The rise of the centralised 'new monarchy' and Early Modern state
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Question
What was the Early Modern 'new monarchy'?
Answer
A more centralised kingship (from c.1450) that concentrated authority in the ruler at the expense of the nobility, Church and representative estates.
Question
How did the medieval feudal/composite monarchy differ from the new monarchy?
Answer
It had fragmented jurisdiction, over-mighty nobles, weak royal finances and a small itinerant court — the king was 'first among equals' rather than master.
Question
What is a composite monarchy?
Answer
One crown ruling several territories that each kept their own laws and customs, usually joined by inheritance or marriage.
Question
Name the five enabling conditions for centralisation.
Answer
Recovery after crisis (Hundred Years' War ends 1453), dynastic consolidation, the military revolution, population/commercial growth, and the spread of print.
Question
Why did the military revolution favour the crown?
Answer
Gunpowder armies and cannon were so expensive that only the crown could fund them, shrinking the independent military power of the nobility.
Question
What is divine-right kingship?
Answer
The idea that the ruler is chosen by God, so obeying the king is obeying God and resisting him is a sin.
Question
How did Bodin define sovereignty in 1576?
Answer
In the Six Books of the Commonwealth, Bodin defined sovereignty as one supreme, undivided lawmaking power that cannot be shared.
Question
What is the dynastic principle?
Answer
Treating territory as the ruler's patrimony (private family property), grown through inheritance, marriage and war rather than national borders.
Question
Example: how did the Habsburgs expand their lands?
Answer
Chiefly through marriage alliances — 'let others wage war; you, happy Austria, marry' — stitching realms together by well-chosen weddings.
Question
Name three counter-cases to centralised absolutism.
Answer
Poland–Lithuania (elected kings, noble veto), the Dutch Republic (no king, merchant provinces) and post-1688 England (crown shares power with Parliament).
Question
What is the 'absolutism vs. limited monarchy' debate?
Answer
The recognition that not all Early Modern states centralised equally — some became absolutist, others stayed limited or decentralised.
Question
Was centralisation a completed change by 1789?
Answer
No — it was a long, uneven tug-of-war between crown and other powers, a trend the crown was slowly winning, not a finished state.
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A framework for Early Modern states
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