Page 330 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

Van Eyck, Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride. Northern painters took great care in depicting each object and became masters at rendering details. This emphasis on a realistic portrayal is clearly evident in this oil painting, supposedly a portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini, an Italian merchant who had settled in Bruges, and his wife, Giovanna Cenami.
The European State in the Renaissance
Q FOCUS QUESTION: Why do historians sometimes refer to the monarchies of the late fifteenth century as “new monarchies” or “Renaissance states”?
In the first half of the fifteenth century, European states continued the disintegrative patterns of the pre- vious century. In the second half of the century, how- ever, recovery set in, and attempts were made to reestablish the centralized power of monarchical gov- ernments. To characterize the results, some historians have used the label “Renaissance states”; others have spoken of the “new monarchies,” especially those of France, England, and Spain at the end of the fifteenth
century (see Map 12.2). Although monarchs in western Europe succeeded to varying degrees at extending their political authority, rulers in central and eastern Europe were often weak and unable to impose their will.
The Renaissance State in Western
Europe
Although the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453; see Chapter 11) had made it difficult for French kings to assert their authority, the war had also developed a strong degree of French national feeling toward a com- mon enemy that the kings could use to reestablish mo- narchical power. The process of developing a French territorial state was greatly advanced by King Louis XI (1461–1483), known as the Spider because of his devi- ous ways. Louis strengthened the use of the taille (TY), an annual direct tax, usually on land or property, that was imposed by royal authority; this tax gave him a regular and reliable source of income. Louis repressed the French nobility and brought the provinces of Anjou, Maine, Bar, and Provence under royal control.
ENGLAND The Hundred Years’ War had also strongly affected the other protagonist in that conflict. The cost of the war in its final years and the losses in manpower strained the English economy. Moreover, even greater domestic turmoil came to England when a period of civil wars broke out in the 1450s that pitted the ducal house of Lancaster against the ducal house of York. (The wars are popularly known as the “Wars of the Roses” because Shakespeare a hundred years later cre- ated the fiction that a white rose symbolized the York- ists and a red rose, the Lancasters.) Many aristocratic families of England were drawn into the conflict. Finally, in 1485, Henry Tudor, duke of Richmond, defeated the last Yorkist king, Richard III (1483–1485), at Bosworth Field and established the new Tudor dynasty.
As the first Tudor king, Henry VII (1485–1509) worked to reduce internal dissension and establish a strong monarchical government. The new king was par- ticularly successful in obtaining sufficient income from the traditional financial resources of the English mon- arch, such as the crown lands, judicial fees and fines, and customs duties. By using diplomacy to avoid wars, which are always expensive, the king avoided having to call Parliament on any regular basis to grant him funds. By not overburdening the landed gentry and middle class with taxes, Henry won their favor, and they pro- vided much support for his monarchy. Henry’s policies
292 Chapter 12 Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance
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aNational Gallery, London//Art Resource, NY