CCSS2 Unit 9 Handout 1: ABSOLUTE MONARCHIES

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF GREAT MONARCHIES

Towards the end of the 15th century the three great nations of Western Europe— England, France and Spain—formed each a national state, united under the unrestricted authority of a single sovereign (THE ABSOLUTE MONARCH), reigning by hereditary right. He judged his people in his courts, controlled them through his officials and taxed them. In France and Spain he maintained an army whose commanders he nominated. He determined peace or war.

THE HABSBURG FAMILY had a small hereditary domain, but it soon raised itself to the first rank by marriage alliances, following the method epitomized in the half line: “Tu, felix Austria nube.” (See the translation below).

Maximilian had married, in 1477, the duchess of Burgundy, who was heiress of the Low Countries, and her son, Philip (Felipe el hermoso), married Joanna (Juana la loca), heiress to the two Spanish crowns, who transmitted the whole inheritance to her eldest son, the emperor Charles V (Carlos I de España). The younger son, Ferdinand, married the heiress of Bohemia and Hungary and brought these two kingdoms into the hereditary possessions of the Habsburgs, who thus came to rule over a great part of Europe.  (source: glueideas.com)

Tu felix Austria nube
1430–1570

Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube – ‘Let others wage war: thou, happy Austria, marry’. This famous saying is invariably quoted when the rise of the Habsburgs is put down to the success of their dynastic marriage policy, in which young archdukes and archduchesses were frequently married off as children to members of other dynasties, or indeed to relatives of their own.

QUESTIONS

1.       What were the characteristics of the absolute monarchs of the 15th century?

2.       What strategy did the Hapsburg family use to increase its domain?

3.       What is the translation of the Latin phrase: Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube?