New Monarchies

New Monarchies and Their Opponents

Before the New Monarchies began consolidating power, kingdoms operated by the feudal system. The king granted land to the nobility in exchange the nobles would pledge loyalty to the Crown and provide knights and soldiers if the need arose. The nobility could tax the people who worked the land.

Another dominating power was the Roman Catholic Church. The Church was extremely wealthy as it owned the majority of land in Europe. This land was considered to belong to God and kings could not tax it because they believed that man cannot tax God. The clergy could not be tried in the king's court because kings did not have the authority to try God's servants so they were tried in Ecclesiastical Courts.

Lastly, the Pope could excommunicate rulers who disobeyed the Church. An excommunicated king was no longer a member of the Catholic church, it may be considered illegitimate, and if they died before re-joining the church then he went to hell. This would make a king look weak. If the ruler still disobeyed, the Pope could enact an interdict. This meant that no sacraments would take place until the king appeased the Pope. No weddings, funerals, baptisms, or communion for the entire kingdom!

Nobility and Catholic Church Lose Power

For the new monarchs to take power, the nobility and the Roman Catholic Church must weaken first. Let's look at the two events that drastically debilitated the two groups.

The Black Plague

The Black Plague lasted from 1346 until 1352 but would resurface every so often. Somewhere between 40% and 60% of Europeans died during this pandemic. The Church could not explain the plague, prevent it, or heal people from it; this caused a lot of people to lose faith in the Church. The nobles who survived no longer had commoners to work their land and pay taxes. The commoners who survived were able to renegotiate their leases because lords needed commoners and were willing to bargain with them.

Fig 1: A priest praying for victims of the Black Plague

Some nobles saw wealthy towns and began to heavily tax or even plunder them. Towns made charters with the king for protection. The towns would be able to elect council members and govern locally as long as they paid taxes to the king. The educated middle class from these towns could become bureaucrats and work for the king. The king could replace nobles who were loyal to their families with commoners who were loyal to the king.

Hundred Years War

The Hundred Years' War began in 1337 and ended in 1453. Knights were the primary way of war until the Hundred Years' War when Englishmen began to use longbows. Arrows from these bows could pierce knights' armor. Kings began to turn away from the practice of nobles gathering forces in favor of standing armies paid for and loyal to the Crown.

Gunpowder was also introduced as a weapon. Kings quickly took control over the distribution by creating royal gunpowder workshops. This weakened nobility even further because their primary way of waging war against their kings was to bunker down in their fortified stone castles. Kings were forced to lay siege to the castles which could take months and weren't always successful. Now with cannons and gunpowder, sieges could be swift and decisive.

• The Black Plague caused people to lose faith in the Church.
• Peasants were able to negotiate leases with lords because of the death toll of the Black Plague.
• The Hundred Years' War made knights obsolete.
  • Introduced English Long Bows and gunpowder as weapons change the rules of engagement.

The Rise of New Monarchies

The Renaissance brought in new ideas about governing. New monarchs were able to consolidate power by stripping it from the Church and nobility. This task was made easier as these two groups had begun to weaken. To take power from the nobility, rulers began to remove them from governing. The nobles of the Royal Court, advisors to the ruler, were replaced with middle-class lawyers. Kings created standing armies so they no longer relied on knights/feudal lords as in feudal times. They began to tax the people directly, disallowing the nobility from this practice which increased the monarch's supremacy.

The Church lost power as rulers began to appoint the clergy within their kingdoms instead of allowing the Church to do so. Some kings even limited the Church's ability to demand tithe from the nobility. The tithe was 10% of the nobles' worth and went to the Vatican in Rome.

New Monarchies Examples

Now that we know why new monarchies were able to come about and how they consolidated power. Let's look at two examples of new monarchies for a better idea of what they looked like in practice!

New Monarchies in England

Our example of a new monarch in England is King Henry VII. Henry was the first Tudor ruler of England and the winner of the War of the Roses.

Fig 2: Henry VII

New monarchies Henry VII

The war-weary aristocratic class allowed Henry to remove them from politics. He then replaced them with low nobles and middle-class lawyers. The majority of his Parliament was constituted of low aristocracy and wealthy middle-class people. A new nobility loyal to him for giving them power.

The Parliament allowed Henry to create a secret court to try nobles. This court was called the Star Chamber. Nobles on trial were not given a fair chance. They pay fines directly to Henry. If their land was confiscated, then it was given to the king. To prevent them from gaining too much power having an army was out of the question.

Henry was given control of taxes and tariffs on imports. He reduced his reliance on Parliament by using tariffs to generate income plus he did not spend much. To prevent wars, he strengthened England's alliances by marrying his children to Scottish and Spanish royalty.

New Monarchies in Spain

Our Spanish new monarchs are Queen Isabella of Castile and her husband King Ferdinand of Aragon. Their union began the process of the unification of Spain. Let's take a closer look at their rule.

Fig 3: Ferdinand and Isabella

Ferdinand and Isabella

Isabella of Castile married Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1469, though they did not combine their kingdoms this did begin the process of combining Castile and Aragon to make Spain. Ferdinand and Isabella started reclaiming Spain by pushing out the Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula. To consolidate power they needed to control religion so the two set about to create a fully Catholic Spain. They gain the epithet of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholics!

Ferdinand, Isabella, and the majority of their kingdom were Anti-Semitic and Anti-Muslim. Jewish people were forced to convert to Catholicism. Pope Alexander VI allowed Ferdinand and Isabella to choose the bishops and other important clergy positions in Spain. Since the bishops were loyal to the Crown, they allowed Ferdinand and Isabella to begin the Spanish Inquisition. The monarchs also replaced their advisors with middle-class lawyers and clergy all of which were loyal to them.

1492 was a big year for the monarchs. They conquered Grenada, the last Muslim foothold in Spain. This ten-year campaign began in 1482 and was labeled a holy crusade by the pope. It was a success for Isabella specifically as she felt that she completed her family's task of conquering Spain.

Riding off of the thrill of success the monarchy began to push for religious unification. The Jewish people who lived in Spain were told to convert to Catholicism or leave. If they left all of their property was confiscated by the Crown. In 1502, Muslims would also have to convert or leave.

Ferdinand and Isabella would sponsor Columbus's voyage in 1492. His goal was to find an Eastward route to India. Access to an untaxed route to India would make Spain very rich. Instead, Columbus found the New World which the monarchy would exploit for riches.

The New Monarchies of the 15th and 16th Centuries

Henry VII, Ferdinand, and Isabella saw that the nobility and church had lost power. They took that power and used it to make changes within their governments. They relied less on nobility and more on the educated middle class. They brought wealth to their kingdoms. Both crowns established systems to punish people who either stepped out of line or were different from them. Henry VII, Ferdinand, and Isabella were all successful new monarchs.