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The New Monarchies : 15 th – 16 th Centuries. Note to. Characteristics of the growth of the New Monarchies.
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Characteristics of the growth of the New Monarchies • They offered the institution of monarchy as a guarantee of law and order (published laws; maintained centralized militaries and courts of law) Broke down the mass of feudal, inherited, customary, or “common” law in which the rights of the feudal classes were rooted, replacing them with the monarch’s Law, enacted by his own authority, regardless of previous custom or historic liberties. • They proclaimed and created the image that hereditary monarchy was the legitimate form of public power all should accept this without resistance. (How to keep nobles happy, despite their loss of power - ex. King’s Council in Capetian France; noble title and privilege granted through the monarch)
Characteristics of the New Monarchies, cont. 3. They enlisted the support of the growing middle class in the towns (by encouraging trade/creating infrastrusture), as well as peasants (both tired of the local power of feudal nobles and all of their random layers of rights and privileges). 4. They would have to get their monarchies sufficiently organized & their finances into reliable order (systems of taxation - ex. Exchequer in England; Chamber of Accounts in France; royal bureaucracies!!). 5. They created foreign policy, including diplomacy and declaration and fighting of wars against other monarchs… foreign policy and warfare was led by monarch and conducted in the name of monarch and country.
In General… • England eventual stability under the Tudors (post 100 years War and War of the Roses) • Franceconsolidation of power by Capetian Kings and House of Valois. • Spain unification by marriage of Isabella I/Castile and Ferdinand II/Aragon, combined with Reconquista. • HREmpire different model: the cost of decentralization.
100 Years War/War of the Roses • The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic wars for the throne of England. They were fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet,the houses of Lancaster and York. They were fought in several sporadic episodes between 1455 and 1487, although there was related fighting before and after this period. The conflict resulted from social and financial troubles that followed the Hundred Years' War, combined with the mental infirmity and weak rule of Henry VI (who died sonless), which revived interest in the alternative claim to the throne of Richard, Duke of York. • The final victory went to a claimant of the Lancastrian party, Henry Tudor, who defeated the last Yorkist king, Richard III, at the Battle of Bosworth Field. After assuming the throne as Henry VII, Henry Tudor married Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter and heiress of Edward IV, thereby uniting the two claims. The House of Tudor ruled England and Wales until 1603.
Ferdinand & Isabella of Spain The Madonna of the Monarchs