Dictionary and Thesaurus
Civil wars were one of the legacies of the Hundred Years' War and
the economic dislocation of the times. The close of the Hundred Years' War
had thrown large numbers of professional soldiers out of work, and the
concentration of wealth that was characteristic of the period placed money
in the hands of the great magnates. They were thus able to hire bands of
followers in a process known as livery and maintenance,
which means simply that the magnate furnished his employees with uniforms
(livery) and a living wage (maintenance). Some individual magnates were
able to assemble enough strength to challenge the kings, but, more often,
family alliances pooled their money and power. All across Europe, the
great families of the magnate class struggled with the monarchs for
control of the state.
![[Map of the Mediterranean world in 1493]](images/nelson/1493.gif)
Map of the Mediterranean World in 1493
The close of the 15th century saw the resolution of these civil
wars
England experienced a long struggle known as The Wars of the
Roses between the Lancaster and York families. The War got its
name from the fact that a white rose was the symbol of the York family,
and a red rose that of the Lancasters. The wars ended with the accession
of Henry Tudor as Henry VII and the end of the Plantagenet
dynasty in 1485.
France fell into disorder because of the contention of several great
nobles, but the Duke of Burgundy, a region that had been relatively
untouched by the Hundred Years' War eventually emerged as the wealthiest
and most powerful of them all, including the king. In 1481, however,
Louis XI, the "Spider king" assumed the
throne. A thoroughly nasty man, he was nevertheless an extremely astute
politician and managed to fend off the Duke, Charles the
Rash. Charles had ambitions to control Italy and its wealth,
however, and to do that he had to control Switzerland. He attacked the
Swiss peasants with the old-style army that had proven ineffective against
English archers at Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt. It proved ineffective
against the Swiss in 1476. The Swiss used closely packed bodies of
infantry with long spears (pikes), and the Burgundian cavalry was
powerless against them. The Burgundians defeated, the Duke was killed, and
infantry replaced cavalry as the most important arm of battle.
This battle eliminated the Burgundian threat, but Louis allowed the Holy
Roman Emperor to take advantage of the situation rather than seizing the
chance to strengthen France. What he did do, however, was to strengthen
the monarchy in a way never before seen in western Europe. He no longer
depended for support on the French representative assembly, the
Estates General, and established heavy taxes. He used these
taxes to expand a salaried bureaucracy and a standing army.
The German, Maximilian Hapsburg, gained control of Burgundian lands
-- Burgundy, Lorraine, Alsace, and the modern Netherlands, Belgium, and
Luxembourg. These were perhaps the richest lands in Europe, and when
Maximilian became Holy Roman Emperor, he was able to make the position
once again the dominant power in Germany.
By 1480, Ivan III, Duke of Moscow, threw off Mongol domination and
declared himself Tsar (emperor) of Russia.
In Spain, the period of civil strife known as the Trastamaran Wars was
ended with the marriage of Ferran and Isabel (the proper names for the
individuals usually called Ferdinand and Isabella. Aragon and
Castile were united in 1469 by this marriage and completed the Reconquest
with the conquest of Granada in 1492. Ferran and Isabel
forged an alliance with the Church -- an easy matter since Aragon
controlled much of Italy. They "purified" their realms by expelling both
Muslims and Jews, and used the Inquisition as a personal police
force that gave them power that the laws and customs of the land did not
permit them. By 1500, the riches of the Americas began arriving in Spain,
making the Spanish monarchs supreme in Spain and a major power in western
Europe for the next two centuries.
One can make some general observations. The new monarchs began to assume
almost absolute powers, depending upon their circumstances. What were the
bases of their power?
Wherever possible, they gained permanent taxation powers from the
representative assemblies, and were thus less dependent upon popular
support. They used this income to surround themselves with salaried
employees: administrators drawn from the middle classes and standing
armies of professional soldiers. Their professional administrators allowed
them to keep much better records and financial accounts, and they used
their control of information to increase their power still further.
They used the weakness of the papacy to gain control of their national
churches, which gave them many advantages. They had control of most
intellectuals, teachers, writers, and administrators; access to the wealth
of the church when needed, control of church courts and recourse to canon
law, by means of which they could circumvent traditional limitations on
their powers. They often used the Inquisition as a secret police and were
able to depend upon the secular clergy to help in shaping public opinion
in their favor.
They used their powers to put down popular uprisings, gaining the support
of the middle class and the reputation of being the sole defense against
rebellion and anarchy. They were economically aware, and used their powers
to tax, regulate, charter, and subsidize to promote the economy of their
state. Under royal guidance, the economy of Europe began to emerge from
the recession of the 15th century.
Generally speaking, the new monarchs were political creatures with little
concern for ethical action or the general welfare other than that of their
own state. Their accession marked the end of any real aspiration for
morality in international affairs. They gained power largely because the
monarchy was the only institution of European society that had not been
thoroughly discredited.
Although medieval society was much changed by the end of the 15th century,
the basic conditions to which it had to adapt -- limited resources, too
great a population, periodic waves of contagious disease, insufficient
capital, shrinking markets -- were still much the same. The rise of the
national monarchs was important, but not decisive in ending the Middle
Ages.
What was important was that these national monarchs were laying the
foundations of the modern state. Although the kings up to this time might
have seemed powerful, their powers were actually quite limited. They
generally ruled only after swearing to obey the customs of the land, and
there was always a nobility and clergy ready to oppose their policies if
they appeared to be taking more power than was traditional. Most of the
wealth of their countries was in the hands of nobles and the Church, and
their power to tax these properties was limited. Transportation and
communication was difficult, and the kings could not expect to be able to
control their subjects if those subjects did not want to be controlled.
If the kings tried to instituted new or heavier taxes, they found that
they could not find officials able to gather the revenues that they
demanded. In short, they depended a great deal upon the good will of their
subjects.
This was not true of the new states. Independent jurisdictions were swept
away, and no one was exempt from the power of the central government.
Competent administrators, backed with a professional royal army, were able
to impose the royal will even against the wishes of the mass of the
population. Perhaps most important, though, was the fact that people were
beginning to think of themselves in terms of their nation. Up to this
point, people had gained their identities from their religion, their
profession, and their social status, and felt greater kinship with
"foreigners" of the same class, than fellow countrymen of a different
class. This was ending, and the common ideals of western Europeans were
becoming less important than the well-being of their own particular
country.
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