New monarchs paved the way for a more profitable future for the most powerful countries in Europe. Fledgling countries such as Spain, France, and England, profited from their new monarchs, ultimately becoming the powerful world powers they are today. The key components of a new monarch include limiting the nobles' power, increasing economic prosperity, uniting their nation, and stabilizing their army. The monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, King Louis XI of France, and King Henry VII of England, are prime examples of new monarchs. New monarchs strengthened their nations considerably, in more ways than one.
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain were the duo monarchs of the new nation of Spain, brought together by their families' lands of Argon and Castille. Ferdinand of Argon, son of John II of Argon, rose to power through his marriage to Isabella of Castille. Isabella of Castille was the daughter of King John I, of Castille. After King John I died, her older brother was the next heir I'm line, King Henry IV. When King Henry IV was seen unfit to rule by nobles, he was pushed aside to let his younger half-brother Alfonso take the throne. Fortunately, at least for Isabella, Alfonso soon after died of the plague, and had named her his successor in his will. This king and queen brought together their people firstly by completing the Reconquista, the expulsion of people practicing Muslim and Judism, to unify their nation under the religion of Roman Cathlioc. Although this couple's greatest achievement was their funding towards Christopher Columbus who ultimately found the New World. Through this, and their "claim" of it, Spain grew prostperous through the collection and mineing of silver and gold. This also lead to colonization and tr...
... middle of paper ...
...tect his right to the throne. Ultimately, he stabilized the nation by settling the civil wars, the Wars of Roses, by marrying the apposing York family, to unite the two feuding families, the Yorks and the Lancasters. All together, King Henry VII is a new monarch for displaying all of the required traits.
New monarchs are considered the first stepping stone to create great nations. These new monarchs display the traits of limiting the nobles' power, increasing economic prosperity, uniting their nation, and stabilizing their army. Nations such as Spain, France, and England, have new monarchs in their history, including Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, King Louis XI of France, and King Henry VII of England. Overall without the strengthening of these new monarchs, the corruption of their successors would have been detrimental to the process of improving these nations.
Although the couple were really especially known for sending explorers like Christopher Columbus abroad, that actually is not their most effective achievement. Their most effective achievement was 10-year bloodbath of a war that was called the Granada War. Their main focus was to rid Spain entirely of its Muslim population. Ferdinand and Isabella took their Christian faith to the next level just to do so. In January of the year of 1442 they were successful, as they were able to wipe out the Muslims (PBS).
Differently, England failed at absolutism as a result of unstable, unpowerful, and differently minded kings and their failure at overpowering the nobles. France was able to gain more royal power than England, leaving them with complete control over their country, and left Europe without complete control. Learning how countries gained an absolute monarchy is important in the modern world because from this, people learned how to develop modern governments. Afterwards, countries started to decide whether it would be in their best interest for sovereigns to be under the law, rather than above the law. The old need for an absolute monarchy turned into a need for a government that was right for the
Charles I was the second born son to King James I, who had also reigned under a constitutional monarchy, but large disagreement between Parliament and James I led to an essentially absolutist approach to governance. Likewise, Charles I disagreed with the Parliament on many factors. Charles was far from the contemporary model of a figurehead monarchy we see in today’s world, and his political reach extended throughout the English empire, even to the New World. Infact, I claim, he practiced a more absolutist form of monarchy than did the Czars of Russia; he dissolved Parliament three times. This unprecedented power led to (other than corruption) a strict contradiction of the principles of republicanism which most constitutional monarchies agreed on. And while many were in favor of an overlooking Parliament, his unopposed voice led the voyage to the New World as well as the charter for the Massachussets Bay Colony, and he fostered many internal improvements throughout England, which further benifetted the economy. Unfortunately, Charles began to push his limits as a monarch, and many became upset (including New Worlders from Massachussets) to the point of abdicating him and executing him for treason. Nevertheless, his positive effects on society and political rennovations persist in today’s
In the Age of Absolutism, both England and France had strong absolute monarchies and leaders. Though Louis XIV, monarch of France, and Charles I, leader of Britain, both served as their country’s king and served in this role in different ways.
From 711-1492, Christian Spaniards lived under Moorish rule until eventually, the Christian Kingdoms took over during the Reconquista. The conflicts between the Muslims and Christians created a militaristic culture in Spain that surpassed that of any other European nation. Furthermore, being trained militarily was often exclusively attributed to the nobility however, in Spain, “many young men knew these skills and used them to their advantage.” Without a doubt, recently reconquering their homeland motivated the Spanish to a basis for expansion and conquest that most other European societies were lacking. In addition, the voyages of Christopher Columbus led to discovering the New World which undoubtedly contributed to added interest in conquest. Eventually, each conquest further raised Spanish hopes for fame and
Henry implemented many methods in order to control the nobility with varying success. Henry sought to limit the power of the nobles as he was acutely aware the dangers of over mighty subjects with too much power and little love for the crown or just wanted a change like Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick who deposed two kings to replace them. Also Henry’s own rise to the throne was helped by nobles dislike towards Richard III. By restricting the nobles Henry wanted to reduce the power of the nobles and possible threats against him and return the nobles from their quasi king status to leaders in their local areas but under the power of the crown.
Many people have heard of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. However, only some know of all the things they accomplished. They might be best known for funding the voyages of Christopher Columbus, but they also greatly contributed to the unity of Spain (“Isabella l”). Together, they brought many kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula together to form what Spain is today. Through Spain’s unification, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella strengthened Spain into an economic and dominant world power, enabling the spread of Christianity and the colonization of a New World.
Of all the absolute rulers in Europe, by far the best example of one, and the most powerful, was Louis XIV of France. Although Louis had some failures, he also had many successes. He controlled France’s money and had many different ways to get, as well as keep his power, and he knew how to delegate jobs to smart, but loyal people.
The Austrian, Habsburg Empire and England faced issues common to many European nations of the time. Religion and leadership were at the forefront of these crises. What set the two nations apart and ensured England’s survival was that England, not necessarily consciously, made improvements to their government while they addressed their smaller individual problems. With each growing pain came compromise. Through compromise, the English developed into a Constitutional Monarchy; this representative type of government, guided by a Bill of Rights, established checks and balances that inherently support a strong, unified nation as opposed to the self interests of individual factions.
Louis XIV (the fourteenth) was an absolute monarch. He was often called "the Sun King," and ruled over France. He devoted himself to helping France achieve economic, political, and cultural prominence. Many historians believe the phrase "absolute power corrupts absolutely" mirrors Louis' reign. Louis XIV revoked the Edict on Nantes, changing the economy of France in one motion. By creating the city of Versailles and being a major patron of the arts, Louis was very influential on French culture. He made France go almost bankrupt from his costly wars and failures. Louis was very corrupt in his power, and it shown in all he did to change France; he got what he wanted, when he wanted it.
Filipe V succeeded in this Succession War, which allowed the Bourbon Monarchy to initiate reforms in effort to centralize Spain’s government; reform country’s financial systems; reinstate and reinforce the country’s military forces. The House of Bourbons had three princes, Filipe V (1700-1746), Ferdinand VI (1746-1759) and Charles III (1759-1788) that worked together to facilitate these reforms that modernized Spain completely. These reforms e...
The first monarch is Queen Elizabeth I, who used the guiding principles to rules England. Queen Elizabeth used her might to keep herself safe and did not give the reason ast why she had done this. For example, “When Mary [Queen of Scots] fled to England in 1568 to escape problems in Scotland, Elizabeth put her in prison. Later Mary plotted with Philip II’s [king of Spain] ambassadors in England to kill Elizabeth and seize the throne. Elizabeth found out about the pla...
Could you imagine yourself becoming the leader of a country at merely the age of nine months old? King Henry VI of England did it. Henry was the only son of King Henry V and Catherine of Valois (Wikipedia). By the time Henry V died, he had not only consolidated power as the King of England, but had also effectively accomplished what generations of his ancestors had failed to achieve through decades of war: unification of the crowns of England and France (Wikipedia). For that one single victory by Henry V, he became very popular for that effort. By the sounds of it, Henry was an outseanding King and loved by the people. His son, Henry VI, seemingly had to follow in his fathers footsteps and perhaps do something even greater than his now deceased father. There was only one problem: How can you run a country when you are only a child? England was okay after the death of Henry V because Henry VI had regents that ran the country for him. Under normal circumstances of this magnitude, the wife of a deceased King ran the country, but the English did not want Catherine of Valois to run the country for the simple fact that she was French; so therefore they gave the power to this infant in hopes of greatness. Because young Henry was too young to run the country and had regents to run the country for him until he became of age, Catherine made sure that her son was well-educated. While politics and foreign policies were being negotiated by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, Bishop Henry Beaufort, and John, Duke of Bedford, young Henry VI was either learning or being told to go play (Crow). Henry was finally officially crowned King of England at Westminister Abbey on November 6, 1429 at the age of eight and King of France at Notre Dame in Paris on December 16, 1431. Henry did not assume the reins of government until he was declared of age in 1437 (Wikipedia).
Monarchies have shifted to less political importance over the years in favor to parliament and a democratically elected prime minister. The film The Queen is a great example of the limited power of Queen Elizabeth II in present-day and shows the ceremonial purposes of her role. The main reasons that this role shift has happened is because monarchs abused their unlimited power repeatedly. Oliver Cromwell was one man who did not like the way his King, Charles I, was controlling the country and decided to do something about it. What some find startling is that Charles I reign ended by being sentenced to death, and by being beheaded under the weight of an axe.