Professional Documents
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upper classes, the black death, and an untenable economic situation. Class warfare was
always imminent in middle-class Italy.
Despotism and Diplomacy
• the guilds had much power in the city-states
• Most city-states had a revolving door of despots. The nobles and the rich would come together
to select one, called a podesta.
• The podesta used the condottieri (mercenaries) to keep the populaces under control.
• The various city-states could stay abreast of foreign military developments and, if shrewd
enough, gain power and advantage (especially in trade) without actually going to war. This
was the development of diplomacy.
Humanism
• A cultural and intellectual movement during the Renaissance, following the rediscovery of the
art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome. A philosophy or attitude concerned with the
interests, achievements, and capabilities of human beings rather than with the abstract
concepts and problems of theology or science.
• Other interpretations:
o the birth of modernity, characterized by an un-Christian philosophy that stressed the
dignity of humankind and championed individualism and secular values.
o Champions of authentic Catholic Christianity who opposed pagan teachings of
Aristotle and the ineloquent Scholasticism that resulted.
o A form of scholarship consciously designed to promote a sense of civic responsibility
and political liberty.
• Humanists advocated the studia humanitatis, a liberal arts program of study that embraced
grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, politics, and moral philosophy.
• Manuel Chrysoloras was a Byzantine scholar who opened the world of ancient Greek works to
a generation of young Italian humanists. He taught in Florence between 1397 and 1403.
• the first humanists were orators and poets who wrote in Latin and the vernacular (as opposed to
Latin alone).
• Unlike Scholastics, humanists did not care about how the classical writings related to God.
They instead wanted to answer the question “why” irrespective of religion. They thus
ignored medieval theologians and went straight to the Bible and classical works.
Petrarch, Dante, and Boccaccio
• Petrarch (1304-1374) wrote Letters to the Ancient Dead that celebrated ancient Rome; Africa
about a famous Roman general, and Lives of Illustrious Men about famous Roman men.
• He also wrote love sonnets to a married Laura. Her death made him seek out the classical
works, and his results didn't always jibe with modern Christianity.
• Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) wrote the Divine Comedy, the cornerstone of Italian vernacular
literature, and the Inferno.
• Boccaccio's (1313-1375) Decameron was a stinging social commentary and a sympathetic look
at human behavior.
Educational Reforms and Goals
• To goal of humanist studies was to be wise and to speak eloquently, to know what is good, and
to practice virtue.
• These goals changed education, especially at the university level.
• Castiglione's Book of the Courtier explains how one can be smart to rise up in court. This
Mohit Agrawal (3.7)
Maximilian I.
• Milan joined later, and the League defeated Charles in 1498.
Pope Alexander VI and the Borgia Family
• The French returned to Italy under Charles's successor, Louis XII.
• They were assisted by the Borgia pope, Alexander VI (1492-1503).
• Alexander VI was probably the most corrupt pope who ever sat on the papal throne. He had
wives and children and had visions of a new Borgia dynasty in the Italian city-states. He
thought the best way to do this was to ally with France.
o Alexander annulled Louis XII's marriage so that Louis could marry a Brittany woman,
and keep Brittany in France.
o Alex wanted Romagna, so he had the French attack.
o Alexander also left the League of Venice, opening up Italy to the French.
o His son also married the sister of the king of Navarre.
o Alexander and the French king did other small favors for one another.
• France attacked in 1499.
• In 1500, Louis and Ferdinand of Aragon divided Naples.
• The Borgia’s conquered Romagna.
Pope Julius II (1503-1513): The Warrior Pope
• He was strongly anti-Borgia.
• He placed Romagna under papal jurisdiction by driving out the Borgias and the Venetians.
This secured the Papal States.
• Julius became known as the “warrior” pope because he brought the Renaissance papacy to a
peak of military and diplomatic power.
• Erasmus wrote a satire called Julius Excluded from Heaven after watching a bullfight in the
papal palace. Julius wasn’t happy.
• Julius, Ferdiand of Aragon, and Venice formed the Holy League in 1511 and by 1512 had the
French in full retreat.
• The French invaded again under Francis I in 1515.
• The pope compromised with the Concordat of Bologna that gave the French king more power
over his clergy. This helped keep France Catholic after the Reformation, and kept France out
of Italy.
Machiavelli
• The more Machiavelli saw, the more convinced he became that Italian political unity and
independence were ends that justified any means.
• Roman rulers and citizens possessed the ability to act decisively and heroically for the good of
their country.
• Machiavelli scolded the Italian people for the self-destruction their own internal feuding was
causing.
• Only a strongman, Machiavelli concluded, could impose order on so divided and selfish a
people.
• Machiavelli put his bet on the Medici, rulers of Florence and the papacy (Leo X: 1513-1521).
The second Medici pope was Clement VII (1523-1534) who was imprisoned by Charles V.
Revival of Monarchy in Northern Europe
• After 1450, there was a progressive shift from divided feudal to unified national monarchies as
“sovereign” rulers emerged.
Mohit Agrawal (5.7)
• Because of the Hundred Years' War and the Great Schism in the church, the nobility and the
clergy were in decline by the late Middle Ages and less able to contain expanding
monarchies.
• The increasingly important towns began to ally with the king.
• In a sovereign state, the powers of taxation, war making, and law enforcement no longer
belong to semiautonomous vassals, but are concentrated in the monarch and are exercised by
his or her chosen agents.
• Monarchs were assisted by brilliant theorists like Marsilus of Padua and Machiavelli and Jean
Bodin, who eloquently argued the sovereign rights of monarchy.
• Monarchies began to create standing national armies in the 15th century. Artillery became the
backbone of armies. Mercenaries became important parts of armies.
• Monarchs could collect rent from their royal domains. They could levy the salt tax (gabelle) or
sales tax (alcabala). They could directly tax the poor, like the French taille.
• In money matters, the privileged classes remained the king's creditors and competitors.
France
• Charles VII had a strong army (Joan of Arc) and a strong economy (Jacques Coeur). His son
was Louis XI (then Charles VIII, then Louis XII, then Francis I).
• Louis XI oversaw the defeat of the budding new power of Burgundy while allied with the Holy
Roman Empire.
• Because Louis's successors inherited a secure and efficient government, they felt free to pursue
a debilitating foreign policy. The constant attacks on Italy weakened France internally.
Spain
• Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon married in 1469.
• Ferdinand and Isabella could do together what neither could do alone
o subdue their realms
o secure their borders
o venture abroad militarily
o and Christianize the whole of Spain.
• Ferdinand and Isabella exercised almost total control over the Spanish church as they placed
religion in the service of national unity with the Spanish Inquisition.
• Joanna the Mad (daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella) married Philip I of the Holy Roman
Empire. Their son, Charles I (Spain)/V (HRE) would rule over a massive empire.
• Catherine of Aragon was married to Arthur (who died) and then Henry VIII (1st wife).
• Ferdinand and Isabella also sponsored Christopher Columbus.
England
• Following the Hundred Years' War, a defeated England was subjected to internal warfare
between two rival branches of the royal family: the House of York and the House of
Lancaster.
• This conflict became known as the War of the Roses.
• Henry VI was Lancastrian. In 1461, he lost power to Edward IV, a Yorkshire guy. In 1470,
Henry VI came back to power, only to lose it again to Edward in 1471.
• Richard III, Edward's brother, took over on Edward's death in 1483. He probably had
Edward's children killed. This story, true or not, was made famous in Shakepeare's Richard
III. Note that Richard III was written during a time when bashing Richard was popular.
• Henry Tudor (VII) defeated Richard in 1485 and started the Tudor dynasty. He married
Mohit Agrawal (6.7)