AP Euro - Important Figures of Unit 2

King Louis XI (11), "Spider King"

France, created large royal army, encouraged economic growth (treated with England, Portugal and Hanseatic League)

Francis I

France, Concordat of Bologna (could appoint their own bishops to French church), taille (first land tax)

Henry VII (7)

England, reduced influence of nobility through Star Chamber (secret trials, nobles tried without jury, often tortured)

Henry VIII (8)

England, broke away from Catholic church, established Church of England

Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile

Spain, Reconquista (drove non-Catholic people out of Spain), created alliances to limit powers of nobles, Spanish Inquisition (tried people for heresy if they were suspected to be practicing a non-Catholic religion)

Charles V

HRE, prevented spread of Protestantism, strong army, led Habsburg-Valois wars

Vasco da Gama

all-water expedition to India in 1498, brought Indian goods to Europe, creating increased demand, helped with decline of Italian-city states

Christopher Columbus

tried to find new route to Asia (specifically India), reached Bahamas thinking it was India, under him large amounts of extreme violence was allowed, eliminating much of the native population of the so-called "New World"

Bartholomew de las Casas

wrote about the violence allowed under Columbus (A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies)

Hernando Cortes and Francisco Pizarro

conquered Aztecs (Cortes) and Incas (Pizarro)

Philip II

Habsburgs, son of Charles V, promoted Catholic dominance, under him there was a "Golden Age" in Spain

William I, "William of Orange"

led 17 provinces in Netherlands & Flanders against Spanish Inquisition

Mary Tudor

England, tried to re-impose Catholicism in England, married Philip II of Spain

Elizabeth I

reversed Mary Tudor's course, made Elizabethan settlement, refused Philip's request for marriage after Mary's death

Catherine de Medicis

Valois dynasty (Catholic), fought to maintain Catholic control in France, dominated her sons (three French kings)

Henry IV (4), Henry of Navarre

first Bourbon king, was a politique, converted to Catholicism to gain loyalty of Paris (said the quote "Paris is worth a mass"), Edict of Nantes (gave some religious tolerance to the Huguenots)

Albrecht von Wallenstein

paid by Ferdinand I to help Catholics win battles in the Thirty Year's War

Gustavus Adolphus

king of Sweden, led army that forced Catholic troops back to Bohemia, killed in battle

Cardinal Richelieu

France, allied with Protestant forced to defeat HRE

Charles I

SHIP money (taxes people for wars, money supposed to go to defense fund but instead he took it for himself), dissolved Parliament twice

Oliver Cromwell

Puritan military leader of the Roundheads, ruled with Rump Parliament