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Power and authority

Power and authority. Gabriel Glickman. Key points. Sovereignty in European states divided and contested. Royal power vs other forms of authority – quasi-autonomous regions, representative institutions, territorial nobilities.

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Power and authority

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  1. Power and authority Gabriel Glickman

  2. Key points • Sovereignty in European states divided and contested. • Royal power vs other forms of authority – quasi-autonomous regions, representative institutions, territorial nobilities. • Clashes between princes and their opponents have religious/ideological undertone.

  3. Kingship in Europe • Strongest states c. 1500-1600 are dynastic hereditary monarchies – England, France, Spain. • Kings possess largest armies and bureaucracies. • Kingship rests on spiritual and legal claims to power.

  4. Constraints upon Kings • Europe of ‘composite monarchies’ (Elliott). • Diversity of languages, institutions, systems of law, regional identities. • Principal checks on royal power = representative institutions, power of aristocracies.

  5. Holy Roman Empire – the Imperial Circles

  6. Italian city states c. 1500

  7. Italian city states • Greater civic participation, though still domination of elites/oligarchies. • Republican/humanist ideology – claim to preserve political ethics of Republican Rome. • Spread of humanism= influence of Italian civic writings over wider part of Europe.

  8. Expansion of royal power • Meaning of concept ‘empire’ / ‘imperium’ in Early Modern Europe = total dominion, absolute sovereignty, not territorial conquests. • External ambition proceeds simultaneously with internal centralisationc.1500-1650. • Monarchs seeking to make territories less ‘composite’.

  9. Key themes of royal expansion/centralisation 1500-1650 • Control over the Church – in Catholic as much as Protestant states. • Expansion of the court into a major centre of government. • Expansion of control over the regions – attempt to create legal and political uniformity

  10. Kings and rebels • Most rebellions are regional/ national – opposition to central control, officials, courtiers. • Aristocratic-led but with significant elements of popular participation. • Richelieu in France faces urban and peasant rebellions, as well as noble unrest. • Rebels adopt rhetoric of legal and political conservatism – but often reality is more radical.

  11. Religious rebellions • Most explosive rebellions occur when a region has a different religious identity to its prince. • Radical doctrines in both Reformation (e.g. Calvinism) and Counter-Reformation suggest that heretic ruler can be resisted or even overthrown. • Clash between the ideology of the European Reformations (Catholic and Protestant) and the ideology of the Divine Right of Kings.

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