Europe in Crisis: The Wars of Religion

Social Crises, War, and Revolution

Response to Crisis: Absolutism

The World of European Culture

Crisis and Absolutism in Europe, 1550-1715

Europe in Crisis: The Wars of Religion

Objectives:

1. Discuss the situation in many European nations in which Protestants and

Catholics fought for political and religious

control

2. Summarize how, during the sixteenth and

seventeenth centuries, many European rulers

extended their power and their borders

The French Wars of Religion

By 1560, Calvinism and Catholicism had become

highly militant (combative) religions

Aggressive wars emerged trying to win converts and in eliminating each other’s

authority

Economic, social, and political forces also played

an important role

French Civil Wars—”French Wars of Religion” (1562-1598)

The French kings persecuted Protestants

*Huguenots were French Protestants influenced by John Calvin

An extreme Catholic party—known as the ultra-Catholics—strongly opposed

the Huguenots

The religious wars, and those who fought in them, sought political and

economic gain

*Henry of Navarre, the political leader of the

Huguenots and member of the Bourbon dynasty,

succeeded to the throne as Henry IV

Converted to Catholicism to solidify his reign

Issued the *Edict of Nantes in 1598—recognized

Catholicism as the official religion but gave

Huguenots the right to worship

Philip II and Militant Catholicism

*King Philip II of Spain, the son and heir of Charles V

He ushered into an age of Spanish greatness, both politically and

culturally

Empire included Spain, the Netherlands, possessions in Italy,

and the Americas

He insisted on a strict conformity to Catholicism

Spain saw itself as a nation of people chosen by God to save Catholic Christianity from the

Protestant heretics

The Spanish Netherlands were the richest parts of the

empire

Philip tried to crush Calvinism in the Netherlands

The Dutch, under leadership of *William the Silent, the prince of Orange, offered

growing resistance

Spain had the most populous empire in the world. Spain controlled

almost all of South America and a number of settlements

in Asia and Africa

Philip II brought Spain to bankruptcy for spending too

much on the war

By the end of the war, real power in Europe had shifted

to England and France

The England of Elizabeth

*Elizabeth Tudor ascended the throne of England

During her reign, England entered a Golden age and laid a foundation for a world empire

She repealed the laws favoring Catholics

Act of Supremacy named Elizabeth “the only supreme

governor” of both church and state

Moderate in her foreign policy, trying to keep out of conflict with Spain and France

If one nation seemed to be gaining in power,

England would support the weaker nation

Philip attempted to overthrown England

with a massive armada

Objectives:

1. Discuss the situation in many European nations in which Protestants and

Catholics fought for political and religious

control

2. Summarize how, during the sixteenth and

seventeenth centuries, many European rulers

extended their power and their borders

Social Crises, War, and Revolution

Objectives:

1. Explain how the Thirty Years’ War ended the

unity of the Holy Roman Empire

2. Relate how democratic ideals were strengthened as a result of the English

and Glorious Revolutions

Economic and Social Crises

One of the greatest issues was *inflation

The great influx of gold and silver from the Americas was

one factor

Spain’s economy grew dependent on imported silver

Population increased from 60 million in 1500 to 85 million

by 1600

The Witchcraft Trials

The religious zeal that led to the Inquisition and the hunt for

heretics was extended to concern about witchcraft

Perhaps more than a hundred thousand people were charged

with witchcraft

More than 75 percent of those accused were women—single or widowed and over 50 years old

Features and accusations

against witches: sworn allegiance

to the devil, black Sabbaths, and evil spells

Witch trials and the witchcraft

hysteria

The Thirty Years’ War

Calvinism had not been recognized by the peace settlement

Religion played an important role in the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War, called the “last of the religious wars”

All major European powers except England became involved. For 30

years Germany was plundered and destroyed

The Peace of Westphalia officially ended the war in Germany in 1648

The Peace of Westphalia stated that all German states, including

the Calvinist ones, could determine

their own religion

This brought an end to the Holy

Roman Empire as a political entity

Revolutions in England

A series of rebellions and civil wars rocked Europe

in the seventeenth century

The most famous struggle was the English

Revolution, a struggle between king and

Parliament to determine what role each should

play

The Stuarts and Divine Right

The Stuart line of rulers began with the accession to the throne of Elizabeth’s cousin, the king

of Scotland, who became *James I of England

Parliament did not think much of the divine right of kings—something James I believed

fervently

*The Puritans did not like the king’s strong defense of the

Church of England

The Puritan gentry formed an important part

of the House of Commons, the lower house of Parliament

The conflict that began during the reign of James

came to a head during the reign of his son,

*Charles I

Charles also tried to impose more ritual on the

Church of England

Civil War and the CommonwealthCivil war emerged between

supporters of the king (*Cavaliers) and the parliamentary forces

(*Roundheads—because of their short hair)

*Oliver Cromwell, a military genius, took control of the

Parliament and purged members who did not support

him

Charles I was executed in 1649

Parliament abolished the monarchy and the House

of the Lords

After destroying both king and Parliament,

Cromwell set up a military dictatorship

This was one of the first steps toward ending the concept of “Divine Right

of Kingship”

The RestorationCromwell ruled until his

death in 1658

Parliament restored the monarchy in the person of

Charles II, the son of Charles I

The Stuart monarchy gained much of its power back

James II (made king in 1685) and was a devout catholic, an

unsettling issue for the Parliament

A Glorious Revolution

Parliament invited the Dutch leader, William of

Orange—a Protestant leader

With almost no bloodshed, England had undergone a

“Glorious Revolution”

A Bill of Rights was created which helped fashioned

system of government based on the rule of law and a

freely elected Parliament

Objectives:

1. Explain how the Thirty Years’ War ended the

unity of the Holy Roman Empire

2. Relate how democratic ideals were strengthened as a result of the English

and Glorious Revolutions

Response to Crisis: Absolutism

Objectives:

1. Identity and describe Louis XIV, an absolute monarch whose extravagant lifestyle and military campaigns weakened France

2. Discuss how Prussia, Austria, and Russia emerged as great European powers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

France Under Louis XIV

Absolutism is a system in which a ruler holds total

power

The reign of Louis XIV has long been

regarded as the best example of the

practice of absolutism in the

seventeenth century

Richelieu and Mazarin

*Cardinal Richelieu, Louis XIII’s chief

minister, strengthened the power of the

monarchy. Because the Huguenots were seen

as a threat to the king’s power, Richelieu took

away their political and military rights

while preserving their religious rights

Government and ReligionThe royal court that Louis established at Versailles served

three purposes: personal household, chief offices of the state, and powerful subjects

came to find favorsLouis neutralized the power of

high nobles

He had complete authority over foreign policy, the Church, and

taxes

His power was only limited at the local level

The king bribed important people in the

provinces to see that his policies were

carried out

The desire to keep this power led Louis to

pursue an anti-Protestant policy aimed

at converting the Huguenots to Catholicism

The Economy and War

Louis wished to ensure the

domination of his Bourbon dynasty

over European affairs

Louis waged four wars between 1667

and 1713

Legacy of Louis XIV

In 1715, the Sun King

died. He left France with great debts

and surrounded by enemies

Absolutism in Central and Eastern Europe

After the Thirty Years’ War, there was no

German state, but over 300 “Germanies.”

Prussia and Austria are the only states to

emerge

The Emergence of Prussia

*Frederick William the Great Elector laid the foundation

for the Prussian state

He built a large and efficient standing army—the fourth-

largest in Europe

Many of its officials were members of the Prussian

landed aristocracy, known as the Junkers

The New Austrian Empire

The Hapsburg made a difficult transition in the

seventeenth century. They had lost the German Empire, but now they created a new

empire in eastern and southeastern Europe

After the defeat of the Turks in 1687, Austria took control

of all of Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, and

Slavonia

The Austrian monarchy, however,

never became a highly centralized,

absolutist state, chiefly because it

was made up of so many different national groups

Russia Under Peter the Great

In the sixteenth century, Ivan IV became the first ruler to take the title of czar, the Russian word for

caesar

Ivan expanded the territories of Russia eastward

*Peter the Great claimed the divine right to rule

He was determined to westernize, or Europeanize, Russia and eager to Borrow European technology

Military and Governmental and Cultural Changes

He employed both Russians and Europeans as officers,

forming the first Russian navy

Peter introduced Western customs, practices, and

manners into Russia

The cutting of beards, the cut cloaks, and the removal of veils

Construction of St. Petersburg

Objectives:

1. Identity and describe Louis XIV, an absolute monarch whose extravagant lifestyle and military campaigns weakened France

2. Discuss how Prussia, Austria, and Russia emerged as great European powers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

The World of European Culture

Objectives:

1. Describe the artistic movements of Mannerism

and the baroque, which began in Italy and reflected the spiritual perceptions of

the time

2. Identify Shakespeare and Lope de Vega, prolific writers of dramas and

comedies that reflected the human condition

Mannerism

Emerged in Italy in the 1520s and 1530s

The worldly enthusiasm of the Renaissance declined as people grew anxious and uncertain and wished for spiritual experience

The rules of proportion were deliberately ignored as

elongated figures were used to show suffering, heightened

emotions, and religious ecstasy

High point in the work of *El Greco

elongated and contorted figures,

portraying them in unusual shades of yellow and green against an eerie background of stormy grays

The Baroque Period

Baroque artists tried to bring together the classical ideals of

Renaissance art with the spiritual feelings of the 16th century

religious revival

Dramatic effects to arouse the emotions

Reflected the search for power

*Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who

completed Saint Peter’s Basilica in

Rome

Bernini’s Throne of Saint Peter is a highly decorated cover for the pope;s medieval

wooden throne

Artemisia Gentileschi—famous for her

pictures of heroines from the Old

Testament (Judith Beheading

Holofernes)

A Golden Age of Literature

England’s ShakespeareOf all the forms of

Elizabethan literature, none expressed the energy of the

era better than drama

Although best known for writing plays, he was also

an actor and shareholder in the chief theater company

of the time, the lord Chamberlain’s Men

Spanish LiteratureTouring companies brought the latest Spanish plays to

all parts of the Spanish Empire

*Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, one of the greatest literary works of all time

The Knight and Sancho Panza, an image of both the dreamer and the hard work of reality are necessary to

the human condition

Political Thought

The English revolutions of the

17th century prompted very

different responses from two English political thinkers, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke

Hobbes

humans were guided not by reason and

moral ideals but by a ruthless struggle for

self-preservation

Rebellion must be suppressed. To

Hobbes, such absolute power was needed to

preserve order in society

John Locke—Two Treatises of Government

He argued against the absolute rule of one person

Locke believed that before society was organized,

humans lived in a state of equality and freedom

rather than a state of war

natural rights—life, liberty, and property

People found it difficult to protect their natural rights. For that reason, they agreed to establish a government to

ensure the protection of their rights

Locke was not an advocate of democracy, but his ideas proved important to both America and the French in

the eighteenth century

Objectives:

1. Describe the artistic movements of Mannerism

and the baroque, which began in Italy and reflected the spiritual perceptions of

the time

2. Identify Shakespeare and Lope de Vega, prolific writers of dramas and

comedies that reflected the human condition