An essay for ap european historyThe New MonarchiesIn England, France, and Spain, “the major characteristic in the development of the ‘new monarchies’ was the expansion of central government authority in the areas of economic, political, judicial, military and religious policy.” The same does not apply to Eastern Europe where the imbalance in power between the nobility and monarchs caused problems. The challenges created by the nobility as well as the church fighting the monarch for power was what stopped a strong monarchy from being created in Eastern Europe. All of these places had trouble creating a strong monarchy, a government ruled by one leader, and one factor that caused this was other nobles. Shortly after the Hundred Years’ War, a war broke out in England called the War of the Roses (1450’s), where the ducal house of Lancaster (red rose) fought against the ducal house of York (white rose) and many aristocrats joined in the war for power. Finally, Henry Tudor stopped the war in 1485 by defeating the last Yorkist king, Richard III. (Spielvogel, p.338) Now the Tudor dynasty was created and Henry VII was the first king. His first order of business was to get military control. He did this by stopping the nobles’ private wars by “abolishing ‘livery and maintenance,’ the practice by which wealthy aristocrats maintained private armies.” (Spielvogel, p.338-339) Then, the king “relied on special commissions to trusted nobles to raise troops for a specific campaign, after which the troops were disbanded” since England, unlike France and Spain, did not have their own army. (Spielvogel, p.339) Henry also gained judicial control by creating the Court of Star Chamber to control the irresponsible nobles. This court did not have a jury and it allowed torture to extract information. (Spielvogel, p.339) With Henry running England, the economy improved because he used diplomacy to avoid expensive wars, not burdening the gentry and middle class with taxes from loans from the parliament, and therefore the townspeople supported him. (Spielvogel, p.338)After the Hundred Years’ War, French kings found it difficult to assert their authority because France was facing depopulation, desolate farmlands, ruined commerce, and independent and unruly nobles. (Spielvogel, p.337) Despite this, the French kings used the common enemy, the English, as a way to unite France. Charles VII started creating a strong monarchy by creating a royal army composed of cavalry and archers. He gained control of France by getting “permission from the Estates-General to levy the taille, an annual tax directed usually on property or land, without any need for further approval from the Estates-General” which took power away from this parliamentary body. (Spielvogel, p.337) King Louis XI contributed much to the strengthening of the monarchy. One way he did this was by receiving a secure source of income by making the taille a permanent tax. Also, Charles the Bold, one of his vassals and Duke of Burgundy, tried to create a middle kingdom between France and Germany but Louis opposed this and when Charles died in 1477 fighting the Swiss, Charles’s possessions , the duchy of Burgundy, was added to Louis’s land. (Spielvogel, p.337-338) “Three years later, the provinces of Anjou, Maine, Bar, and Provence were brought under royal control.” (Spielvogel, 338)Unlike England and France, Spain created a monarchy through religion more than politics. Many independent Christian kingdoms emerged from the Middle Ages, the strongest Spanish kingdoms being Aragon and Castile which were united (in a dynastic, not political way) by the marriage of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. “Both kingdoms maintained their own parliaments (Cortes), courts, laws, coinage, speech, customs, and political organs.” (Spielvogel, p.339) Despite this, the two worked together to strengthen their control. They started this by stripping the royal council (supervises local administration and oversees the implementation of government policies) of aristocrats and replacing them with middle-class lawyers who were trained in Roman law and believed that the monarchy embodied the power of the state. (Spielvogel, p.339) The second step for them was to reorganize the Spanish military, which became the strongest European army by the sixteenth century. The third, and biggest step, was attaining power from the Catholic Church. The first step to doing this was to “secure from the pope the right to select the most important church officials in Spain, making the clergy virtually an instrument of royal power.” (Spielvogel, p.339) The pope did this after the “Reconquest,” when Spain drove most of the Muslims out and once again made Spain a part of Christendom, since Spain was now the most Christian country. The second step was religious uniformity, which they accomplished through the Spanish Inquisition of 1478. This worked with cruel efficiency and ma
