Sp. Ch.

15 pt 4
Pages 432-444
Limited Monarchy and Republics
I. In eastern E, the Polish aristocracy controlled a virtually powerless king. The
Dutch Republic and England resisted the power of hereditary monarchs
The Weakness of the Polish Monarchy
I. Much of Polish history revolved around the bitter struggle between the crown
and the landed nobility.
A. The dynasty union of Jagiello, grand prince of Lithuania, w/the P queen
Jadwiga resulted in a large Lithuanian-Polish state in 1386, although it
was not until 1569 that a formal merger occurred.
B. The union of L and P under the Jagiello dynasty had created the largest
kingdom in Christendom at the beginning of the 15thc.
C. P-L played a major role in eastern E in the 15thc and also ruled much
of Ukraine by the end of the 16thc
II. P-L had a unique government system in that assemblies of nobles elected the
king and carefully limited royal power. The power of the nobles also enabled
them to keep the P peasantry in a state of serfdom
A. In 1572, when the Jagiello dynasty ended, a new practice arose of
choosing kings, who they thought would bring new alliances.
B. When the throne was awarded to the Swede Sigismund III (1587-1631),
the new king dreamed of creating a vast P empire that would include
Russia and possibly Finland and Sweden. P not only failed to meet this
goal, but by the end of the 17thc had become a weak, decentralized state.
III. It was the elective nature of the P monarchy that reduced it to impotence.
A. The Sejm, or P diet, was a 2-chamber assembly in which landowners
completely dominated the townspeople and lawyers who were also
members.
B. To be elected to the kingship, prospective monarchs had to agree to
share power w/the Sejm in matters of taxation, foreign and military policy,
and the appointment of state officials and judges
C. The power of the Sejm had disastrous results for central monarchial
authority, for the real aim of most of its members was to ensure that
central authority would not affect their local interests. The acceptance of
the liberum veto in 1652, whereby the meetings of the Sejm could be
stopped by a single dissenting member, reduced the government to virtual
chaos.
IV. P, then, was basically a confederation of semi-independent estates of landed
nobles. By the late 17thc, it had also become a battleground for foreign powers,
who found the nation easy to invade but difficult to rule.
The Golden Age of the Dutch Republic
I. The 17thc has often been called the Golden Age of the Dutch Republic as the
United Provinces held center stage as one of E’s greatest powers.
II. Like F and England, the UP was an Atlantic Power, underlining the importance
of the shift of political and economic power from the Med basin to the countries
of the Atlantic seaboard.
 III. The United Provinces of the Netherlands became to core of the modern Dutch
state. The state was officially recognized by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648
IV. With impendence came internal dissension.
A. There were 2 chief centers of political power in the new state. Each
providence had an official leader known as a stadholderate who was
responsible for leading the army and maintaining order.
B. Beginning with William of Orange and his heirs, the house of Orange
occupied the stadholderate in most of the 7 provinces and favored the
development of a centralized government w/themselves as hereditary
monarchs.
C. The States-General, an assembly of representatives from every
province, opposed the Organist ambitions and advocated a decentralized
form of government.
D. For much of the 17thc, the republican forces were in control. But in
1672, burdened w/war against F and England, the UP turned to William III
(1672-1702) of the house of Orange to establish a monarchial regime. But
his death in 1702 w/o a direct heir enabled the republican forces to gain
control once more, although the struggle lasted throughout the 18thc
V. Underlying D prominence in the 17thc was its economic prosperity, fueled by
the role of the D as carriers of E trade. But warfare proved disastrous to the Dutch
Republic.
A. Wars w/F and England placed heavy burdens on D finances and
manpower.
B. English shipping began to challenge what had been D commercial
supremacy, and in 1715, the D were experiencing a serious economic
decline.
Life in Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam
I. By the beginning of the 17thc, Amsterdam had replaced Antwerp as the
financial and commercial capital of E.
A. In 1570, Ams had 30,000 inhabitants, by 1610, that number had
doubles as refugees poured in, especially from the Spanish Netherlands.
B. In 1613, this rapid growth caused the government to approve an “urban
expansion plan” that increased the city’s territory from 500 to 1,800 acres
through the construction of 3 concentric canals. The canals made it
possible for merchants and artisans to use the upper stories for their houses
and storerooms for their goods.
C. The city grew to 200,000 by 1660
II. The exuberant expansion of Ams in the 17thc owed much to the city’s role as a
commercial and financial center of E.
A. Ams merchants possessed vast fleets of ships, many of which were
used for North Sea herring catch. Ams based ships were also important
carriers for the products of other countries.
B. The Dutch invention of the fluyt, a shallow-draft ship of large capacity,
enabled the transport of enormous quantities of cereals, timber, and iron.
C. The quantity of goods brought to Ams soon made the city a crossroads
for many of Es chief products.
 D. Ams was the chief port for the Dutch West Indian and East Indian
trading companies.
E. City industries turned imported raw materials into finished goods,
making Ams an important producer of woolen cloth, refined sugar and
tobacco products, glass, beer, paper, books, jewelry, and leather goods.
F. Some of the city’s great wealth came from war profits: by 1700, Ams
was the principle supplier of military goods in E.
III. Trading profits provided large quantities of capital for investment. Its
financial role was greatly facilitated by the foundation in 1609 of the Exchange
Bank of Amsterdam. The city also founded the Amsterdam Stock Exchange for
speculating in commodities.
IV. At the top of Ams society were a select group of prosperous manufacturers,
shipyard owners, and merchants, whose wealth enabled them to control the city
government of Ams as the Dutch Republic’s States General.
A. In the 1st ½ of the 17thc, the Calvinist background of the wealthy Ams
burghers led them to adopt a simple lifestyle. They wore dark clothes and
lived in simply furnished homes.
B. For the 2nd ½ of the 17thc, the wealthy burghers began to reject their
Calvinist heritage, a transformation apparent in their more elaborate
clothes.
England and the Emergence of Constitutional Monarchy
I. One of the most prominent examples of resistance to absolute monarchy came
in 17thc England, where king and Parliament struggled to determine the role that
each should play in governing the nation.
A. The struggle over the issue was complicated by religious controversy.
W/the victory of Parliament came the foundation for constitutional
monarchy by the end of the 17thc
King Jams I and Parliament
I. The Stuart line of rulers was inaugurated w/the accession to the throne of
Elizabeth’s cousin, King James VI of Scotland, who became King James I of
England
A. James understood little about the law, customs, and institutions of
England. He espoused the divine right of kings, the belief that kings
receive their power directly from God and are responsible to no one except
God. This viewpoint alienated Parliament, which had grown accustomed
under the Tudors to act on the premise that monarch and P together ruled
England together.
B. P expressed its displeasure w/James’s claims by refusing his requests
for additional money needed by the king to meet the increased cost of
government.
C. Some members of P were also alienated by James’s religious policy.
The Puritans—Protestants in the Anglican church inspired by Calvinist
theory—wanted James to eliminate the Episcopal system of church
organization used in the Church of England(in which the bishop played
the major administrative role) in favor of a Presbyterian model(used in
Scotland and patterned after Calvinist church organization in Geneva,
 where ministers and elders played an important government role). James
refused because he realized that the Anglican Church, w/bishops appointed
by the crown, was a major supporter of monarchial authority.
D. The Puritans were not easily cowed and added to the rising chorus of
opposition to the king. Many of England’s gentry, well-to-do landowners
below the level of nobility, had become Puritans, and they formed not only
an important and substantial part of the House of Commons, the lower
House of Parliament, but also held important positions locally as justices
of the peace and sheriffs.
Charles I and the Move toward Revolution
I. The conflict that had begun during the reign of James came to a head during the
reign of his son, Charles I (1625-1649).
A. In 1628, P passed the Petition of Right, which the king was supposed to
accept before being granted any tax revenues. The petition prohibited
taxation w/o P consent, arbitrary imprisonment, and the quartering of
soldiers in private houses, and the declaration of martial law in peacetime.
B. Although he initially accepted it, Charles later reneged on the
agreement because of its limitations on royal power.
C. In 1629, Charles decided that since he could not work with P, he would
not summon it to meet. From 1629 to 1640, Charles pursued a course of
personal rule, which forced him to find ways to collect taxes w/o the
cooperation of P.
D. One expedient was a tax called ship money, a levy on seacoast towns to
pay for coastal defense, which was now collected annually by the kings
officials throughout England and used to finance other government
operations besides defense. This use of ship money aroused opposition
from middle-class merchants and landed gentry, who objected to the
king’s attempts to taw w/o P consent.
II. The king’s religious policy also proved disastrous.
A. His marriage to Henrietta Maria, the Catholic sister of King Louis XIII
of France, aroused suspicions about the king’s own religious inclinations.
B. The efforts of Charles and William Laud, the archbishop of Canterbury,
to introduce more ritual into the Anglican church struck the Puritans as a
return to Catholic popery. When the king and the Archbishop of Laud
attempted to impose the Anglican Book of Common Prayer on the Scottish
Presbyterian church, the Scots rose up in rebellion against the king.
Financially strapped and unable to raise troops to defend against the Scots,
the king was forced to call P into session, which was determined to deal
the king his due.
III. In its 1st session, from Nov 1640 to Sep 1641, the so-called Long Parliament
took a series of steps that placed severe limitations on royal authority.
A. These included the abolition of arbitrary courts; the abolition of taxes
that the king had collected w/o P consent, such as ship money; and the
passage of the revolutionary Triennial Act, which specified that P must
meet at least once every 3 years.
 B. By the end of 1641, one group in P was prepared to go no further, but a
group of more radical parliamentarians pushed for more change, including
the elimination of bishops in the Anglican church.
C. When the king tried to take advantage of the split by arresting some
members of the more radical faction, a large group in P led by John Pym
and his fellow Puritans decided that the king had gone too far.
Civil Wars in England
I. P proved victorious in the 1st phase of the English Civil War (1642-1646).
A. Most important to P success was the creation of the New Model Army,
which was composed primarily of more extreme Puritans known as the
Independents, who believed that they were doing battle for the lord.
B. Oliver Cromwell was one of the group’s leaders. His crusaders were
well-disciplined and trained in the latest military tactics.
C. P ended the 1st phase of the ECW w/the capture of King Charles I in
1646
II. A split now occurred in the P forces. A Presbyterian majority wanted to
disband the army and restore Charles I w/a Presbyterian state church.
A. The army, composed mostly of the more radical Independents, who
opposed an established Presbyterian church, marched on London in 1647
and took advantage of this division to flee and seek help from the Scots.
B. William Cromwell and his army engaged in a 2nd civil war (1648) that
ended in Cromwell’s victory and the capture of the king.
C. The Presbyterian members of P were purged, leaving a Rump P of 53
members of the House of Commons who then tried and condemned the
king on a charge of treason and condemned him to death.
D. On Jan 30, 1649, Charles was beheaded.
Cromwell and New Governments
I. After the death of the king, the Rump P abolished the monarchy and the House
of Lords and proclaimed England a republic or commonwealth.
A. This was not an easy period from Cromwell. As commander and chief
of the army, he had to crush a Catholic uprising in Ireland, as well as un
uprising in Scotland on behalf of the son of Charles I.
B. Cromwell also faced opposition at home, especially from more
radically minded groups who took advantage of the upheaval in England
to push their agendas.
C. The Levellers, for example, advocated freedom of speech, religious
toleration, and a democratic republic, arguing for the right to vote. They
also called for annual Ps, women’s equality, and government programs to
pay for the poor. Cromwell smashed the radicals by force.
II. At the same time that Cromwell was dealing w/the Levellers, he also found it
difficult to work w/the Rump P and finally dispersed it by force. He destroyed
both king and P
III. The army provided a new government when it drew up the Instrument of
Government, England’s 1st and only written constitution.
A. Executive power was vested in the Lord Protector and legislative power
in a reconstituted P.
 B. The new system failed to work. Cromwell found it difficult to work
w/P, especially when its members debated his authority and advocated the
creation of a Presbyterian state church.
C. In 1655, Cromwell dissolved P and divided the country into 11 regions,
each ruled by a major general who served virtually as a military governor.
To meet the cost of a military government, Cromwell levied a 10% land
tax on all former Royalists. Unable to establish a constitutional basis for a
working government, Cromwell resorted to military force to maintain the
rule of the Independents.
IV. The restoration of the Stuart monarchy ended England’s time of troubles.
Restoration of the Monarchy
I. After 11 years of exile, Charles II (1660-1685) returned to England.
II. The restoration of the monarchy and the House of Lords did not mean that the
work of the English Revolution was undone.
A. P kept much of the power that it had won: its role in government was
acknowledged, the necessity for its consent to taxation was accepted, and
arbitrary courts were still abolished.
B. Yet Charles continued to push his own ideas, even those that were out
of step w/the people.
III. A religious problem disturbed the tranquility of Charles II’s reign.
A. After the restoration of the monarchy, a new P (the Cavalier P) met in
1661 and restored the Anglican church as the official church of England.
Laws were passed to force everyone, particularly Catholics and Puritan
Dissenters, to conform to the Anglican church.
B. Charles was sympathetic towards Catholicism. P’s suspicions were
therefore aroused in 1672 when Charles issued the Declaration of
Indulgence, which suspended the laws that P had passed against Catholics
and Puritans.
C. P then passed the Test Act of 1673, specifying that only Anglicans
could hold military or civil offices.
D. The debate over the bill created 2 political groupings: the Whigs, who
wanted to exclude James (a Catholic and heir to the throne) and establish a
Protestant king w/toleration of Dissenters, and the Tories, who supported
the king because they did not believe that P should tamper w/succession to
the throne.
E. Charles dismissed P in 1681, relying on French subsidies to rule alone.
When he died in 1685, his Catholic brother came to the throne.
IV. The accession of James II (1685-88) virtually guaranteed a constitutional
crisis for England. His attempt to further Catholicism made religion a primary
cause of conflict b/w king and P.
A. He named Catholics in high positions of government, army, navy, and
university.
B. In 1687, he issued a new Declaration of Indulgence, which suspended
all laws barring Catholics and Dissenters from office.
C. P outcry against James’s policies stopped short of rebellion b/c its
members knew that he was an old man and his successors were his
 Protestant daughters, Mary and Anne. However, a son was born to his
second Catholic wife.
A Glorious Revolution
I. A group of 7 noblemen invited William of Orange, husband of Mary, to invade
England. William welcomed this opportunity to fight France w/England’s
resources. William and Mary raised an army and invaded England while James,
his wife, and their child fled to France. England embarked on a “Glorious
Revolution,” not over the issue of whether there would be a monarchy but over
who would be monarch.
II. The events of late 1688 set the GR in motion. The more important part was the
Revolution Settlement, which confirmed William and Mary as monarchs.
A. In Jan 1689, the Convention P asserted that James tried to subvert the
constitution an declared the throne vacant. It then offered the throne to
William and Mary, who accepted it along w/the provisions of a declaration
of rights, later enacted into law as the Bill of Rights in 1689.
B. The BoR affirmed P right to make laws and levy taxes and made it
possible for kings to oppose or do w/o P by stipulating that standing
armies could be raised only w/consent of P. Both elections and debates of
P had to be free, meaning that the king could not interfere. The rights of
citizens to petition the sovereign, keep arms, have a jury trial, and not be
subject to excessive bail were also confirmed.
C. The BoR helped fashion a system of government based on the rule of
law and freely elected P, thus laying the foundation for a constitutional
monarchy.
III. The BoR did not settle the religious questions that had played such a large
role in England’s troubles in the 17thc.
A. The Toleration Act of 1689 granted Puritan Dissenters the right to free
public worship, although they did not yet have full civil and political
equality since the Test Act was not repealed.
B. Although the Test Act did not mean complete religious freedom and
equality, it marked a departure in English history: few people would ever
again be persecuted for their religion.
IV. By deposing 1 king and establishing another, P had demolished the divine-
right theory of kingship and confirmed its right to participate in the government.
A. P did not have complete control of the government, but it now had an
unquestionable role in affairs of state.
Responses to Revolution
I. The English revolutions of the 17thc prompted very different responses from 2
political thinkers—Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.
A. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) who lived during the English Civil War,
was alarmed by the revolutionary upheavals in contemporary England.
Hobbe’s name has since been associated w/the state’s claim to absolute
authority, a topic that he wrote about in Leviathan, published in 1651.
B. Hobbes claimed that in the state of nature, humans were guided not by
reason and moral ideas but by animalistic instincts and a ruthless struggle
for self-preservation. To save themselves from destroying each other,
 people contracted to form a commonwealth, which Hobbes called “the
great Leviathan to which we owe our peace and defense.” This
commonwealth placed its power into the hands of a sovereign authority,
preferably a single ruler, who served as executor, legislator, and judge.
This absolute ruler possessed unlimited power. In Hobbes’s view, subjects
may not rebel; if they do, they must be suppressed.
C. John Locke (1632-1704) argued against the absolute rule of one man.
He wrote Two Treatises of Government, which began w/the state of nature
before human existence became organized socially.
D. Locke believed that humans lived then in a state of equality and
freedom rather than a state of war. In this state of nature, humans had
certain inalienable rights—to life, liberty, and property. Like Hobbes,
Locke did not believe all was well in the state of nature.
E. Since there was no impartial judge in the state of nature, people found it
difficult to protect these rights. So they mutually agreed to establish a
government to ensure the protection of their rights. This agreement
established mutual obligations: government would protect the rights of
people while the people would act reasonably toward the government.

The Flourishing of European Culture (440-444)

The Changing Faces of Art
I. After the Renaissance, E art went through a number of stylistic changes. The
artistic R came to an end when a new movement called Mannerism emerged in
Italy in the 1520s and 30s.
Mannerism
I. The Reformation’s revival of religious values brought much political turmoil.
Especially in Italy, the worldly enthusiasm of the Ren gave way to anxiety,
uncertainty, suffering, and a yearning for spiritual experience.
A. Mannerism reflected this environment in its deliberate attempt to break
down the High Ren principles of balance, harmony, and moderation.
Italian Mannerist paintings deliberately distorted the rules of proportion by
portraying elongated figures that conveyed a sense of suffering and a
strong emotional atmosphere filled w/anxiety and confusion.
II. Mannerism spread from Italy to other parts of E and reached its apogee in the
work of El Greco (1541-1614).
A. El Greco’s elongated and contorted figures, portrayed in unusual colors
of yellow and green against a background of turbulent grays, reflect the
artist’s desire to create a world of intense emotion.
The Baroque Period
I. Mannerism was eventually replaced by a new movement—the Baroque—that
began in Italy in the last ¼ of the 16thc and spread to the rest of E.
A. The style was embraced by the Catholic reform movement, as is
evident at the Catholic courts.
B. Although it was resisted in France, England, and the Netherlands,
eventually the style spread to all of E and Latin America.
 II. Baroque artists sought to bring together the classical ideals of Ren art
w/spiritual feelings of the 16thc religious revival.
A. It was known for its use of dramatic effects to arouse the emotions.
B. Baroque art and architecture reflected the search for power that was a
large part of the 17thc ethos.
C. Baroque churches and palaces were magnificent and richly detailed.
Kings and princes wanted other kings and princes as well as their subjects
to be in awe of their power.
III. Baroque painting was known for its use of dramatic effects to heighten
emotional intensity.
A. Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) was a prolific artist and an important
figure in the spread of Baroque from Italy to the rest of E. In his works,
bodies of violent motion, heavily fleshed nudes, a dramatic use of light
and shadow, and rich, sensuous pigments converge to express intense
emotions.
B. Gian Lorenezo Bernini (1598-1680), who completed Saint Peter’s
Basilica at the Vatican, was one of the greatest figures of Baroque in Italy.
C. Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) was the 1st woman to be elected to
the Florentine Academy of Design. Although she was known
internationally as a portrait painter, her fame now rests on a series of
pictures of heroines from the Old Testament
French Classicism
I. In the 2nd ½ of the 17thc, France replaced Italy as the cultural leader of E.
Rejecting the Baroque style as overly showy and impassioned, the French
remained committed to the classical values of the High Ren.
A. French late Classicism, w/emphasis on clarity, simplicity, balance, and
harmony of design, was, however a austere version of the High Ren style.
B. Its triumph reflected the shift in the 17thc French society from chaos to
order.
C. It continued the Baroque’s conception of grandeur in the portrayal of
noble subjects, especially those from classical antiquity.
II. Nicholas Poussin exemplified these principles in his paintings. He choice of
scenes from classical mythology, the orderliness of his landscapes, the postures of
his figures copied from sculptures of antiquity, and the use of brown tones all
reflect French Classicism of the late 17thc.
Dutch Realism
I. The supremacy of Dutch commerce in the 17thc was paralleled by a flowering
of Dutch painting. Wealthy patricians and burghers of Dutch urban society
commissioned works of art for their guild halls, town halls, and houses.
A. The interests of burgher society were reflected in the subject matter of
many Dutch paintings: portraits of themselves, group portraits of their
military companies and guilds, landscapes, seascapes, genre scenes, still
lifes, and the interiors of their mansions.
B. Neither classical nor Baroque Dutch painters were primarily interested
in the realistic portrayal of secular everyday life.
 III. Judith Leyster established her own independent painting career. She was the
1st female member of the painting Guild of Saint Luke in Haarlem, which enabled
her to set up her own workshop and take on male pupils.
IV. The finest product of the golden age of Dutch painting was Rembrandt van
Rijn (1606-1669). He painted opulent portraits and grandiose scenes that were
often quite colorful.
A. He was successful, but he turned away from materialistic success to
follow his own artistic path, losing public support and died bankrupt.
B. He became more introspective as he grew older. He refused to follow
his contemporaries, whose paintings were largely secular; half of his
paintings depicted biblical stories.
A Wondrous Age of Theater
I. In England and Spain, writing reached new heights b/w 1580 and 1640. All
these impressive new works were written in the vernacular. Expect for academic
fields, Latin was no longer the universal language.
A. The greatest age of English literature is often called the Elizabethan era
b/c much of the English cultural flowering of the late 16th and early 17thc
occurred during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
B. Elizabethan literature exhibits the exuberance and pride associated
w/England’s international exploits at the time.
William Shakespeare
I. William Shakespeare, besides writing plays, was an actor and shareholder in the
chief company of the time, the Lord Chamberlain’s Company
Spain’s Golden Century
I. The theater was also one of the most creative forms of expression during
Spain’s golden century.
A. The 1st professional theaters established in Seville and Madrid in the
1570’s were run by actors’ companies, as in England. Soon a public
playhouse could be found in every large town.
II. Beginning in the 1580s, the agenda for playwrights was set by Lope de Vega
(1562-1635).
A. He wrote over 115 plays, characterized as witty, charming, action-
packed, and realistic. He made no apologies for the fact that he wrote
plays to please an audience.
B. He stated that the foremost duty of a playwright is to satisfy public
demand.
French Drama
I. French playwrights wrote more for an elite audience and were forced to depend
on royal patronage. Louis XIV used theater to attract attention to his monarchy.
II. France dramatists cultivated a classical style that emphasized the clever,
polished, and correct over the emotional and imaginative. Many French works of
the period derived both their themes and their plots from Greek and Roman
sources, especially evident in the works of Jean-Baptiste Racine.
A. He focused on conflicts, such as between love and honor or inclination
and duty, that characterized and revealed the tragic dimensions of life.
III. Jean-Baptiste Molière (1622-73) enjoyed the favor of the French court and
benefited from the patronage of Louis XIV.
A. He wrote, produced, and acted in a series of comedies that often
satirized the religious and social world of the time.
B. His satires sometimes got him to into trouble, and only the protection of
the king saved him from severe harassment.