Niccolò Machiavelli
Reviled for his political writings that seem to espouse the pursuit of power for its own sake, Niccolò Machiavelli was a political philosopher best known for his work The Prince. Machiavelli was born on May 3, 1469 in Florence, Italy. His family was noble but not wealthy. Machiavelli's father was a lawyer and ensured that his son received an excellent education. In 1498, Machiavelli became a secretary of the Florentine Republic. In that role, he was responsible for diplomatic correspondence and diplomatic missions to foreign states, although he generally carried out the orders of others. Machiavelli embarked on 23 missions to foreign states and observed the great leaders of the day: Louis XII of France, Pope Alexander VI, Pope Julius II, Holy Roman emperor Maximilian I, and Cesare Borgia, whose political intrigues would provide the model for The Prince. Machiavelli married Marietta Corsini in 1502, and the couple had six children, four sons and two daughters. The Florentine Republic arose after the ruling Medici family was ousted. In 1510, Machiavelli organized a citizen militia to defend the republic, but in 1512, a Spanish army under orders from Pope Julius II invaded and returned the Medici to power. Machiavelli was dismissed from his position, arrested, imprisoned, and tortured for 22 days. Machiavelli retreated to his country home and, now unemployable, turned to writing. The Prince was probably written in an unsuccessful attempt to gain favor with the Medici. In the book, Machiavelli recounts the political maneuverings of Cesare Borgia, including a series of political murders that secured his power. Machiavelli recounts how those who remain in power are those who are able to accommodate the shifting circumstances around them, "to turn and turn about as the winds and the variations of fortune dictate." Unlike philosophers who had come before him, Machiavelli was not concerned with how a perfect society should operate; he focused on how society actually operates, based on his years of keen observation. The nature of humanity is that it is corrupt, he believed. When given a chance, all men and women will turn to evil and self-gratification. The wise prince must never be lulled into thinking that his subjects will fail to seek their own self-interest at the earliest opportunity. The prince should always focus on creating a strong government that provides for the people's self-interest to ensure that their self-interest does not turn against their leader. Machiavelli's writings were a striking departure from all political discourse that had preceded him. In examining society as it exists, he became the first modernist. In his writings, history was not the product of God's providence; history was the story of human actions. Machiavelli's realism and humanism made him an often staunch critic of the Catholic Church. Religion, he felt, is important if it aids society and upholds the state. However, Christianity's glorification of the meek leaves the world open to oppression by the arrogant and the wicked. At the same time he was writing about individual rulers in The Prince, Machiavelli wrote Discourses on the First Ten Books of Tutus Livius, which deals with the state in general. That book is far more republican in philosophy—reflecting Machiavelli's belief that a strong ruler is needed to establish a government but that its continuing existence should be left to many individuals. In 1520, he further extrapolated his political philosophies in The Art of War and The Life of Castruccio Castracani. In 1518, Machiavelli also penned what is considered one of the finest Italian comedic plays, La Mandragola (The Mandrake), which deals not with political intrigue but with personal intrigue. A lustful young man desperate to get into bed with the virtuous wife of a stupid lawyer hatches an elaborate (and ultimately successful) scheme to trick the husband into forcing the wife into the young man's bed. A second comedy, La Clizia, followed in 1525 and was based on Casina, a story by Roman playwright Plautus. La Clizia is also a tale of sexual intrigue, but in that play, the elderly plotter's scheme comes to an unsuccessful and humiliating end. In 1526, Machiavelli published a history of Florence, Istorie Fiorentine. That same year, Pope Clement VII commissioned the author to inspect the fortifications in Florence. He later went on two final diplomatic missions and ended his career where it had begun, in the service of the state. Machiavelli died on June 21, 1527 in Florence. He was given a Christian burial and the last rites of the Catholic Church. References: Chabod, Federico, Machiavelli and the Renaissance, 1926; Hundersmarck, Lawrence F., "Niccolo Machiavelli," Great Thinkers of the Western World, 1999; Prezzolini, Giuseppe, Machiavelli, 1966.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI (1469-1527) Italian historian, statesman, and political philosopher, writer. Born in Florence on May 3, 1469, Machiavelli entered government service as a clerk and rose to prominence when the Florentine Republic was proclaimed in 1498. He was secretary of the ten-man council that conducted the diplomatic
negotiations and supervised the military operations of the republic, and his duties included missions to the French king (1504, 1510-11), the Pope (1506), and the German emperor (1507-8). In the course of his diplomatic missions within Italy he became acquainted with many of the Italian rulers and was able to study their political tactics, particularly those of the churchman, politician and soldier Cesare Borgia, who was at that time engaged in enlarging his holdings in central Italy. From 1503 to 1506 Machiavelli reorganized the military defense of the republic of Florence. Although mercenary armies were common during this period, he preferred to rely on native troops to ensure a permanent and patriotic defense of the city. In 1512, when the Medici, a Florentine family, regained power in Florence and the republic was dissolved, he was deprived of office and briefly imprisoned for alleged conspiracy against them. After his release he retired to his estate near Florence, where he wrote his most important works. Despite his attempts to gain favor with the Medici rulers, he was never restored to his prominent government position. He died in Florence on June 21, 1527. The Prince Machiavelli’s most famous work was written in 1532. It is a guidebook for leadership, based on the successful careers of ambitious men like Cesare Borgia. In The Prince, Machiavelli describes how a prince can gain and maintain power, how a prince must establish a government and laws, and how a prince must establish a strong army capable of resisting foreign attacks. Machiavelli believed that a prince is not bound by traditional ethics, morals or religious principals; a prince must be able and willing to do anything to preserve his power. If ruthlessness and cruelty are necessary, the good prince must be ready to be ruthless and cruel. A realist, Machiavelli based his ideas on what he observed in history. He studied princes of the past and present in order to develop his rules for successful gain and preservation of power. Machiavellianism, as a term, has been used to describe the principles of power politics, and the type of person who uses those principles in political or personal life is frequently described as a Machiavellian. Excerpts from The Prince The priorities of a prince The prince…who fails to recognize troubles in his state as they arise is not truly wise… The chief foundations of all states, whether new, old, or mixed, are good laws and good arms. And as there cannot be good laws where there are not good arms, and where there are good arms there must be good laws… A prince should therefore have no other aim or thought, nor take up any other thing for his study, but war and its organization and discipline, for that is the only art that is necessary to one who commands,…And one sees, on the other hand, that when princes think more of luxury than of arms, they lose their state.
…But as to exercise for the mind, the prince ought to read history and study the actions of eminent men, see how they acted in warfare, examine the causes of there victories and defeats in order to imitate the former and avoid the latter, and above all, do as some men have done in the past, who have imitated some one, who has been much praised and glorified, and have always kept his deeds and actions before them, as they say Alexander the Great imitated Achilles, Caesar
How should a prince treat his people? I will only say…that it is necessary for a prince to possess the friendship of the people; otherwise he has no resource in times of adversity… Therefore a wise prince will seek means by which his subjects will always and in every condition of things have need of his government, then they will always be faithful to him. A prince must also show himself a lover of merit, give preferment to the able, and honor those who excel in every art. Moreover he must encourage his citizens to follow their callings quietly, whether in commerce, or agriculture, or any other trade that men follow, so that this one shall not refrain from improving his possessions through fear that they may be taken from him, and that one from starting a trade for fear of taxes; but he should offer rewards to whoever does these things, and to whoever seeks in any way to improve his city or state. Besides this, he ought, at convenient seasons of the year, to keep the people occupied with festivals and shows; and as every city is divided either into guilds or into classes, he ought to pay attention to all these groups, mingle with them from time to time, and give them an example of his humanity and munificence, always upholding, however, the majesty of his dignity, which must never be allowed to fail in anything whatever.
What qualities of character should a prince possess? I say that every prince must desire to be considered merciful and not cruel. He must, however, take care not to misuse this mercifulness…A prince…must not mind incurring the charge of cruelty for the purpose of keeping his subjects united and faithful…that one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved… It is not, therefore, necessary for a prince to have all [virtuous] qualities, but it is very necessary to seem to have them. I would even be bold to say that to possess them and always to observe them is dangerous, but to appear to possess them is useful. Thus it is well to seem merciful, faithful, humane, sincere, religious [but not necessary to really possess those qualities]… Niccolò Machiavelli: quote on power
"From this we learn that a wise prince sees to it that never, in order to attack someone, does he become the ally of a prince more powerful than himself, except when necessity forces him, as I said above. If you win, you are the powerful king's prisoner, and wise princes avoid as much as they can being in other men's power." (The Prince, 1513)
Elizabeth I
During Queen Elizabeth I's reign, England consolidated its position as a European power and embarked upon becoming a colonial power. A shrewd and forceful monarch, Elizabeth fostered both of these efforts, encouraging the spread of English influence throughout the world. She also firmly established Protestantism in England, and became, somewhat reluctantly, the leader of the Protestant cause in Europe. Born at Greenwich on September 7, 1533, the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth's childhood and early adulthood were fraught with danger and disaster. Her mother's execution in 1536 for adultery and treason imperiled Elizabeth's position in the succession to the throne. Throughout the remainder of Henry VIII's, as well as Edward VI's and Mary I's reigns, Elizabeth held tenuously to her position at court; she remained popular with the English people. Several plots during Catholic Mary's reign aimed at establishing Protestant Elizabeth on the throne, although Elizabeth herself did not conspire toward this end. Briefly in 1555, Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower of London, suspected of having aided Sir Thomas Wyatt in a rebellion against Mary; a lack of evidence led to her release after two months. These early experiences, whereby cautious circumspection and delicate diplomacy often saved her, enabled her to perfect a technique that was to hold her in good stead throughout her reign—giving "answerless answers." In addition, Elizabeth schooled herself well during these years of uncertainty; by the time she reached her teens, she was a welleducated, cultured, and lively young woman. On November 17, 1558, the 25-year-old Elizabeth ascended the throne upon the death of her sister Mary. She faced crisis both at home and abroad. England was at war with France, with no financial support to continue the fight and little public support for the conflict. To alleviate the situation, she made peace with France, worked to retain the friendship of Spain, and sought to establish a strong Protestant base in Scotland. Through these efforts, she maintained England's position as a European power and bought time to consolidate her support within England. At home, religious divisions within England, caused by Mary's attempt to reestablish Catholicism, plagued the country. Elizabeth sought to heal some of the country's wounds caused by Mary's religious persecutions. Despite Mary's efforts, England remained at heart a Protestant country. Under Elizabeth, all Englishmen swore allegiance to Elizabeth under the Act of Supremacy (1559), which confirmed her place as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. A second act passed the same year, the Act of Uniformity, strove to impose consistency on religious services and avoided questions of doctrine, thus making them palatable to the widest range of people. Religious strife, however, continued to plague England to some degree throughout Elizabeth's reign. Catholics, both in England and abroad, plotted to force Elizabeth from the throne and establish her cousin and heir, the Catholic Mary Stuart, in her place. In 1570, Pope Pius V excommunicated Elizabeth and encouraged foreign princes to invade England and reclaim it for the Catholic religion. At the other end of the religious spectrum, Protestant reformers grew dissatisfied with Elizabeth's lack of commitment toward purifying the Church of England of its Catholic elements. Elizabeth combated extremists of both sects. To quell the possibility of a Catholic uprising, she implemented a crackdown on Catholics within her realm and finally executed Mary Stuart in February 1587. She also ignored the demands of the Puritans and maintained a moderate religious position. In neither case did she reinstitute the full-scale religious persecutions that marked Mary's reign (earning her the nickname Bloody Mary). Foreign policy and religious conflict occupied much of Elizabeth's time during her reign, but she proved adept at managing the government administration created by Henry VIII and his counselors. She came to rely on the advice and support of several able administrators, such as Sir
William Cecil and Sir Francis Walsingham. She fostered a growing sense of nationalism in England, centering on the monarch herself. For many, she became the symbol of a strong, united England. She cultivated the development of the arts; literature, music, art, and architecture flowered under her auspices. Elizabeth personally attended the premier of the new playwright Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and she served as an inspiration to artists of the late 16th century, who dedicated their work to "Good Queen Bess." Throughout her life, Elizabeth attracted loyal followers and patronized court favorites. She used the promise of matrimony as a diplomatic tool both in England and abroad. Half the monarchs of Europe, and many of her own subjects, curried her favor, hoping for a beneficial union. This technique was her special ploy to manipulate men and affairs of state and helped her successfully maintain the upper hand in many of her negotiations. When it became apparent that she would not marry or produce an heir, she used the promise of succession to the English throne in much the same way. She did not name her heir, James VI of Scotland (and ultimately James I of England), until she was on her deathbed. She ruled her kingdom through sheer force of personality and diplomatic skill. Although she was notorious for careful and circumspect decision making, she could also take quick and decisive action when appropriate. She frequently shielded her iron will behind so-called womanly weaknesses, and yet she was known throughout Europe for her fierce temper and violent oaths. Her careful, cunning nature made her a formidable player in European politics. Elizabeth's primary European adversaries were France, Spain, and Scotland. By forming strategic (and shifting) alliances, she maintained a strong diplomatic position for England throughout the latter half of the 16th century and reclaimed some of England's reputation lost during the reigns of Edward VI and Mary I. One of the major crises of her reign came in 1588, when the Spanish determined to vanquish the English once and for all by invading the island nation. The Spanish amassed a huge armada and sailed into the English Channel. By adept defensive efforts—such as setting burning boats sailing into the midst of the Spanish ships—the English managed to chase the Spanish out into the treacherous North Sea, where storms smashed the fleet and destroyed Spain's hopes for an invasion. Although the loss of the Spanish Armada was a serious blow to Spain, the country remained the most dominant power in Europe and the Americas. In fact, England's efforts to explore and colonize other parts of the world in the second half of the 16th century grew out of the need to compete with Spain and other European countries. At the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, the Spanish and Dutch both surpassed the English in the wealth they garnered from the Americas. To rival these powers in their bid for influence in the western hemisphere, Elizabeth promoted English explorations. Although these voyages were not specifically funded by the Crown, many received her blessing and whatever official encouragement she could give them. This encouragement often included allowing English vessels to act as privateers—glorified pirates—and pillage Spanish ships. She encouraged the formation of corporations in England to sponsor these various voyages and adventures. Although the first permanent English settlement in North America (Jamestown, 1607) did not occur until after her death, the colonists named their newfound land Virginia, after the Virgin Queen. At her death on March 24, 1603, England was poised to become a world power; indeed, it would play a significant role in both European politics and colonial North America. References: Johnson, Paul, Elizabeth I, 1974; Luke, Mary M., Gloriana: The Years of Elizabeth I, 1973; Smith, Lacey Baldwin, Elizabeth Tudor: Portrait of a Queen, 1975.
Act of Supremacy (1559)
The Act of Supremacy of 1559 was the first piece of legislation passed after Queen Elizabeth I came to the English throne in late 1558. The law essentially reinstated the Act of Supremacy of 1534, which had been orchestrated by Elizabeth's father King Henry VIII in order to sanction his marriage to Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyn. The Act of Supremacy denied the authority of the Roman Catholic Church in England, establishing instead the Church of England, with the monarch at its head. Below is an excerpt of the act. ….from thenceforth the same shall be clearly abolished out of this realm …. forever, any statute, ordinance, custom, constitutions, or any other matter or cause whatsoever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding . . . ; and that your highness, your heirs, and successors, kings or queens of this realm, shall have full power and authority . . . to exercise . . . all manner of jurisdictions, privileges, and preeminences in any wise touching or concerning any spiritual or ecclesiastical jurisdiction within these your realms. . . . …. your highness, your heirs, or successors, shall hereafter by letters patents under the great seal of England give authority to have or execute any jurisdiction, power, or authority spiritual, or to visit, reform, order, or correct any errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, or enormities by virtue of this act, shall not in any wise have authority or power to order, determine, or adjudge any matter or cause to be heresy but only such as heretofore have been determined, ordered, or adjudged to be heresy by the authority of the canonical Scriptures…
Elizabeth I: speech against the Spanish Armada (1588)
Faced by the threat of a Spanish invasion of England in the summer of 1588, Queen Elizabeth I delivered this speech to her troops as they prepared to meet the attack. The Spanish Armada of ships, sent by Spain's King Philip II to conquer England, met with a destructive patch of bad weather in late July as it attempted to make its way across the English Channel. Thus, the massive fleet was much weakened by the time the English Navy engaged it in battle in early August, easily defeating it. The Spanish Navy never recovered from its defeat at the hands of the English, and the destruction of the armada signaled a shift in power in European affairs from the Spanish to the English, which would become more pronounced in the coming decades. Elizabeth's determined stance against the Spanish also elevated her in the hearts and minds of her people, who respected her courage in the face of such a serious threat.
My loving people, we have been persuaded by some, that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you, I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear; I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good will of my subjects. And therefore I am come amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all; to lay down, for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honor and my blood, even the dust. I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too; and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realms: to which, rather than any dishonor should grow by me, I myself will take up arms; I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. I know already, by your forwardness, that you have deserved rewards and crowns; and we do assure you, on the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In the mean my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble and worthy subject; not doubting by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and by your valor in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over the enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people.
Elizabeth I: quote on kings
"To be a king and wear a crown is more glorious to them that see it than it is pleasure to them that bear it." (1601)
Elizabeth I: quote on marriage
"I would rather be a beggar and single than a queen and married."
Elizabethan Age
Queen Elizabeth I ruled England from 1558 to 1603. Under her leadership, England transformed itself from a poor and insignificant medieval country to a wealthy cosmopolitan player on the world stage. Commerce, literature, and navigation all thrived during the Elizabethan Age, and conspicuous consumption became a national pastime. The queen herself emerged as a symbol for the English people: the Virgin Queen beloved by the entire country. One of Elizabeth's first acts as queen was to settle the religious question that had plagued the realm for a number of years. She was outwardly favorable to Protestantism, though she had no love for the strict Calvinism popular at the time, and she could not afford to reconcile with Rome because of England's poor financial and military state. She therefore revoked all of Mary's Catholic legislation and reenacted Henry VIII's antipapal statutes, which vested supreme power over the national church in the Crown. Under the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity, all government officials had to swear loyalty to the Church of England, and public worship was made uniform. Under Elizabeth, England experienced a huge economic expansion. The nation had been relatively poor and underpopulated when Elizabeth was crowned; it lacked scientific knowledge and industrial skill, and the ancient mining industries were almost too backward to function. Only one-fourth of the arable soil was under cultivation. England did, however, have an excellent cloth industry, and English sheep and wool were prized all over the world. The cloth trade was well organized and enjoyed government favor, and its exports made up over 80% of all English exports. At the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, the cloth export trade was restricted to Antwerp and was only beginning to look at other European markets. Cloth merchants had not even considered North America and South America or the Near East and Far East. Under Elizabeth, however, they began looking further afield by exploring possible sea passages to other continents (including the unsuccessful quest for a northwest passage to China) and seeking out foreign markets for English cloth. In the 1560s, England began trading with Persia via Russia. The country also started importing raw materials from Russia, which were invaluable to its ship-building program. Other industries expanded rapidly. New crafts like felt making, thread making, lace manufacture, silk weaving, engraving, and the manufacture of parchment, needles, and glass were all introduced during Elizabeth's reign. Mining became more profitable. Many of those crafts were spearheaded by religious refugees who moved to England from the Netherlands and France. Meanwhile, Sir Francis Drake led England's fight to weaken Spain; Elizabeth had a most tenuous relationship with the Catholic country. Drake engaged in piracy by ambushing Spanish ships, laden with silver, on their way home from the New World. He also set out to circumnavigate the globe in 1580, with Elizabeth's authority to fight the Spanish ships he encountered and possibly to establish an English colony in California. During 1586-1588, Thomas Cavendish also sailed around the globe plundering Spanish vessels. The year he returned was a great year for the English Navy, the year it defeated the Spanish Armada. That interest in the sea led to a rapid improvement in geographical knowledge and techniques. Explorers seized on ancient and modern books of travel and discovery. Scholars began writing tracts on navigation and producing almanacs and sea manuals, which made navigation a much less haphazard process than it had been. Back in England, London was the Elizabethan social epicenter, the home of much of the country's wealth and most of its fashions. Clothing was a big industry; the rich flaunted their velvets, silks, and gold and silver jewelry, and people at all other levels of society tried to follow suit as best they could. It became difficult to identify someone's social class on the basis of clothing because styles of dress were intermingled at every level.
The Elizabethan Age was above all a golden age for literature. Printing had become well established the century before, and that invention encouraged both writing and reading. Humanism had made inroads into English thought, and the educated English man or woman now had a thorough grounding in Latin classics. Poetry was extremely popular. An Italian poetic form, the sonnet, became the model for English poetry, and English poets tried to make English as flexible a poetic instrument as Italian was . The most important of Elizabethan writers was, of course, William Shakespeare. Shakespeare wrote a huge number of plays and sonnets, many dedicated to the queen herself. He wrote histories, tragedies, and comedies, and his stories encompassed the full range of human experience. They were popular during his lifetime and have remained so ever since. Some of his most famous works are Romeo and Juliet (c. 1594), Hamlet (c. 1600), and Macbeth (c. 1605). Education also flourished during Elizabeth's reign. The upper and middle classes decided that education was a sure route to honor, distinction, and power, and so they were eager to patronize the universities. Cambridge University and Oxford University both expanded rapidly during this time. A number of grammar schools sprang up to prepare the sons of the nobility for their university education. Favored subjects included theology, civil law, the philosophy of Aristotle and Plato, medicine as taught by Galen and Hippocrates, mathematics (including arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy), dialectic, rhetoric, Greek, and Hebrew. References: Black, J. B., The Reign of Elizabeth, 1558-1603, 1959; Jones, Norman, The Birth of the Elizabethan Age: England in the 1560s, 1993.
Henry VIII
Henry VIII, the quintessential image of a king, determined to make England one of the great European powers and to ensure the continuation of the Tudor dynasty begun by his father, Henry VII. Toward that end, he instituted a series of changes within England that had a dramatic impact on the nature of English government and indelibly altered the relationship between the English Crown and the church. During his reign, Henry founded the Church of England, forged a strong role for England in European politics, and encouraged a new role for the British Parliament in governing the country. The state Henry created contained the foundations of the modern British church and state. Born at Greenwich on June 28, 1491, Henry was the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Henry's elder brother Arthur died unexpectedly in 1502, leaving Henry heir to the throne. The country that he inherited upon his father's death in 1509 had tremendous potential. Henry VII had successfully ended the destructive civil wars that plagued England throughout the 15th century and created an England united under the Tudor throne. His adroit management of government administration enabled him to establish a firm financial base for the Crown with an enormous reserve of funds. In addition, Henry VIII inherited not only the kingdom, but also his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Although they were betrothed in 1503, shortly after Arthur's death, the marriage was delayed until 1509 so that Henry could obtain a papal dispensation allowing him to marry his sister-in-law. For the first 20 years of his reign, Henry concentrated on increasing England's prestige among the countries of Europe and securing an heir. Henry was a true Renaissance prince who excelled in traditional learning—literature, languages, the arts, science, and mathematics—as well as physical activities—jousting, swordplay, running, and dancing. His court prided itself on being well-educated and cultured, and the finest craftsmen in Europe came to England to decorate royal palaces and create ornate displays of England's prosperity. In Henry's most extravagant effort to impress Europe, he met France's Francis I in 1520 for three days of feasting, games, and outrageous displays of wealth at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. In addition to those outward displays of culture and wealth, Henry strove to awe Europe with England's growing political strength. To that end, he enthusiastically supported the growth of a navy and became an avid player in continental politics, making alliances with Spain and the Holy Roman Empire and waging war against the French and Scottish. His army dealt the Scottish a resounding defeat at Flodden Field in 1513 and menaced the French periodically throughout the 1510s and 1520s. Throughout all of those endeavors, Henry received guidance from Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, an able administrator who helped Henry consolidate his power both in England and abroad. The expenditure involved in waging war and hosting extravagant ceremonies, however, precipitated a financial crisis for the royal coffers that came to a head in the mid-1520s. At the same time as his financial situation became perilous, Henry became increasingly concerned with his own domestic crisis. After nearly two decades of marriage, Catherine had not been able to produce a male heir to carry on the Tudor dynasty, although she had borne a daughter, Mary I, in 1516. Henry came to believe that the marriage was cursed, despite the papal dispensation, because of the biblical injunction against brothers and sisters-in-law marrying. In addition, his affections shifted to a young woman at his court, Anne Boleyn. He began the lengthy, and ultimately unsuccessful, process of annulling his marriage to Catherine, soliciting support from scholars across Europe for his position. He also turned for support to his own Parliament, which until that time had not had a substantial role in affairs of state. His reliance on them throughout the early 1530s increased the prestige of that body and established the British Parliament as an important component in the governing of the country. Pope Clement VII, however, did not grant the annulment, and Henry decided to break with the Catholic Church in Rome. He declared himself the head of the new Church of England, allowing him to annul his own marriage. In January 1533, he married Boleyn, who was crowned queen in June; she gave birth to Elizabeth in September of that same year.
In 1534, Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy, which consecrated the break with Rome and formally established Henry as Head of the Church and Defender of the Faith. Henry embarked on a program to close the monasteries and confiscate their wealth and lands. Those actions eased his financial problems and increased his prestige as a patron, as he dispensed the land to courtiers and supplicants. He did not, however, have any intention of embracing the reformed religion, Protestantism, that was spreading across Europe at that time. The rituals and doctrine of the Catholic Church essentially remained unchanged under Henry's guidance, as long as allegiance was paid to him rather than the pope. Henry was determined to prevent a religious civil war from enveloping his kingdom, and to that end, executed or suppressed both Protestant and Catholic zealots. To manage the new-found wealth from the confiscated monasteries, Henry relied on Thomas Cromwell, who replaced Wolsey shortly after Wolsey's fall from grace in 1529. Wolsey had failed to obtain the annulment Henry sought, and Henry's subsequent loss of confidence in Wolsey's abilities led to his downfall. Cromwell matched Wolsey in his administrative skills and developed a structure to manage the Crown's extended possessions. Parliament gained increased prominence as a law-making body (although laws were still highly subject to the wishes of the king), and the creation of a privy council to advise the monarch became an important appendage to the Crown. After his marriage to Anne Boleyn ended disastrously, Henry married four more times (Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr), but none of those marriages precipitated such dramatic changes in church and state. Henry VIII died on January 28, 1547. His only son, given to him by his third wife, Jane Seymour, succeeded him as Edward VI.
References: Cornwall, Julian, Wealth and Society in Early Sixteenth Century England, 1988; Fox, Alistair, Politics and Literature in the Reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII, 1989; Loades, D. M., The Politics of Marriage: Henry VIII and his Queens, 1994; Micheli, Linda McJ., Henry VIII: An Annotated Bibliography, 1988; Newcombe, D. G., Henry VIII and the English Reformation, 1995; Smith, Goldwin, A History of England, 1966; Starkey, David, ed., Henry VIII: A European Court in England, 1991.
Act of Supremacy (1534)
Enacted in 1534 by the English Parliament, acting under the forceful guidance of King Henry VIII, the Act of Supremacy broke England's ties to the Roman Catholic Church, thus initiating the English Reformation. The law removed the pope as head of the English Church and installed the monarch in his place. Henry orchestrated such a dramatic move because the pope refused to annul his 20-year marriage to Catherine of Aragon, thus preventing him from marrying his pregnant mistress Anne Boleyn. Queen Mary I repealed the act in 1554 but Queen Elizabeth I essentially reinstated it with the Act of Supremacy of 1559.
Albeit the king's majesty justly and rightfully is and ought to be the supreme head of the Church of England, and so is recognized by the clergy of this realm in their convocations, yet nevertheless for corroboration and confirmation thereof, and for increase of virtue in Christ's religion within this realm of England, and to repress and extirp all errors, heresies, and other enormities and abuses hereto fore used in the same; be it enacted by authority of this present Parliament, that the king our sovereign lord, his heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall be taken, accepted; and reputed the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England, called Anglicana Ecclesia; and shall have and enjoy, annexed and united to the imperial crown of this realm, as well the title and style thereof, as all honours, dignities, pre-eminences, jurisdictions, privileges, authorities, immunities, profits, and commodities to the said dignity of supreme head of the same Church belonging and appertaining; and that our said sovereign lord, his heirs and successors, kings of this real have full power and authority from time to time to visit, repress, redress, reform, order, correct, restrain, and amend all such errors, heresies, abuses, offences, contempts, and enormities, whatsoever they be, which by any manner spiritual authority or jurisdiction ought or may lawfully be reformed, repressed, ordered, redressed, corrected, restrained, or amended, most to the pleasure of Almighty God, the increase of virtue in Christ's religion, and for the conservation of the peace, unity, and tranquillity of this realm; any usage, custom, foreign law, foreign authority, prescription, or any other thing or things to the contrary hereof notwithstanding
Ferdinand V
Along with Queen Isabella I, Ferdinand V brought several kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula together to form Spain. Ferdinand of Aragon was born on March 10, 1452 at Sos in Aragon, one of three Christian kingdoms that dominated the Iberian Peninsula. Over the years, the Aragon kings had acquired Sicily (which Ferdinand ruled as Ferdinand II) and lands along the Mediterranean Sea. Another kingdom, Castile, larger and more populous than Aragon, had led in expelling Muslim invaders from areas of the peninsula. Along the Atlantic coast lay the third Christian kingdom, Portugal, also important in the wars against the Muslims. Ferdinand was heir to the crown of Aragon and cousin to Isabella, heiress to the throne of Castile. Isabella had strong ambitions to unify Spain and looked toward a marriage with Ferdinand as the best way to advance that agenda. After she proposed that strategy to him, he agreed, and they married on October 19, 1469, creating a formidable partnership that would alter world history.
When Isabella's brother, Henry IV, died in 1474, Ferdinand and Isabella became joint monarchs of Castile. Then in 1479, Ferdinand's father, John II of Aragon, died, and Ferdinand also ruled that kingdom. Although Ferdinand held important titles, he did not have absolute power in either Aragon or Castile, and the two rulers and their kingdoms had many differences. Linguistically, the people in those areas spoke different Spanish dialects. Strategically, Aragon had long been focused on the Mediterranean and Castile on the Atlantic. Furthermore, Ferdinand differed from Isabella in his skepticism toward religion and his tendency toward tolerance in that area. Those differences were underscored when Ferdinand agreed to make no wars or alliances unless Isabella approved of them and to appoint only Castilians to high office in Castile. The arrangement signified that Castile had the greatest wealth and the most prominent position in the political linkage. Ferdinand had great abilities as a statesman and applied his penchants for deceit, crassness, and opportunism. He and Isabella realized that to strengthen the Crown, they needed new sources of revenue. They turned to the Catholic Church, and in 1486, the pope granted them patronage rights over bishoprics to be established in the areas from which the Moors, or Muslims, had been driven. The pope also issued bulls, or decrees, in 1493, 1501, and 1508 granting them control over ecclesiastical appointments and revenues in the Americas. The New World would prove to be a lucrative source for the Crown. The Church thus became an important tool in developing royal absolutism. In return, Ferdinand and Isabella strongly supported the pope's prerogative in spiritual matters, a loyalty that earned them the title "the Catholic Sovereigns," granted by Pope Alexander VI. Ferdinand guided the final conquest of the Moors and began the siege of Granada in 1491. That stronghold fell in 1492, the same year the Crown agreed to back Christopher Columbus on his westward journey across the Atlantic Ocean. While Isabella consolidated royal power in Castile, Ferdinand continued the Aragonese involvement in the Mediterranean. In 1494, he helped put together a coalition of Italian states to defeat the invading army of France's Charles VIII. Ferdinand also arranged the defeat of Louis XII when that French king tried to capture Naples (which Ferdinand ruled as Ferdinand III) in 1500. In 1504, Louis was forced to recognize Ferdinand's control there after devious maneuvering by the Spanish monarch. Louis later complained that he had been deceived twice, and Ferdinand replied that the Frenchman had lied—that in truth he had been deceived 10 times. That same year, Isabella died, a development that threatened Ferdinand's authority in Castile. Isabella had willed Castile to their daughter Joanna, who had married Philip of Burgundy. Ferdinand thus temporarily lost control of Castile, and in 1505, he married a niece of Louis XII. Joanna went insane, however, and after Philip died in 1506, Ferdinand again ruled Castile, this time as regent for his daughter. In 1512, he conquered the kingdom of Navarre and, three years later, annexed it to Castile. Although the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella and the subsequent unification of Aragon and Castile left each kingdom with its own laws and institutions and recognized Isabella's primacy in Castile, a new European power had been created. Like other early nations emerging from the Middle Ages, Spain was substantially a dynastic state—that is, a state created more from royal maneuvering and connections among dynasties than from nationalist sentiment. Furthermore, it still contained many medieval attributes and would undergo numerous changes before reaching the stage of a democratic constitutional monarchy under Juan Carlos in 1975. Nevertheless, Ferdinand and Isabella effectively put together a new nation; their rule marked the birth of Spain. At his death on January 23, 1516 at Madrigalejo in Estremadura, Ferdinand was the most powerful monarch in Western Europe.
References: Miller, Townsend, The Castles and The Crown: Spain, 1451-1555, 1963; Stevens, Paul, Ferdinand and Isabella, 1988.
Isabella I and Ferdinand V: privileges and prerogatives granted to Christopher Columbus (1492)
On April 30, 1492, shortly before explorer Christopher Columbus left Spain on a voyage to discover a passage to India and the Far East, King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella I issued this document, granting him a number of privileges and prerogatives in regard to the voyage, which they sponsored, and granting him power over any lands he might discover during the course of his voyage. When Columbus landed in the West Indies, he duly declared himself the area's ruler in accord with this document, although he believed he had discovered a series of islands off the coast of India.
Ferdinand and Elizabeth, by the Grace of God, King and Queen of Castile…….For as much of you, Christopher Columbus, are going by our command, with some of our vessels and men, to discover and subdue some Islands and Continent in the ocean, and it is hoped that by God's assistance, some of the said Islands and Continent in the ocean will be discovered and conquered by your means and conduct, therefore it is but just and reasonable, that since you expose yourself to such danger to serve us, you should be rewarded for it. And we being willing to honour and favour you for the reasons aforesaid; Our will is, That you, Christopher Columbus, after discovering and conquering the said Islands and Continent in the said ocean, or any of them, shall be our Admiral of the said Islands and Continent you shall discover and conquer; and that you be our Admiral, Vice-Roy, and Governour in them and that for the future, you may call and stile yourself, D. Christopher Columbus………… Concerning all of which things, if it be requisite, and you shall desire it. We command our Chancellour, Notaries, and other Officers, to pass, seal, and deliver to you, our Letter of Privilege, in such form and legal manner, as you shall require or stand in need of. And that none of them presume to do any thing to the contrary, upon pain of our displeasure, and forfeiture of 30 ducats for each offence. And we command him, who shall show them this our Letter, that he summon them to appear before us at our Court, where we shall then be, within fifteen days after such summons, under the said penalty. Under which same, we also command any Public Notary, whatsoever, that he give to him that shows it him, a certificate under his seal, that we may know how our command is obeyed.
Given at Granada, on the 30th of April, in the year of our Lord, 1492.— I, THE KING, I, THE QUEEN
Isabella I
Although she is best known for sponsoring Christopher Columbus' trips to the New World, Isabella I and her husband, Ferdinand V, effected the permanent union of Spain. Born in 1451, Isabella was the only daughter of Juan II, ruler of Castile from 1406 to 1454, and his second wife, Isabella of Portugal. Her half brother was Enrique IV, who ruled Castile after his father died, from 1454 to 1474. Because Isabella was Enrique's heir, he had plans for her marriage to which she violently objected, for Isabella had larger ideas for a political match with the possibility of uniting Spain. In a furtive ceremony in 1469, Isabella married her second cousin Ferdinand, heir of the king of Aragon. That secret union would prove to be one of the most important events in Spanish history, for their heir would inherit both the kingdom of Aragon and the kingdom of Castile, thus forming Spain as we know it. Although theirs was not a love match, they grew to be the most devoted of couples, even insisting on being buried together. The couple had five children: John, Isabella, Juana, María, and Catherine (who, known as Catherine of Aragon, married England's King Henry VIII). Following a flagrant breach of the truce between the Moors (Muslims) in Granada and Castile, Isabella became determined to drive the Moors from her land in a battle that lasted a decade (1482-1492). When she was well into her fourth pregnancy and prepared to join her husband in Cordoba, she was warned that it was foolish to travel so close to the Moorish capital, but she told her advisers, "Glory is not to be won without danger." Throughout the campaign, the king rode at the head of her army, and Isabella became quartermaster and financier. She also visited camps to encourage the soldiers and established field hospitals and front-line emergency tent hospitals. The latter became known as Queen's Hospitals. The truce in 1492 made Spain an all-Christian nation again after 781 years. In 1486, Christopher Columbus, seeking financial backing for his search for a shorter route to Asia, knew that he stood a better chance of impressing the intuitive and enthusiastic Isabella than her cautious husband. However, although Columbus' proposition excited her imagination, all her funds were being funneled into the war with Granada. It was not until 1492, when Santangel, Ferdinand's keeper of the privy purse, reminded Isabella that her goal had been to make her country preeminent in Europe, that she summoned Columbus to return to make a contract. During the next 10 years, she funded four voyages to the new world. Isabella is remembered for her support for Columbus, but she also was a great patron of literature, the arts, and the Catholic Church. She died on November 26, 1504, shortly before Columbus returned from his fourth voyage.
References: Langer, William L., ed., World History, 1980; McKendrick, Melveena, Ferdinand and Isabella, 1968.