Centralization Of Power In The Middle Ages Essay

Towards the end of the Middle Ages, many European nation-states were making gains to become more unified. However, the Hundred Years’ War and the Black Plague made doing so increasingly difficult. Much of Europe was still recovering economically and France and England’s military was astonishingly weakened. Despite the turmoil in Northern Europe, the Italian Renaissance brought about changes in political and social thinking which may have, in turn, precipitated much of Northern Europe into its growth and formation into more unified Nation States. The centralization of the papacy, the limitation of power of the nobility and the unification between the 2 kingdoms of Spain propelled Northern Europe into a new era of prosperity and unification. The centralization of power in the state and the collapse of the feudal system in France helped the rest of Northern Europe make strides
toward unification. Towards the end of the 15th century, France was making great strides in recovering from the Hundred Years’ War that had ravaged the country years earlier. Charles VII had nearly kicked the English army out of France, with the exception of Calais. Shortly after this, he reorganized the royal council which gave influence to lawyers and bankers, as well as strengthened royal finances through taxes on salt as well as land, which made French more financially stable than in the previous half-century. This financial strength was put to use by financing the French military which also revitalized the French military at that time, as well as attempted to control the nobles’ separate militia. After France finally gained economic and social stability for the first time in years, the last hier of the House of Anjou died and France subsequently gained their territory. This marked the beginning of the collapse of the feudal system in France, and it was only a matter of time before the feudal system was done away with. While meeting with Pope Leo X, they came up with the Concordat of Bologna, which gave the pope the first year’s income of new abbots and bishops in return for the right for the king to choose the bishops and abbots. This effectively ended the feudal system in France due to the king’s right to choose the bishops and not the pope himself. However, France was not the only country to undergo radical change during this time period, and the era of nobility in England was about to come to an end. In England, the War of the Roses was waging as Henry VI was on the throne, but being mentally disturbed, the monarchy only sank lower and lower into a deep and dark political abyss. However, Edward IV succeeded in defeating the Lancastrian forces (the war was between the houses of York and Lancaster) and worked to reconstruct the monarchy soon after. Edward IV then conducted foreign policy on the basis of avoiding costly wars, which removed England’s reliance on Parliament and as a result, aristocratic influence slowly began to dwindle. Another one of Henry VII’s focuses was on his concern on his distrust of the nobility, so he then chose his advisors and court from the commoners and landowners who were well-trained in law. Another way of securing his countries stability among neighboring nations was by marrying his eldest son, Arthur, to Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, and made strides in the unification of the two nation states. However, Spain wouldn’t become fully unified until the late 19th century. Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain followed in the footsteps of England and France, to gain power over the areas where Spain was divided into Kingdoms.
The first step that they took was to limit aristocratic influence in monarchical happenings, so they instead chose landowners to serve on the councils and serve the legislative and consultative purposes of the Spanish monarchy. This helped to centralize the power in the government by making the commoners have an influence in society, instead of only having the wealthy nobility being in charge of everything, which probably helped bridge the gap between the nobility and the commoners. Ferdinand and Isabella also got the approval from Pope Alexander VI to have the right to choose their own bishops for their churches, as well as to make churches in Hispanic America, which then led to the development of a national church in Spain. Due to the social power of the aristocracy combined with the power of the church, the revenue from the church estates was used to purchase some of the smaller Spanish nation states, thus working towards a unified
Spain.