consistant divine service in Schotland and England  by creating new prayer books

        - Scottish Calvinists considered this to be "popery" and Catholic = rioted and rebelled

Charles I of England

Parliament's opposition to war against the Scots

actual start of the English civil war

• Charles I realized that Parliament had no intention of giving him money to fight Scotland  
• he left London and declared the leaders of Parliament rebels and traitors

reasons for supporting an unpopular king

1. he is still thing and if they don't support him and he wins, they can be hanged for treason
2. many believed siding with the king = defending Church and social stability 

Battle of Naseby 

• Parliament won a decisive victory against the king's supporters and was able to bring the war to an end soon after
• Charles I still refused to surrender his religion or authority

The Long Parliament

Civil War -> military coup

• army kidnapped Charles I and demanded Parliament pay their legal arrears, protect them from legal retribution, and recognize their service to the nation
• those in Parliament who opposed their intervention were impeached
• the army moved in to occupy London when the Presbyterians rose up against them

Rump Parliament

- those who were leftover from the purging of the houses of Parliament done by the soldiers sent to get rid of anyone who opposed their demands

- voted to bring the king to trial for his crimes against the liberties of his subjects

- executed Charles I in 1649 (too scared to not listen to the army)

restructuring of England's administration

1. Cromwell was called Lord Protector
2. Cromwell ruled with a freely elected Parliament and the Council of State

Oliver Cromwell

1. English military and political ruler, was a devout and tolerant Puritan

2. one of the commanders in the New Model Army which defeated the royalists in the English Civil War 

    - was able to temper the claims of Parliament and the army when they conflicted

3. helped make England into a republican commonwealth

4. was later called Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland

    - refused to accept the monarchy 

    - strongly believed in a govt in which fundamental authority resided in Parliament

Restoration of the Stuarts

The Declaration of Rights

• insured the continuation of the new constitutional monarchy of England after William and Mary
  
• set down fundamental principles of constitutional monarchy

The Glorious Revolution

- James II was overthrown from being king of England

- his daughter Mary and her husband William became the rulers of England

mistakes of James II 

1. was a Catholic
2. attempted to use his power of appointment to foil the constraints Parliament had posed on him
3. elevated Catholics to leading posts in the army and central govt.
4. tried to pack a new Parliament with his supporters

date of Glorious Revolution

• 1688

date of decapitation of Charles I

• January 30, 1649

John Locke

1. wrote Two Treatises on Civil Govt.

2. theory of government 

    - people enter into political society for their own well being and it was designed to protect people's natural rights - life, liberty, and property

    - contract between rulers and subjects was an agreement for the protection of natural rights

3. founder of empiricism - importance of sense perception

mid-century rebellions affects on power of king/state

1. provided a check to the exercise of royal power

    a. chilling effects on policy - taxation

    b. reforms of financial administration

2. memory of rebellion controlled

exceptions to absolute rule in Europe

1. England - King and Parliament 
2. Holland - King and the town oligarchies
3. Sweden - king and nobility

"life is by nature solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short"

- said by Thomas Hobbes
- justified absolutism
  a. because of this, there needs to be someone keeping everyone in check or else they'd all kill each other

      - ppl formed govt for self preservation

The Nature of Man

- written by Thomas Hobbes

- claims that in war there is no justice

   a. man is enemy to every man

   b. man acts without anything except his own strength

   c. where there is no common power, there is no law -> where there is no law, there is no justice

absolute govt/arbitrary govt

- absolute ruler ruled in the interest of his people

- the arbitrary ruler does everything in the interest of of himself 

"L'etat, c'est moi"

"I am the state"

- said by Louis XIV

- monarch was a revered person

- everything was done to enhance his glory and thereby that of the state

obstacles overcome in creating an effective Prussian state

1. he had no army

   - used the tax revenue to create one of the most capable standing armies of the age, using extremely strict discipline

   - organized one of the first departments of war to oversee military details and taxes

2. he had no money

   - managed to get his people to be taxed

3. his people at first refused to be taxed

   - managed to get his people to be taxed

4. his inherited territories were scattered and ungovernable

Battle of Poltova 

(1709)

- The Russian army routed the Swedes, wounded Charles XII, annihilated his infantry, and captured many of his leading officers

Peter the Great

- Czar of Russia = Westernized and expanded Russia

1. introduced a system of conscription which resulted in a standing army 
2. established promotion based on merit
3. created military schools

Richelieu's doctrine of "raison d'etat"

• placed the needs of the nation above the privileges of its most important groups

changes that threatened the states of France's old nobility of the sword

1. their traditional roles were becoming obsolete
2. professional soldiers replaced them at war
3. professional administrators replaced them at govt
4. mercantile wealth threatened economic superiority
5. nobility of the robe threatened their social standing

Louis XIV of France

Jean-Baptiste Colbert

- built the French Navy 

- reformed French legal codes

- established national academies of culture

- turned a debt of 22 million to a surplus of 29 million

- increased efficiency of tax collection

Marquis de Louvois

- introduced new ranks into French military

- promotions were now distributed by merit rather than purchase

- established store houses of arms and ammunition

use of Versailles

1. used to control the aritocracy

    - Louis XIV required their attendance in court

    - then established an extremely complex system of court etiquette 

    - court would be so busy studying to know proper etiquette perfectly = have no time to plot rebellions

French costs for becoming Europe's pre-eminent state

1. aggressive foreign policy ultimately bankrupted the crown
2. persecution of the Huguenots caused 200,000 to flee, taking irreplaceable skills with them to Holland, England, and Brandenburg
3. spread stories of atrocities that stiffened European resolve against Louis XIV
4. persecution didn't even reach its goal of eradicating Protestantism from the state