Pages 78-86

I. Revival of Monarchy in Northern Europe

After 1450, sovereign rulers in Northern Europe began shifting from divided feudal monarchies to unified national monarchies. This transition was marked by several key developments:

  • New Alliances: Monarchs began to ally with the townspeople rather than the nobility or clergy. Loyal, business-savvy townspeople increasingly staffed royal offices as lawyers, bookkeepers, and diplomats, breaking the bonds of feudal society.

  • Centralized Power: Sovereign states saw powers of taxation, war-making, and law enforcement concentrated in the monarch.

  • Military Innovation: Monarchies created standing national armies in the fifteenth century, where professional infantry and artillery became the backbone of the "king’s army," replacing the traditional noble cavalry.

  • Fiscal Growth: To fund the growing cost of the state, rulers sought new income. This included the gabelle (salt tax) and the taille (hearth tax) in France, and the alcabala (a 10 percent sales tax) in Spain.

France

The French nation-building process had two major cornerstones in the 15th century: the collapse of the English Empire in France following the Hundred Years’ War, and the defeat of Charles the Bold and the duchy of Burgundy.

  • Charles VII (r. 1422–1461): His ministers created a professional army and a strong economy with the help of merchant banker Jacques Coeur.

  • Louis XI (r. 1461–1483): Known as "the Spider," he successfully harnessed the nobility, expanded trade, and established a national postal system. By the end of his reign, the kingdom was nearly twice the size he had inherited.

Spain

Spain’s unification was driven by the dynastic union of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469.

  • Unification and Expansion: Together they subdued their realms, secured borders, and conquered the Moors in Granada (1492).

  • Religious Orthodoxy: Spain became an exemplar of state-controlled religion. They established the Inquisition in 1479 to monitor converted Jews and Muslims. In 1492, the Jews were exiled, and in 1502, non-converting Moors were also driven out.

  • Overseas Empire: Ferdinand and Isabella sponsored Christopher Columbus in 1492, leading to the creation of a Spanish Empire in Mexico and Peru, which made Spain a dominant European power.

England

Following the Hundred Years’ War, England suffered through a period of civil warfare known as the Wars of the Roses (1455–1485) between the House of York and the House of Lancaster.

  • Henry VII (r. 1485–1509): The first of the Tudor dynasty, he brought the rival families together by marrying Elizabeth of York.

  • Court of Star Chamber: Created in 1487, this judicial body was used to discipline the nobility by preventing powerful nobles from using intimidation and bribery to win favorable verdicts in court.

  • Fiscal Independence: Henry VII managed to govern without total dependence on Parliament for funds by confiscating lands and fortunes of fallen nobles.

The Holy Roman Empire

Unlike the centralized monarchies of France, Spain, and England, Germany and Italy remained politically divided.

  • Golden Bull: In 1356, an agreement established a seven-member electoral college to choose the Holy Roman Emperor, which provided some transregional unity while maintaining the rights of individual princes.

  • The Reichstag: In the 15th century, a national assembly called the Reichstag was created to control feuding, but territorial princes remained virtually sovereign in their own domains.

II. The Northern Renaissance

The Northern Renaissance was stimulated by the importation of Italian learning and was characterized by a climate favorable to religious and educational reform.

Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus (1466?–1536) was the most famous northern humanist.

  • Philosophia Christi: Erasmus advocated for a simple, ethical piety in imitation of Christ, which he called the philosophia Christi, contrasting it with the dogmatic and ceremonial practices of the Middle Ages.

  • Works: He wrote the Colloquies (Latin dialogues for students) and the Adages (a collection of proverbs).

  • Greek New Testament: To encourage people to "imbibe the pure sources" of Christianity, he published a Greek edition of the New Testament in 1516.

Humanism and Reform

Humanism stirred reform across several northern nations:

  • Germany: Rudolf Agricola is considered the "father of German humanism". The Reuchlin affair—a controversy over the suppression of Jewish writings—unified German humanists in the name of academic freedom.

  • England: Thomas More (1478–1535) is the best-known English humanist, famous for his work Utopia (1516), which depicted an imaginary society based on reason and tolerance.

  • France: The French invasions of Italy allowed Italian learning to penetrate France, led by scholars like Guillaume Budé and Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples.

  • Spain: Humanism in Spain entered the service of the Catholic Church. Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros founded the University of Alcalá and produced the Complutensian Polyglot Bible, a six-volume work with Hebrew, Greek, and Latin versions of the Bible in parallel columns.