An Introduction to the History of Western Europe Part 37

The period of which we have been speaking was, in short, by no means merely distinguished for the revival of cla.s.sical learning. It was not simply a re-birth of the ancient knowledge and art, but a time during which Europe laid the foundations for a development essentially different from that of the ancient world and for achievements undreamed of by Aristotle or Pliny.

General Reading.--The culture of Italy during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is best treated by BURCKHARDT, _The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy_ (The Macmillan Company, $4.00). This is especially adapted for the rather advanced student.

The towns are interestingly described in SYMONDS, _Age of Despots_ (Scribner's Sons, $2.00). For Florence and the Medici, see ARMSTRONG, _Lorenzo de' Medici and Florence in the Fifteenth Century_ (G.P. Putnam's Sons, $1.50). MACHIAVELLI'S _Prince_ may be had in translation (Clarendon Press, $1.10). The best prose translation of DANTE'S _Divine Comedy_ is that of Charles Eliot Norton (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 3 vols., $4.50). In ROBINSON and ROLFE, _Petrarch the First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters_ (G.P.

Putnam's Sons, $2.00), the reader will find much material to ill.u.s.trate the beginnings of humanism. The volume consists mainly of Petrarch's own letters to his friends. The introduction gives a much fuller account of his work than it was possible to include in the present volume. For similar material from other writers of the time, see WHITCOMB, _A Literary Source Book of the Italian Renaissance_ (Philadelphia, $1.00). The autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini is a very amusing and instructive book by one of the well-known artists of the sixteenth century. Roscoe's translation in the Bohn series (The Macmillan Company, $1.00) is to be recommended for school libraries.

The greatest of the sources for the lives of the artists is VASARI, _Lives of Seventy of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects_. This may be had in the Temple Cla.s.sics (The Macmillan Company, 8 vols., 50 cents each) or a selection of the more important lives admirably edited in Blashfield and Hopkins'

carefully annotated edition (Scribner's Sons, 4 vols., $8.00).

Vasari was a contemporary of Michael Angelo and Cellini, and writes in a simple and charming style. The outlines of the history of the various branches of art, with ample bibliographies, are given in the "College Histories of Art," edited by John C. Van d.y.k.e; viz., VAN d.y.k.e, _The History of Painting_, HAMLIN, _The History of Architecture_, and MARQUAND and FROTHINGHAM, _The History of Sculpture_ (Longmans, Green & Co., each $2.00). Larger works with more ill.u.s.trations, which might be found in any good town library are: FERGUSSON, _History of Modern Architecture_, LuBKE, _History of Sculpture_, WOLTMANN and WOERMANN, _History of Painting_, and FLETCHER, _A History of Architecture_. Two companies publish very inexpensive reproductions of works of art: the so-called Perry pictures at a cent apiece, and the still better Cosmos pictures (Cosmos Picture Company, New York), costing somewhat more.

For the invention of printing see DE VINNE, _The Invention of Printing_, unfortunately out of print, and BLADES, _Pentateuch of Printing_ (London, $4.75). Also PUTNAM, _Books and their Makers during the Middle Ages_, Vol. I (G.P. Putnam's Sons, $2.50).

CHAPTER XXIII

EUROPE AT THE OPENING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

129. Two events took place in the early sixteenth century which fundamentally influenced the history of Europe. (1) By a series of royal marriages a great part of western Europe was brought under the control of a single ruler, Emperor Charles V. He inherited Burgundy, Spain, portions of Italy, and the Austrian territories; and, in 1519, he was chosen emperor. There had been no such dominion as his in Europe since the time of Charlemagne. Within its bounds lay Vienna, Brussels, Madrid, Palermo, Naples, Milan, even the city of Mexico. Its creation and the struggles which accompanied its dissolution form one of the most important chapters in the history of modern Europe. (2) Just at the time that Charles was a.s.suming the responsibilities that his vast domains brought with them, the first successful revolt against the mediaeval Church was beginning. This was to result in the disruption of the Church and the establishment of two great religious parties, the Catholic and the Protestant, which have endured down to the present time. The purpose of the present chapter is to describe the origin, extent, and character of the empire of Charles V, and to prepare the reader to grasp the _political_ import of the Protestant revolt.

Before mentioning the family alliances which led to the consolidation of such tremendous political power in the hands of one person, it will be necessary, first, to note the rise of the house of Hapsburg to which Charles belonged, and secondly, to account for the appearance in European affairs of Spain, which has. .h.i.therto scarcely come into our story.

[Sidenote: Reasons why the German kings failed to establish a strong state.]

The German kings had failed to create a strong kingdom such as those over which Louis XI of France and Henry VII of England ruled. Their fine t.i.tle of "emperor" had made them a great deal of trouble, as we have seen.[249] Their attempts to keep Italy as well as Germany under their rule, and the alliance of the mighty Bishop of Rome with their enemies had well-nigh ruined them. Their position was further weakened by their failure to render their office strictly hereditary. Although the emperors were often succeeded by their sons, each new emperor had to be _elected_, and those great va.s.sals who controlled the election naturally took care to bind the candidate by solemn promises not to interfere with their privileges and independence. The result was that, after the downfall of the Hohenstaufens, Germany fell apart into a great number of practically independent states, of which none were very large and some were extremely small.

[Sidenote: Rudolf of Hapsburg gets possession of Austria.]

After an interregnum, Rudolf of Hapsburg had been chosen emperor in 1273.[250] The original seat of the Hapsburgs, who were destined to play a great part in European affairs, was in northern Switzerland, where the vestiges of their original castle may still be seen. Rudolf was the first prominent member of the family; he established its position and influence by seizing the duchies of Austria and Styria, which were to become, under his successors, the nucleus of the extensive Austrian possessions.

[Sidenote: The imperial t.i.tle becomes practically hereditary in the house of Austria.]

About a century and a half after the death of Rudolf the electors began regularly to choose as emperor the ruler of the Austrian possessions, so that the imperial t.i.tle became, to all intents and purposes, hereditary in the Hapsburg line.[251] The Hapsburgs were, however, far more interested in adding to their family domains than in advancing the interests of the now almost defunct Holy Roman Empire. This, in the memorable words of Voltaire, had ceased to be either holy, or Roman, or an empire.

[Sidenote: Maximilian I, 1493-1519, extends the power of the Hapsburgs over the Netherlands and Spain.]

Maximilian I, who was emperor at the opening of the sixteenth century, was absorbed in his foreign enterprises rather than in the improvement of the German government. Like so many of his predecessors, he was especially anxious to get possession of northern Italy. By his marriage with the daughter of Charles the Bold he brought the Netherlands into what proved a fateful union with Austria.[252] Still more important was the extension of the power of the Hapsburgs over Spain, a country which had hitherto had almost no connection with Germany.

[Sidenote: Arab civilization in Spain.]

130. The Mohammedan conquest served to make the history of Spain very different from that of the other states of Europe. One of its first and most important results was the conversion of a great part of the inhabitants to Mohammedanism.[253] During the tenth century, which was so dark a period in the rest of Europe, the Arab civilization in Spain reached its highest development. The various elements in the population, Roman, Gothic, Arab, and Berber, appear to have been thoroughly amalgamated. Agriculture, industry, commerce, art, and the sciences made rapid progress. Cordova, with its half million of inhabitants, its stately palaces, its university, its three thousand mosques and three hundred public baths, was perhaps unrivaled at that period in the whole world. There were thousands of students at the university of Cordova at a time when, in the North, only clergymen had mastered even the simple arts of reading and writing. This brilliant civilization lasted, however, for hardly more than a hundred years. By the middle of the eleventh century the caliphate of Cordova had fallen to pieces, and shortly afterwards the country was overrun by new invaders from Africa.

[Sidenote: The rise of new Christian kingdoms in Spain.]

Meanwhile the vestiges of the earlier Christian rule continued to exist in the mountain fastnesses of northern Spain. Even as early as the year 1000,[254] several small Christian kingdoms--Castile, Aragon, and Navarre--had come into existence. Castile, in particular, began to push back the demoralized Arabs and, in 1085, reconquered Toledo from them.

Aragon also widened its bounds by incorporating Barcelona and conquering the territory watered by the Ebro. By 1250, the long war of the Christians against the Mohammedans, which fills the mediaeval annals of Spain, had been so successfully prosecuted that Castile extended to the south coast and included the great towns of Cordova and Seville. The kingdom of Portugal was already as large as it is to-day.

[Sidenote: Granada and Castile.]

The Moors, as the Spanish Mohammedans were called, maintained themselves for two centuries more in the mountainous kingdom of Granada, in the southern part of the peninsula. During this period, Castile, which was the largest of the Spanish kingdoms and embraced all the central part of the peninsula, was too much occupied by internal feuds and struggles over the crown to wage successful war against the Moorish kingdom to the south.

[Sidenote: Marriage of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon.]

[Sidenote: Granada, the last Moorish stronghold, falls.]

The first Spanish monarch whose name need be mentioned here was Queen Isabella of Castile, who, in 1469, concluded an all-important marriage with Ferdinand, the heir of the crown of Aragon. It is with the resulting union of Castile and Aragon that the great importance of Spain in European history begins. For the next hundred years Spain was to enjoy more military power than any other European state. Ferdinand and Isabella undertook to complete the conquest of the peninsula, and in 1492, after a long siege, the city of Granada fell into their hands, and therewith the last vestige of Moorish domination disappeared.[255]

[Ill.u.s.tration: EUROPE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY]

[Sidenote: Spain's income from the New World enables her to become a European power.]

In the same year that the conquest of the peninsula was completed, the discoveries of Columbus, made under the auspices of Queen Isabella, opened up the sources of undreamed-of wealth beyond the seas. The transient greatness of Spain in the sixteenth century is largely to be attributed to the riches which poured in from her American possessions.

The shameless and cruel looting of the Mexican and Peruvian cities by Cortez and Pizarro, and the products of the silver mines of the New World, enabled Spain to a.s.sume, for a time, a position in Europe which her internal strength and normal resources would never have permitted.

[Sidenote: Persecution of the Jews and Moors.]

[Sidenote: The revival of the Inquisition.]

Unfortunately, the most industrious, skillful, and thrifty among the inhabitants of Spain, i.e., the Moors and the Jews, who well-nigh supported the whole kingdom with the products of their toil, were bitterly persecuted by the Christians. So anxious was Isabella to rid her kingdom of the infidels that she revived the court of the Inquisition.[256] For several decades its tribunals arrested and condemned innumerable persons who were suspected of heresy, and thousands were burned at the stake during this period. These wholesale executions have served to a.s.sociate Spain especially with the horrors of the Inquisition. Finally, in 1609, the Moors were driven out of the country altogether. The persecution diminished or disheartened the most useful and enterprising portion of the Spanish people, and speedily and permanently crippled a country which in the sixteenth century was granted an unrivaled opportunity to become a flourishing and powerful monarchy.

[Sidenote: Heritage of Charles V.]

Maximilian, the German emperor, was not satisfied with securing Burgundy for his house by his marriage with the daughter of Charles the Bold. He also arranged a marriage between their son, Philip, and Joanna, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. Philip died in 1506, and his poor wife, Joanna, became insane with grief and was thus incapacitated for ruling. So their eldest son, Charles, could look forward to an unprecedented acc.u.mulation of glorious t.i.tles as soon as his grand-fathers, Maximilian and Ferdinand, should pa.s.s away.[257] He was soon to be duke of Brabant, margrave of Antwerp, count of Holland, archduke of Austria, count of Tyrol, king of Castile, Aragon, and Naples, and of the vast Spanish possessions in America,--to mention a few of his more important t.i.tles.

[Sidenote: Charles and his Spanish possessions.]

Ferdinand died in 1516, and Charles, now a lad of sixteen, who had been born and reared in the Netherlands, was much bewildered when he landed in his Spanish dominions. His Flemish advisers were distasteful to the haughty Spaniards; suspicion and opposition awaited him in each of his several Spanish kingdoms, for he found by no means a united Spain. Each kingdom demanded special recognition of its rights and suggested important reforms before it would acknowledge Charles as its king.

[Sidenote: Charles elected emperor, 1519.]

It seemed as if the boy would have his hands full in a.s.serting his authority as "king of Spain"; nevertheless, a still more imposing t.i.tle and still more perplexing responsibilities were to fall upon his shoulders before he was twenty years old. It had long been Maximilian's ambition that his grandson should succeed him upon the imperial throne.

After his death in 1519 the electors finally chose Charles instead of the rival candidate, Francis I of France. By this election the king of Spain, who had not yet been in Germany and who never learned its language, became its ruler at a critical juncture, when the teachings of Luther were producing unprecedented dissension and political distraction. We shall hereafter refer to him by his imperial t.i.tle of Charles V.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Charles V]

131. In order to understand the Europe of Charles V and the constant wars which occupied him all his life, we must turn back and review the questions which had been engaging the attention of his fellow-kings before he came to the throne. It is particularly necessary to see clearly how Italy had suddenly become the center of commotion,--the battlefield for Spain, France, and Germany.

[Sidenote: Charles VIII of France invades Italy.]

Charles VIII of France (1483-1498) possessed little of the practical sagacity of his father, Louis XI. He dreamed of a mighty expedition against the Turks and of the conquest of Constantinople. As the first step he determined to lead an army into Italy and a.s.sert his claim, inherited from his father, to the kingdom of Naples, which was in the hands of the house of Aragon.[258] While Italy had everything to lose by permitting a powerful monarch to get a foothold in the South, there was no probability that the various little states into which the peninsula was divided would lay aside their perpetual animosities and combine against the invader. On the contrary, Charles VIII was urged by some of the Italians themselves to come.

[Sidenote: Savonarola and Charles VIII.]

Had Lorenzo the Magnificent still been alive, he might have organized a league to oppose the French king, but he had died in 1492, two years before Charles started. Lorenzo's sons failed to maintain the influence over the people of Florence which their father had enjoyed; and the leadership of the city fell into the hands of the Dominican friar, Savonarola, whose fervid preaching attracted and held for a time the attention of the fickle Florentine populace. He believed himself to be a prophet, and proclaimed that G.o.d was about to scourge Italy for its iniquities, and that men should flee before His wrath by renouncing their lives of sin and pleasure.

When Savonarola heard of the French invasion, it appeared to him that this was indeed the looked-for scourge of G.o.d, which might afflict, but would also purify, the Church. His prophecies seemed to be fulfilled, and his listeners were stricken with terror. As Charles approached Florence, the people rose in revolt against the Medici, sacked their palaces, and drove out the three sons of Lorenzo. Savonarola became the chief figure in the new republic which was established. Charles was admitted into Florence, but his ugly, insignificant figure disappointed the Florentines. They soon made it clear to him that they would not regard him in any sense as a conqueror, and would oppose a prolonged occupation by the French. Savonarola said to him: "The people are afflicted by your stay in Florence, and you waste your time. G.o.d has called you to renew His Church. Go forth to your high calling lest G.o.d visit you in His wrath and choose another instrument in your stead to carry out His designs." So, after a week's stay, the French army left Florence and proceeded on its southward journey.