Chapter 21 - Absolute Monarchs in Europe

21.1 - Spain’s Empire and European Absolutism

• Philip was quiet, earnest, and intensely devout, just like his father. He was also a very dedicated worker.    * Philip, on the other hand, would not allow anyone to assist him.    * He didn't trust anyone for long because he was distrustful.
• When Philip took the throne, Europe was engulfed in theological strife as a result of the Reformation. Religious strife, on the other hand, was not new to Spain.    * Only 64 years prior, the Reconquista, or campaign to expel Muslims from Spain, had been completed.
• Philip had to keep an army in the Spanish Netherlands to keep his subjects under control. The Dutch and their Spanish overlords had little in common.    * While Spain was predominantly Catholic, the Netherlands had a large Calvinist population.
• The Dutch people were able to focus on economic progress due to the government's stability. Amsterdam merchants purchased excess grain in Poland and stuffed it into their warehouses.   *  They sent food south when they heard about bad harvests in southern Europe, when prices were at their peak.
• Monarchs were more powerful when Europe emerged from the Middle Ages. The fall of feudalism, the creation of cities, and the expansion of national kingdoms all contributed to the centralization of power.    * Furthermore, the emerging middle class favored monarchs because they offered a calm, business-friendly environment.
• In Europe, the 17th century was a time of immense upheaval. Religious and territorial disputes between states resulted in near-constant warfare.    * As a result, governments have built massive militaries and imposed even higher taxes on an already impoverished population.    * As a result of these pressures, there was widespread dissatisfaction. Peasants occasionally revolted.

21.2 - The Reign of Louis XIV

• Henry was a strong, athletic, and attractive descendant of the popular medieval monarch Louis IX. When Catherine and her final son died in 1589, Prince Henry ascended to the kingdom.    * He was the first monarch of France's Bourbon dynasty, Henry IV. He demonstrated as king that he was resolute, fierce in war, and a deft politician.
• Michel de Montaigne lived in the midst of the French religious wars at their worst. Montaigne pondered the purpose of life after the loss of a close friend.    * Montaigne created a new genre of literature, the essay, to communicate his thoughts.    * A concise writing that communicates a person's ideas and beliefs is known as an essay.
• When Cardinal Mazarin died in 1661, Louis, at 22 years old, assumed command of the government.    * By eliminating nobility from his councils, he diminished their power.
• The chief valet awoke Louis at 8:30 a.m. every day. At least 100 of the court's most privileged nobility stood outside the curtains of Louis' canopy bed.    * They were waiting to assist the magnificent king with his attire.    * Only four people would be permitted to hand Louis his shoes or to hold his sleeves for him.
• Louis attacked the Spanish Netherlands in 1667, just six years after Mazarin's death, in an attempt to expand France's borders.    * He gained 12 towns as a result of this campaign.   *  In 1672, he personally led an army into the Dutch Netherlands, buoyed by his triumph.
• The French people, tired of misery, yearned for calm. What they received instead was a new battle.    * Charles II, Spain's childless monarch, died in 1700 after guaranteeing the kingdom to Louis XIV's 16-year-old grandson, Philip of Anjou.    * The French Bourbons ruled both of Europe's major nations, which had been foes for so long.

21.3 - Central European Monarchs Clash 

• In 1618, a spark was lit. Ferdinand II, the future Holy Roman Emperor, was the head of the Hapsburg family.    * He ruled the Czech kingdom of Bohemia as such.   *  Ferdinand, a foreigner and a Catholic, was distrusted by the Protestants in Bohemia.
• From 1618 through 1648, the Thirty Years' War was fought. During the first 12 years, Hapsburg forces from Austria and Spain annihilated the Protestant princes' hired men.    * They were successful in suppressing the rebellion in Czechoslovakia.    * They also overcame the Protestant Germans who had backed the Czechs.
• Germany suffered a great deal as a result of the war. Its population shrank from 20 million to around 16 million people.    * Germany's economy was destroyed as trade and agriculture were interrupted.    * Germany's rehabilitation from the damage was long and tough.
• One explanation for this is because Central Europe's economy developed differently than Western Europe's.    * Serfs in western Europe gradually gained independence and relocated to towns throughout the late Middle Ages.
• They joined a group of middle-class townfolk who had achieved economic power as a result of the commercial revolution and the rise of capitalism.
• In central Europe, landowning nobility not only kept the serfs in check, but also stifled the rise of powerful kings.   *  The Polish aristocracy, for example, elected and severely limited the power of the Polish king.    * They provided the king with a meager income, no law courts, and no permanent army.    * As a result, no powerful ruler was able to unite the country.
• The Hapsburgs of Austria were one of these families. The Hapsburgs of Austria took a number of measures to become absolute rulers.    * They first reclaimed Bohemia during the Thirty Years' War. The Hapsburgs exterminated Protestantism in the Czech Republic and established a new Czech nobility that committed allegiance to them.
• Beginning with the German states of Brandenburg and Prussia, the Hohenzollerns built their state up from a number of modest holdings.    * Frederick William, a 20-year-old Hohenzollern, inherited the title of elector of Brandenburg in 1640.    * After witnessing the devastation of the Thirty Years' War, Frederick William, later known as the Great Elector, determined that the only way to secure safety was to have a strong army.

21.4 - Absolute Rulers of Russia

• Russia was still a land of boyars and serfs when Peter I came to power. Serfdom in Russia lasted much longer than it did in Western Europe, until the mid-1800s.    * Landowners in Russia desired serfs to remain on the land and produce substantial crops.
• People in Moscow's German sector were used to seeing the young Peter striding through their neighborhood on his long legs in the 1680s.
• Peter desired a harbor that would make it simpler to go to the West, in order to foster education and growth.    * As a result, Peter waged war against Sweden in order to capture a portion of the Baltic coast.

21.5 - Parliament Limits the English Monarchy

• The unresolved concerns of Elizabeth's reign were passed along to James. Money was the source of his most vehement disagreements with Parliament.   *  James also enraged the Puritan members of Parliament.    * The Puritans anticipated he would implement changes that would rid the English church of Catholic traditions.   *  He declined to implement Puritan reforms, with the exception of agreeing to a new translation of the Bible.
• Parliament established laws to limit royal power in the autumn of 1641.
•  In January 1642, Charles attempted to capture Parliament's leaders, but they escaped. A mob of Londoners raged outside the palace, equally enraged.
• Charles fled London and raised an army in the north of England, where people were loyal to him.
• Cromwell now wielded absolute control. He deposed the monarchy and the House of Lords in 1649.    * He founded a commonwealth, which is a republican government. Cromwell dispatched the remaining members of Parliament in 1653.    * John Lambert, a Cromwell associate, authored the first written constitution of any contemporary European state.    * Cromwell, on the other hand, tore the document up and became a military ruler.
• Cromwell and the Puritans tried to transform society in England.    * They passed laws promoting Puritan virtue and outlawing things they considered wicked, including as theater, athletic events, and dance.