We explain what a centralized monarchy is, what are its general characteristics and examples of this form of government.
What is the centralized monarchy?
Centralized (or authoritarian) monarchies They emerged in Europe in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries . They represented a change in the political organization regarding the feudal system prevailing in the middle of the Middle Ages. The weakening suffered by feudal lords due to prolonged wars and the reduction of the population in the field precipitated the appearance of these centralized government regimes that concentrated political power in the royal court. The kings recovered the powers that, during the four preceding centuries, had greatly monopolized the feudal lords.
The centralized monarchies preceded the absolute monarchies and represented the initial step towards the formation of the modern national states of Western Europe. The characteristic political decentralization of the feudal order was replaced by strengthened monarchies that had their own armies and a bureaucratic administration. They also exercised political dominance over a unified territory under the sovereignty of the king and were financed by collection of taxes and relations with merchants and bankers.
Characteristics of centralized monarchies
- In European centralized monarchies, political power was concentrated in the king and the royal court to the detriment of the feudal lords.
- The kings of the centralized monarchies depended on a body of officials who dealt with state administration. They usually came from low nobility and bourgeoisie.
- The bureaucratic functioning of centralized monarchies was based on tax collection that allowed the officials to pay and finance the army. It also resorted to the sale of positions and obtaining loans that narrowed the relationship of the monarchy with the urban bourgeoisie.
- The centralized monarchies promoted the unification of their territories through the coin of unique currencies, the formation of a permanent state army and the elaboration of symbols of territorial unity.
Historical context
Background
During the years of feudalism in Western Europe There were some experiences of concentration of power in the hands of kings or members of the high nobility . For example, in France, after the disintegration of the Carolingian empire, the kings had less political power than their noble vassals, until the house of the capetos (987-1328) assumed that confronted with the feudal lords and promoted some centralizing measures in tax and administrative matters.
In England, The Duke of Normandy, Guillermo the conqueror, appropriated the throne in 1066 And he expelled the nobles who had not supported him from his fiefs, installed administrators in the manors and demanded fidelity with his person.
However, in those years the feudal order remained preeminent. Many lords continued to control income and justice, and dependence on vassalage relations was almost absolute.
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the situation began to change. The recovery of Roman law since the thirteenth century legally returned the hegemony of a kingdom to the monarch. This justified both the king’s superiority over feudal lords and his political preponderance against papacy and empire. The figures of the king and the heir prince acquired political centrality and religious legitimacy and simultaneously the limits of the territories governed by the monarchs were defined, in spaces that later formed the national states (for example, France, Spain and England).
Why did centralized monarchies emerge?
In general, it is admitted that the emergence of centralized monarchies was due to several reasons:
- The relative weakness of feudal lords as a consequence of recurring wars.
- The lack of labor in the fields as a consequence of the demographic effects of epidemics, such as black plague (1347-1352), and peasant migrations to cities, which promoted the abandonment of servitude.
- The growth of the urban bourgeoisie whose commercial and financial activities had the approval of the monarchs and benefited from political centralization, since it offered less obstacles to businesses than the feudal order. In addition, this bourgeoisie offered income to the monarchies through loans and the purchase of charges, which was necessary to sustain an army and a bureaucracy. For this reason, some historians suggest that centralized monarchies emerged as the result of common interests between kings and bourgeois.
- The conformity of the nobility That, in some aspects, he saw his interests affected, he obtained some benefits of this process: the armies at the service of the king also constituted a guarantee of order against peasants rebellions. In addition, this social sector maintained a good part of the privileges it had during the rise of feudalism.
Political organization
Corps of officials
The centralized monarchies They organized a body of officials to enforce the laws to administer justice and to collect taxes on behalf of the King. This organization is often called “bureaucracy” and is one of the foundations of the modern state, since it concentrates in the State some previously dispersed powers in feudal lords or noble powers. Leaded individuals who were employed by the monarchy and who generally came from the low nobility or the bourgeoisie were occupied with this task.
Thus, the exercise of government and justice were professionalized and positions were formed that depended on both the technical capacity of their officials and on some legal regularity. Particularly important were the areas of Finance and Justice, which not only required decision making but also daily management throughout the territory, always under the authority of the monarch.
Representative Assemblies
In the centralized monarchies, representative assemblies operated that existed for some time. Were summoned by the king and They were made up of representatives of the nobility, the clergy and the “plain state” or “third state” .
This last estate used to be integrated by the urban patricious, although a more general representation could arise. Similarly, the representatives of the other two levels used to come from the high nobility and the high clergy.
In the kingdoms of Spain they arose with the name of Cortes in the twelfth century while Parliament in England had its first call in the thirteenth century and the general states of France debuted at the beginning of the fourteenth century.
The function of these assemblies was the dialogue on recognized issues As of interest to the different levels, and they had to serve as advisory bodies, especially in fiscal matters (although in England the Parliament also had a legislative character). However, its influence used to be limited by the authoritarian tendencies of the monarchs.
Taxes and currency
The centralized monarchies They were held with resources from tax collection as well as loans from bankers and the sale of public office or church goods. In this way, they could finance the bureaucratic administration and the permanent army, and reduce its dependence on the feudal nobility.
Some crowns, such as the Portuguese and the Spanish, also benefited from overseas expansion and the circulation of valuable resources such as gold and silver.
One of the policies implemented by centralized monarchies was the coin of unique coins within the kingdoms such as the ducat of the Catholic Monarchs that since 1497 had to be used in all the territories of the crown (even overseas). This measure collaborated in the development of commercial exchange and financial activities, as it simplified transactions. And also contributed to the affirmation of the political power of the monarchies in their territories and in relation to other states.
Permanent armies
The centralized monarchies Permanent state armies organized . In this way they stopped depending on the personal loyalty of their vassals, as was the case in the feudal era. They also sometimes resorted to mercenaries, who fought at the service of any king who summoned them in exchange for a pay. This system depended strongly on the financing capacity of the monarchy, not only to pay the troops or mercenaries but also to invest in armament.
Unlike what happened in the feudal era, whose distinctive characteristic was the dependence on the cavalry, The most important body of these armies was made up of the infantry that is, walking soldiers that were trained in the use of alabarda or the arch. At this time the use of gunpowder in firearms and artillery, such as arcabuz or different types of iron cannons, also began to spread.
The armies of the centralized monarchies were also useful instruments to ensure internal control.
“National” union symbols
In addition to coining unique coins, The kings adopted shields and flags to express monarchical authority and represent the unity of their territories. For example, the Catholic Kings shield was formed with the incorporation of the weapons of Castilla, León, Aragón and Granada, and a white flag with the Burgundy cross went on to identify the domain of Felipe “El Hermoso” and Juana I of Castile over all of Spain. Anyway, the possibility of considering these emblems as “national” is a cause for discussion, because they were still symbols of the monarchy rather than a modern national identity.
Even so, historians often recognize that, Between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the notion of a collective identity arose that included the inhabitants of an extensive territory but was not mainly defined by the subordination to the Catholic Church. The monarch went on to represent, even if it was theoretically, to a wide group of subjects that lived in a territory with more or less precise limits and shared a common language and history.
The use of vernacular languages in religious fields and in literature stimulated this process.
Examples of centralized monarchies
Portugal
Perhaps the first centralized monarchy experience that arose with the decline of feudalism took place in Portugal at the end of the fourteenth century. A series of succession conflicts tension the interests of the nobility that supported Juan I de Castilla, with those of the mercantile bourgeoisie, which supported Juan de Avís.
The rise of the Avís dynasty from the proclamation as king of John I in 1385 led to a monarchical concentration of power. Juan I promoted centralized tax collection and promoted from the State the commercial activities and the maritime exploration that prince Enrique the navigator had as the protagonist (1394-1460).
Spain
Also in the Iberian Peninsula, the marriage of Fernando II of Aragon with Isabel I of Castile (that is, the Catholic Monarchs) at the end of the 15th century led to the dynastic union of both crowns, which was then expanded with the incorporation of Granada, Navarra, Canary Islands and other regions.
So The first great unification of Spain was consolidated under a monarchy that concentrated political power and organized a sustained bureaucracy in the tax system. This unit facilitated the maritime expansion that allowed the conquest of American territories and the global expansion of trade.
- Spanish Empire
- Spanish monarchy
France
In France, after arduous battles, The Monarchy of Carlos VII was strengthened by obtaining the expulsion of the English of Normandy (1450) and Aquitaine (1453) which represented the final chapter of the War of the Hundred Years and the recovery of the unity of France. The result was a political reorganization that was based on a permanent army created by Carlos VII and centralizing measures implemented by his successor Louis XI.
Among these measures is the centralized collection of taxes and the promotion of commercial activity that favored the bourgeoisie over the ancient aristocracy. Also The pragmatic sanction of Bourges (1438) was important For which Carlos VII decided that the king of France should control the appointment of bishops in French territory, to the detriment of the Pope.
England
In England, After the one hundred years a civil contest was unleashed between Las Casas de Lancaster and York that the throne disputed. With the triumph of Enrique Tudor (hereinafter, Enrique VII) in 1485, the monarchy took the steps towards a centralization that was by the hand of economic prosperity, derived in part of the textile industry and the activity of the merchants.
Some of these merchants (especially Italians) also exercised as bankers of the kings. Enrique VII installed in the Territory Courts of Peace with the aim of exercising greater legal control and implemented the unit of weights and measures.
References
- Álvarez Palenzuela, VA (coord.) (2002). Universal History of the Middle Ages. Ariel.
- Anderson, P. (1979). The absolutist state. 21st century.
- Hunt, L., Martin, Tr, Rosenwein, BH & Smith, BG (2016). The Making of the West. Peoples and Cultures. 5th Edition. BEDFORD/ST. Martin’s.
- Matthew, D. (1994). Medieval Europe. Roots of modern culture. Folio.
