1. Renaissance Politics

2. Society Italian society highly stratified
Popolo grasso (“fat people”) at the top, middle class, wealthier merchants leading artisans, professionals
Popolo minuto (“little people”) workers, small merchants, lesser artisan
Very bottom: servants and slaves
In Florence, top 1%, (about 100 families) controlled 25% of wealth
Marriages were often arranged among upper classes for wealth and status
Dowries exchanged
Patriarchal society
Northern European women enjoyed more freedom and equality than Italian women

3. Politics
Niccolo Machiavelli applied humanist ideas and scientific approach to study of politics and government in The Prince, a study of past readers and advice book for Renaissance rulers

4. Ruled colonial empire from Adriatic to Aegean Seas
Venice
Florence
Compared to Venice, very unstable, dynamic, constant civic strife
By 1434, Medici family, headed by Cosimo emerged as dominant family; Cosimo never held political office but established firm grip om city
Medicis became papal bankers
Cosimo’s grandson Lorenzo (‘the Magnificent”) assumed power 1478
After his death, Medicis were driven from power, returned, driven from power again, returned
Ruled colonial empire from Adriatic to Aegean Seas
Dominated Mediterranean
Threatened by Ottomans
Ruled by oligarchy of aristocrat merchants who annually elected the Doge from amongst themselves
“Most Serene Republic”

6. Duchy under hereditary rule since early 1400
Milan
Papal States
Duchy under hereditary rule since early 1400
most powerful state , military power
Visconti family ruled until 1447; Sforza family took over
Determined to restore Papal authority after the Great Schism, popes used wealth politics and culture
Politically: curbed local power, expanded papal govt, increased taxation, expanded papal army and navy, and extended papal diplomacy
Culturally: renovated churches, created Vatican Library, sponsored artists, and patronized writers to glorify them

8. Monarchies and Empires
As Italian states feuded, other states in Europe expanded their power and centralized monarchial control
Burgundy became a power in 1400s

9. England
Spain
Wars of the Roses between Houses of Lancaster and York in late 1400s ended when Henry Tudor emerged victorious and established Tudor Dynasty as Henry VII
Isabella of Castile married Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469, uniting their small kingdoms and embarking on a campaign to unite Spain and drive Muslims out, the Reconquista
1492, success, Ferdinand and Isabella became the leading defenders of the faith
Drove out Muslims, instituted Spanish Inquisition to control the conversos (jewish converts)
Jews ordered to convert or leave

11. France won the Hundred Years War but emerged under Burgundy’s shadow
Central and Eastern Europe
Hungary, Bohemia, Poland failed to centralize power in the hands of monarchs who were elected by the nobles in each country
France won the Hundred Years War but emerged under Burgundy’s shadow
Louis XI seized Burgundian land and expanded French territory in 1470s
Also established Gallicanism, giving French kings control over church revenues and appointment of French bishops