The Age of Recovery: The Fifteenth Century 9781501742309

Citation preview

THE

AGE OF RECOVERY The

Fifteenth Century

JERAH JOHNSON LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY,

NEW

ORLEANS

AND

WILLIAM

A.

PERCY,

JR.

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS,

BOSTON

Cornell University Press ITHACA AND LONDON

The Development

of

Western

Narrative Essays in the History of Its

Our

Tradition from

Origins in Ancient Israel and Greece Edited by Professor of

Civilization

to the

Present

Edward W. Fox Modern European History

Cornell University

THE AGE OF RECOVERY The By and

Fifteenth Century

JERAH JOHNSON

WILLIAM

A.

PERCY,

JR.

•

i

.^W^-^p

•w4-r»

Leonardo da Vinci, Vitruvian Man, 1485- 1490. Galleria dell' Academia, Venice

Copyright

©

1970

by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a re-

view, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in

any form without permission

lisher.

in writing from the pubFor information address Cornell University Press,

124 Roberts Place, Ithaca,

New

York

14850.

First published ipjo

Standard Book

Number

8014-9858-9

Library of Congress Catalog Card

Number

76- 108 161

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

BY VAIL-BALLOU

PRESS, INC.

Foreword

THE proposition that each generation must rewrite history more widely quoted than practiced. In the field of college texts on Western civilization, the conventional accounts is

have been revised, and sources and supplementary materials

have been developed; but

it is

too long a time since the basic

narrative has been rewritten to

needs of

new

meet the rapidly changing

college generations. In the mid-twentieth cen-

tury such an account must be brief, well written, and based

on unquestioned scholarship and must assume almost no previous historical knowledge on the part of the reader. It must provide a coherent analysis of the development of Western civilization and its basic values. It must, in short, constitute a systematic introduction to the collective

ory of that tradition which This

we

series of narrative essays

mem-

are being asked to defend.

was undertaken

in an effort

to provide such a text for an introductory history survey

course and

is

being published in the present form in the

belief that the requirements of that

need that

is

coming

to be

one course reflected a

widely recognized.

Now that the classic languages, the Bible, the great historical novels,

even most non- American history, have dropped

Foreword

vi

out of the normal college preparatory program, tive that a text in the history of

European

civilization

This means not only that

fully self-explanatory.

impera-

it is

be

must be-

it

gin at the beginning, with the origins of our civilization in ancient Israel and Greece, but that

name

must introduce every

it

or event that takes an integral place in the account all

bedded

protocol.

in

historical

Only

complete will the narrative present line of those

how

others no matter

and ruthlessly delete

firmly im-

thus simplified and

a sufficiently clear out-

major trends and developments that have led

from the beginning of our recorded time

to the

most press-

ing of our current problems. This simplification, however,

On

need not involve intellectual dilution or evasion. contrary,

it

can effectively

of presentation. series has

It is

on

than lower the level

raise rather

this

the

assumption that the present

been based, and each contributor has been urged

to write for a

mature and

therefore, that the essays

literate

may

audience.

also

It

is

hoped,

prove profitable and

rewarding to readers outside the college classroom.

The

plan of the

first

part of the series

lated essays, the narrative of our history

the eve of the French Revolution; each a

recognized scholar and

reading for one

week

is

is

to sketch, in re-

from

is

its

origins to

being written by

designed to serve

in a semester course.

as the basic

The

develop-

ments of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries will be covered in a succeeding

series

which

will provide the

quantity of reading material for each

week

same

of the second

semester. This scale of presentation has been adopted in a

conviction that any understanding of the central problem of the preservation of the integrity and dignity of the individual

human being depends

first

on an examination of

the origins of our tradition in the politics and philosophy

of the ancient Greeks and the religion of the ancient

He-

Foreword brews and then on

a relatively

vii

more

detailed

knowledge of

recent development within our industrial urban society.

its

The

decision to devote equal space to twenty-five cen-

was based on the analogy with the human memory. Those events most remote tend to be remembered in least detail but often with a sense of clarity and perspective that is absent in more recent and and to

turies

a century

more crowded must be

and

a half

recollections. If the roots of our tradition

identified, their relation to the present

fully developed.

The

must be care-

nearer the narrative approaches con-

temporary times, the more

difficult

and complicated

this

becomes. Recent experience must be worked over more

thoroughly and in more

detail if

tively to an understanding of the It

may

be objected that the

The

attempt

that

any

is

it is

to contribute effec-

contemporary world. series

attempts too much.

being made, however, on the assumption

historical

development should be susceptible of

meaningful treatment on any scale and in the realization that a very large proportion of today's college students

not have more time to invest in

The

this part of their education.

practical alternative appears to

tempt to create a tradition

new

lie

between some

and the abandonment of any serious

It is

at-

brief account of the history of our

municate the essence of that tradition to of our students.

do

all

effort to

com-

but a handful

the conviction of everyone contribut-

ing to this series that the second alternative must not be

accepted by default.

few would find themselves thoroughly at home in the covered by more than one or two of the essays. This

In a series covering such a vast sweep of time, scholars fields

means, in practice, that almost every essay should be written

by

drawbacks,

this

Each contributor

will

a different author. In spite of apparent

procedure promises

real advantages.

Foreword be in a position to

of

higher standards of accuracy and in-

encompassing

sight in an essay his life's

set

work than could

major portion of the

a

field

ordinarily be expected in sur-

The

veys of some ten or twenty centuries.

inevitable dis-

continuity of style and interpretation could be modified

by

w as

quired

by

r

in itself desirable.

the student in

was

some disconmore easily acan elementary course, or is more

editorial coordination; but

tinuity

it

No

felt that

illusion

is

prejudicial to the efficacy of such a course, than that a single

smoothly articulated text represents the very sub-

stance of history

week by week, they are

itself. If

from author

the shift

raises difficulties for the

difficulties that will

not so

to author,

beginning student,

much impede

his

pro-

gress as contribute to his growth.

In this essay,

The Age

tury, Air. Jerah

of Recovery:

The

Fifteenth Cen-

Johnson and Mr. William A. Percy,

Jr.,

recount the gradual but accelerating reversal of the down-

ward economic and demographic

trends that had

marked

Buoyed by

a rising

the history of the preceding century. tide of population

and prosperity, Europeans once more

resumed what might be called limits of their

their

knowledge, understanding, and control of

geographic environment and of their cultural heritage.

For many

came

their offensive against the

historical observers the culmination of this effort

in the Italian Renaissance,

with

plishments in the fields of arts and

its

unrivaled accom-

letters.

For others the

crowning achievement was not merely the discovery of the New World, but the emergence of a new cosmology. For the authors of this essay, however, these spectacular accom-

plishments are part of an even larger story: that of the

expansion of Europe geographically to the east

as

well as

to the west, and intellectually through the recovery of the past, as well as

by

the development of a

new concept

of

Foreword

man and

his potentialities. It

coming of

own fate, The

is

ix

an awe-inspiring subject: the

age, the readiness to accept responsibility for his

of western

man

as

we know him today.

authors and the editor wish to thank Mrs. Esther G.

Dotson, Otakar Odlozilik, Steven Runciman, and Joseph R. Strayer for

many

useful suggestions.

Edward Whiting Fox Ithaca,

New York

January

ip-jo

Foreword, by Edward Whiting Fox

v

Introduction I

II

i

Economic and Principalities

Social

Changes

III

The Western Monarchies

IV

Political Patterns East

V

Ideas and

5

and City-States

Art

24 50 75 105

Epilogue

1

Chronological

Summary

35

141

Suggestions for Further Reading

145

Index

153

The Burgundian Eastern Europe

possessions

45

74

THE AGE OF RECOVERY The

Fifteenth Century

Introduction.

IN

the course of the fifteenth century

a recovery that has

seemed to many

The century opened sion in

at a

which the very

Europe experienced

a miraculous rebirth.

time of destitution and depressurvival of western civilization

appeared to be threatened. Plagues, wars, and famines ravaged a society already racked by economic dislocation, corruption,

ecclesiastical

Europeans,

and

political

disintegration.

however, not only succeeded in restoring

order, stability, and prosperity, but they also

upon

a

extended

series

embarked

of astonishing undertakings which vastly

their

artistic,

and

intellectual,

geographic

horizons.

Indeed, some of their achievements, notably those of the Italian humanists, were so dazzling that subsequent

views of the century have been distorted. Looking back

from

later periods, historians

have tended to treat each of

these accomplishments separately

—the

great discoveries,

the commercial revolution, Italian humanism, the artistic revival, or the all as

new monarchies

integral parts of the

zation as a whole.

The

—rather

than treat them

development of European

culmination of

this

civili-

approach, and

Age

2

of Recovery

of the uncritical enthusiasm

it

work

engendered, was the

of the great nineteenth-century historian Jakob Burckhardt.

(See his Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy

i860.) Europe, he asserted,

—

a

"Renaissance"

in Italy,

—

underwent

a cultural rebirth

in the fifteenth century, particularly

which reawakened mankind from

its

long medi-

aeval night of religious obscurantism to resume

trium-

its

phal march toward intellectual and artistic emancipation.

More

recently this

attack of scholars far less dark

argue that the Middle Ages were

and the Renaissance

than Burckhardt innovations,"

who

formulation has come under the

far less revolutionary

Many

had contended.

they

insist,

were mere

of

"great

the

modifications

mediaeval antecedents, while important mediaeval

of

insti-

tutions and attitudes survived well into the seventeenth

and

even

learning,

eighteenth

Modern

centuries.

historians

however, that both change and continuity can

be discerned in any century and that every age sense a "period of transition."

cept of a "Renaissance" has

some urge

that

it

is

in a

As a result, the whole concome under suspicion, and

should be abandoned altogether. Others

restrict the use of the letters or

are

term to designate

styles in art

and

simply to refer to a period of time, specifically

the fifteenth century in Italy. This scholarly pruning of

Burckhardt's theories has unquestionably improved our picture of the period, but pushed to

its

logical conclusion

of exorcising the concept of a "Renaissance" completely, it

produces

it is

a

misconception quite

as great as that

which

intended to correct.

Ultimately the

simply because

"Renaissance"

a cultural rebirth

enced, nurtured, and proclaimed

dinary

elite

cannot

be eliminated,

was consciously experi-

by

a small

of Italian intellectuals. These

but extraor-

men

of letters,

Introduction artists,

and

fifteenth century. It

By

divided western

first

whom

predecessors,

they

during the preceding "Dark Ages."

man and

nature had been distrusted,

demned, by most thinkers from century to

St.

St.

dismissed

classical

from the neglect and misunderstanding

if

tradition

had suffered

it

The

as

fact that both

not openly con-

Augustine in the fourth

Bonaventura in the thirteenth, did not deter

of the Renaissance from announcing as their goal

creation of a

the

and mod-

ancient, mediaeval,

they sought to rescue the

''Gothic,"

men

in

during the

thus deliberately separating themselves from their

immediate

the

engaged

classical culture

was they who

history into three periods: ern.

were

they

believed

scholars

launching a great revival of

5

better

world through the unlimited

development of human potentiality and the uninhibited understanding and enjoyment of nature.

This essay, recounting the revival of Europe during the fifteenth century,

employs the word "Renaissance"

its

depending upon the context. While

several current senses, it

in

notes the spectacular accomplishments of individuals

that have traditionally dominated historical accounts, also attempts,

framework, to

by

placing these achievements in a larger

call attention to

important matters. Thus state

it

it

more mundane but

still

opens with a review of the

of European civilization at the beginning of the

century and continues with an account of the regeneration of the long-stagnant

growth of population, ceding

economic

economy by such

trade,

depression,

and

capital.

this

factors as the

Like the pre-

revival

profoundly

affected the development of political and social institutions. In the

urbanized

West

it

tended to benefit both the

bourgeoisie and the peasantry at the expense of the nobility,

while in the East

it

favored the aristocrats,

who began

Age

4 to

of Recovery

consolidate their domination over the rapidly multi-

plying agrarian population. racies

Hie new

centralized bureauc-

western monarchies were able to subdue

of the

feudal forces and subordinate local interests.

In

central

Europe, however, where centuries of struggle gravely impaired the authority of pope and emperor, the eco-

nomic recovery was not

sufficiently sustained or vigorous

to permit the rebuilding of strong central institutions,

towns and lords generally retained

and

independence.

their

East of the Elbe, where there were few towns, the efforts of lords to reduce their peasants to serfdom

went unchal-

Beyond the eastern rim of Europe, both the Ottoman sultans and the Muscovite tsars solidified their lenged.

conquests, creating sprawling despotic empires of a non-

western type.

Supported and encouraged by ical revival, the artists

create a

new

this

economic and

and scholars of the age

set

polit-

out to

culture from the recently recovered remains

of classic civilization without realizing that they were

many

also incorporating

remains of the very mediaeval

synthesis they intended to demolish. But in spite of this

and the fact that

other areas of intellectual endeavor

in

conscious efforts to defend and shore up traditions and institutions

Renaissance

of

the

drive

fourteenth to

generate

ideas as well as to exercise

lands

eventually

century vibrant

new

styles

the

and

new authority or conquer new

produced

a

prosperous,

powerful Europe that was significantly mination and ability to assert

world.

continued,

its

new

proud, in

its

and

deter-

dominion over the entire

CHAPTER

I

Economic and Social Changes.

DURING the men

first

half of the fifteenth century the horse-

of the Apocalypse

—Conquest,

Famine,

Slaughter,

—continued to ravage Europe. Except for the

and Plague

Europe appeared permanent economic depression and

sparsely settled areas of the East,

to

be condemned to

its

consequent

social, religious,

and

political chaos;

but after

approximately 1450, war and plague subsided, with the result that population increased

and towns grew. This

expansion of the market for food stimulated

first

agricul-

ture and then trade in general, ultimately reviving

and

expanding the long-stagnant circulation of money.

By

economy was experiencing the unprecedented boom that would provide the wealth to send Columbus across the Atlantic, settle colonies in the end of the century the

the Americas, and at the same time support a brilliant cultural revival at

This

essay

explains

terms of a major established

home. these

rise in

demographic

dramatic

achievements

trend

and

appears

revived the equally long-depressed economy. the

records are

in

population that reversed a longto

have

Although

incomplete and unreliable by modern

Age

6

of Recovery

we know enough

standards,

representative

about births and deaths in

European communities

in the fifteenth cen-

tury to be quite certain that, with the tapering off of the calamities of famine, plague,

and war which dominated

the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, the population

began to increase sharply and

We

know, with equal

In recent years,

more

at

an accelerating

rate.

certainty, that business improved.

economists

have tended more and

to see fluctuations in population as powerful, per-

haps decisive, influences on the economic health of a society.

To

take the later fifteenth century as an example,

it is

easy to recognize that as population increased, so did

the

demand

for grain, stimulating both a rise in prices

and an expansion of production.

Profits

made

most important, sector of the economy were

in this, the

either spent

for imported or manufactured goods, thereby extending

the stimulus

from agriculture

or they were invested in prosperity,

to industry

new production

population increased

still

and commerce,

of

all sorts.

With

and with

further,

the same bewildering speed they had manifested in their

common

decline a century and a half before, they pro-

vided a marked, often radical, and even revolutionary stimulus to

human

activity.

War, Famine and Pestilence ,

From struggle tated

1337 to

known

France,

1453,

as the

with brief

Hundred

disrupted

Years'

England,

despoiled Scotland and the

Low

respites,

War

and

a

confused

had devas-

intermittently

Countries. During the

same general period the Iberian kings never ceased ing

among

themselves except to seek conquests in Italy or

to attempt to drive the

Granada,

fight-

Moors from

their last foothold in

just as the Scandinavians interrupted their civil

Economic and

Social Changes

7

only to attack the Hanseatic League. In the

strife

east,

the Poles clashed with the Teutonic Knights and with

Tartar raiders roving over the Ukraine, while to the south,

Ottoman

armies

themselves, save in a

common

in turn,

the

pillaged

In

Balkans.

addition,

and towns fought incessantly among

barons,

princes,

on the

rare occasions

when they

joined

cause to suppress revolts of the masses, who,

more normally vented

their frustration in frequent

persecution of Jews or witches.

The

depredations of brig-

ands and pirates seemed petty annoyances to a society in

which

victors could legitimately slaughter the vanquished

they could not ransom and burn the booty they could not carry

off.

Hunger

still

stalked Europe.

natural

the drastic reduc-

during the fourteenth century had

tion of population

made food

Not even

generally plentiful. For one thing, frequent

calamities

—

floods,

duced new famines,

and

freezes,

droughts

at times so severe as to

—promen

reduce

to cannibalism. In addition, even local shortages caused starvation,

by

because fear of famine, ruthlessly exploited

speculators and political adventurers, drove most

munities

forbid

to

the

export

of

grain,

com-

and further,

because the transport of significant quantities over land

was all but impossible. Finally, neither individuals nor towns had the resources, even if they had the foresight, to lay

away

provisions for the inevitable emergencies.

foods could not be stored at

meat and value

if

fish

preserved in

they survived

In the

wake

of

all,

salt, lost

rats, rot,

Many

and those that could,

and

most of

like

their nutritive

fire.

war and famine came

disease.

Although

the worst epidemics of plague struck in the fourteenth

century, at least ten occurred between 1400 and

1485,

and minor outbreaks were recorded somewhere every

Age

8

The

year.

of Recovery

towns, overcrowded and vermin-infested, with

primitive ideas of public health and hygiene, susceptible to the plague than

were

seaports, continually exposed to infection

which swarmed around able of

all;

were more

rural areas;

and the

from the

rats

were most vulner-

their wharves,

but even remote and isolated communities did

not escape unscathed. Yet the most murderous plagues

many

could not claim as

victims as the

the care and treatment of which,

more dangerous than

often

and

a

disease

common

attempted at

if

illnesses, all,

were

the ailments. In the century

between 1300 and 1450, war, famine, and combined to reduce Europe's population by some

half

30 per cent, to about fifty million.

The

Agricultural

Before

Economy almost

this great decline,

all

the inhabitants of

Europe had been subsistence farmers, eking out barely enough for survival. Inevitably, they supported the rural

(who

clergy and nobility 0.5 per cent

and

1

constituted, respectively, about

per cent of the population), and those

few who lived near enough had to feed the people of the towns. Well over 90 per cent of Europe's meager population,

however, lived not in towns but in one of four basic

types of rural environment: arable land. Forests covered

the

continent,

but

accounted for huge land could

ill

both areas,

support

forest,

much

swamp,

steppe,

or

the largest portion of

swamps and steppes also and what remained as arable meager,

its

poor,

hungry,

and

unhealthy population.

Both

in the northern plain

leys of the Mediterranean,

dairy products and a

little

and

in the steep-walled val-

cereals,

together with some

meat, provided the basic diet

and surpluses to pay for the inescapable rents and

taxes.

Economic and

Farm ing, as

animals supplied

Changes

Social

power

p

well as food and cloth-

as

and the wretched inhabitants understandably made

much

beer, cider, or

wine

as local circumstances per-

by

mitted. Largely self-sufficient

necessity, farmers sup-

and

plemented basic products with game, fish, adjacent forests and swamps. For

fruit

from

which often had

salt,

to

be imported, and for any small luxuries or occasional

by

tools offered

peddlers or nearby market towns, they

bartered or sold their surplus.

After the onset of plagues in the fourteenth century, population declined faster than harvests, with the result that markets shrank

out

driven

of

and prices

depressed throughout the tury.

The

wage

levels in

first

general shortage

and prices of

Marginal lands were

fell.

and

production,

agriculture

remained

half of the fifteenth cen-

of labor, however,

caused

town as well as country to be maintained, handmade goods even tended to rise. The

principal consumers of such goods

were the

nobles,

still

predominantly landowners, whose income was suffering a steady drop.

A

significant

lowed,

as

change in the pattern of landowning

a steadily increasing

cratic victims of circumstances

number of

fol-

these aristo-

were driven to contract

mortgages they would be unable to carry while the

The

depression of cereal prices continued.

was the ants,

transfer of

who worked

it

more and more land

to thrifty peas-

themselves, thus avoiding labor costs,

or to prosperous burghers,

new

ultimate result

wealth and who, by

who were stricter

eager to invest their

economy and

better

management, made the land yield greater returns than did for their aristocratic predecessors.

mony Italy,

lands

by

The

it

loss of patri-

prodigal nobles was greater in France,

and western Germany than

in

England, Spain, and

w

Age

eastern Europe. vast tracts

of Recovery

Everywhere

owned by

still

all classes

hungrily eyed the

who

the higher clergy,

tended,

because of able, professional management, to keep their estates intact.

The

Community

Business

Demographic

decline and agricultural

depression had

transformed the economy, hurting some seg-

radically

ments of the community and helping industries

had catered primarily to

The

others.

aristocratic

old

extrava-

power of

gance, with the result that, as the purchasing

the nobles dropped, so did sales. Nevertheless, the skilled

power of

laborers in the established trades used the

their

well-organized guilds to prevent any lowering of wages or the introduction of laborsaving techniques, thus preclud-

ing

the

impasse, ers or

to

possibility

of

cutting

Caught

prices.

in

this

many shop owners were forced to dismiss workcontrast, new industries developed

go bankrupt. In

meet the growing market of rural and urban workers.

Benefiting from the general rise in wages, these hitherto

impoverished

classes

began

to

buy

handmade

cheap

goods which had previously been quite beyond reach.

By

far the

most important commodity

gory was lightweight, inexpensive woolen could be made by

less

skilled

in this cate-

which

cloth,

and more important

unorganized labor. Bypassing the guilds and their

restric-

entrepreneurs "put out" clothmaking to peasants

tions,

who

their

in their idle seasons or hours

weave

in their

The Flemish

cottages, textile

were glad

to spin or

even for low wages. centers

of

Ypres,

Bruges,

and

Ghent, forced by their guilds to continue turning English fleece

smaller

into

old-style

surrounding

expensive

towns and

woolens, villages,

exploiting unorganized labor and the

suffered.

however,

new cheap

The by

Spanish

Economic and

managed

wool,

Social Changes

The

prosper.

to

1

English

themselves,

deprived of their traditional Flemish market, were forced to follow the trend

and turn

their

raw wool

into inexpen-

own villages, in order to compete successnew Flemish clothmakers. Even Florence

sive cloth in their

fully with the

and the other

had made luxury cloth for

Italian cities that

most of southern Europe were forced to follow the example of the North.

To

switch to making the

expensive

buy Spanish wool and

products, they too were forced to to find cheap labor,

less

and thus destroy

their guilds

and

oppress their journeymen in the process.

These readjustments were both painful and hazardous, and many individuals and communities suffered; but the

general,

older and

better

Germany and

northern

united in a protective

German and The cities of

established

towns fared better than any

Italian

others.

the southern shores of the Baltic

federation

the Hanseatic

called

League which controlled the exchange of

grain, fish, furs,

and forest products from the Baltic lands for metals,

spices,

salt,

Europe.

Not

until the latter part of the fifteenth

Baltic trade

Ulm,

to

name

escaped the general decline

the

century

broken by the

English and the Dutch. Further south, Augsburg,

and

cloth,

and wine from western or southern

was the hold of the Hansa on berg,

in

Nurem-

most important

by continuing

established trade with the great Italian

cities,

their

long-

communes, nota-

bly Milan, Venice, and Florence, importing both the

new

cloth and such traditional items as silk and spices.

At

least

until

the end of the fifteenth

century, the

Italians managed to maintain their position as the most

successful

businessmen in Europe.

If

they

owed

their

previous eminence to their location at the center of the

Mediterranean,

they

consolidated

this

advantage

by

developing the most advanced business methods of the

Age

12

Through

time.

of Recovery

joint-stock companies and deposit banks,

they increased their ability to

we

development of what

enormous to a

risks

insurance they shared the

call

in their accounts.

bookkeeping

possible

and

practical, while bills of exchange,

at the

introduc-

accounting

effective

bought

in

one currency

date in another, expanded credit

at a later

same time they expedited commerce. superior

Inevitably, these lona,

The

and Arabic numerals made double-

tion of the abacus

and payable

and by the

involved in commerce and reduced them

manageable factor

entry

capital,

raise

as

techniques

Barce-

spread.

well as Genoa, established a state bank, while

private Italian financiers concentrated banking operations at

great financial

capitals

London, and Lyon. The

such

Florence,

as

Antwerp,

Italians also established resident

agents, or factors, in other principal

commercial centers,

and the Medici, operating from Florence, developed close-knit

and

resilient

cious forerunner of the

tem of

business

organization.

modern holding company, made it

intricate interlocking partnerships

for a branch to go bankrupt without pulling

parent

A

—

company

a possibility that

a

preco-

this sys-

possible

down

the

would not have been

comprehensible or acceptable to mediaeval businessmen.

These innovations, along with many practice of investing

of

rising

imitators,

princes,

growing

clerics,

others, including the

profits in the

and

kings,

governments

began to

attract

notably the greatest French financier of the

century, Jacques Coeur, and the rising banking family of the Fuggers in southern

Population

Germany.

Growth and Economic

Prosperity after 1450

Between 1450 and 1500 the number of inhabitants of Europe rose from some 50,000,000 to an estimated

Economic and 70,000,000,

more than compensating

losses suffered since 1300.

British Isles

Social Changes

may

By

13

for the demographic

the end of the century, the

have had 4,500,000 inhabitants; France,

15,000,000; Spain, 7,000,000; Italy, 10,000,000;

and

Netherlands,

the

10,000,000;

Hungary,

Greater

6,000,000;

Germany

Poland-Lithuania,

Bohemia,

3,500,000;

2,000,000; Russia, 6,000,000; the Balkans, 4,000,000; and

Scandinavia, 2,000,000. Although the large majority of the

population

still

rapidly. Paris

is

lived

on the

began growing

land, cities

estimated to have had between 100,000

and 200,000 inhabitants by the end of the century. Italy had more large towns than any other country:

Milan,

Venice, and Naples, each with perhaps 100,000, and several others

with over 50,000. Only four

Peninsula and four in the

Low

cities

of the Iberian

Countries had over 30,000.

Cologne, with perhaps 40,000 persons, was the largest city

Germany; and London, with

in

number, was the

a like

only city in England to exceed 15,000. Eastern Europe

was

far less urbanized and, except for Prague, Novgorod, Moscow, and Constantinople, probably had no towns with a population of more than 15,000. Maximum growth

occurred in the eastern plains and along the western seaboard, areas which tion that

would soon provide

would migrate

a surplus popula-

across the Atlantic and the Urals.

In some areas of central Europe, however, where the losses suffered in the

preceding 150 years were not made

up, the population remained dispersed.

Everywhere the economy responded the dramatic population growth.

housing, and clothing drove the

demand

to the stimulus of

The need

commodity

for

more food,

prices up,

for arable land outpaced the rate at

and

which

it

could be cleared. Consequently, land rents and values soared,

and the colonization of the

less

developed areas

Age

14

of eastern Europe,

particularly

Increased

accelerated.

of Recovery in

Poland and Russia,

demand spurred

the introduction

of improved techniques, especially of crop rotation, and the quality as well^as quantity of the crops improved.

But because the population grew more rapidly than

new farm

land could be opened and thus caused a labor

surplus in the predominantly agrarian society, real wages

began to

first

fall,

The consequent

on farms and

later in

towns

decline in per capita spending

as well.

by both

town and country laborers was, however, more than offset by the increase in their total number, which was great enough to absorb all available output. As a result, propritors

enjoyed both cheaper labor costs and an expanding

market for

their produce.

As

grain prices rose, landowners

prospered and, in turn, contributed to the expansion of

commerce and industry by buying manufactured goods and imported

luxuries. In response to this stimulus of

expanding

market,

particularly

by

industry

augmented

an

capacity,

its

further developing the "putting out" sys-

tem. Originally designed to circumvent the guilds in a

now

period of shrinking markets, this technique different

served a

purpose in a rapidly expanding economy by

drawing on the unlimited reserve of peasant This normal economic

revival,

labor.

however, was soon to be

overtaken by a revolution in Europe's commerce. Italian capitalists, technicians,

and adventurers, of

whom Colum-

bus and Amerigo Vespucci are the most famous, contributed significantly to the development of ocean trade;

but even before the great discoveries, Atlantic

coastal

route from

the

Baltic

had reached an important

profit.

And

restricted

by

industry,

which had

traffic

along the

Mediterranean to the level

of activity and

hitherto been severely

the limitations of mediaeval transportation,

was suddenly drawn

into a maelstrom of expansion.

Economic and Gradual improvements

Changes

between Germany and

new Alpine

passes

Italy shortened the routes

from

Italy to northern Europe,

making

it

possible for a courier in a

week.

speed was to expedite important negotia-

as this

heavy or bulky goods could

transported only

months

of

between Venice and Bruges

to travel overland

tions,

i$

communications had already

The opening

served to expand trade.

Useful

in

Social

by

still

be economically

water, and a cargo

to traverse the distance

still

took three

between those

sailing ship. Progress in techniques

cities

by

of water transporta-

tion had, however, continued even during the depression.

Map-making, navigation, and shipbuilding so that trade

between

Italy

all

improved,

and Flanders, which during

the Middle

Ages had used the north-south

rivers,

notably

the Rhine,

now was

Sailing

around

increasingly

by

sea.

Gibraltar, merchants visited the Atlantic ports en route,

contributing to their development even before the advent

of the transatlantic trade. In fact, one of the most important steps in the expansion

commerce had been achieved by the famous "Venetian galleys." Even though there had always been some coastal shipping along Europe's Atlantic of later mediaeval

no regular through trade from the Mediterranean

shores,

by way of the Atlantic, existed before the thirteenth century. About 1300, however, both the volume of commerce and nautical techniques attained levels that made such a route not merely to the

North Sea and

feasible

to

but extremely promising. Although very costly

organize,

volume

With chants

the Baltic,

it

this

w ater r

transport,

because of the enormous

could handle, could produce unheard-of

profits.

prospect clearly in mind, the Venetian mer-

—working

through their oligarchy

solve the problems of risk

by arranging convoys

owing

to

— proceeded

to

weather and piracy

of their largest galleys (propelled

1

Age

6

by

as

many

make

180 oars) to

as

—usually

Low

and the

of Recovery

Countries

the voyage to

once

a year.

Although

no doubt

precise figures are elusive, there can be

England that this

innovation raised .the volume of north-south trade to an

new

entirely

order

manufacturing

both

of

thereby

magnitude,

and

banking

to

a

stimulating

corresponding

degree, and inevitably inviting imitators and initiating a

whole new phase of economic Profits

from

this

consumed

to be

in

sea-borne

any

history.

commerce became too

traditional

manner, so

a

new prob-

lem of rinding opportunities for investment began to Initially this led to a further

The

results

arise.

expansion and extension of

trade and then to the development of niques.

large

new

business tech-

could soon be seen in the widespread

introduction of a variety of innovations. Itinerant ped-

who had

dlers

supplied dispersed and limited markets

instinct either transformed themselves, or

by, professional merchants

ing

reports

wines,

grain,

and

who worked

accounts.

wool,

by

were replaced

in "offices" study-

Large-scale

speculation

in

and metals accompanied increased

investments and improved techniques. In mining, printing,

made

spinning, and weaving, the

commitment of

and the introducand systematic management. Lender

possible the enlargement of plants

tion of specialization

these conditions, credit insurance

and banking operations

expanded rapidly, and international business plied, building a

but with professional

profits,

was

European

to

ties

multi-

common European economy. The new

sophisticated process of investing large risks

capital

skill,

sums

in pursuit of

at calculated

even greater

play an increasingly important role in

affairs, until it

dominated the entire

civilization

under the name "capitalism."

Governments of the period became acutely conscious

Economic and

Social Changes

77

of the unprecedented expansion of business and often

sought to tap

The mining

its profits.

industry offered an

opportunity and consequently provided a fine

irresistible

example of

this

procedure.

and mounting

In constant

need of bullion for coins and iron for arms, rulers every-

where not only maintained

their

traditional

rights

in

mineral deposits but began to take an active part in the

management of mines and even invested heavily in their development. Under such favorable conditions, the production of

and iron probably quintupled

silver, lead, tin,

Europe between 1450 and 1530. In Italy the popes and the Medici divided the profits from vast new alum mines, while in Germany and Hungary the Hapsin central

burgs ultimately shared the growing mining wealth with their principal bankers, the Fuggers. Simultaneously, the

Portuguese began to import significant amounts of gold

from western Africa. This new bullion induced inflation,

stimulated

increased the Rulers,

demand

enhanced

business,

for

all

by

encouraged

sorts of this

goods and

as well.

and

services.

attempted

success,

extend their control to other businesses

a mild

incomes,

to

Louis XI of

France, for example, succeeded in establishing a fair at

Lyon which

lured

much

business

away from Geneva, but

he failed in his efforts to establish a native

silk

industry in

France. In a remarkable anticipation of the mercantilism of Jean-Baptiste

Colbert,

his

bureaucrats

and

theorists

consciously tried to manipulate trade to build up their country's monetary reserves through the maintanance of

a favorable

balance

of

payments. Preoccupation with

constantly growing needs for bullion drove kings to take

new sources of gold and silver, by encouraging the explorations which

increasing interest in ticularly

parled

eventually to the importation of vast American treasures.

Age

i8

of Recovery

Social Changes

The impact

of these economic developments

deepened the

political

They

and cultural chasm dividing the

commercial West from the

increasingly

on the

western Europe was profound.

social structure of

East

agrarian

and wrought basic changes in both. In the West, during the

feudal

depression,

and manorial

nobles

number and importance

declined in

as

new

had

serfs

classes arose.

Until the expansion began, about 1450. aristocratic landlords

were forced

and

to sell their grain for less

while

less

they had to pay more and more for labor that had once

been owed them

as

their lands to peasants for

either case

was

The

service.

a drastic

low

was

alternative

rents,

to

let

but the result in

reduction of income. Similarly,

the continuous debasement and devaluation of currencies

eroded revenues based on long-term dues.

Some landowners,

leases or

particularly

Spain, protected themselves

by

customary

England

in

evicting the tenants

and

and

converting their estates to sheep farms, early anticipating the enclosure their

movement. Others attempted

Spain,

supplement

dwindling incomes by becoming professional

diers, bureaucrats,

even

to

businessmen.

brigands, or Still

—

others,

in

England and

especially

in

sol-

Italy

France,

and the Rhineland, sank into chronic poverty,

becoming the hobereaux, sixteenth

century.

Thus

hidalgos, and Raubritter of the

the

shrinkage

of

demand

for

grain and the rise in labor costs before 1450 put a steady

economic pressure on the noble landowners

Europe and weakened, or tional

in

western

at least threatened, their tradi-

Most were too impoverished to benefit from the expansion when it finally began.

position.

significantly

In contrast,

the

serfs

and agricultural laborers

who

survived the Black Death found their services in greatly

Economic and

Social Changes

Landowners were forced

increased demand.

who

for labor with businessmen

to

compete

could offer not only

higher wages,

but even the

escaped

In certain districts,

serfs.

19

prospect

freedom,

of

such

to

the English

as

Midlands and the Castilian plateau, the early enclosure

movements reduced

workers and

landless rural

serfs to

beggars, but such exceptions notwithstanding, the general scarcity of labor placed

most

serfs in a strong position.

Frequently able to buy emancipation, to commute service obligations

money payments, or to and even buy land, not

into

favorable leases

their

numbers began

the West,

to increase rapidly, the peasants of

where serfdom had

East,

numbers

serf,

yeoman. After 1450, when virtually disappeared, miti-

by migrating

gated the effects of the decline in wages increasing

few during

a

from poor

these decades ascended the social ladder to free peasant, to prosperous

more

acquire

in

to the expanding towns. In the rural

however, having nowhere to go, the peasants were

who

completely vulnerable to the local nobles, to exploit

them

at will, ultimately

proceeded

reducing them to serf-

dom. After a generation or two, country yeomen in the

West

became hardly distinguishable from urban businessmen who, upon retirement, had invested their money in farms. Sometimes both crats

in

a

new

amalgamated with rural

middle

recently acquired lands, tended to

townsmen, and,

like

the

the

poorer

which,

class

buy from and

capitalists

in

the

aristo-

exploiting sell

to

towns, was

primarily concerned with making profits.

Turmoil and violence accompanied the classes in

town and country.

pation, peasants for land,

wages and

from the

political

least skilled

rise

and

fall

of

Serfs struggled for emanci-

and urban workers for better

rights.

The worst

and lowest paid

outbreaks came

laborers, especially

Age

20

the weavers and fullers, the

privileged

classes.

of Recovery

who were ruthlessly crushed by None of these popular revolts

brought permanent amelioration; they only

and countryside

and arson, leaving chaos in

witji violence

Following an old Judaeo-Christian from,

their

promising earthly

discontent

social

millennium

the

in

—the

poverty or even to provide a friars,

who

movements

cities,

an

of

establishment

however,

the miseries

alleviate

of

sufficient religious opiate.

attempted to sublimate

class

despair, could not minister to all the rootless

urban poor, while secular

or relief

of,

religious

kingdom of God. In the crowded

church proved unable to

The

tradition, the alien-

masses sought expression

frustrated

ated,

ate

town

wake.

their

the

filled

priests,

who

hatred and

and desper-

all

too often

lacked true religious commitment, were frequently not

even assigned to slums. Discontent among the ignorant continued, therefore, to express

itself in

heresy and revolt.

The overcrowded and underemployed Prague, for example, Hussite tury,

lowed

movement

joined the extreme

at the

proletariat

wing

fef

Similarly,

in

the

beginning of the fifteenth cen-

and the downtrodden peasants of the region suit.

of

Germany some

of the

fol-

poor

mingled heresy with rebellion. Peasants' revolts multiplied in the fifteenth in the

German

movements

and early sixteenth Peasants'

failed,

as

War

centuries, culminating

of 1525. But these chiliastic

thoroughly

as their

purely secular

counterparts had, to impede the newly developing class structure of Europe.

Summary In the West, the principal beneficiaries of the economic expansion of the latter part of the fifteenth century were

Economic and the

Social Changes

21

Because of rising prices and increasing

bourgeois.

demand, they could expect to make

a profit

on anything

they bought and held. Agricultural producers ants or also

yeomen

benefited

suffered.

The

West and

from

the

same

—the

their

on long-term

peas-

the nobles in the East

Other

factors.

classes

old feudal nobles of the West, most of

had transmuted their land

in the

whom

manorial services or rented leases,

were caught with

out

relatively

Even wages

fixed incomes in a period of general inflation.

did not rise as fast as prices, and the proletariat, whether

town or country, was

in

also

caught

at a desperate disad-

West lost power to who now employed many of the surplus

vantage. But while the nobles in the the bourgeois,

workers, those in the East succeeded in enserfing their peasants and consolidating their control of the land, thus

reinforcing their social and economic dominance.

The western

capitalists,

began to undermine the

with their drive for

cultural, religious,

structures of the old agrarian world.

and

But by

profits,

political

their

more

than princely patronage, combined with their improving taste,

they began to establish

new

ones, notably during

the northern and southern Renaissances. attitudes

new

toward work and poverty,

mental

as

By

their

new

by

their

well as

they influenced the Protestant and

habits,

Catholic Reformations.

And

finally,

through heavy capital

investment and the infusion of their

new

business meth-

growth of centralized states. In eastern Europe, where few cities arose and the economy

ods, they aided the

changed

little,

the

political structures

—

as

in

traditional

cultural,

religious,

and

tended to survive unchanged, unless

the case of serfdom

—they

were actually

rein-

forced and extended.

Thus, although the transition from mediaeval to mod-

Age

22

of Recovery

ern society remained incomplete, important progress in this direction

had occurred by the end of the fifteenth

The

beginnings of the commercial and capitalist

century.

on the one hand, and the concomitant growth of the urban middle classes on the other, produced revolutions

not merely radical economic and social changes but striking advances in the five-hundred-year-old process of territorial consolidation

which

constitutes the central

of the political history of the Middle Ages.

important widespread developments, however,

was

its

all

impact

different in different parts of Europe, so that existing

regional differences

To

were often accentuated.

follow these changes in a systematic manner

useful to think of the

map

divided into four vertical

which benefited most expansion

strips.

directly

overseas.

it

is

of fifteenth-century Europe as

Along the western edge

lay the national states of England,

the

theme

As with

France, and Spain,

and most extensively from

Next,

between

lines

formed

roughly by the Scheldt, Meuse, and Rhone rivers on the

west and by an imaginary extension of the Elbe to the Adriatic on the

east,

was what we

shall call west-central

Europe. Here were to be found the small

and princely

states that characterized the

city-, church-,

Italian penin-

Germany, and the Low Countries, and the old centers of commerce along the rivers that linked the Mediterranean and the North Sea. East-central Europe, between the Elbe-Adriatic line and the Dvina and Dnieper, was made up of the large, loosely organized kingdoms of Poland-Lithuania, Bohemia, and Hungary. There towns

sula,

and commerce always lagged, partly because of seacoasts. Still further to the east

a lack of

sprawled the huge and

heterogenous Muscovite and Ottoman empires tied more to the caravan trade of the Asiatic steppes than to the

Economic and

Social Changes

water-borne commerce of Europe. Just

as

23

each of these

four strips developed a characteristic economic structure, so also,

by

the end of the fifteenth century, each had

acquired distinctive regional political patterns. Beginning at the center of

then to the

we

east,

Europe and moving

we

shall

first

to the west

and

examine each of these areas as

follow the historical process of consolidation.

CHAPTER

II

Principalities

THE

line of the Scheldt,

ating western

same

and City-States.

as

Meuse, and Rhone rivers separ-

from west-central Europe was roughly the 870 to divide the northern

that established in

domains of Charlemagne between sons, Louis the this

German and

his

surviving grand-

Charles the Bald.

(See, in

Richard E. Sullivan, Heirs of the

series,

Roman

Empire.} This boundary remained relatively stable until early

modern

times, and, indeed, sections of

stitute the long-contested

fifteenth century this line

it

still

con-

Franco-German border. In the marked more than the political

differences

between the monarchies

city-states

and

principalities

to

to the west

the

east,

in

and the central

Europe.

It

areas in

which the western monarchies were grounded river valleys of Ger-

also

effectively separated the

large

agrarian

from the more densely populated many, the latter

areas

Low the

Countries, long,

and northern

mutually

Italy.

destructive

In the struggle

between the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy had allowed the flourishing commercial and industrial towns of the Po, Rhine, and Elbe valleys and the Baltic shores to

win and maintain

a

large

degree

of independence.

Principalities

and City -States

25

Grown

vigorous on the trade that crossed the Alps and

filtered

down

the rivers to the north, they

remain free (in

were able to

fact, sovereign) or to offer sufficient resist-

ance to both pope and emperor to preserve precarious autonomy. Most, however,

fell

a

one after the

other to local princes or upstarts, who, rising

among

the

Empire and papacy, amalgamated these old

of

ruins

least

at

independent

cities

territorial states.

small

into

The

and closely administered

history of one city does not closely

resemble that of another, but in historical perspective certain similarities

common

appear that suggest

trends

or patterns of development. Italy

At from

the end of the thirteenth century, Italy emerged

long struggle with popes and emperors to become

its

the promised land of princes. Ostensibly the prosperous

northern communes continued their famous experiments in republican government, but social strains of the next

constitutions

became

under the economic and

hundred and

fifty years, their

so corrupted that, sooner or later,

they were subverted or suppressed by despots. Whether these

new

tyrants started as noblemen, regular citizens,

power

or professional soldiers or whether they achieved

power by

legally or seized

methods clever

in

their

betrayals,

ascent:

and

force, they intricate

carefully

employed

marriage

plotted

assassinations.

Furthermore, once entrenched in power, they

same objectives:

similar

alliances,

all

had the

the establishment of hereditary ruling

houses, the conquest of

weaker neighbors, and the con-

solidation of administrative institutions. In the process of

attaining replete

their

goals,

they

created

the

modern

state,

with armies, bureaucrats, and diplomatic corps.

Age

26

of Recovery

Just after 1400, five territorial states rose

of precariously independent

Under her

peninsula.

her

despite

Without

benefit of its

Naples

even

but

politics,

republic.

by

and the canonically remained

alone

—

Peace of Lodi (1454)

in the

apparently

kingdom underwent reform. Although originally

This treaty, which served

let live.

Venice,

while

oligarchical

and suspicious of one another, these

soon agreed

the

feudal

its

administrative

significant

Milan became

excellence,

an

Italian

the Medici ruled Florence

rough urban

monarchs.

unchanged,

jealous

title,

dominate the

attempted to govern the Papal States as

elected popes

absolute

par

remained

doge,

dominating

dukes,

great

despotism

Renaissance

cities to

from the welter

five

—

powers

to live

and

as a putative constitu-

tion for the peninsula, not only ensured, incidentally, the survival of

the

first

some of

Italy's lesser states,

modern system

but also instituted

of permanent resident ambas-

sadors to oversee the peace and spy on rivals.

when

as a result

were beginning Atlantic,

By

1500,

of the great discoveries trade and wealth to shift

from the Mediterranean to the

French and Spanish invasions precipitated the

political decline of Italy

and the waning of

its

cultural

renaissance.

Milan Milan, which dominated the western valley of the Po,

had long constituted

a

natural center for the political,

military,

and commercial activity of the surrounding

ritories,

but

dominions

major (1

to

subjugate

required

Renaissance

385-1402),

seized the rest

who by

the

and

unify

rapacious

despot.

Gian

ter-

turbulent

determination

of

a

Galeazzo

Visconti

from

his father,

inherited half of iMilan killing his uncle

these

and succeeded

in turn-

Frincipalities

and City -States

commune

ing the old commercial and industrial

modern

territorial

bought the

state.

Duke

title

To

27

gain appropriate status, he

Holy Roman

of Milan from the

Emperor and then married

into a

a

French

princess,

with the

immediate purpose of recovering respectability but with the ultimate result of providing the pretext for a French invasion of his ill-won duchy. Early resolved to expand his

kingdom

holdings into a

able, at his death in 1402, to

in northern

bequeath to

he was

Italy,

his son, Filippo

Maria, a well-established principality together with the

purchased

The

title.

father's success,

retributive aggression

son had to spend legacy.

When

however, provoked

by Venice and Florence; and hold

his life in endless struggles to

the male line of the Visconti

end with Filippo's death

came

the his

to an

in 1447, a vicious struggle for

the succession began.

The

victor,

Francesco Sforza, was the epitome of a

particularly ruthless type of professional soldier, in fifteenth-century Italy as condottiere. After

known

marrying

Filippo's illegitimate daughter, Sforza used his formidable

military

power

to seize the throne of the duchy.

having consolidated

through

his

his

alliance

Then,

control of Milan, he was able,

with Florence and Naples in the

Peace of Lodi, to help reduce the chronic chaos of the peninsula. Finally,

by introducing irrigation, as well as worms to his domains, he economy toward the exploitation of

the cultivation of rice and silk reoriented Milan's

the land instead of the traditional transalpine trade and

thus fostered a

new

prosperity.

This increased wealth

enabled Sforza not only to strengthen

and army but

also to patronize artists

his

government

and writers, thus

transforming Milan into a brilliant capital.

His son and successor, the

cruel,

licentious Galeazzo

Age

28

Maria,

of Recovery

record. After ten years of scandal-

left a different

by

ous misrule he was assassinated, to be succeeded brother, Ludovico, called

Moro, who,

il

his

regent for

as

Galeazzo's eight-year-old son and heir, ruled as virtual

Even though he made Milan one of

dictator.

and most

the richest

brilliant centers of the Renaissance,

the seeds of ultimate

he sowed

Seeking revenge against

disaster.

Florence and Naples for disintegrating the long-standing alliance

and leaving Milan

Moro

il

French king, Charles VIII,

in persuading the

Italy at the

isolated,

An

unforeseen

deviation

French royal succession, however, turned

At

its

cousin

die

come

to

this

in

the

maneuver

author.

the time,

would

to

head of an army to press old claims to the

kingdom of Naples. against

succeeded

it

did not occur to Ludovico that Charles

without

Louis

a direct heir, leaving the

Orleans,

of

who had

claims to Milan as well as Naples.

crown

already

When

to his

inherited

Charles died, the

victim of an accident, shortly after his Italian expedition,

Louis XII (1498-15 1 5) mounted the throne and promptly set

out for Milan.

The

driven from his duchy

fact that

by

the invaders,

soon replaced by the Hapsburgs overlords in Italy,

made

Ludovico himself was

who

in turn

were

as the principal foreign

practical difference to the

little

inhabitants of the city.

Venice If this transformation of

ing

commune

tyrant

into a

made her

fifteenth century,

Milan from

modern

a

mediaeval trad-

territorial state ruled

by

a

typical of northern Italian cities of the

Venice remained unique. Secure behind

her lagoons, she continued her prosperous trade. Unaffected

by

the confusions that

wracked the

rest of the

and City -States

Principalities

29

peninsula throughout the fifteenth century, the citizens

of the republic had to contend with

except from

the

government of the

dictatorial

merchant

exclusive

and

patriciate

had long promoted

jealous

interference,

little

its

economic

city's

This

oligarchy.

rich

by

interests

building an empire of fortified ports along the coasts and

on the

and the eastern Mediter-

islands of the Adriatic

At

ranean that discouraged or repelled foreign attack.

home

factional

strife

was

stifled

by

a

combination of

prosperity and unremitting police surveillance.

The gov-

ernment, composed of an elected doge, or duke, a senate,

and

grand council, was designed to protect the

a

from seizure by either a dynastic despot or demagogue as well as from external foes.

At

a proletarian

was of Europe. Having

the beginning of the fifteenth century, Venice

actually one

of the leading states

defeated her chief commercial

nated the

and

state

as

quests

silk

long

and

rival,

Genoa, she domi-

spice trade of the eastern Mediterranean;

as she resisted the

temptation to seek con-

on the mainland, she was

able to avoid

most of

the debilitating warfare that had long engulfed the rest

of Italy. Eventually, however, the consolidation of the

new

states in the north, particularly Milan,

appeared to

threaten her security. After long debate, the Venetian oligarchs reluctantly reversed their traditional policy and set

out to acquire territories that would establish a pro-

tective zone to the northwest of the city. Gradually they

annexed the eastern half of the Po Valley, securing their western boundary with Milan the price of being

drawn

at the

into the unstable politics

by

the expense of

Venice began to

lose

at

and

With

her resources thus

becoming

a territorial state,

sporadic wars of the peninsula. strained

Adda River but

some of her pre-eminence

in the

Age

So

eastern Mediterranean,

of Recovery

where her

irreconcilable conflict

with the Ottomans and mounting competition from the Portuguese and eventually the Dutch led to her decline in the sixteenth

and seventeenth centuries.

Florence

commune

Florence, an old commercial-industrial

Milan, rounded out

its

like

Tuscany by annex1406. Long governed by

possessions in

ing the important port of Pisa in

a small oligarchy of rich merchants, the masters of the

seven largest guilds, or

arti

maggiori,

it

had,

by

the begin-

ning of the fifteenth century, become the political property of an even smaller faction, headed family.

an

Exploiting

which appeared all classes,

extremely

by

complex

the Albizzi constitution

to guarantee equitable representation to

these patricians

trol of the signory, or

managed

to gain effective con-

municipal administration.

In the course of the fifteenth century, however, the hold

of the Albizzi faction was broken in

turn,

its

and a

new by

family, the Medici, gained control. Rising generation

generation from obscure origins to wealth, power, and finally nobility, the

Medici personified the virtuosity and

achievement associated with the Renaissance. dations of family

power had been

Bicci de' Medici (1 360-1429),

immense fortune

in

who

laid

The

foun-

by Giovanni

di

not only amassed an

commerce and banking, but

associ-

ated himself with the lesser guilds and proletariat in their resistance to the oppressive taxation of the Albizzi.

son Cosimo, a consummate businessman, career in trade and banking for politics.

left

With

a

His

brilliant

the support

of the lower orders of society, he forced the Albizzi into

1434 and proceeded to rule Florence through a or reform commission with unlimited power. By

exile in balia,

engineering an alliance with Naples and Milan to rein-

Principalities

and City -States

31

force the Peace of Lodi, he contributed not only to the pacification of Italy but to the prosperity of Florence.

With an

earnest love of beauty and a deep reverence for

learning, he

was

a great

patron of the arts (and

he was a student of the

his day. In addition,

artists)

of

and

classics

an important collector of ancient manuscripts. In 1464, at the age of seventy-five, he died while listening to a reading of one of Plato's dialogues.

He was

succeeded

first

by

son Piero, then in 1469 by his grandson Lorenzo. Lorenzo maintained both the fagade of republican

his

and the practice of benevolent despotism which had characterized his grandfather's rule. He also

institutions

continued to manipulate the

alliance

with Milan and

Naples to preserve peace on the peninsula. lesser

businessman than

even more

Known

as

Lorenzo was an

his grandfather,

enthusiastic

supporter

of

he was a

If

arts

and

letters.

"the Magnificent," this versatile intellectual

became not only the Renaissance patron par

excellence,

artists, writers, and philosophers he composed poetry which, by its intrinsic

but the friend of the

He

aided. merits,

also

has rightly earned

literature.

him

Perhaps the greatest

dialect

—

as

the

high place in Italian

among

tions to the culture of his age

re-establishing

a

was

vernacular Italian

his

many

his

leading role in

—

his

contribu-

own Tuscan

an acceptable vehicle for serious expression.

After Lorenzo's death in 1492, the Medici fortunes

wanted. His son Piero,

in

a

desperate

effort

Florence from Charles VIII's invading armies,

to

save

surren-

dered a number of outlying towns to the French. Disappointed and angered expelled

by such weakness,

him and attempted

the Florentines

to revive the republic.

long unaccustomed to self-government, however,

Too they

allowed the fanatical Savonarola to seize power. This notoriously morbid Dominican employed his demagogic

Age

$2

powers to overwhelm their immorality

tunes were piety, he

of Recovery

his fellow citizens

with remorse for

and to convince them that

nothing

less

their misfor-

than divine retribution. True

warned, required them to renounce the luxuries

and destroy the splendid creations of the Renaissance worldly "vanities." Terrified by their new-found the populace pillaged the city for

works of

art,

as

guilt,

books, and

rich costumes to sacrifice in public fires

and then threw

open the gates to the invading French

as emissaries

of

God's wrath. Florence's neighbors,

unswayed by Savonarola's proon their own mun-

phetic exhortations, kept their minds

dane survival, until they suceeded

French

from

the

peninsula,

and

in

first

then

driving the

in

punishing

Florence for what they considered treacherous aid to the

common

foe.

the fanatical

This retribution broke the

monk

spell in

which

held the people of Florence, and since

his religious excesses

had seriously alienated many church-

men, including the Pope, he was seized and condemned as

both a traitor and a heretic. But

was hanged and

his public

body burned

his

—did

execution

little

—he

to restore

either the reputation or unity of the republic. Florence

appeared an easy prey for any unemployed despot; yet surprisingly, the discredited regime survived until

1512,

when the Medici returned and re-established their control. Twenty years later, by imperial decree, they became hereditary dukes and, as such, ruled until 1737. This "first

family" of Florence,

it

cardinals, three popes,

The Papacy and

By

the

should be noted, produced several

and two queens of France.

Church

was creating The very gravity of the problems which

the fifteenth century, the papacy, too,

a territorial state.

threatened the later mediaeval church

—schism,

concili-

Principalities

arism, heresy,

rely

and Islam

and City -States

—seemed

more and more on

their

33

to force the popes to

own

princely resources in

the Patrimony. After their narrow escape

from the

ulti-

mate threat of subjection to conciliar authority, however,

became increasingly preoccupied

the Renaissance popes

with humanism and

simply with their

art or

own

personal

fortunes, to the detriment not only of the church but of

the Papal States as well.

Still,

church, these successors of the revenues they

Germany, vicinity of

St.

badly

they managed the

as

Peter were able, thanks to

wrung from Christendom,

to subjugate the various local

particularly

powers

in the

Rome.

Avignon during much of fourteenth century and then weakened by the schism, Having been absent

popes had long since States.

lost effective control

the the

of the Papal

In 141 4, after a period of almost fifty years during

which there were the

in

title (see,

Adversity:

first

two, and finally three, claimants to

in this series,

Robert E. Lerner, The Age of cardinals from the

The Fourteenth Century),

various rival camps finally succeeded in convening one of the largest and most important councils ever held. Meet-

ing at Constance,

it

began by deposing

all

three pretend-

and then, in 141 7, elected Martin V, thus reuniting western Christendom under a single

ers to St. Peter's throne

pope. Martin's successor had to beat

down

attempts

by

subsequent councils to assume control of the church and

was himself forced

to

squander

a

large

part

of

his

resources fighting against the followers of the heresiarch

John Hus, who had been burned by the Council of Constance. Significantly, Nicholas

V

(1447- 1455), the first postconciliar pope, concentrated his energies on re-establishing his position in Palace.

Rome and

Employing humanists

refurbishing his Vatican

to collect,

copy, and edit

Age

54

of Recovery

form the nucleus of the enlisting countless artists and

the classical manuscripts that

Vatican

City

and

Library,

architects,

still

he supervised the restoration of the Eternal

as the seat

of Christendom.

The

of Constanti-

fall

nople in 1453 cast a shadow on Nicholas' achievements, as well as on the papacy; and one of his great humanist successors, Pius II (1458-1464), spent

much

of his pontifi-

cate in a vain attempt to launch a crusade to free that

from the Turks. But later, more cynical popes concentrated their more openly and ruthlessly on achieving success in city

politics.

When

VI

(

1

mounted the papal throne

Italian

nephew of

the Spaniard Rodrigo Borgia,

a previous pontiff,

efforts

as

Alexander

492-1 503), the Renaissance papacy reached a kind

of apogee. Demonstrating that he recognized no conflict

between

his

papal

Alexander established for

To

clerical corruption.

common-law wife

his

rumor, bought the extend

his

through a

all

his

personal

ambitions,

posterity a record for urbane

capture the papacy, he put aside

contemporary

and, according to

tiara

new power series

and

duties

with

his

he directed

personal fortune. his

To

daughter, Lucrezia,

of marriages with Italian despots and

used every opportunity that the papacy afforded to secure place and

power for

his family.

Determined to reconquer the subject been seized by tivity

command

charming,

that had

Avignonese cap-

and the schism, Alexander put

Borgia, in

and

local despots during the

cities

his

son,

Cesare

of the papal armies. Refined, elegant,

though

utterly

unscrupulous,

Cesare

proved to be an excellent commander and an able administrator. all

cal

In three major campaigns he restored practically

the lost territory, thus re-establishing the Pope's politi-

authority over the Papal States.

As

a

result,

both

and City -States

Principalities

35

Cesare and Alexander appeared to personify what the Renaissance called virtu, daring and ruthless cleverness resulting in worldly success.

tyranny and

But

fiscal extortion,

over the councils, had been

this

triumph of

political

just like the earlier victory

won

leadership. Corruption flourished

at the cost of spiritual

unheeded and unchecked

throughout the western church.

Naples In contrast to the city-states of the north, Naples was a

monarchy based on an

feudal

agricultural

graphically accessible to conquest,

it

economy. Geo-

had long suffered

under foreign misrule; and when a century and stagnation under the French house of

a half of

Anjou came

to a

catastrophic climax in the scandalous reign of the degen-

even reform came from abroad.

erate

Joanna

mad

queen's death in 1435, Alfonso the

II,

Upon

Aragon drove out the Angevin claimant

to the throne

added

Sicilian

Naples

Alfonso to

to

his

centralized

structure of southern Italy.

administration

They

I,

strove

on the feudal

suppressed the surviving

reorganized

supporters,

and

holdings.

1458) and his bastard son, Ferrante

(d.

impose a

Angevin

and

Spanish

the

Magnanimous of

state

finances,

and

encouraged the investment of foreign, largely Florentine, capital.

Both men, but especially Alfonso, were notable

patrons of

make

art,

letters,

their court a

and scholarship

show

who

sought to

place of Renaissance culture.

After the Peace of Lodi, Alfonso helped construct the alliance of Naples, Florence,

and Milan; but by support-

power of the Medici, allies. There is little doubt, however, that he and his father were the outstanding Neapolitan rulers of the fifteenth century. It was the ing a papal attempt to break the

Ferrante lost the confidence of his

Age

36

of Recovery

death of Ferrante that prompted his old enemies at

and abroad

—Angevin

home

and the

sympathizers, the Pope,

Milanese under the leadership of Ludovico Sforzo

urge Charles VIII of France to press

his

—to

claims to the

crown of Naples. The consequent French

invasion of

1494 and the Spanish counterattack it provoked ravaged southern Italy, leaving it under uninterrupted foreign occupation that turned

it

into one of the

most backward

regions of Europe.

Germany Germany,

In

as in Italy, the fifteenth

century was the

period of the prince. Since the collapse of the Empire in the middle of the thirteenth century, despite such efforts at

reconstruction

Age

Lerner, slipped

as

Charles

Adversity),

of

Golden Bull

IV's

Germany had

toward anarchy. The flourishing

managed to ence and exerted what trade routes

(see

gradually

along the

cities

affirm their de facto independ-

they

influence

could

for

the

maintenance of peace and order, but unlike their greater counterparts in Italy, they were unable to extend their

domination to the countryside. Emperors, electors (the seven great magnates, lay or the terms of the

townsmen, and above those of fifteenth

was

Golden

Germany

and

as a

however,

known

ecclesiastical

sized territories,

,

nobles,

whole. In the course of the disintegrative

this

process

as princes.

lords,

managed

by

A

score of powerful

consolidating

to subdue

most of

mediumtheir local

and eventually to achieve regional autonomy. Sevfounded major dynasties, which not only prospered

rivals

eral

Emperor)

checked by the emergence of strong regional

rulers collectively

lay

Bull, chose the

clerics all placed their particular interests

century,

partially

who, according to

clerical,

and City -States

Principalities

57

German

but survived until the ultimate collapse of the

Empire the

not

in 191 8.

Of

House of Luxemburg, whose ancestral

its

county but

of Bohemia, the only

Hapsburgs the

in

the

were to

was

greatest possession

was

recently acquired kingdom

its

monarchy

Empire. Later the

in the

Swabia and Austria, the Wettins

Wittelsbachs

finally

in 1400

most powerful

these, the

in

the

Palatinate

and

Saxony,

in

and

Bavaria,

Hohenzollerns in Brandenburg and Prussia

exercise

great influence in

German

affairs.

In

addition, lesser princes, including the ecclesiastical electors

—the

archbishops of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne

ceeded

in

amassing

incomparably

greater

—suc-

wealth

and

the

em-

authority than ordinary nobles.

The Princes and

the

Traditionally,

Emperors were

princes

subordinate

to

peror, but in practice they

were frequently

Since he had almost none

of the

that might be expected to

go with

his

legislative

exalted

his

equals.

authority title,

he

would have needed the cooperation of the unwieldy parliament (diet) to make new laws; and to enforce them he had sources.

but

little

The

his

own

personal and very limited re-

imperial office

was thus hardly more than

an empty dignity. In Germany, as in the rest of Europe, the fourteenth

century had closed on a scene of mounting chaos. Electors

and princes had deposed the incompetent Wenceslas, to replace

him on the imperial throne with the ignominious

Rupert of the Palatinate (1400-1410), inept reign

by launching an

proved so embarrassingly

many

he was obliged to

who

expedition to Italy, which

futile that to get

pawn

climaxed an

his

crown.

back to Ger-

Upon

his death,

the electors transferred that tarnished symbol to

Sigis-

Age

38

mund

(141 0-1437), tne younger brother of the deposed

Wenceslas. Vain,

was

of Recovery

also

profligate,

and capricious, Sigismund

charming, generous, and learned, and perhaps

the most nearly iflustrious emperor of the later Middle

Ages.

He

foreign enemies,

heresy,

no match for the anarchy,

however,

was,

and economic depression that

plagued the Empire. (See Chapter IV.)

Although Sigismund spent

his

rushing headlong

life

by

from defeat

to defeat, he achieved one notable success

summoning

the Council of Constance. Public opinion had

long favored calling an assembly to end the papal schism

which had divided the western church since 1378; but none of the contending popes had ever been willing to support

this solution

and accept the implicit

deposed. Finally, however, in 141

3

risk of

being

the schismatic pope

who called himself John XXIII, having Rome by the king of Naples, begged

been driven from protection of the

Emperor. Sigismund seized the occasion to force John to

summoned

agree to a general council and then

other papal claimants, together with

and

prelates, to

meet

all

two

Christian princes

in the imperial city of Constance.

In addition to presiding in person, the vigorous role in the

the

Emperor played

a

of the council, exacting sub-

affairs

mission from the rivals and guiding the assembled fathers

toward common

action.

When

the

field

was

finally

cleared of contenders and a single successor agreed on,

Sigismund was the hero of the day. In 1438 he was succeeded on the imperial throne his son-in-law,

by

Albert of Hapsburg. This prince, in spite

of the fact that he had been looked to as a promising successor, actually achieved

of the

title

of Albert

than a year. That

II,

little

beyond the

acquisition

since he survived Sigismund less

act, in itself,

however, sufficed to launch

Prmcipalitics and City -States

39

Hapsburg family on an almost unbroken

the

line

of

imperial succession that lasted until the abolition of the 1806.

in

title

During

a long

and empty reign, Albert's

cousin and successor, Frederick III (1 439-1 493), allowed

Germany devoted

burg

to plunge even deeper into civil strife while he

his

meager energies to strengthening the Haps-

position. In this pursuit he achieved his greatest

and

possibly least expected triumph, the marriage of his son

and

Maximilian, to Mary, the daughter and heiress

heir,

of Charles the Bold of Burgundy. Elected official heir

apparent with the

King of

title

the

Romans

Maximilian took charge of the Empire before

in

i486,

his father's

death and, from the powerful base of his Austrian and

Burgundian tige

by

possessions,

began to restore imperial pres-

military successes.

In an attempt to capitalize on his triumphs, Maximilian

convoked

a diet at

Worms

in

1495 to draft a workable

constitution for the Empire. First he secured the right to collect

tax

a

established

called

"common penny,"

the

an imperial supreme court, and

persuaded the legislators

to

outlaw private

then

he

finally

he

wars and

confederations within the Empire. Maximilian intended these changes to help re-create a central government; but

throughout the

rest of his reign, his jealous princes

from him one concession in

1

5 19,

little

after another, until, at his death

of the centralized authority for which he

had struggled so hard remained for

his

successor.

contrast, the marriage of his son, Philip, to

Mad, the daughter and and

forced

Isabella of Spain,

eventual

was

heiress

to leave a

of

Joanna the Ferdinand

major imprint on

European history by binding the crumbling Empire the fastest rising national

monarchy

in

In

Europe.

to

Age

40

of Recovery

Rivals to the Princes: Clergy, Knights,

Even

if

Towns

the princes did succeed in establishing them-

selves as the most* powerful

and favored

class in fifteenth-

century Germany, three other deeply entrenched groups

managed

to survive as active rivals:

the clergy, the free

and the burghers. All three saw

knights,

their positions

gradually erode, in spite of their vigorous,

nated

efforts,

at

could have cooperated for their the encroachments of the

group resorted to

its

common

they

defense against

but too often each

princes,

own

ill-coordi-

if

Theoretically

self-preservation.

and individual-

characteristic

istic devices.

Perhaps the chief obstacle to the

political consolidation

of Germany, though ironically not to the ambitions of the princely families,

was the church. As

a result, in part,

of the early mediaeval practice of using churchmen as imperial administrators, almost a sixth of the country

under the jurisdiction of

clerical

rulers

who

acted as

temporal lords. Some actually bore secular virtually

all

titles,

The

between the two was that the

chief

clerical lords,

deprived of the possibility of legitimate heirs

vow

but

shared the views and objectives, as well as

the rank and prestige, of their lay colleagues. difference

was

by

their

of celibacy, were precluded from the normal practice

of bequeathing their offices and lands to their spring.

Instead,

ecclesiastical

succession

elections

in

own

off-

was normally established by which local princely families

frequently had sufficient influence to reserve bishoprics for their

own younger

sons.

Speyer, and Wiirzburg, quite

The bishops of Strasbourg, as much as the more famous

archbishop-electors of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne, were in practice lay princes.

The members

of the lower clergy,

and City -States

Principalities

41

over which these worldly prelates presided, were

own

largely to their

earned

left

with the result that they

devices,

a reputation for lack of discipline,

mismanagement

of funds, and the perversion of offices for personal or gain.

political

had

as

little

corrupt

For obvious

establishment

The consequences

of this

great

rich

a

clerics

shameless

princes

secular

reform of such

the

as

the

reasons,

interest in the

abuse

and

themselves.

of

clerical

a

century

incomes and prestige were to be experienced

later in the wholesale confiscation of ecclesiastical lands

and prerogatives during the Protestant Reformation. Unlike the princes and upper clergy, few of the once proud barons and knights (Ritter) continued to enjov

them during the high Middle Ages. Although many managed to maintain a

the prestige and position accorded

precarious independence under the nominal authority of the

emperor,

burghers,

they

resentful

were of

the

jealous

of

the

prosperous

powerful princes, and fre-

quently in mortal conflict with both. Because as nobles

they were prohibited by pride, tradition, and in some cases, law,

trade,

from

associating with burghers or engaging in

they were driven increasingly to banditry

only occupation appropriate to their that usually failed to

The

mend

their

station,

as the

and even

dilapidated

fortunes.

degrading poverty that transformed them into "rob-

ber barons" contributed to the mounting bitterness that

would eventually

incite

many

to

join

Martin Luther's

revolt.

During the

later

Middle Ages, wealth and

culture

Germany was concentrated in the cities. Although small by modern standards, these prosperous, resourceful

in

communities produced

art,

architecture,

scholarship of remarkable quality.

Under

literature,

and

the titular pro-

Age

42

of Recovery

tection of the emperor, the "free imperial cities" enjoyed

and

privileges

which

independence

they

defended

vigorously against repeated and tremendously destructive

by

attacks

survival,

of

the

greatest threat to urban

succumbed

eventually

and

started

all

to

north-south

traditional

Economically weakened by princes;

The

however, proved to be the gradual divergence Atlantic

the

to

the risfng princes.

trade.

some of the cities the growing power of the this shift,

on the gradual decline that would

continue into the nineteenth century. Estates

and Leagues

Although

of

three

all

threatened

these

groups

were

represented

Landtage, or this

estates,

mediaeval

in

regional

—the

towns

nobility, the clergy, and, to a lesser degree, the

assemblies

called

they failed to make effective use of

institution

in

their

with

struggle

princes. In fact, these legislative bodies

the

which might have

been expected to oppose the growing authority of the

new

princely bureaucracies tended to contribute to their

consolidation.

Since

their

constituents

were

interested

primarily in peace, order, and efficient government, the deputies

in

the

administrators

and the

to

Landtage were differentiate

eager

new

the

as

between public finances

ruler's private resources

independent judiciary.

as

and to create

They even attempted

a

quasi-

to impose

primogeniture on the ruling families by law, in order to obstruct their ancient custom of dividing lands

male

heirs.

In the long run

all

among

these efforts at reform

all

had

the effect of strengthening the position of the princes, but

probably none more than the expanding use of law,

which the Landtage encouraged

Roman

in their efforts to

further judicial reform. Originally revived

by

the Italian

Frincipalities

and City -States

law schools in the twelfth century for mercial use, the

Roman

Germany by

—

were

all

clerical

code was gradually employed in

—who

More com-

Germanic custom, the

prehensive and systematic than

code buttressed the authority of administrative

government and recognized the sovereign all

and com-

princes and Landtage included

interested in reinforcing civil authority.

Roman of

43

rights

Though

as the

source

and power. the Landtage ended

by

serving rather than

opposing the forces of centralization, another mediaeval institution,

the

urban

league,

obstacle to princely progress.

pose

did

a

formidable

The most famous was the known as

organization of commercial cities in the north

Hansa (see above, Chapter I). In cities, and bishops of Swabia formed

the

restore

of

all,

and maintain order

addition, the nobles,

own league to The most notable

their

in the south.

however, was the Helvetic, or Swiss, Confederation,

which gained control of many of the crucial Alpine passes linking Italy with Germany. In existence since the end of the thirteenth century,

it

gained formal recognition as an

independent power in 1394, thanks mainly to a spectacular series of military victories over the French, the Burgundians, and the Hapsburgs. As a of the Helvetic League enjoyed

other

Europeans,

squandered

its

even

result, the citizens

more freedom than any

though

benefits in fighting

member cantons among themselves and the

them with the inhabitants of territories they conquered. Even if the members of the League, torn by tensions between German-, French-, and Italianspeaking regions, and by endemic factional strife, were refused to share

incapable of consummating a stable federal organization, their

stubborn courage, backed up by superb

natural

defenses and a formidable military reputation, preserved

Age

44 their

of Recovery

independence and, by

later

providing a safe haven

for Zwingli, Calvin, and their followers, proved to be an

important factor in the Reformation.

Burgundy '

Among

new

the

princes,

by

far the

most spectacular

were the dukes of Burgundy. By gaining control of the commercial and industrial cities of the lower Rhine, Meuse, and Scheldt, they had succeeded in dominating the main northern terminals of the old mediaeval trade routes and thus, in less than a century, had possession of wealth exceeding that of

The founder

Europe.

come

any other

into

rulers in

of the dynasty, Philip the Bold

( 1 363-1404), had received the duchy of Burgundy from his father, John of France, as a royal appanage. Then, by

marriage,

added

he

the

counties

of Flanders,

Artois,

Nevers, Rethel, and the imperial Free County of Burgundy (Franche-Comte). Not content with these acquisitions, he persuaded the widowed and childless duchess of Brabant and Limburg to bequeath her holdings to one of his sons

as

and arranged

a marriage for a daughter, as well

another son, with the family ruling Holland, Zeeland,

and Hainault.

Philip's successor,

141 9), proved

no

less

shrewd

John the

at the

Fearless

(

1

404-

marriage game than

with the result that his own son, Philip the Good (141 9-1 467), found himself lord of the French and German Burgundies and all of the Netherlands. The very extent of Philip's holdings robbed them of any unity. The Burgundies (the French duchy and the his father,

imperial county) fore poorer and sessions in the

were primarily agricultural and thereless

Low

populous than the duke's other posCountries. All his lands, however,

were inhabited by peoples of mixed Teutonic and Latin

Principalities

The Burgundian

possessions

and City -States

45

Age

46

who

extraction as

of Recovery

spoke Germanic or French

Low

countv of Burgundy and the

(the

and partly within the realm of France

just

Holy Roman

each major portion lay partly within the

Empire

dialects,

Countries)

and

(Flanders

duchy of Burgundy). The only common bond between these scattered and yaried territories was their

the

duke. Philip the Good.

That ambitious prince had three major aims: first, to round out his territories by acquiring the strip separating

Burgundy from

the

Low

permanently through tration;

and

Namur and

in 1455

gain a royal crown.

142

had one of

nephew

A

to the

The

first

he

purchased the county of

he

1

rich bishopric of L'trecht.

election of a

and centralized adminis-

unified

a

finally, to

nearly achieyed. In

Countries; second, to link them

his

sons inyested with the

year later he secured the

still

richer see of Liege, and

then purchased the extensiye duchy of Luxemburg. But

when

he set

his sights

territorial jigsaw

on Lorraine, the

last

piece of the

puzzle, the king of France recognized

the threat and declared war.

The

administratiye integration of

howeyer. proyed more each,

Philip

wholly

difficult

was accepted

local ruler.

To

as

all

these

than their acquisition. In

the

right

the Burgundians he

to the Flemings their count,

territories,

and lawful but

was

their duke,

and to the Dutch the count

of Holland. Thus, in the exercise of his soyereign rights in each, he

was bound by

local laws

and customs. In

spite

of these restrictions, Philip and his successor, Charles the

impose some degree of centralization

Bold, did

manage

to

on their power of

yarious

lands.

the church to their direct control and subjecting

it

By

subordinating the temporal

to taxation, they established both an important source

of reyenues and a kind of ready-made bureaucracy.

The

and City -States

Principalities

47

Great Council, composed of members from inces, dealt

extended

all

the prov-

with matters of general concern and gradually

its

authority over areas not protected

by

well-

entrenched local customs. Financial matters were centralized

Chambre

the

in

jurisdiction for

all

Comptes

des

and

appellate

the domains invested in a parlement at

Mechlin. After 1463, delegates from all local assemblies met at Bruges in an estates-general; and from 147 1, a standing

army was

recruited from, and supported by,

all

the provinces.

Having thus created a de facto kingdom, Duke Philip was determined to secure the appropriate title to go with it.

His establishment of the Golden Fleece, the most

famous and magnificent of chivalric orders, served notice of his intention. His opulent court of the

dream

West" of

Charlemagne's stretching

the

envy of

grandson

his

Lothair

—the

realm

middle

—terrorized them. quest

insistent

for

Low

Philip, as a result,

coveted

the

of

kingdom

between France and Germany from the

found

resolutely

"Grand Duke

ninth-century

Countries to the Alps his

this

fellow sovereigns, but his

the

reconstituting

made

turned aside with offers of the

royal

title

humiliating

compromise designation, "King of Brabant." In 1467, Charles the Bold inherited his father's

and ambitions, but

Commynes

as the

recounts,

famous chronicler Philippe de

"He had

neither the sense nor the

malice to carry off his designs." sive,

if

titles

Even

so,

he made impres-

temporary, additions to the Burgundian inherit-

ance and prestige. First he ruthlessly crushed revolts in several of his Netherlandish cities, a

and then he secured

de facto mortgage from the Hapsburgs on their holdings

in Alsace. finally

Next he annexed

the

duchy of Guelders, and

he assumed the protectorate of Liege and Lorraine.

Age

48

of Recovery

All this he clearly intended to cap with the marriage of his

Mary,

daughter,

Frederick

III.

Emperor Charles and Frederick met at son

Maximilian,

to

Late in 1473,

of

work out the details. Tentatively, they agreed Mary's dowry would be the entire Burgundian

Trier to that

inheritance; that Charles, as the defender of Christendom,

would

lead a crusade against the Turks;

would

emperor

create

Burgundy, including,

and that the

long-desired

the

kingdom

in addition to the existing

ions, the bishoprics of Utrecht, Liege,

of

domin-

Toul, and Verdun,

together with the duchies of Cleves, Lorraine, and Savoy.

When

everything

seemed ready for

final

Maximilian suddenly and inexplicably sailed

ratification,

down

the

Moselle in the middle of the night, leaving Charles the laughingstock of Europe.

To

insult

was rapidly added

suddenly faced with

a hostile

injury.

Finding himself

coalition of the

duke of

Lorraine, the Swiss cantons, and his archenemy Louis

XI

of France, Charles seized the initiative. After overrun-

ning Lorraine, he rashly attacked the Swiss on their

own

Morat in 1476, his ill-disciplined semifeudal forces were surrounded and slaughtered by the tough mountain soldiers of the cantons. Six months later terrain,

where,

at

Charles suffered a final disaster when, along with most of his troops,

he was cut

down

at

Nancy. So great was the

carnage that Lord Byron reported seeing bones of the

Burgundian dead when he

visited the battlefields in 1816.

Morat and Nancy marked the beginning of the end of the Burgundian dream. To secure acceptance as her father's successor to the ducal throne,

Mary had

to grant

"Great Privilege" (1477) abolishing much of the centralized administration and restoring many old

a charter of

regional

liberties.

At

this

point Louis

XI launched an

and City -States

Principalities

demand

invasion to back his

that

Mary wed

49 his

son the

dauphin, driving the desperate young duchess to find a protector in Maximilian fiancee,

and Maximilian

new

of Hapsburg.

as

wife's realm.

when Adary

Having restored order in

his

in the provinces

1482, he

was

able,

died the same year, to have their infant son,

Philip, declared her successor in all the

Philip,

legally

quickly took up the defense of his

and concluded peace with France

ritories.

Still

she hastily arranged the long-delayed marriage,

When known

Maximilian

Burgundian

ter-

became emperor in 1493, Handsome," took over

to history as "the

actual administration of this inheritance. His marriage to

Joanna the Mad,

daughter of Ferdinand and

Isabella,

however, was destined to subordinate Burgundian and Netherlandish interests to those of Spain, diverting

his

ancestors' grandiose dreams of territorial aggrandizement

to

new

heir,

regions. In 1500, with the death of the last male

Joanna became heiress presumptive to the several

Spanish crowns and

World and

the

New.

increasingly occupied

all

their

dependencies in the Old

was inevitably and immense inheritance.

Philip's attention

by

this

CHAPTER

III

The Western

WHILE new

princes

Monarchies

were successfully consolidating

city-states in Italy,

Germany, and Burgundy,

tary kings were busy welding the great

fiefs

their

heredi-

of France

and England and the petty kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula into centralized monarchies. These royal gov-

by papal

ernments, not having been undermined

was the Holy Roman Empire

vention, as series,

chies),

(see,

inter-

in this

Sidney Painter, The Rise of the Feudal Monar-

were eventually able to tighten the loose feudal

bonds linking the nobles to the crown. Further, since agriculture predominated in this area west of the Scheldt,

and Rhone

Aleuse,

—

at

least

until

the

trans-European

trade began to be diverted from the overland routes to the Atlantic to

gain

—towns were generally too weak to

their

independence.

Instead,

they

attempt

cooperated

with the emerging bureaucratic authority of the central monarchies against the anarchic misrule of the feudal nobles.

rich

With

this support,

and without the opposition of

and powerful trading

cities

of the sort that had

checked the ambitions of would-be kings Europe, the

new

in west-central

royal governments of the

West were

The Western Monarchies

j/

able to subject the nobility, control the clergy, and create

new

fiscal administrations.

The

Consolidation of States: Final Phase

marriage-making was

Dynastic

the

favorite,

if

not

always successful, technique of the "new monarchs" in

Near the Henry V, had

their untiring efforts to extend their authority.

beginning of the century, the English king,

attempted to acquire the French crown and end the

Hundred

War by

Years'

marrying the French Princess

Catherine. Although this plan proved to be overambi-

Henry Tudor, somewhat

tious,

date his hold battle,

was

able to consoli-

on the English crown, which he had

by marrying

chief rival.

later,

won

in

Elizabeth of York, the heiress of his

And toward

the end of the century Charles

VIII added Brittany to the French crown by marrying the Duchess Anne.

Most famous of

all

was the marriage

Aragon and Isabella of Castile in 1469. two most important Iberian kingdoms, it

of Ferdinand of

By

uniting the the

laid

foundation for a great national monarchy in

Spain.

In England and France, and to a lesser extent in Spain,

one of the chief obstacles to the development of monarchical

authority was the stubborn resistance of the princely

rulers of the great appanages. Since the thirteenth cen-

tury kings had frequently granted huge appanages, to younger sons

who were

estates,

called

not expected to

crown (see Painter, Rise of the Feudal Monand by the end of the Middle Ages the practice

inherit the

archies),

was bearing fact,

bitter fruit in

both England and France. In

throughout Europe appanages had grown so enor-

mously

in

both

size

and number that they not only

Age

J2

of Recovery

challenged royal authority but even occasionally became

autonomous

states.

The new monarchs were revamping

The

ment. their

old, a*nd creating

diligent

of

task

their

in

new, instruments of govern-

kings of England, France, and Spain centered

growing bureaucracies

which

in the royal council,

At

often acted as the supreme court of the realm.

same time, new royal agents, or "king's men"

as

they were

called, increasingly insinuated themselves into the

istration of local,

and

feudal,

ecclesiastical

the

admin-

courts,

with

the result that both laws and legal procedures became more uniform and effective, and the authority of the monarchy was extended and entrenched. Finally, new

standing armies composed of infantry and cavalry sup-

ported by archers superiority in the

by

(later

Hundred

established

artillery)

Years'

War

their

and, because they

were too expensive for any save national monarchies

new

maintain, greatly reinforced the

royal power.

to

The

was further demonstrated Granada from the Moors in 1492 and the French invasion of Italy two years later. effectiveness of these forces

in

the capture of

in

The ever,

cost of the

new

could not be met

bureaucracies and armies,

by

how-

existing royal resources.

In

England, France, and Spain, the king's ordinary revenues from crown lands, feudal dues, commodity monopolies,

customs

seriously

markets

by

duties,

and

mint

1300; and the traditional

tolls,

fines, fees,

and vacant

benefices dwindled to insignificance.

and church

grants,

depended, were

upon which

date.

the

declined

income from mines, fiefs

or ecclesiastical

Even

the feudal taxes

new monarchs now

irregular and infrequent, and to

matters worse, existing

and out of

had

rights

fiscal

make

machinery was inadequate

Various expedients, such

as

borrowing

at

The Western Monarchies discounts

great

revenue

future

against

53

imposing

or

forced loans, produced limited returns but no ultimate

The

solutions.

inescapable

monarchs was that

(taxes paid in lieu of

scutages

(money given

all

customary service)

and

Sidney Painter, Mediaeval Society)

were combined with "extraordinary" levied

as

to an overlord for unusual expenses)

in this series,

(see,

of

confronting

and frequently. In France feudal payments such

larly

aids

conclusion

had to be collected more regu-

taxes

taxes, theoretically

on burghers for the defense of the realm in time and all were collected annually. In other areas a

crisis,

greater reliance

was placed on increased

sales taxes, like

the alcabala in Castile. In England the king failed institute a

to

high permanent tax but gained more control

of existing revenues, especially of customs on wool and cloth.

at the

If,

end of the century, royal income

still

remained inadequate for growing needs, the monarchs were,

nevertheless,

resources to

finally

in

command

of

overwhelm any combination of

sufficient

recalcitrant

feudal lords. Increasingly the

new

won

centralized states either

the

more important elements of society. The church, weakened by schism, became everywhere more dependent on royal protection and more subservient to national interests. The support

once

of,

or imposed their authority

disputed

Gallican

the church in France

control tion

was

Bourges in

1438,

—the

thus

in the

direct

that

papal

Pragmatic Sanc-

virtually

transforming

bishops into royal agents. In Spain, too, the kings

dominated the church, and through

power of of the

the

doctrine

not subject to

—was formally recognized

of

French

Liberties

on,

it

the

formidable

the Inquisition, while in England the tradition

crown's authority in religious matters,

already

Age

of Recovery

established in the fourteenth

century by limitations on

the rights of foreign clergy to visit lish

clergy to appeal to foreign

the

Statutes

More

tained and reinforced.

courts

—was

—

in

main-

important, the bourgeoisie

monarchs, largely

rallied to the

papal)

and Praemunire

Provisors

of*

England and of Eng-

(i.e.,

in return for protection

of their trade and preservation of the peace. French kings

kept close watch on town governments and finances and

made

of bourgeois officials in the royal

increasing use

The

administration.

town

control of

Spanish crown exercised

direct

less

but pursued a policy of close

affairs

cooperation with the burghers; and the English kings

drew support from

commercial

their

feudal nobility failed,

a

as

class,

classes.

much weakened by

economic changes

W hile

was already

it

foreign and civil wars and

Europe common

interests

new

principalities, reinforcing regionalism, the

archies in larger

West extended

the

areas

of the

by

become

a

political

and

common

Even

so, the

language and obeying

tended

city-states

new mon-

jurisdiction

—

to

the

the self-

cause of a ''people"

linguistic

dominant factor only

twentieth centuries.

common

their

nation-state. Nationalism

conscious advocacy of the defined

by

to be of decisive importance.

in west-central

to develop within the limited territories of

and

the old

contribute to the

to

development of the new monarchies; but too

Only

in

associations

—has

the nineteenth and

awareness of speaking a a single ruler

gave

men

of the fifteenth century the conviction that they shared

economic

and

political

interests,

especially

group or "nation" became personified

when

the

in hero figures.

Spain

At

the opening of the fifteenth century, the Iberian

Peninsula was

split into

the three Christian

kingdoms of

The Castile,

W

estern

Monarchies

55

Aragon, and Portugal, the Moorish kingdom of

Granada, and the tiny Christian kingdom of Navarre,

which crossed the Pyrenees

into France.

With

tion of Aragon, these Iberian states had had

with the

rest of

Europe.

the excep-

little

Not only were they

contact

isolated

by

strong provincial traditions, but they were also divided into smaller units tutions.

by innumerable

local

customs and

insti-

Aragon, for example, was comprised of Aragon

proper, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, and Catalonia.

By

the beginning of the sixteenth century, however, the five Iberian

kingdoms had been reduced

becoming

a rich

a vast colonial

commercial nation, and Spain, thanks to

empire in the

possessions in Italy, est

was

to two. Portugal

was about

New World to

emerge

as

and important Europe's great-

power.

During the early

fifteenth century, the nobles, clergy,

and towns of the peninsula continued to exercise and

their

exemptions,

largely

unhampered by their weak kings. Soon, however, and stable monarchy appeared in Portugal. In

a strong

with the prosperous trading towns of the Atlantic

littoral,

ancient

the

privileges

crown subdued

leadership

kingdom

rights

to

alliance

the nobles and, through the inspired

of Prince

Henry

in the forefront of

the

Navigator, placed the

European exploration and

oceanic commerce. Ironically, however, in Castile, where the

king sometimes claimed the

title

of

emperor, the

crown was weaker than in any monarchy in Europe except the Holy Roman Empire. The absence of effective central government was largely due to the Islamic occupation and the long peninsula.

The

bitter

struggle for the reconquest of the

cities

and towns, for example, were more

often fortified centers of refuge from A4oorish attack than true trading centers, and as a result had long carried the

burdens and exercised the privileges of precarious, de

j

Age

5"

of Recovery

on the

facto independence. Largely tially

of this essen-

basis

democratic military service, representatives of the

towns dominated the Cortes, or representative assembly, particularly in matters involving

great

nobles,

or

money. In

addition, the

hombres, tended to ignore

ricos

the

crown, while members of the clergy and the military

won,

orders had

reward for

a

as

Islam, the privileges of tax

exemption and the right of

being judged by canon law. In Aragon, however,

weak and

the towns that were

The

the Cortes. aristocrats

the nobles that controlled

reflected in the very oath of allegiance to their

is

as you, swear to you, as

who

are

"We, w ho r

are as

good

no better than we, to accept

our king and sovereign lord, provided you observe

our

all

was

it

intransigent independence of these great

king that tradition ascribes to them:

you

with

struggle

their

liberties

and laws: but

if

not, not." Finally, the

great Catalonian port of Barcelona, because

and wealth

a

phenomenon

in itself,

was

crown

military resources of the Aragonese interests.

in 1434

The

acquisition of Sicily in 141 o

made Barcelona

of

size

its

able to use the to serve

its

and of Naples

the dominant commercial

power

on the western Mediterranean.

The

culmination of Spain's mediaeval

history

came

with the marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand in 1469 and the consequent union of Castile and Aragon. Following a

complicated and protracted controversy over the succession to the Castilian throne, this marriage aroused strong

opposition.

The

kings of Portugal and France tried des-

perately to prevent

the

strength

of

as did

it,

Isabella in her native

the

Castile.

many

opposition,

Ferdinand slipped into

a

nobles and rivals of

In eloquent testimony to

private

the

Aragonese Prince

home

guised as a merchant, to celebrate what

in

Castile,

dis-

the outside world

W

The

est

em

Monarchies

and subsequent historians would regard

57 as a particularly

brilliant royal marriage.

The a

political result

confederation.

own

was the creation of something like and Aragon each retained its

Castile

Cortes, councils, laws, courts, armies, taxes, coins,

and sovereignty. The subjects of the one were

aliens in

the other, and in theory there was neither a king of Spain

nor a Spanish kingdom. In practice, however, the union

produced important mutual advantages for both

states,

even though Castile rapidly became the dominant part-

Aragon, already suffering from the general stagna-

ner.

tion of Mediterranean

commerce, could

mercantile and maritime tradition ans in their transatlantic

manufactured into cloth

by

ventures.

in,

carry on her

still

aiding the Castili-

Castilian

wool was

and exported by, Barcelona,

Columbus had frequented long before he began

a port

serving Castile. In return, Castilian troops supported and

even expanded Aragon's Mediterranean empire, until by 1529

it

dominated

tion of the

all

Thus began

of Italy.

the amalgama-

two major Spanish kingdoms.

Their Catholic majesties, Ferdinand and

Isabella,

set

out to replace the old mediaeval administration with a

new

central bureaucracy. First they reduced

nobles to a courtier class

huge

sums

demolishing

to

the

their

by

royal castles,

the great

forcing them to disgorge

by

treasury,

and

by

systematically

transferring

their

authority in local administration to agents of the crown. Finally,

the

with the Audiencia, a powerful secular court,

monarchs developed an

with recalcitrant aristocrats

methods

failed.

The

effective

means of dealing

when normal

administrative

palace guard, created to siphon off

the military energies of the nobility,

became the nucleus

of a royal standing army; and the hitherto independent

Age

j8

of Recovery

and powerful military orders of righting monks were brought under royal command by the expedient of forcing each order to elect King Ferdinand

The

Grand Master.

old hermandades, leagues of towns with their

armed

forces,

were reorganized

as a

royal police to main-

law and order. Central control of

tain

by

further reinforced dogs,

or

own

local affairs

was

the appointment of royal watch-

within

corregidors,

the

now

which

towns,

more from the unaccustomed order than they ever had from their old liberties, raised no serious objections to the practice. This new central power was exercised through a maze of mediaeval councils that was benefiting

gradually enlarged, restaffed, and wholly transformed into

and independent royal bureaucracy, supported

a dedicated

by

the Cortes' imposition of permanent

the alcabala.

The

ence and reorganized.

which was

ple,

new

taxes such as

church, too, was reduced to subservi-

The famous

Inquisition, for

originally established in Castile

exam-

to deal

with Jews and Aloors suspected of mere token conversion to Christianity and

union

of

energies as

political

much

and

which came religious

power,

directed

to support the interests of the

punish covert dissenters from the

to

epitomize the

to

faith.

its

crown

The

as

disen-

franchisement of Jews and their eventual expulsion in

were

1492

undertaken

quite

as

much

to

bring

vast

quantities of confiscated wealth to the royal treasury as

to purge the religious

At

community.

the end of the century the consolidated Spanish

monarchy rounded out and capped

its

Catholic

territories

by new conquests

successes with world-wide

In 1492 the capitulation the

its

monarchs

explorations.

of the kingdom of Granada finally

completed,

after

to

nearly

eight hundred years, the reconquest of the peninsula from

The Western Monarchies Moslems were

the Moslems. Although the subjugated

to

suffer a fate similar to that of the Jews, the first victims of

victory were

this

Ferdinand's Christian

neighbors.

By

1512 he had occupied and annexed the portion of the

kingdom of Navarre south of

the Pyrenees, thus bringing

of the peninsula, except Portugal, under his sway.

all

While waiting for ever,

their

Catholic

the

fall

howwere approached by a

of Granada in 1491,

majesties

Genoese ship captain with

a plan for sailing across the

Atlantic to the Orient. Apparently attracted sonality of Christopher

by

the per-

Columbus, and certainly jealous

of the Portuguese and their African route to the East, Isabella

backed an expedition that

under the aegis of

Castile.

set sail

On March

August 1493,

15,

3,

1492,

Columbus

returned triumphant to announce a golden age for Spain and, although he did not a fabulous

know

it,

to give her the keys to

new world.

France Bled by half a hundred years of war, France, at the

opening of the fifteenth century, was being drained of her

last

remaining energies by a scandalous court and a

notoriously corrupt administration. (

1

380-1422), was mad; and

his

The

king, Charles

brother,

Orleans, as well as his uncles the dukes of

Berry and

his

cousin the duke of Anjou,

the

VI

duke of

Burgundy and all

vied for his

power and wealth. The duke of Orleans by his cousin the duke of Burgundy plunged the country into civil war just as it faced a new onslaught by the young and dashing Henry V of England, who hoped to make good his claims to the crown of treacherous assassination of the

France.

Crossing the channel in 141

5,

Henry

V

met

the French

Age

60

The

Agincourt.

at

able,

of Recovery

English forces were few but formid-

and the French nobles, remembering nothing from

Crecy or

the debacles of ronistic

six

superior, thanks to their organization

the

heavily

over seven thousand

hundred

and

proved

one,

to

their archers.

armored French nobles attempted to

charge across a wet plowed

five

armored English,

lightly

although outnumbered by five or

As

an anach-

Poitiers, constituted

The

mediaeval host.

field,

at a cost to

the English slaughtered

themselves of fewer than

France was stunned,

casualties.

but

the

worst had not yet happened. While Henry occupied

Normandy,

the

king and

government and,

tracts

his

duke of Burgundy seized the French in 1420, in return for vast

ceded to himself, signed the Treaty of Troyes

recognizing

V

Henry

of England as Charles VI's heir to

the throne of France.

The Dauphin,

refused to

Charles,

and made good

treaty or his disinheritance

from

Paris

to

up

set

a

rival

government

Although the young Charles was prince, he

managed

in the south

and acquired

desultory

VI

allies

a far

his at

escape

Bourges.

from promising

to establish a semblance of authority a certain popularity, perhaps

With

the English and their

control

north of the Loire,

because of his very weakness.

Burgundian

accept either the

in

firm

war continued

until

both Henry

V

died in 1422, leaving Henry's infant son,

and Charles

Henry VI

of

England, the legal heir to the throne of France. In October, 1428, the English mounted a major offensive against the city of Orleans in

an effort to break the

defensive line of the Loire protecting the southern bastion

of the Dauphin. In February,

nearing

surrender

and

1429,

Charles's

when cause

Orleans was

seemed

lost,

A

farm-

deliverance arrived in the person of Joan of Arc.

The Western Monarchies daughter

er's

Domremy,

from

boundary of Lorraine,

61

near

had heard

she

northeastern

the

"voices"

since

childhood and had developed a local reputation for piety,

prophecy, and healing. Passionately in love with France, she

became obsessed with the need

and have the Dauphin crowned

to expel the English at

By

Reims.

sheer

obstinacy reinforced with awesome piety, Joan succeeded in persuading a local officer to take her to the Dauphin's

court at Bourges. There she identified Charles,

been disguised to

test

and an

his advisers

win permission

to

who had

her special powers, and impressed

ecclesiastical

commission

sufficiently

to join the forces being mustered for

the relief of Orleans. Although the claims that Joan dis-

played

military

genius

in

lifting

the

siege

are

quite

groundless, she certainly contributed to the victory injecting confidence into the

by

downhearted French. Joan's

appearance at Orleans was clearly the turning point; and

when

the English

withdrew

in confusion,

Dauphin's forces to seize the

allowing the

she

initiative,

became the

heroine of France.

Next, exploiting

all

her

new

prestige,

Dauphin to go to Reims ceremony in the great cathedral of

Joan persuaded

for the traditional coronation

the

northern France was

still

St.

Remy. Although

in English hands,

the French

procession encountered slight resistance, and on July 17,

accompanied by Joan, was duly crowned Charles VII. Ten months later, in a minor skir1429,

the

mish, Joan

over

first

Dauphin,

was captured by the Burgundians and turned to the English and then to the church, to be

tried for heresy. Charles

and the

trial

made no

dragged on to

its

on her inevitable and effort

denouement in her execution at the stake in

May

30, 143

1.

behalf, tragic

Rouen on

Joan's irreducible and irresistible simplicity

Age

62

has

made her one

of Recovery

of the great heroines of history, just as

her devotion and achievements have saint of France.

Thanks

crowned, but he had

made her

had not only been

to her, Charles

also

the patron

been transformed from

a

puny

do-nothing into a purposeful monarch; and the French

had been galvanized into and devoted to

its

a nation conscious of its destiny

king.

As Charles began to press the war, the duke of Burgundy read the signs, deserted his English allies, and made peace with his rightful king. This tipped the scales, enabling Charles to retake Paris, Rouen, Cherbourg, and

Bordeaux, so that by 1453 only Calais remained in English hands. The fighting ceased, and without treaty or

ceremony

the

Hundred

Years'

War

finally

ground to an

end. Depopulated and disorganized, France lay in ruins;

Not only had

but the French had emerged victorious. territory been liberated

her

and her people's morale restored,

but her monarch, sanctified by Joan's revival of the mediaeval mystique of kingship,

reinvigorated

was

by her evocation

able to lead the nation,

of

a

toward recovery and the foundation of

new

patriotism,

a vigorous national

monarchy. In the course of his long reign (142 2-1 461), Charles

and

his able advisers

forming the royal administrative

succeeded in developing and trans-

institutions in the direction of greater

independence from, and authority over,

the feudal elements of the realm. Fundamental to the

whole program was the laying down of cial

base.

The crown

established

its

a

modern

finan-

permanent right to

"extraordinary" revenues, to the continuation in peace-

time of the special taxes which had been exacted to finance the war. Thus, to the king's traditional "ordinary"

revenues from royal estates and customary taxes were

The Western Monarchies added the gabelle on significant, the taille

into annual levies.

on land or hearths

With such

Charles was able to create series 1

45

1,

the aide on

salt,

63 sales,

—

transformed

all

impressive

new

resources,

Through

standing army.

a

and most

a

between

1439 and he suppressed the unruly free companies which of military ordinances issued

had wreaked such havoc during the Hundred Years'

and arrogated

War

himself the exclusive right of raising

to

By creating a professional officer corps of nobles command a strictly disciplined army stationed in per-

troops. to

manent provincial

down

the

garrisons,

king was able to put

uprisings and bring to heel such grandees as the

dukes of Bourbon, Orleans, and Alencon. Even the church felt the

impact of the royal power.

By

the Pragmatic

Sanction, promulgated at Bourges in 1438, the king had

subordinated papal authority and revenue to

and had made himself

virtual

his

control

church

head of the

in

France. Impressive as his accomplishments were, Charles VII left

many

successor,

King" by ity,

his

son and

the

"Spider

unresolved and urgent problems to

Louis XI

(1 461 -1483).

history, Louis

was

Tagged

a strange,

neurotic personal-

treacherous, deceitful, and cruel, but single-minded

and tenacious inherited.

in his

devotion to the monarchy he had

Sometimes mistakenly described

he was in fact

as

mediaeval

as his

as

"modern.''

contemporaries, but of

a bourgeois rather than an aristocratic turn of mind.

Delighted at the news of

his father's

death and his

own

consequent succession, Louis rushed to Paris and threw

More than any of power on the support of

himself into the business of being king. his

predecessors, he based

his

towns, particularly Paris, and

his

anything he could buy. Allegedly,

avoided

fighting

his passion for

for

bribery

Age

64

of Recovery

extended to attempts to buy the intervention of

saints

through lavish votive offerings. His chief opponents and enemies were, inevitably, the great nobles, w ho

bitterest

formed the League of the Public Weal

in 1465

threatened

their

subordinate

interests.

monarchy

the

they failed

If

to

through lack of leadership and

made such inroads

less

to

ultimately

control,

their

defend to

largely

they neverthe-

discipline,

against the king's authority that

it

took Louis years to recover from their insubordination

and

armed

repeated

however,

Gradually,

attacks.

brought these princely antagonists under control.

by

Armagnac and Foix w and

subjugated royal

their

in

only

until

jurisdiction,

remained

and

fiefs

One

Maine and the

one, the dukes of Brittany, Anjou, and

counts of

he

ere either eliminated or

appanages Charles

open defiance of the crow

returned

of

to

Burgundy

n.

Although Louis eventually manipulated the downfall of this

last

creating

among

still

his great rivals,

other problems.

1

he did so

at the cost of

laving formed

a

coalition

with the Empire and the Swiss, the king brought the

contumacious duke to defeat and death this

moment

in

1477; but at

of apparent triumph Louis saw his ally, the

wily Kmperor Maximilian, make off with Charles's daughter

The

Mary and

the

bulk of the Burgundian inheritance.

obvious menace

marriage created for the king

this

compounded by still another wedding, that of Ferdinand and Isabella. That the first would open a lapsburgs was understood by bitter rivalry with the of France was

I

everyone, but no one dreamed that the Spain was also destined to become 1

a

newly united

possession

lapsburgs, and therefore, no one foresaw

of the

the full conse-

quences for the French. In spite of his

failure

to

prevent the Spanish union,

The Western Monarchies

6

Louis proved himself a remarkably successful king. Havconsolidated

ing

the

great

reduced the towns and

fonning municipal

cities

officers

of

fiefs

monarchy,

the

Bv

to subservience.

into

royal

he

trans-

he vastly

agents,

increased the size and efficiency of his bureaucracy and

succeeded in quadrupling

his revenues.

Thus, bv working

with the wealthy bourgeois to maintain order, revive busi-

and restore prosperity, he managed to win

their

support while he was increasing their tax load bv

fiscal

ness,

innovations.

Louis

Altogether.

made

XI

remarkable

progress toward the centralization of the royal adminis-

and the development of the absolute authority

tration

of the king.

Lender

his

Louis XII

Charles YIII

successors.

powers continued. The canseil du administrative

chief

^

1485-1408)

and

1498-1 5 15), the consolidation of the royal

officers

of

roi %

the

composed of the gradually

realm,

absorbed such traditional prerogatives of the old

estates,

or provincial assemblies, as the right to impose taxes or

name

a

entire

resorted estates, larly, as

popular

increasingly

such

as

support to

those in

the grand conscil.

bureaucrats,

also

body and became its

estates-general,

kingdom, were summoned

where

and

The

regent.

jurisdiction to

and making

its

more

less

needed,

the

tractable

crown

provincial

the

estates

of supreme court

as

a

iudicial

bv extending

cases of special interest to the king

judgements immune to appeal. At the

same time the provincial courts, or parlements.

bv bourgeois lawyers, not only survived but gained in authority. Thus, the absolute

the

frequently;

Languedoc and Brittanv. Simiwhich included princes as well

displaced

a sort all

the

and

less

was

representing

as

the bureaucratic

monarchy expanded

at the

staffed

actually

power of

expense of tradi-

Age

66 tional local,

institutions,

Recovery

of

notably

the

certain

estates-general,

even semiautonomous, agencies were developed bv

royal support, creating the peculiar relationship of local

government to the become a principal

which was

central administration

to

characteristic of the ancien regime.

Both Charles VIII and Louis XII nourished dreams of military glory, and both inherited claims to the

kingdom

With

this lure

of Naples from their Angevin ancestors.

added to the tinople

fantasy of liberating Constan-

traditional

from the

and restoring

infidel

his

on

attack

Naples

Christian empire.

As might have been

Charles VIII invaded Italy in 1494. expected,

its

brought

their

Aragonese

defense of their

cousin

own

(the

king of Naples),

but

in

very active interests in western

Mediterranean trade. In addition, but the Hapsburgs joined

Spanish

the

not merelv of

sovereigns into the struggle in support,

and ultimately successful

—military

control of the Italian peninsula. thirty-five-year struggle has

To

seemed

ning of modern "international"

predictably,

less

what thus became

a

formidable

coalition striving for

some, to

this

mark

confused

the begin-

Domination,

as

Lord Acton pointed out, became a reigning motive European history, for which a monarch would sacrifice

in

the resources of his kingdom.

unwilling

to

tolerate

either

politics.

The new limitations

all

national states,

on

their

own

ambitions or the fulfillment of those of their neighbors, lived in a condition of internecine competition for con-

quest and survival,

nowhere more deadly than on the

peninsula of Italy.

England Like France and Spain, England the fifteenth century

at the

beginning of

was divided and weak, but

in spite

The Western Monarchies

managed

of disasters and disorders, she

and united. In

this island

monarchy could not the

defense,

army

standing

a

parliament

retained

revenues and legislation. Although the

became

great strength, they never

for self-

of

control

kings

gain

did

as autocratic as their

on the Continent. Furthermore,

rivals

emerge strong

to

kingdom, however, where the

justify

mediaeval

6j

it

must be remem-

bered that once shorn of her continental possessions, as she was after mid-century, England was less

much

smaller,

populous, and therefore poorer than either France or

Spain. Until long after the opening of the Atlantic, she

remained on the periphery of European trade, culture,

and even

politics.

But her

leader

makes the events of

utmost

interest.

Henry

importance

later

as

a

world

her formative period, of

this,

of Lancaster, having deposed the

of the

last

Plantagenets, justified his seizure of the throne

by

claims

based on inheritance, conquest, and parliamentary support; but the struggle

and

141 3)

between the new Henry IV (1399-

his nobles did

not cease with his coronation.

In practice, this meant that the royal council continued to

authority,

exercise

worked ing.

while

the

in Parliament to restrain

Not

feeling

sufficiently

burghers

and gentry

and direct royal spend-

secure

to

challenge

this

by imposing basic reforms on governmental procedures, Henry IV was forced to cut expenses. To this end he let the war with France lapse, thus dissembling

opposition

rather

than

abandoning

his

merely delaying the inevitable

The young Henry with

his

V

announcement

claim their throne and

crusade

to

"build

ambitions,

and

thereby

disaster.

(141 3-1422) dazzled the English to the

French that he intended

make good

again

the

his

walls

promise to lend of

Jerusalem."

to a

In

Age

68

of Recovery

response to Henry's appeal to the emerging national consciousness of his subjects, the nobles put aside political quarrels,

burghers forgot economic problems,

the

and

the country united in preparation for the impending war.

At the same time, with unprecedented diplomatic skill Henry kept the Burgundians and the Emperor friendly and English trade annihilated

In a lightning invasion, he nearly

safe.

French nobility

the

Agincourt,

at

married

the French Princess Catherine, and had himself declared heir to the throne of France.

camp good

When

fever near Paris, while

still

he suddenly died of attempting to make

seven years of struggle,

his claims after

Henry

V

had raised English prestige on the Continent but had notably failed to contribute to the development of effective

government

at

home.

His nine-month-old son was proclaimed Henry

England

in

1422

and two months

later,

VI

of

following the

death of his maternal grandfather, Charles VI, was recog-

As Henry approached

nized as king of France as well. maturity, inherited

but

became apparent that he had French grandfather not only his crown

however,

from

his

it

Throughout

his insanity as well.

his reign,

the for-

tunes of England declined abroad as rapidly as those of the throne did at home. finally expelled

from

seemed to repatriate

sown

When, by

all

all

1453, the English

were

of France except Calais, they

the strife and disorder they had

abroad, with the demented king's rapacious uncles

and cousins conniving and contending with the royal council

and

the

Parliament

and

unleashing

anarchy

throughout the land.

Many

of England's difficulties were created

and economic changes. Ancient

institutions

reciprocal services and loyalties had

by

social

founded on

become anachronis-

W

The

new

tic in the

estern

secular and

Monarchies

mercenary

69

age.

Attempts to

adapt the traditional institutions ended by producing what has been called "bastard feudalism." The monarchy was reduced to using tax money to pay the great nobles vast sums,

ostensibly for the military services

"companies" but in reality

Thus enabled retainers

crown

to reach

hombres

of this

basis

relationship

in force

Germany and

new power was

the reciprocal

by which

defend or "maintain" the is,

at

to

appanage lords

in

between the lords and

malized in contracts

that

in Spain, the

and the independent princes

The

—

enough

the magnates developed into English coun-

itself,

in France,

tion

"support."

their fiefs to hire

and troops to challenge the authority of the

terparts of the ricos

Italy.

as bribes for their

beyond

of their

their

retainers,

for-

the former promised to

interests of the latter in litiga-

overawe even royal courts by appearing

the head of

their

retainers

—

in

return for

which the same retainers agreed to wear the lords' livery and serve them upon their summons. In England, where the lack of a standing army left the king dependent on feudal levies for military support, practice of "livery and maintenance," as

it

was

this

called,

threatened the very existence of public law and order.

The

defeat in France

coupled with misgovernment

court robbed the monarchy of

all

at

confidence and respect.

Throughout the period, contemporaries appealed for reform, or more "abundant government," as from place to place popular discontent grew into open revolt. In 1450 rebellious peasants captured the city of London, and for some time no one seemed able or willing to take the lead in restoring order.

The among

stage

was

the king's

set for civil

own

war.

The

traditional rivalry

relatives for control of the council

Age

jo

of Recovery

deteriorated into a naked contest for the throne; and the

House of York opened a campaign castrian line by advancing legal Then,

inheritance.

two

in 1455,

to supplant the

Lan-

claims

royal

the

to

years after the expulsion

of the English from France had flooded England with

"companies" of unemployed mercenaries, both to arms. Virtually

not to

other,

all

uphold constitutional

classes

tive, these

deadly

took

the nobles joined one faction or the

further private feuds and interests.

and lower

sides

but to

principles,

Though

the middle

remained largely indifferent and inac-

Wars

of the Roses, as they have tradi-

tionally been called, dragged

Edward, duke of York,

on for

finally

out of the endemic chaos proclaiming himself king.

thirty years.

brought temporary order

by deposing Henry VI and As Edward IV ( 146 -1483), 1

he was able to restore a degree of royal authority and financial solvency

Lancastrian

Henry VI

and to deal successfully with several

uprisings,

in

1471.

one

The

of

which

reconstruction begun

Yorkist king was terminated

by

his

England was plunged once again into

ter,

by

this

death in 1483, and civil

war. Edward's

Edward V,

twelve-year-old son sat briefly on the throne as until his

restored

briefly

shrewd but neurotic uncle, the duke of Glouces-

consigned him and

his

Tower

of

Richard

III

brother to the

London. Then, having seized the crown

as

—who

was immortalized by Shakespeare as an archetypal monster and tyrant but who has been somewhat exonerated by modern scholars succeeded in raising more opposition than support. (1483— 1485), the usurper

—

The widely princes

murdered

around the

duke

of

accepted charge that he had had the

latest

roused

dissident

elements

Lancastrian claimant,

Richmond.

With

the

defeat

to

little

rally

Henry Tudor, and

death

of

The Western Monarchies

7/

Richard on Bosworth Field in 1485, Henry brought the House of York and the Wars of the Roses to an end.

Henry VII

485-1 509), the able

(1

if

little-known victor,

founded the new Tudor dynasty and began the restoration and transformation of the his political position,

ter of

monarchy.

To

strengthen

he married Elizabeth, eldest daugh-

Edward IV, and

to symbolize the significance of

union of the Lancastrian and Yorkist factions, he

this

had her crowned he gained

still

more

and

and solemn ceremony. In time

by marrying

prestige

his eldest

daughter Margaret to James

his

IV

of Scot-

land. In spite of these brilliant foreign marriages, still

son

Aragon, the daughter of Ferdinand and

to Catherine of Isabella,

in a rich

Henry

had to suppress repeated factional attempts to under-

mine

his position at

home.

Although England's once powerful mediaeval monarchy appeared to be disintegrating, cratic institutional

condition.

To

machinery

still

much

of

bureau-

its

existed in a

moribund

bring the institutions back to vigorous

life,

Tudors discovered, they had only to reassert the personal authority that had made all mediaeval prerogathe

tive effective.

Moreover, since the general population had

suffered relatively

little

disorders, the nation

ernment to

flourish

loss

of property during the

needed only peace and secure gov-

once again.

Henry VIFs most remarkable achievement was reorganization

milked

all

of

revenues

royal

the

finances.

He

the traditional sources of the

income, customs

—while

civil

duties,

feudal

dues,

and

his

assiduously

crown

—royal

ecclesiastical

keeping a close check on government

expenditure. But no king of the time, not even the frugal

Henry, could hope forced to develop

to

new

"live

on

expedients.

his

own," and he was

One

that

was

to cause

Age

7-

of Recovery

resentment was the shameless exploitation of

bitter

his

right to impose fines and grant pardons for the slightest

misdemeanors or "dead

new

letter"

crimes.

In

addition

to

bv such dubious means, he also strove to reduce expenses both bv improving methods of accounting and bv cutting unnecessarv outseeking

sources of revenue

lav, particularly for military forces

To

without

increasing

seriously

populace, of

on land and

Henry VII added

making Parliament

a

fiscal

sea.

monarchy from the

the remarkable feat of refinancing the

exactions

the inspired accomplishment

cooperative,

not complaisant,

if

partner of the crown. Further, he cultivated the support

and loyalty of the commercial elements of the realm bv

promoting prosperity and increasing foreign he kept the reins of government firmly in his

But

trade.

own

grasp.

His chief administrative instrument, the royal council,

was composed of the great

who

ministers finances, in

to

the

and household

ordinance,

supervised

and conducted embassies abroad. This council,

— the

Castile

and the

France.

Known

a

modern

cabinet, also

began

high court of virtually unlimited

regularly as a

authority

its

enforced

some ways resembling sit

officers of state

English counterpart of the Audiencia in judicial section of the as the

meeting place,

it

conseil

du

roi in

Court of Star Chamber, because of

acquired an awesome reputation for

dealing effectively with "over-mighty subjects." Various

other sub-bodies, with special duties, gradually took on the appearance of separate institutions, but such definition

was slow and never

the

administration,

represented

the

system.

always

gradual

precedents and the

absolute.

The whole growth by

dictated

hardening

proliferation

of

of an

of

convenience,

expedients

into

unpremeditated

The Western Monarchies

13

Summary In

the

two

century,

fifteenth

great

new

phenomena almost completely transformed life

political

the political

of western and west-central Europe. Both centralized

administration and national consciousness emerged with the development of

new

The one gave sinew and

states.

the other spirit of these evolving monarchies, enabling their kings

and princes to consolidation

territorial

establish dynasties

with

the

and pursue of

services

trained

bureaucrats and disciplined armies, as well as with the enthusiastic support of that

kind

of

national

new

union under

element "the people. " popular

dynasties

A

was

achieved, not only in Spain, France, and England, but also in

Burgundy and

regions of Italy and

sovereigns,

although a few,

France and the bishops of to

Germany. Most

had to submit to the new

surviving feudal magnates

such

Durham

preserve substantial elements

Bourbons

the

as

in England,

managed

of independence.

ordinary nobles, however, lost purpose

as

in

well as

The

power

while the bourgeois, making tremendous gains in status

and self-confidence, increasingly replaced them in royal

was the monarchs, however, who made gains and whose appetite for power increased

administration. It

the greatest

the most. Thus, during the fifteenth century a great deal

had been done to expand the jurisdiction increase the authority of monarchical levels,

but

gargantuan tasks

builders of the

modern

state.

as

well as

government on

remained

for

the

all

future

In western and west-central

Europe the ultimate triumph of the prince and raison d'etat over the feudal lords and chivalry was by 1500 inevitable

though

still

incomplete.

74

Age

of Recovery

CHAPTER

IV

Political Patterns

EASTERN climate,

Europe, in both

soil,

The

history and geography,

Because of poorer

and topography, the East was underdevel-

population of the Balkan Peninsula, tied more

to the Mediterranean

lowed

its

sharply with the West.

contrasted

oped.

East

the

lead

of

than to the Continent, had fol-

Byzantium;

but

peoples

the

that

inhabited the cold plains of eastern Europe lagged far

behind and only slowly came to develop monarchies, accept Christianity, and even use the plow.

they had contributed

little

however,

If,

to the advance of civilization

before 1300, during the next 150 years they nearly over-

took their neighbors to the west.

During the fourteenth and early

when western and

fifteenth

centuries,

west-central Europe, in the grip of

famine, plague, and wars, seemed on the point of eco-

nomic and

Elbe and the Dnieper prospered. For the area played civilization.

the

a

A

positive

great

role

in

the

agricultural

of

expansion

began trading with the commercial

time this

first

history

growth of towns, and those along the

rivers

between the

political disintegration, the lands

western

stimulated

seacoasts cities

and

of the

Age

of

Recovery

Mediterranean and North Sea. 1

unctions on the sreppes.

central

1400.

Europe seemed as rivals

economy

of west-

and by

of England, France, and Castile. But finally

began

and trade

to revive

once

into the Atlantic, the East

behind, never again to challenge the economic

fell

pre-eminence of

Those

well as with the caravan

to be shitting to the east,

when the hard-hit West moved increasingly out more

.15

old urban

Bohemia, and Hungary appeared to be

Poland.

emerging

The

its

better-place rivals.

local rulers in east-central

Europe who had been

trying to take advantage of the economic the rising

boom

monarchs of the West ultimately

efforts to create centralized

to emulate

failed in their

kingdoms. The towns, whose

counterparts were proving such vigorous

allies

of royal

authority in the West, never became strong enough to

play the same decisive

role.

As

the eastern kings

a result,

had none of the basic elements of power necessary to subjugate their nobility or to integrate them into effective bureaucracies or standing armies.

magnates,

who

Even

the

many

local

transformed their traditional position as

more independent status of to form stable principalities. Their one important success was defensive. By uniting in representative estates, or diets, they were able to resist tribal

feudal

chieftains lords,

into

the

were unable

the efforts of would-be to old legends of

monarchs

to give

new

substance

once powerful kingdoms. Though

monarchs survived

as figureheads,

thev found no

a

few

signifi-

cant class or segment of the population to support their pretensions.

Even

the peasants lacked the ethnic, linguis-

tic,

and religious homogeneity that was contributing to

the

new

sense of national identity in various parts of the

West. Only along the eastern frontier did strong emerge; but both the Grand

Duchy

of

states

Muscovy and

the

Political Patterns East

77

Ottoman Empire were more Oriental and despotic in character than European and feudal. Geography and history thus again conspired to retard the political and

economic development of eastern Europe.

Geography, Peoples, and Religions Eastern Europe has always been as a

geographic

boundary

is

much

its

a cultural as

traditional

eastern

by

the line

defined

it is

predominantly Slavic ethnic and linguistic

from the Germanic or

Europe. In the north

and

Though

the Urals, in the west

that divides areas

concept.

by

in the south

Italian territories of central

this division

the Adriatic.

is

effected

The

line

by

the Baltic

connecting the

two seas is bent toward the west by the Harz and Bohemian Mountains that define Bohemia, and then toward the east by the upper Danube Valley that thrusts beyond Vienna to the famous Iron Gate formed by the eastern Alps and western Carpathians that meet at the river.

For those

familiar with the

map

of Europe in the

second half of the twentieth century, readily satellites

recognizable

and the

as

West

the

—with

that since the 1200's East

this

"curtain"

will be

line

between Soviet

only the single difference

Germany was

considered part

of western Europe.

Even where

these

boundaries

were geographical

in

character they offered no serious impediment to migration

and,

since

time immemorial, invaders have swept

into the great central plain that constitutes the bulk of

the area.

The

vast forest areas in the north

and west and

the Carpathian and Balkan Mountains in the

southeast

served primarily to slow the westward advance and to precipitate population deposits that

of

linguistic,

ethnic,

and

produced

eventually

a

complex

cultural

units.

-

;

of Recovery

A2J

Although these groups were not separated by well-defined

by

boundaries,

a pattern that

the end of the Middle

Ages they formed

recognizable today.

is still

During the great migrations of the early Middle Ages. Slavic-speaking peoples came to populate most of eastern

Europe. Three basic groups evolved: the Western Slavs, settled in a triangular area

with

ward

plateau;

Bohemian

the

into

its

apex thrusrinsr westthe

Southern

based between the Danube River and the Balkan

and

tains;

in

what

is

finally the

into

Eastern Slavs, or Russians. located

today European Russia. In time each

subgroups

Sbvs

speaking

Wends.

languages:

distinct

or Ruthemim

were

(the last .

the

split into

Western

and Slovaks; the White Russians, and

Sorbs, Poles. Czechs,

Eastern Slavs into Great Russians. Little Russians,

Slavs,

Moun-

mi

ans. Slovenes. Serbs,

also

known

as

Ukrainians

the Southern Slavs into Macedoni-

and Croats.

Non-Slavic peoples had

gained

also

a

place in eastern

Europe by the end of the early Middle Ages. Five of them spoke Finno-Ugric languages.

Of

these the Finns, in the

extreme north, and the Estonians, Livs. and Cours,

just

south of the Gulf of Finland, lived on the eastern shores

of the Baltic, while the Magyars occupied the center of the

Danube

—

group

Valley. Another major non-Slavic linguistic

the Letts. Lithuanians, and Prussians,

— was

lectively as

Baits

strung

known

col-

out along the southern

shore of the Baltic Sea. Along the lower Danube, in what is

now Rumania,

least

in

the

—from

part

Vlachs.

Roman

language derived from Latin. Bulgars. in spite of their

probably

settlers,

To

Mongol

descended

—

at

spoke a Romance

the south of them, the origin,

Slavic language, while at the southern

had adopted a

end of the Balkan

Peninsula the Greeks, though mixed with Slavic imrni-

Political Patterns East

grants, continued to speak their

plete the

from

it

list,

own

y