Age of Absolutism

Centralization of government led to powerful nation-states

Nation-states -- a state containing one as opposed to several nationalities

Balance of power – theory that no single state should be dominant on the

continent

16th Century – Spain

17th Century – France

18th Century – France - Britain

19th Century – Britain

20th Century – America

21st Century - ??

France, Spain, and England – three main powers during 1500-1700

Absolutism – king claimed to rule “by divine right” -- responsible to God alone

-one ruler has all the power in a country

-kings became legislators and made laws

-God established kings as his rulers on earth

-regulated religious sects, abolished liberties

-not the same as a totalitarian state (20th century phenomenon)

-could not do as they please b/c they had to obey God’s laws for

the good of the people

-causes:

-loss of church authority

-religious and territorial conflicts created fear and uncertainty

-growth of armies to deal with conflicts caused rulers to raise

taxes to pay troops

-heavy taxes led to peasant revolts

-effects:

-rulers regulated religious worship to control the spread of ideas

-Commercial Revolution

-by the 1600s, the nation had replaced the city and village as the basic

economic unit

-nations competed for markets and goods

-banking families were replaced by gov’t chartered banks

-joint-stock companies

-organizations that sold stock in the venture, enabling investors the

share the profits and risks of a trading voyage

-some became wealthy b/c of gov’t support, like the Dutch East

India Co. and the British East India Co.

-had monopolies in trade with Africa and the East Indies

-had power to make war, seize ships, coin money, and

establish colonies

-in return, the gov’t received taxes on imported

goods from the company’s trade

-by the 1600s, the greatest increase in business activity took place on those

bordering the Atlantic Ocean: Portugal, Spain, England, the Netherlands

-they had large colonial empires

-Italian cities of Venice and Genoa, formerly the leading trade

centers in Europe, found themselves cut out of overseas trade as

trade routes moved westward

-mercantilism – gov’t policies regulating economic activities by and for the state

-economic theory practiced in Europe from the 16th – 18

th cent.

-a nation’s wealth is measured by:

-the amount of gold and silver in its treasury

-to increase its wealth, a gov’t must:

-encourage exports to bring in gold and silver

-restrict imports to avoid draining away gold and silver

-allow monopolies for an advantage over foreign competition

-economists said that a country’s power comes from its wealth

-thus a country would do whatever possible to acquire more gold,

especially at the expense of its rivals

-the measure of a nation’s wealth was the amount of bullion (gold

and silver) it owned

-nations could gain wealth by mining gold and silver

abroad, like the Spanish taking over the silver and gold

mines of the Incas and Aztecs

-colonies served a very important purpose in this system as

they were sources of raw material as well as vital markets

for goods to be sold

-the point of a colony was to make the parent

country self-sufficient

-goal was to become as wealthy as possible

-the greater the wealth, the more power and influence a

country had in the world

-gov’t control of the economy that sought to maximize exports and

minimize imports

-meant to enable the state to defend its economic and political

interests

-state intervention was needed to secure the largest part of a limited

resource

-economic policy after feudalism and before capitalism

Spain

-was at its absolutist height in the 1500s under Philip II

-Spanish “style” lived on, though

-Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

(1605)

-amusing satire of popular tales of

chivalry

-paintings of El Greco

-personalized the Saints, glorified the

Virgin Mary

-perfect example of Catholic

Reformation

-Spain from 1600s-1700

-Philip’s son, grandson, and great-grandson (Philip III 1598-1621,

Philip IV 1621-1665, and Charles II 1665-1700) turned over most

of the crown’s affairs to the nobles

-widespread corruption and economic mismanagement

-between 1609 and 1610 the Moors began to be expelled

from Spain

-the Navy and 30,000 soldiers were mobilized with

the mission of transporting the Muslims to Tunis or

Morocco

-300,000 Moors were expelled

-the cheap labor and the rent paying owners

in these areas decreased considerably

-royals spent their time building extravagant homes,

holding lavish parties, and wearing expensive clothes

-overburdened and overtaxed, citizens started to

rebel

-Portugal, part of Spain since 1580, rebelled

and Spain finally recognized them as an

independent nation in 1688

-suffered defeats as a result of the Treaty of

Westphalia as a result of losing to the French in the

30 Years’ War

English

-Elizabeth

One of the greatest women in history

Reigned for nearly 50 years

England has stayed Protestant ever since

The Virgin Queen – never married

-saw the creation of the Elizabethan Age

-Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare

-end of the Tudor dynasty

-her successor, James I (1603-1625) – Mary, Queen of Scots, son

-Union of the Crowns (uniting Scotland and England)

-was James VI of Scotland since 1567

-start of Stuart dynasty

-the Jacobean era (referring to the reign of James)

-ruled England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland

-James moved his court to London and ingnored

Scotland

-brought up Presbyterian

-didn’t buy into Puritans, though, and in 1620,

Puritan separatists bgean to leave England

-preferred flight to Anglican conformity

-Puritans believed in: strict observance of

the Sabbath

-kept England Protestant

-in 1604, a group of moderate Puritans urged

James to support a new translation of the

Bible

-James agreed and assigned the task

to a committee of scholars, and their

version was published in 1611

-the Authorized Bible (aka.

King James Bible)

-represented the Anglican

and Puritan desire to

encourage lay people to read

the Scriptures

-quickly achieved popularity

and replaced all earlier

versions

-British settlers took this

Bible to the North American

colonies

Stuart kings in England

James I, Mary’s son and King of Scotland, took the throne after

Elizabeth’s death

Guy Fawkes – Gunpowder Plot of 1605 to blow up King

and Parliament

Remember remember the fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason why gunpowder, treason

Should ever be forgot...

-Catholics upset about James requiring everyone to

participate in Anglican services

-influenced the comic book and film V for Vendetta,

about people overthrowing an authoritarian gov’t

-the anarchist terrorist V bases his actions

and ideas on those of Guy Fawkes

-in 1625 he had his son, Charles, marry into France with

Henrietta Marie, the Catholic daughter of Henry IV

-Charles I, his son, takes over (1625-1649)

-squabbles erupted between Crown and wealthy, and

legally-minded Parliament

-in 1628 Parliament forced Charles to agree to the

Petition of Right, which said that no new taxes

would be granted without consent of Parliament

-also would be no imprisonment without due

cause, and troops shouldn’t be quartered in

private homes

-dissolved Parliament in 1629 (ruled w/out Parliament from

1629-1640)

-Parliament felt that his extreme taxes were leading

to tyranny

-refused to grant him an army which he needed to

prevent invasion from Scotland

-Irish Rebellion of 1641

-an attempted coup d'état by Irish Catholics against

Protestants and English, starting in Ulster

-The 16th and early 17th century English

conquest of Ireland was marked by large

scale "Plantations", notably in Ulster

-very harsh on the native population

-massacres by Irish Catholics of English and

Scottish Protestant settlers in Ireland

-Some were driven into rivers and drowned, some hanged, some mutilated, some ripped with

knives.

-The priests told the people "that Protestants

were worse than dogs, they were devils and

served the devil, and the killing of them was a meritorious act."

-They flung babies into boiling pots, or tossed

them into the ditches to the pigs.

-12,000 Protestants may have lost their lives in

total, the majority dying of cold or disease after

being expelled from their homes in the depths of

winter

-Parliament couldn’t agree on religious issues (it

had Puritans, Catholics, and Anglicans in

Parliament)

-English Civil War 1642-1646

-Charles then initiated military action against

Parliament by invading it in 1642

-Parliament raised an army made up of London

militia

Parliament (middle class, merchants, large cities) –

Roundheads vs. King (Anglican clergy, peasants, nobility)

– Royalists or Cavaliers

-Roundhead Oliver Cromwell, a Puritan leader of

Parliament, allied with Presbyterian Scotland

-believed in an established majority church, as long

as Protestants had the right to worship, as well

-Royalist Charles I allied with Irish Catholics

Cromwell won, and beheaded Charles for treason in 1649

-abolished the monarchy, the House of Lords, and

the Anglican Church

-1649-1660 “Interregnum”

England becomes a republican gov’t (the first English

republic)

-a Puritan Republic

-legislative power resisted in Parliament

-army that had won the war now controlled the

gov’t, and Cromwell controlled the army

-allowed toleration of all Protestant sects,

but nothing for Catholics

-passionately opposed to the Roman

Catholic Church

-Committed terrible atrocities of Irish

-invasion of Ireland from 1649-50, with the

twin aims of eliminating the military threat

posed by the alliance between the Irish

Catholics and English Royalists and

punishing the Irish for their rebellion of

1641

-Cromwell to Irish: "you are part of the

Anti-Christ and before long you must have,

all of you, blood to drink."

-Cromwell's troops massacred nearly 5,500

people after Ireland’s capture

-“"The righteous judgement of God

on these barbarous wretches”

-Anyone implicated in the rebellion of 1641

was executed.

-anyone who had allied with the Royalists

had their land confiscated

-no Catholics were allowed to live in towns.

-the practice of Catholicism was banned and

bounties were offered for priests, who were

executed when found

-troops, as well as over 1,000

civilians were killed

-thousands deportated for slave labor to

Bermuda and to the penal colony at

Barbados, too

-the war of 1641-53 had resulted in the death

or exile of over 600,000 people, or around

1/3 of Ireland's pre-war population

-Before the wars, Irish Catholics had owned

60% of the land in Ireland, whereas during

the Commonwealth period, Catholic

landownership had fallen to 8%

-completed the British colonisation of

Ireland

-a powerful source of Irish nationalism

-Committed terrible atrocities of Scots

-invaded Scotland in 1650 after the Scots

had proclaimed Charles I's son as Charles II

-Charles I’s son, Charles Stuart, had

arrived in Scotland in 1650 and he

and his royalist supporters threatened

to invade England

-many Scots were sent to their penal colony

in Barbados

-in 1653, when Parliament wanted him to disband

his army, he disbanded Parliament and became Lord

Protector and rule by himself

-Cromwell (1653-1658) started a military

dictatorship (like Myanmar now)

-Military gov’t collapsed when Cromwell died in 1658

-Cromwell’s son, Richard, then takes over, but by

1660, he resigns

-English longed for return to civilian gov’t

-Restoration of 1660 -- re-established monarchy in Charles

II (1660-1685) and Anglican Church

-son of Charles I

-Parliament restored

-1642 return to status quo (hereditary

monarch restored, a Parliament of Lords and

Commons, and the Anglican Church)

-House of Lords and Commons

originated in 1300s

-Commons (like our House) and

Lords (like our Senate)

-Cavalier Parliament 1660-1679

-creation of the two English parties:

Whigs and Tories

-Whigs -- middle class, Puritans

-favored Parliament and

religious toleration

-Tories – nobles, Anglicans

-conservatives

-supported monarchy and

wanted Anglican as state

religion

-Tory prevailed in Parliament, so

laws forbade anything but Anglican

-John Milton, an English poet, wrote Paradise Lost

in 1667

-wrote propaganda for the English Republic

in the early 1650s, including the

Eikonoklastes, which attempts to justify the

execution of Charles I

-concerns the Christian story of the Fall of

Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by

Satan and their expulsion from the Garden

of Eden

-readers may consider Satan to be the

hero of the story, since he struggles

to overcome his own doubts and

weaknesses and accomplishes his

goal of corrupting mankind

-a common theme in Puritanical

writing that, while the freedom to do

evil may appear tantalizing, it

ultimately leads only to self

destruction and slavery

-thus, Satan and his fallen angels can

be interpreted to offer an overall

critique of society and a justification

of the Puritan commonwealth's

attempts to ban actions deemed

immoral

-one of the greatest works in the English

language

-Charles in 1670 entered into agreement with

French King Louis XIV

-Charles received 200,000 pounds annually,

and in return he would relax laws against

Catholics, gradually re-Catholicize England,

and eventually convert himself

-his brother, James, who would be his heir,

was Catholic, so English feared a Catholic

dynasty

-they said that those who refused to become

part of Church of England couldn’t hold

public office, teach, attend universities

-Test Act of 1673 (all civil and military

officials had to swear an oath against

transubstantiation)

-no Roman Catholic would ever do

this

-aimed at the king’s brother and heir,

James, who had recently converted

to Catholicism in 1668

-couldn’t be enforced

-Quaker William Penn was one of

the ones arrested during this time

-1679 Whig Parliament

-suspect of Charles II absolutism and his

Catholicism

-passed Habeas Corpus Act

-limited royal power

-prisoners had to be in court while

being tried

-speedy trials

-forbade double jeopardy

-on his deathbed in 1685, he converted to

Catholicism

-James II (1685-1688) –Catholic -- succeeded his brother

-repealed Test Act, appointed Catholics to army positions,

universities, and local gov’ts

-when Parliament balked, he dissolved it and continued

appointing Catholics to high positions in the army and his

gov’t

-had a male child with his wife in 1688, James Edward Stuart, so a

Catholic dynasty seemed ensured

-already had 2 girls (Mary and Anne), but they were living

in the Netherlands and were brought up Protestant

-in 1677, Mary, the oldest daughter, had married

Prince William of Orange in the Netherlands,

Europe’s most prominent Protestant

-James, at this time the Duke of York, was

pressured by Parliament to agree to this, and

he falsely assumed that it would improve his

popularity amongst Protestants

-married in London, but she went to live

with him in the Netherlands

-add that with fear of French supporting the Catholic

dynasty and people were moved to action

Glorious Revolution

Also called the Bloodless Revolution

James II -- unpopular coming to the throne

Catholic who appointed Catholics to important posts

Appearance of trying to impose Catholicism on Protestant

England

1688 English nobles invited James II’s daughter, Mary, and her

Dutch husband, Prince William of Orange, to take over the throne

-they had married in 1677

-William, the most prominent Protestant statesman in

Europe at the time, was invited secretly with 15,000 troops

from Netherlands

William III and Mary II arrive – James flees to exile in France

-Take over as joint rulers in 1689

-transition from the personal control of government of the

Stuarts to the Parliamentary type rule of the House of

Hanover (George I is first Hanover ruler)

-accept throne from Parliament, so they recognized

supremacy of Parliament

-Parliament’s 1689 Bill of Rights (Declaration of Rights)

1) only Parliament can impose taxes

2) laws can be made only w/ consent of Parliament

3) standing army can be maintained only w/

consent of Parliament

4) people have right to petition

5) Parliament has right of free speech, not the

people

6) people have right to bear arms; Catholics

couldn’t possess firearms b/c Protestant

majority feared them

7) people have right to due process, and reasonable

bail (no cruel and unusual punishment)

8) Parliament is to be freely elected and dissolved

only by its own consent

-required the English Crown to always be Protestant

-not a democratic revolution, placed power in Parliament

and they were mainly upper class

-majority of people still had no say in gov’t

-established a constitutional monarchy (constitutionalism)

-start of reign of Parliament ruling while monarch reigned

-faced considerable opposition in Ireland

-start of the Jacobite (jack-o-bite) rebellions

-series of uprisings, rebellions, and wars in

the British Isles occurring between 1688 and

1746

-political movement dedicated to the

restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones

of England and Scotland

-those who believed that James II was the

legitimate monarch

-the movement took its name from the Latin

form Jacobus of the name of King James II

of England and VII of Scotland

-response to the deposition of James II and

VII in 1688 when he was replaced by his

daughter Mary II jointly with her husband

and first cousin William III

-primary seats of Jacobitism were Ireland

and (especially Highland) Scotland

-Irish Catholics tried to reverse the Cromwellian

settlement in the Williamite War in Ireland, where

they fought en masse for the Jacobites (“jack-o-

bites”)

-Williamite War in Ireland (aka the Jacobite War

in Ireland) – against rule of William III

-wanted to restore James II to the throne

-led by Lord Lt. Richard Talbot, the Earl

of Tyrconnel, the Jacobites in Ireland

declared themselves to be the loyal

subjects of James and rallied together an

army of Irish Catholics

-attacked anyone throughout

Ulster who sweared allegiance to

William and Mary

-in 1689, James II landed in Ireland with

6,000 French soldiers

-had 19,000 Irish Catholic troops,

too, supporting him

-in 1690, William III sent 36,000 troops

into Ireland to put down the uprising

-the Battle of the Boyne (River) in

July 1690

-James was defeated by William

III, thus the Jacobites were

defeated

-James fled to Dublin and

then returned to exile in

France

-It influenced the Jacobite Rising in

Scotland

-faced considerable opposition in Scotland

-in 1691, William III forced all clan chiefs to take

an oath of loyalty to him by the end of the year

-feared that the Scots would rise up like the

Irish had done

-MacIan, the chief of the MacDonald’s of

Glencoe, refused

-the Massacre of Glencoe (1692), in which almost

100 Scots were murdered for not properly

pledging their allegiance to the new King and

Queen

-this raised the discontent of the other clans

-Mary II died of smallpox in 1694, leaving William III to

rule alone

-William III dies in 1702

-Queen Anne Stuart (Anne I) – 1702-1714

-daughter of James II

-her brother-in-law and her sister then became joint

monarchs as William III and Mary II

-last of the Stuart monarchy

-Catholics had been barred from holding office, barred

from sitting in Parliament, barred from certain jobs

-the failure of both Anne and her sister to produce a child

who could survive into adulthood precipitated a succession

crisis

-in the absence of a Protestant heir, the Roman

Catholic James Edward Stuart (the "Old

Pretender"), son of James II, could attempt to claim

the throne

-it was for this reason that the Parliament of

England passed legislation allowing the Crown to

pass to over the rest of the Stuarts

-when the Parliament of Scotland refused to accept

this, various coercive tactics (such as crippling the

Scottish economy by restricting trade) were used to

ensure that Scotland would co-operate

-the War of the Spanish Succession began

-wanted to prevent France from gaining too much

power

-also didn’t like France’s Louis XIV's proclamation

of James Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender, as

"James III of England" following the death of James

II

-Act of Union 1707

-brought England and Scotland together under one

parliament, one sovereign, and one flag

-united England and Scotland into Great Britain

-Anne became the first monarch of Great

Britain

-Jacobite (jack-o-bite) rebellions

-James Edward Stuart (aka Old Pretender) (aka.

James III)

-son of James II

-was living in France (born there while his

father was in exile from England)

-with 6,000 French troops as support, he

arrived with a fleet of ships in Scotland in

1708 on a mission to give aid to the

Jacobites in Scotland, but quickly turned

back by the British Royal Navy and the bad

weather

-tried twice more to retake the crown, but

failed, but his son, Charles Edward Stuart

(Bonnie Prince Charlie, or the Young

Pretender) continued the uprisings

-in 1714, Anne died without an heir, so the Stuart

line transferred to the Hanover line

-King George I takes over (1714-1727)

-first Hanover king

-with a German on the throne now, the Jacobite

cause increased in number greatly

-in 1715, James Edward Stuart met up with

over 12,000 Jacobite soldiers from

throughout Scotland and northern England

who had risen up against King George I

taking over the throne

-James landed in Abderdeen and met

up with them in Perth, but they were

beaten back by early 1716 and James

fled back to France

-France under a new King Louis XV wanted

to strengthen their relationship with

England, though, so France exiled James

-James eventually made an alliance

with King Philip V of Spain, who

agreed to send 5,000 Spanish troops

to Scotland to help the Jacobites

-in 1719, Jacobite leaders, not inlcuding

James, landed in Scotland again,

anticipating Spanish help but storms broke

up the Spanish fleet and the Jacobites were

again defeated

French absolutism

Move towards absolutism after 100 Years War

-King Louis XIII (r. 1610-1643) – raised Catholic

-Bourbon

-8 yr. old child; regent was his mother Marie de Medici

-in 1615, he was married to a Hapsburg Princess, Anne of

Austria, daughter of King Philip III of Spain

- cementing military and political alliances between

the Catholic powers of France and Spain

-Anne finally gave birth to a son, Louis, in 1638

-she secured the appointment of Armand Jean du

Plessis (Cardinal Richelieu) in 1624

-he became chief minister of the French crown

-policy of total subordination of all groups

and institutions to French monarchy

- As a result of Richelieu's work, Louis XIII became

one of the first exemplars of an absolute monarch

-one of the most well-known feminists of the time period

was in the court of Louis XIII

-Marie de Gournay, a French writer

-wrote for Henri IV, Marie de Médici,

Louis XIII, and Richelieu

-she obtained the privilege of being

able to publish her own work and

was awarded a royal stipend

-wrote The Equality of Men and Women

(1622) and The Ladies' Grievance (1626)

-explored the dangers women face

when they become dependent on

men and insisted that women should

be educated

-Gournay does not claim that women

are superior to men; she believes

that, given the same opportunities,

privileges, and education usually

granted to men, women can equal

men's accomplishments

-de Gournay attributes

women's apparent mental

inferiority to women's lack of

education, believing that men

and women are inherently

alike

-she pioneered a new approach to the

debate by appealing to the authority

of ancient and modern philosophers

(Plutarch, Erasmus, and Castiglione)

and the Church fathers, as well as

scripture

-"Since all the great minds of

the past and present

acknowledge the merits of

women, those men who do

not must lack intelligence."

-died in 1643, leaving the throne to his 4-yr. old son, Louis

Golden Age of France

King Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715) – longest reign in European history

at 72 years

-took over the age of 4

-Bourbon Catholic

-regent was his mother, Anne

-didn’t rule solely until 1661 with the death of his

First Minister Cardinal Mazarin

France – Europe’s wealthiest and most populous (17

million people, 20% of Europe’s population)

-absolutist monarch who centralized French gov’t with help

of First Minister Cardinal Richlieu and Cardinal Mazarin

-Claimed “divine right” to rule

-Placed on throne by God, owed his

allegiance to no one

-got the idea from his tutor, political

theorists Bishop Jacques-Benigne Bossuet,

who said Old Testament rulers had been

divinely appointed by and answerable only

to God

-“divine right of kings”

-only God can judge a king, so they

were not bound to the dictates of

mere nobles and parliaments

-garnered power away from the Pope

-limiting the authority of the Pope in

France

-The Pope was not allowed to send

papal legates to France without the

king's consent

-bishops were not to leave France

without royal approval

-no government officials could be

excommunicated for acts committed

in pursuance of their duties

-Declared “L’etat, c’est moi” (I am the state) in

1661

-nicknamed The Sun King (his whole

kingdom revolves around him)

-the Edict of Fontainebleau 1685

-revoking the Edict of Nantes – made Catholicism

mandatory

-believed that political unity and stability required

religious conformity

-“we have judged that we can do nothing better to

wipe out the memory of the troubles, of the

confusion, of the evils that the progress of this false

religion has caused our kingdom…than to revoke

entirely the said edict.”

-ordered destruction of churches, closing of schools,

Catholic baptism of Huguenots, exile of Huguenot

pastors, banned Huguenots from gov’t offices and

professions, like medicine and printing

-caused more than 250,000 people to leave France

-formed new communities in England,

Germany, Denmark, and the New World

-“one king, one law, one faith”

-Army of 400,000 troops, largest in Europe

-For 2/3 of his reign (33 yrs) France was at war

-fought to secure its borders and limit

Habsburg power

-a civil war, the Fronde (1648)

-the Frondeurs originally sought to protect

the traditional feudal "liberties" from an

increasingly centralized and centralizing

royal government

-On the other hand, Cardinal

Mazarin had continued and would

continue to follow the policies of

centralization pursued by his

predecessor, Cardinal Richelieu

-seeking to augment the

power of the Crown at the

expense of the nobility

-in 1648, he sought to levy a tax on the

nobles and clergy

-these members of society refused to

comply, and ordered all of Cardinal

Mazarin's financial edicts burned

-Mazarin arrested many of these

leading societal members in a show

of force

-Paris erupted in rioting and

insurrection

-a mob of angry Parisians

broke into the royal palace

and demanded to see their

king

-The Fronde thus gradually lost steam until

it ended in 1653

-by the early 1680s, Louis XIV had greatly augmented his

and France's influence and power in Europe and the world

-French became universal tongue of Europe

-Outside Europe, French colonies abroad were

multiplying in the Americas, Asia and Africa, while

diplomatic relations had been initiated with

countries as far afield as Siam, India and Persia

-fighting three major wars:

-the Franco-Dutch War

-the War of the League of

Augsburg

-the War of the Spanish

Succession

-War of Spanish Succession (1701-1713)

-king of Spain, Charles II (last Habsburg

king of Spain), died in 1700 without any

direct heirs

-left crown and Spanish empire to

Philip of Anjou, Louis XIV’s of

France’s grandson and heir

-smallpox left most of Louis’

family dead, so he changed

the succession of France to

be Philip of Anjou, his

grandson (even though he

was already in the line of

succession of Charles II of

Spain)

-Spain’s Charles II’s will included a

condition that Philip should give up

his right to the throne of France, but

Louis XIV refused and said Philip should

take over Spain and also take over France

once he died

-1701 English, Dutch, Austrians, and Prussians

formed Grand Alliance against Louis XIV and

France

-fighting to prevent France from becoming

too strong

-Treaty of Utrecht 1713

-allowed Philip V (Philip of Anjou) to remain on

the throne

-French and Spanish were never to be ruled by the

same monarch (France is currently ruled by Louis

XIV)

-France surrendered Newfoundland, Nova Scotia,

and Hudson Bay to England

-England also got Gibraltar and control of

African slave trade from Spain (asiento –

contract for supplying African slaves to

America)

-France gave up Spanish Netherlands (later

Belgium) to Austria

-France recognized Hohenzollern rulers of Prussia

-completed the decline of Spain as a great power

-vastly expanded British Empire

-1700- 1746 Philip V (Philip of Anjou) becomes first of

the Spanish Bourbons

Culture

-Personal extravagances

- Versailles – his permanent residence 10 miles

from Paris

-built from 1678-1708

-central building and grounds had

been a hunting lodge for Louis XIII

-Louis lived there permanently after 1682

-shifted the seat of the monarchy

-a symbol of extravagant opulence and

stately grandeur

-held thousands of nobles, officials, and

servants, as well as stables that held 12,000

horses

-largest secular structure in Europe

-the Louvre became a massive royal palace in Paris

Reigned for 72 years, took over throne at 4

-great-grandson Louis XV, 5 yrs. old, took over when he

died

-ruled from 1715-1774

-his uncle, the Duke of Orleans, became his regent

Prussia – part of the HRE and then an independent nation in 1701

-Hohenzollern dynasty

-European royal family which came to rule Brandenburg-Prussia

(1417-1918)

-area around present-day Berlin

-controlled a block of territory within the HRE , second

only in size to that of the Habsburgs

-they ruled the German Empire from 1871–1918

-Frederick William (1640-1688) “the Great Elector” – Elector of

Brandenburg

-Calvinist in a mostly Lutheran-populated land

-accepted fleeing French Huguenots after Louis

XIV’s removal of the Edict of Nantes

-not a king because Prussia wasn’t a kingdom yet, just part

of HRE

-unified separate provinces: Brandenburg, Prussia, and

East Prussia (lands in present-day Poland)

-Estates (their parliament) were dominated by nobility and

landowners known as Junkers

-established permanent standing army in 1660

-to pay for this, he forced Estates to accept

permanent taxation w/out consent

-Great Elector now had superior force and financial

independence

-Frederick I (1688-1713) – Elector of Brandenburg and eventual

King of Prussia

-became the first King of Prussia in 1701 when Prussia was recognized as an independent nation at the beginning of the War of Spanish Succession

-Frederick's argument was that Prussia had never

belonged to the Holy Roman Empire and therefore

there was no legal or political barrier to prevent the

Elector of Brandenburg from being King in Prussia

-1701 English, Dutch, Austrians, and Prussians formed Grand Alliance against Louis XIV and

France – gave Prussia powerful allies

-modeled himself upon the most important ruler of the day, Louis XIV

-his son, Frederick William I (1713-1740) – “the Soldiers’ King”

-took over with approval and support of France after Treaty

of Utrecht

-established Prussian absolutism

-demanded discipline and order from his people and

it was under him that Prussia established itself as a

powerful, stable country

-“I must be served with life and limb, with house

and wealth, with honor and conscience, everything

must be committed except eternal salvation – that

belongs to God, but all else is mine.”

-created best army, man for man, in all of Europe

-grew from 39,000 in 1713 to 80,000 in 1740

-13th largest population in Europe, but had

its 3rd biggest army

-one in every nine men in Prussia was a soldier -another 40,000 men were foreign mercenaries -Prussia became the “Sparta of the North”

-most militaristic country of modern times

-separate laws applied to the army

-military officers became highest social

class in the state

-military service attracted the sons of the

Junker nobility

-military priorities dominated Prussian gov’t

-where other states possessed an army, the

Prussian army possessed a state

-Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau - a remarkable soldier and strategist - invented the marching step -attached bayonets to the outside of the muskets (started by French in 1600s in town of Bayonne, having run out of powder and shot, rammed their long-bladed hunting

knives into the muzzles of their primitive

muskets to fashion impromptu spears)

-he sent his agents throughout Europe to buy or

kidnap the best soldiers

-giving bonuses to parents who surrendered their tallest sons and landowners who sent him their tallest farm workers -created the Giant Guard of Potsdam

(Potsdamer Riesengarde) -- nicknamed

the "Lange Kerls" -- a unit of tall recruits

-the original required height was

5'11", then well above average

male height (the tallest soldiers

were reportedly about 7ft)

-Russian Czar Peter the Great

sent an annual supply of

"Giants", as well as the Sultan of

the Ottoman Empire -also set up a mercantilist economic policy to ensure his kingdom’s economic revival

-his son then took over, Frederick II (Frederick the Great) – 1740-

1786

Russia

-Ivan IV (1553-1584) – Ivan the Terrible (part of Rurik dynasty-ruled from 958 -- (640

yrs.))

-oversaw the transition from a mere local medieval nation state to a small empire

and emerging regional power

-became known as the first Tsar of Russia (Tsar is Russian for Caesar) as

the head of a more powerful nation

-introduction of the first laws restricting the mobility of the peasants, which

would eventually lead to serfdom

-highly suspicious of all nobles (boyars) – they had to serve the tsar in order to

hold any land

-Ivan suspected boyars of poisoning his wife, Anastasia, and of plotting to

replace him on the throne with his cousin, Vladimir of Staritsa

-Ivan had asked the boyars to swear an oath of allegiance to his

eldest son – Theodore -- an infant at the time

-many boyars refused

-also blamed them plotting with the Poles and Lithuanians, who were

joined together in the Polish-Lithuanian state

-there were an increasing number of Polish-Lithuanian raids

-there followed brutal reprisals and assassinations against the boyars, as

well as Poles and Lithuanians

-thus he became an iron-fisted tyrant, killing all those who opposed

him

-his own reign of terror

-leading boyars, their relatives, and their peasants and servants

were executed on the spot

-large estates were confiscated, broken up, and

reapportioned to lower classes

-also conscripted men to fight the war against Poland-Lithuania

-since he was suspect of the loyalty of the city of

Novgorod, Ivan ordered his private army to murder the

inhabitants of this city

-under the belief that the elite of the city of

Novgorod planned to defect to the Polish–

Lithuanian Commonwealth, he led an army to

Novgorod to stop them

-burned and pillaged the city and villages

-1570 Massacre of Novgorod

-as many as 60,000 might have been killed

in the massacre that lasted 5 weeks

-he had a special corps of servants who rode on black horses and

dressed in all black and carried this terror out

-Oprichniki: new aristocracy and a private army of

supporters

-scared peasants fled the cities and formed outlaw armies known as

Cossacks who maintained an independence beyond the tsar’s reach

-tsar tried to tie them to the land so he could tax them easier

-Cossacks are a group of people living in the southern

steppe regions of Eastern Europe and Asian Russia, famous

for their self-reliance and military skill

-the modern Russian word is Kazak

-he was also still dealing with the Russo-Crimean Wars

-were fought between the forces of the Russia and the invading Tatars

of the Crimean Khanate

-the Crimean Tatars' invasions of Russia began in 1507 and saw extensive

looting and kidnapping

-In 1571, the 120,000-strong Crimean Tatar army led a surprise attack and

forced the main Russian army to retreat to Moscow

-the rural population also sought refuge in the capital

-the Tatars devastated the unprotected towns and villages around

Moscow, and proceeded to fire the capital's suburbs

-within three hours Moscow was completely burned to the ground,

and the Tatars enslaved 150,000 Russians

-he owned all land, trade, and industry and restricted economic development

-exchanged letters with Elizabeth I of England complaining of difficulty of

trading with England because of their constantly changing monarchs

-St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow

-in Red Square today

-Ivan had the architects blinded so they wouldn’t ever duplicate the

fantastic achievement

-Eastern Orthodox Church

-Christian, but reject authority of the Pope

-accept what is written in the Bible

-started in the 11th century when the Great Schism took place

between Rome and Constantinople, which led to separation of the

Church of the West, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Churches

of the East.

-Russian Orthodox Church

-“holy Russia” as the “3rd Rome” after Rome and Constantinople

-Ivan’s sons, Theodore I (1584-1598) and Theodore II, (1605) died without an heir (end

of Rurik dynasty)

-1605-1613 – “Time of Troubles”

-in 1613, nobles elected Ivan’s 17 yr. old grandnephew, Michael

Romanov, the new hereditary tsar

-Romanov dynasty

-began with the election of Michael Romanov, a 17 year old (Michael I)

-1613-1645

-ruled Russia from 1613 to 1917 and during this time, Russia became a major

European power

-last Russian dynasty

-after Michael came his oldest son Alexei I (1645-1676)

-peasants enserfed in 1649 (serfdom)

-war with Poland in 1654-1667 and Sweden in 1656-1658 put heavy

demands upon the people of Russia

-taxes increased as did military conscription

-angered many peasants

-story of Stenka Razin (1630-1671) and the Cossack uprising

-a Cossack leader who led a major uprising against the nobility and

Tsar's bureaucracy in South Russia

- Many peasants hoping to escape new burdens fled south and

joined bands of Razin's marauding Cossacks

- destroyed the great water caravan consisting of the treasury

barges and the barges of the patriarch and the wealthy merchants

of Moscow along the Volga River

-also harassed Russian ships on the Caspian Sea

-in 1670, he openly rebelled against the gov’t

- After massacring all who opposed him, he converted the

southern Russian area of Astrakhan into a Cossack

republic

-proclaimed Stepan Timofeyevich their sovereign

-eventually he left to establish the Cossack republic along

the whole length of the Volga, as a preliminary step

towards advancing against Moscow

-Razin proclaimed that his object was to root out the boyars and all

officials, to level all ranks and dignities, and establish

Cossackdom, with its corollary of absolute equality

-in 1671, he was captured, taken to Moscow, where, after tortures,

he was quartered alive in the Red Square

-Schism (Raskol) in the Russian Orthodox Church in 1666-1667

- In 1652, Nikon (Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church from

1652 to 1658) introduced a number of ritual and textual

changes to the Russian Orthodox Church

- Nikon, having noticed discrepancies between Russian and

Greek rites and texts, ordered an adjustment of the Russian

rites to align with the Greek ones of his time

-called for ecclesiastical reforms

-supported by Alexei I

-aim of achieving uniformity between Russian and Greek

Orthodox practices

- the Russian Orthodox Church had, as a result of

errors of incompetent copyists, developed rites and

of its own that had significantly deviated from the

Greek originals

-changes:

OLD NEW

sign of the cross… Two fingers, straightened Three fingers, straightened

Numbers of small pieces

of bread (prosphora) used

in liturgy…

7

5

Creed… And in the Holy Spirit, the

True Lord and Giver of Life

And in the Holy Spirit, the

Lord, the Giver of Life

Baptism…

Must be three full

immersions

pouring or sprinkling with

holy water is allowed

Painting… only icons of old Russian or

Byzantine iconography; they

do not believe in venerating

realistic images of Christ,

Our Lady and the Saints as

icons

Church service… last two to three times

longer than the new-style

Beards… shaving one's beard as a

severe sin. This is due to the

fact that Christ had a beard

and men are ought to have

the same appearance

Women… married women always

cover their heads to show

their humility towards their

husbands and God

Upon entering church… on entering church, people

have to clean their feet

Gravestones… gravestones - 8-pointed

crosses - are placed at the

foot of the grave so when

they rise from the dead they

will see the cross

-traditionalists who didn’t agree with the changes refused

to accept the liturgical reforms in 1666

-known as "Old Believers"

-continued liturgical practices which the Russian

Orthodox Church maintained before the

implementation of these reforms

-Archpriest Avvakum Petrov became the leader of

the Old Believers' movement, and he publicly

denounced and rejected all ecclesiastical reforms

-in 1666-1667 there was a clear division in

the Church

-the Church suppressed those who didn’t follow their reforms

-the authorities imposed the reforms in an autocratic

fashion

-the state authorities often saw Old Believers as dangerous

elements and as a threat to the Russian state

-Old Believers were excommunicated and fled to the

fringes of Russia's empire

-most active Old Believers were arrested, and

several were executed several of them (including

Archpriest Avvakum)

-those who stayed had to pay double taxation

-Alexei and his heirs

-has 2 wife’s and 4 kids (first Maria Miloslavna – Theodore, Ivan, and

Sophia’s mom) and second (Natalia Narishkina (Peter’s mom))

-Alexei’s oldest son Theodore III takes over after him (1676-1682)

-Theodore III’s uneventful reign ended within six years with

no children

-Ivan was in the line of succession, but he was an invalid

--Consequently, the Boyar Duma (a council of Russian nobles) chose the

10-yr old Peter to become Czar, his mother becoming regent

-led to a dispute over the succession between the Maria Miloslavna

(Theodore and Ivan’s mom) and Natalia Narishkina (Peter’s mom) and

families, Alexei I’s 2 wives

-one of Alexei's daughters by his first marriage with Maria

Miloslavna, Sophia, led a rebellion of the Streltsy (Russia's élite

military corps)

-In the subsequent conflict, many of Peter's relatives and

friends were murdered

-Sophia insisted that Peter and Ivan be proclaimed joint Czars, with Ivan being

acclaimed as the senior of the two (1682)

-Tsar Peter I of Russia (r. 1682-1725)

-Sophia acted as Regent during the reign of the two Sovereigns but

exercised all power

-For seven years, she ruled as an autocrat

-By the summer of 1689, Peter had planned to take power from his half-sister

Sophia

-she was overthrown by the streltsy and Ivan V and Peter ruled jointly

-his weak and sickly half-brother, Ivan V, died in 1696

-wanted to make Russia a naval power, and faced much criticism b/c of

this from conservative and traditional masses

-traveled to England and lived for months under the reign of

William III in the late 1690s

-mainly wanted to learn shipbuilding

-also traveled and lived in Denmark, the Netherlands,

France, and in Vienna of the HRE

-mainly learns shipbuilding from the Dutch

-started building up a modern, western navy in the early 1700s

-the Duma (representative assembly) was discontinued by Peter the Great

- Bulavin Rebellion (led by Don Cossack Kondraty Bulavin)

-1707-1709

-between peasantry bound to serfdom and gov’t

-many peasants tried to emigrate and leave Russia

- It was Peter's policy to hunt down and arrest absconders and

return them to their lords where they could be counted for taxes

-peasants weren’t against tsardom, but against Peter

-he formed a huge army 300,000 troops large

-to get access to the sea (which he only had the White Sea), he needed to

take over more territory

-Baltic Sea was controlled by Sweden

-before this, Russia’s only port was on the White Sea, which was

ice-free for only part of the year

-Peter declared war on Sweden, which was at the time led by the

sixteen-year old King Charles XII.

-Russia, Denmark-Norway, Poland vs. Sweden

-called the Great Northern War (1700-1721)

-Russia captured the land of Ingria from Sweden in

1703

-coastal city on the Baltic Sea NW of

Moscow

-it was here that Peter founded the great city

of Saint Petersburg (named for Saint Peter

the Apostle) in Ingria

-made his capital in 1712

-Sweden beat Poland, and invaded Russia in 1708

-Peter withdrew southward, destroying any Russian

property that could assist the Swedes along the way.

-the Swedes became incapable of capturing Russian

supplies, and suffered in the bitterly cold winter of

1708–1709.

-Russia pushed Sweden back to Finland and were able to

dominate them with their supreme navy

-ended with the the Treaty of Nystad in 1721

-Russia got present-day Estonia, Latvia, Ingria (where St.

Petersburg is), and part of Finland

-Russia got access to ice-free ports and a permanent

influence on European affairs

-Westernization

-St. Petersburg is the capital

-trading and a modern Navy with access to Baltic Sea

-He commanded all of his courtiers and officials to cut off their long

beards and wear European clothing

-those who sought to retain their beards were required to pay an

annual tax of one hundred rubles

-In 1699, Peter also abolished the traditional Russian calendar, in which

the year began on 1 September, in favor of the Julian calendar, in which

the year began on 1 January.

-Traditionally, the years were reckoned from the purported

creation of the World, but after Peter's reforms, they were to be

counted from the birth of Christ.

-Russia moved to Julian calendar just as the rest of the world was

moving to the Gregorian calendar.

-Russia would stay on the Julian calendar until the October

Revolution in 1918.

-In 1725, construction of Peterhof, a palace near St Petersburg, was

completed.

-Peterhof was a grand residence, becoming known as the "Russian

Versailles"

-similar to Protestants he witnessed in the Netherlands, he disliked the

power of the Patriarch in the Russian Orthodox faith

-in 1721, Peter abolsihed then position of patriarch (bishop who

was head of the church)

-in its place he established a gov’t department called the Holy

Synod, which consisted of several bishops headed by a layman,

called a procurator general

-would govern the church in accordance with the tsar’s

wishes

-Peter then ruled alone until 1724, whenceforth he ruled jointly with his 2nd wife,

Catherine I

-all of Peter’s male children had died (he had his oldest son, Alexis, killed

in 1718 b/c he was trying to secretly conspire with Habsburg emperor

Charles VI)

-A law of 1722 had allowed Peter to choose his own successor, but he

failed to take advantage of it before he died from an illness in 1725.

-he was followed by his wife Catherine I, his wife, until she died in

1727

-inheritance of the throne was generally chaotic—the next two monarchs were

descendants of Peter's half-brother Ivan V, but the throne was restored to Peter's

own descendants through a coup d'état in 1741

ART –Baroque architecture