New Monarchs

Last updated June 05, 2024

The New Monarchs is a concept developed by European historians during the first half of the 20th century to characterize 15th-century European rulers who unified their respective nations, creating stable and centralized governments.^[1] This centralization allowed for an era of worldwide colonization and conquest in the 16th century, and paved the way for rapid economic growth in Europe. Many historians argue the Military Revolution made possible, and indeed made necessary, formation of strong central governments in order to maximize military strength that could enable conquest and prevent being conquered.^[2]

Examples

The best examples of New Monarchs are, chronologically:

John I of Portugal — terminated the political anarchy and began the Portuguese period of discoveries
John II of Portugal crushed the power of the Nobility, establishing the preeminence of the Crown
Charles VII of France — ended civil disputes
Louis XI of France — united France as it recovered from the Hundred Years War ^[3]
Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon — They never combined their territory. Each always ruled their own lands independently, weakened the power of the nobility, completed the Reconquista, reformed the state finances, the law, the church, and the army and began the age of Spanish exploration. They also outlawed all religions except Catholicism.
Henry VII of England — ended the War of the Roses and pacified Yorkist resistance by marrying Elizabeth of York ^[3]

Achievements

The achievements of the New Monarchs:

Limiting the power of the feudal aristocracy
Creating efficient, centralized systems of taxation
Maintaining a standing army loyal to the monarch
Encouraging some sense of national identity (but by no means nationalism yet)
Fostering trade, both internally and externally
Enforcing religious unity within their countries

While Peter the Great ruled two centuries after the New Monarchs, he is sometimes considered the New Monarch of Russia, accomplishing for his country very much what the New Monarchs did for theirs.

After the New Monarchs, the Absolutist Monarchs gained sway, to be followed by the Enlightened Absolutism.

History

New Monarchies, which were very powerful centralized governments with unified inhabitants, began to emerge in the mid-15th century. Factors responsible for this advance were the vast demographic and economic growth. Before these New Monarchies were formed, there were many changes the new monarchs had to make: including weakening powerful rivals, increasing revenue, unifying the country, and strengthening the power of the king and his bureaucracy. Two countries successful in strengthening themselves were France and England. England was headed by Henry VII and his son Henry VIII of the Tudor dynasty; France was headed by Louis XI, Louis XII and Francis I of the Valois dynasty. ^{[ citation needed ]}

Causes

Many factors were responsible for the New Monarchies' rise from the years 1450-1550. First, there was a huge increase in population of 50%; thus there were more people paying the king's taxes. This led economic growth, as the increase in demand stimulated the economy. People began taking bigger risks and forming partnerships, enabling large sums of money to be invested. People became wealthier, resulting in a greater consumption of goods and luxuries, making merchants and traders wealthy. Merchants were then paying larger amounts in tariffs, increasing the king's revenue.^{[ citation needed ]}

To create and sustain a new monarchy kings had to introduce many changes. In the early 15th century there was political fragmentation, as some countries were not unified and there were many separate rulers governing small areas. At that time the nobility and the church rose to be the thriving powers.^{[ clarification needed ]} The king had to make changes to unify and strengthen his monarchy. He would have to weaken his rivals, the church and nobility, and transfer the authority to himself. He would also have to increase his funding by either increasing taxes, or selling government offices. Many kings^{[ who? ]} did both.^{[ citation needed ]}

Actions taken

The rulers of England and France both had to weaken their rivals, the church and nobility, in order to centralise power to the crown. In England, Henry VII came to power by decisively winning the Wars of the Roses, fought between his mother's family, the House of Lancaster, and their rivals, the House of York. The Lancastrian and Tudor forces defeated the powerful House of York, led by Henry Tudor (later Henry VII), whose descent from the House of Lancaster gave him legitimacy among the Lancastrian army. Henry then ascended to the throne after the Battle of Bosworth Field, and unified the two warring houses in his marriage to Elizabeth of York, thereby weakening the potential for opposition from the strongest noble families on both sides of the conflict, and making it much easier to centralise power away from the nobility.

Moreover, so many nobles had died during the Wars of the Roses that Henry VII came to the throne with a total of 73 peers in England, and a further 16 in Ireland, so there was a lack of power among the wider nobility to challenge his rule even if they had wanted to.^[4] Henry VII hired the gentry, the class below nobility, to serve as Justices of Peace, who enforce the king's law and collect taxes; this weakened the power of nobility and made sure the king's laws were followed. He also increased the power of his royal court, the Star Chamber, giving them cases that previously went to nobility: thus increasing his own power over the judicial system.^{[ citation needed ]}

France had more difficulty in weakening its nobles and centralising power. Before the mid-1400s the aristocrats were very powerful, serving as independent rulers with their own laws and courts. Frances I sold offices in government, many of which come with a title. This increased the number of men in the class of nobles enabling Frances to dilute the aristocracy with men loyal to him. ^{[ citation needed ]}

These two countries had very separate methods of dealing with the problem of the church and its power. Henry VIII, under the advice of Thomas Cromwell, decided to break off from the Catholic church and start his own religion, the Anglican church. Francis I, on the other hand, decided on a more simplistic approach and forces the pope to sign the Concordat of Bologna in 1516, which gave the king power to appoint whomever he wants for bishops and other religious positions and lessened the power of the papacy. ^{[ citation needed ]}

Both kings needed to increase revenue. France needed more capital than England because of its permanent army of 15,000 soldiers, which cost half of the king's revenue.^{[ citation needed ]} Both countries improved tax collection by preventing people from evading taxes. Henry VII concocted numerous schemes to increase his revenue. Since he needed Parliament's consent to could increase taxes, he increased fines for criminals. This had the dual effect of decreasing crime and increasing his treasury. ^{[ citation needed ]} Furthermore, he sold monopolies, which fetched large sums because those in possession could sell their products at any price, without fear of competition. France had a slightly different way of doing things; Frances I sold positions of government, and centralized tax collection under one agency. With one agency heading the collection, fewer people were able to evade taxes. France also instituted new taxes.^{[ citation needed ]}

Results

Though stabilizing New Monarchies was not easy, it proved to be very worthwhile. After Henry VIII and Francis I, wars began for England and France, England's northern rising and France's civil war. Both countries are able to pull through because of the strength invested during the New Monarchies. Additionally the strength formed during England's New Monarchies helped withstand the fragile reigns of Edward and Mary, who followed after Henry VIII.^{[ citation needed ]}

Related Research Articles

Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor.

The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the form of government used by the United Kingdom by which a hereditary monarch reigns as the head of state, with their powers regulated by the British Constitution. The term may also refer to the role of the royal family within the UK's broader political structure. The current monarch is King Charles III, who ascended the throne on 8 September 2022, upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

Armand Jean du Plessis, 1st Duke of Richelieu, known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a French statesman and prelate of the Catholic Church. He became known as l'Éminence Rouge, or "the Red Eminence", a term derived from the title "Eminence" applied to cardinals and from the red robes that they customarily wear.

Early modern Europe, also referred to as the post-medieval period, is the period of European history between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, roughly the mid 15th century to the late 18th century. Historians variously mark the beginning of the early modern period with the invention of moveable type printing in the 1450s, the Fall of Constantinople and end of the Hundred Years' War in 1453, the end of the Wars of the Roses in 1485, the beginning of the High Renaissance in Italy in the 1490s, the end of the Reconquista and subsequent voyages of Christopher Columbus to the Americas in 1492, or the start of the Protestant Reformation in 1517. The precise dates of its end point also vary and are usually linked with either the start of the French Revolution in 1789 or with the more vaguely defined beginning of the Industrial Revolution in late 18th century England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Investiture Controversy</span> 11th- to 12th-century dispute between secular rulers and the papacy

The Investiture Controversy or Investiture Contest was a conflict between the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops (investiture) and abbots of monasteries and the pope himself. A series of popes in the 11th and 12th centuries undercut the power of the Holy Roman Emperor and other European monarchies, and the controversy led to nearly 50 years of conflict.

An elective monarchy is a monarchy ruled by a monarch who is elected, in contrast to a hereditary monarchy in which the office is automatically passed down as a family inheritance. The manner of election, the nature of candidate qualifications, and the electors vary from case to case. Historically, it was common for elective monarchies to transform into hereditary ones over time or for hereditary ones to acquire at least occasional elective aspects.

Regnal numbers are ordinal numbers used to distinguish among persons with the same name who held the same office. Most importantly, they are used to distinguish monarchs. An ordinal is the number placed after a monarch's regnal name to differentiate between a number of kings, queens or princes reigning the same territory with the same regnal name.

The Kingdom of France in the Middle Ages was marked by the fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire and West Francia (843–987); the expansion of royal control by the House of Capet (987–1328), including their struggles with the virtually independent principalities, and the creation and extension of administrative/state control in the 13th century; and the rise of the House of Valois (1328–1589), including the protracted dynastic crisis against the House of Plantagenet and their Angevin Empire, culminating in the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453), which laid the seeds for a more centralized and expanded state in the early modern period and the creation of a sense of French identity.

The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised the English monarch. Great councils were first called Parliaments during the reign of Henry III. By this time, the king required Parliament's consent to levy taxation.

The Kingdom of England was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from the early 10th century, when it emerged from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, which would later become the United Kingdom. The Kingdom of England was among the most powerful states in Europe during the medieval and early modern colonial periods.

Early modern Britain is the history of the island of Great Britain roughly corresponding to the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Major historical events in early modern British history include numerous wars, especially with France, along with the English Renaissance, the English Reformation and Scottish Reformation, the English Civil War, the Restoration of Charles II, the Glorious Revolution, the Treaty of Union, the Scottish Enlightenment and the formation and the collapse of the First British Empire.

The Kingdom of France is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the medieval and early modern period. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe from the High Middle Ages to 1848 during its dissolution. It was also an early colonial power, with colonies in Asia and Africa, and the largest being New France in North America centred around the Great Lakes.

Absolute monarchy in France slowly emerged in the 16th century and became firmly established during the 17th century. Absolute monarchy is a variation of the governmental form of monarchy in which the monarch holds supreme authority and where that authority is not restricted by any written laws, legislature, or customs. In France, Louis XIV was the most famous exemplar of absolute monarchy, with his court central to French political and cultural life during his reign. It ended in May 1789, when widespread social distress led to the convocation of the Estates-General, which was converted into a National Assembly in June. The Assembly passed a series of radical measures, including the abolition of feudalism, state control of the Catholic Church and extending the right to vote.

The Crown of Castile was a medieval polity in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and, some decades later, the parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accession of the then Castilian king, Ferdinand III, to the vacant Leonese throne. It continued to exist as a separate entity after the personal union in 1469 of the crowns of Castile and Aragon with the marriage of the Catholic Monarchs up to the promulgation of the Nueva Planta decrees by Philip V in 1715.

The ancien régime was the political and social system of the Kingdom of France that the French Revolution overturned through its abolition in 1790 of the feudal system of the French nobility and in 1792 through its execution of the king and declaration of a republic. "Ancien régime" is now a common metaphor for "a system or mode no longer prevailing".

The Crown of Ireland Act 1542 is an Act that was passed by the Parliament of Ireland on 18 June 1542, which created the title of "King of Ireland" for monarchs of England and their successors; previous monarchs had ruled Ireland as Lords of Ireland. The first monarch to hold the title was King Henry VIII of England.

The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain after the 1707 Act of Union was passed in both the English and Scottish parliaments at the time. In 1801, with the union of Great Britain and Ireland, that house was in turn replaced by the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.

The Wars of the Roses, known at the time and in following centuries as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne from 1455 to 1487. The wars were fought between supporters of the House of Lancaster and House of York, two rival cadet branches of the royal House of Plantagenet. The conflict resulted in the end of Lancaster's male line in 1471, leaving the Tudor family to inherit their claim to the throne through the female line. Conflict was largely brought to an end upon the union of the two houses through marriage, creating the Tudor dynasty that would subsequently rule England.

The privileges of the szlachta formed a cornerstone of "Golden Liberty" in the Kingdom of Poland and, later, in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569-1795). Most szlachta privileges were obtained between the late-14th and early-16th centuries. By the end of that period, the szlachta had succeeded in garnering numerous rights, empowering themselves and limiting the powers of the elective Polish monarchy to an extent unprecedented elsewhere in Europe at the time.

The history of the monarchy of the United Kingdom and its evolution into a constitutional and ceremonial monarchy is a major theme in the historical development of the British constitution. The British monarchy traces its origins to the petty kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England and early medieval Scotland, which consolidated into the kingdoms of England and Scotland by the 10th century. Anglo-Saxon England had an elective monarchy, but this was replaced by primogeniture after England was conquered by the Normans in 1066. The Norman and Plantagenet dynasties expanded their authority throughout the British Isles, creating the Lordship of Ireland in 1177 and conquering Wales in 1283. In 1215, King John agreed to limit his own powers over his subjects according to the terms of Magna Carta. To gain the consent of the political community, English kings began summoning Parliaments to approve taxation and to enact statutes. Gradually, Parliament's authority expanded at the expense of royal power.

References

↑ Slavin 1964, p. vii.
↑ Parker 1996.
1 2 Slavin 1964, p. viii.
↑ Long, Elizabeth (2017-01-01). "A Tamed Nobility? An Evaluation of the Relationship between the English Monarchy and the Late Medieval Peerage". LSU Master's Theses. doi: 10.31390/gradschool_theses.4497 .

Sources

Slavin, Arthur (1964). The New Monarchies and Representative Assemblies: Medieval Constitutionalism or Modern Absolutism?. Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath.
Parker, Geoffrey (1996). The Military Revolution, 1500-1800: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West.