Lesson 1.4 · Unit 1 · CED topic 1.5
The new monarchies and the rise of the state
After the chaos of the late Middle Ages, kings in several parts of Europe rebuilt royal power. Learning Objective F asks you to explain the causes and effects of the development of political institutions between 1450 and 1648. Historians call the stronger rulers of the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the new monarchies, because they laid the foundation of the centralized modern state. The state is the key word of this lesson: a government that claims a monopoly on taxation, armed force, justice, and, in this period, religion.
Learning objective.
- 1F. Explain the causes and effects of the development of political institutions from 1450 to 1648.
Historical developments.
- 1.2.II.A. Monarchs and princes, including the English rulers Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, initiated religious reform from the top down in an effort to exercise greater control over religious life and morality.
- 1.5.I.A. New monarchies laid the foundation for the centralized modern state by establishing monopolies on tax collection, employing military force, dispensing justice, and gaining the right to determine the religion of their subjects.
- 1.5.I.C. Across Europe, commercial and professional groups gained in power and played a greater role in political affairs.
- 1.5.I.D. Continued political fragmentation in Renaissance Italy provided a background for the development of new concepts of the secular state.
Why monarchs gained strength
Several developments made stronger kings possible.
- War and exhaustion. The Hundred Years' War (to 1453) and the Wars of the Roses in England (1455 to 1485) weakened the great nobles. Rulers who won, or who ended civil war, gained prestige.
- Money. Growing trade and towns gave monarchs new taxes and loans. Rulers hired professional officials, often educated commoners or lawyers, who owed their positions to the crown.
- Gunpowder. Cannon could break castle walls, and large armies needed money that only central governments could raise. The CED stresses that new monarchies used military force as part of their toolkit.
- Allies. Merchants and professional groups supported strong kings who would keep the peace and protect trade. Commercial and professional groups gained power and played a greater role in political affairs.
What the new monarchies did
The CED lists four powers that rulers worked to monopolize: tax collection, military force, justice, and the right to determine the religion of their subjects.
- France. Louis XI and his successors reduced noble independence, raised the royal tax (the taille), and kept a standing army. The Concordat of Bologna (1516) gave Francis I the right to name French bishops.
- Spain. Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile married in 1469, ruled jointly, completed the conquest of Muslim Granada in 1492, and used the Spanish Inquisition (founded 1478) to enforce religious conformity. In 1492 they expelled Jews who would not convert, and later pressed Muslims to convert. They also took control of the military orders.
- England. Henry VII ended the Wars of the Roses, built up royal finances, and used the royal Star Chamber court to restrain nobles. His son Henry VIII went further: the Act of Supremacy (1534) made the monarch head of the English church. Elizabeth I's religious settlement (1559) and the Book of Common Prayer kept the monarch in control of the church. The CED notes that rulers such as Henry VIII and Elizabeth I initiated religious reform from the top down to control religious life and morality.
- The Holy Roman Empire. The Peace of Augsburg (1555) let each prince choose Lutheranism or Catholicism for his own territory, which strengthened local rulers, not the emperor. The CED's formula for the same trend is that states gained the right to determine the religion of their subjects.
Italy and the secular state
Italy shows an opposite pattern. The peninsula stayed politically fragmented into rival states. Ideas about sovereignty and politics were nonetheless central to the Renaissance. Machiavelli's The Prince, Guicciardini's histories, and later thinkers such as Jean Bodin (on sovereignty) and Hugo Grotius (on law between states) supplied new concepts of the secular state, a government justified by security and law, not religion. Fragmentation provided the background for those ideas.
Limits on royal power
Monarchs still faced obstacles. Nobles, towns, representative bodies, and local customs resisted. The Edict of Nantes (1598), which allowed French Protestants limited toleration, shows a ruler adjusting to division. In England, Parliament kept its power over taxation, which would matter greatly in the seventeenth century (see Unit 3).
Description of: The Act of Supremacy (1534), an English statute passed by Parliament. It declares that the king is "the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England" and gives the crown authority to correct church errors and abuses.
Sourcing (HIPP). The act is a law, so it shows how the state acted, not merely what individuals thought. The historical situation was Henry VIII's break with Rome after the pope refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. The audience was English subjects and the church itself. The purpose was to make the monarch the legal head of the church. Because Parliament voted for it, the act also shows that kings often used representative bodies to strengthen their authority, not to limit it.
Claim. The Act of Supremacy expanded royal control over religion in England.
Evidence. The statute names the king the supreme head of the Church of England with authority to correct abuses.
Reasoning. Taking church authority from the pope gave the crown control over church property, appointments, and doctrine, which fits the CED's point that monarchs sought the right to determine subjects' religion. The motive was both religious and political: Henry wanted a divorce and church wealth. The statute describes legal authority, not how fully the people accepted it.
Question. Explain one cause and one effect of the rise of the new monarchies.
Model. One cause was the growth of commerce and professional groups: merchants and lawyers supported strong rulers who kept order, and their taxes and loans funded armies and officials. One effect was that states gained monopolies on taxation, military force, and justice, laying the foundation for the centralized modern state.
For this learning objective give both causes and effects. Strong answers use the CED's four powers (tax collection, force, justice, religion) and name a concrete ruler or institution (Ferdinand and Isabella, the Spanish Inquisition, Henry VIII and the Act of Supremacy, the Concordat of Bologna, Star Chamber). Do not say monarchs became "absolute" in this period; absolutism is the subject of Unit 3. The new monarchies were a step on the way and met real limits.
- Name the four powers the new monarchies tried to monopolize.
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Tax collection, military force, justice, and the right to decide the religion of their subjects.
- Give one example of a state action to control religion.
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The Spanish Inquisition, the Concordat of Bologna, the Act of Supremacy, the Book of Common Prayer, or the Peace of Augsburg.
- How did gunpowder weapons favor stronger monarchs?
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Cannon could break castle walls and large armies were expensive, so only rulers who could tax and borrow effectively could use them, reducing the independence of nobles.
- Which groups gained power as monarchies grew, and why?
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Commercial and professional groups such as merchants and lawyers, because rulers needed their money and skills and gave them a greater political role.
- How did Italian fragmentation influence ideas about the state?
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Rival states in Italy encouraged analysis of power and sovereignty, producing secular models of politics by thinkers such as Machiavelli, Bodin, and Grotius.
- Identify a limit on the power of a new monarch.
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Nobles, towns, representative assemblies such as Parliament, and religious divisions all limited royal power; the Edict of Nantes shows a king accepting a compromise.