Early Modern European Rebellions: Causes and Consequences
Explore the intricate tapestry of early modern European rebellions, delving into the socio-economic pressures, religious conflicts, and political upheavals that shaped this tumultuous period. Uncover the various forms of riot and rebellion, from aristocratic revolts to popular protests, and unravel the ideologies that fueled these movements. Learn about the key themes of composite monarchies, Reformation influences, and the rhetoric of popular protest that defined this era of conflict and change.
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The European World, 1500-1700 Rebellions Naomi Pullin naomi.wood@warwick.ac.uk
Focus of this lecture Explore the different types of riot and rebellion in early modern Europe and ideology that underpins them. 1. Politics and popular politics 2. Different types of early modern European revolts elite and popular 3. Rhetoric of popular protest that underpins conflict with states 4. The causes of European rebellions
Key themes 1. Socio-economic pressures. 2. The unstable politics of composite monarchies 3. The context of the Reformation - conflicting claims over people s allegiance.
What is politics? Power and power relationships between rulers and the ruled? Is politics to do with the state? Is religious conflict inherently political? Is legitimateauthority more significant than power? e.g. was the strength of a state determined by the extent to which it had popular legitimacy, by managing local factions and regional interests.
Wayne Brake, Shaping History: Ordinary People in European Politics 1500-1700: it is useful to regard politics as an ongoing bargaining process between those who claim governmental authority in a given territory (rulers) and those over whom that authority is said to extend (subjects) . Andy Wood, Riot, Rebellion and Popular Politics in Early Modern England: Politics will be understood to occur where power is reasserted, extended or challenged. Politics is therefore the product of deliberate, human agency and is pre-eminently about conflict and change. In this analysis, politics does not occur where the distribution of power remains static and unchallenged.
2. Different types of early modern rebellions
Aristocratic revolts Reaction against royal programmes for administrative standardisation and political uniformity Spain: 1560s Netherlands rebel after attempt to impose Inquisition. Catholic Dutch aristocrats start to petition court of Madrid felt interests undermined by centralisation. 1630s - main reaction lay in reforms under Philip IV and Count Olivares ( one king, one law, one coinage ). 1640s Portugal breaks from Spain led by house of Braganza
Aristocratic revolts Britain Tudor centralisation projects in Ireland provokes unrest from aristocratic families Kildare Rebellion (1534) and Desmond Rebellions (1570s and 1580s) led by Fitzgerald family Lord Lieutenants of Ireland reaction against royal policy involves a defence of traditional practises fear of encroaching royal administration new taxes, officials and new elites.
Popular revolts Naples revolt, 1647-48 June 1647 major revolt against Spanish governance in Naples Against high taxes and Spanish rule Led by merchants, tradesmen and apprentices - planned and organised by Tommaso Aniello Demanded abolition of taxes and reform in administration of the city declared city a republic and asked for support of France Revolt Collapsed in April 1648
Social protest Link between poverty, vagrancy and social unrest encapsulated in many-headed monster Christopher Hudson (Lancashire magistrate), 1596: the poor always apt to rebel and mutiny ... on the least occasion. 1590s riot = three or more people assembled to an illegal end. Food riots: England Affect urban areas of cloth trade, esp. vulnerable to unemployment and trade depressions Bad harvests in 1580s and 1590s = major cause Crowds often requisition and seize supplies
Poverty and rebellion Agrarian Riots: England Centres on enclosures fences, hedges walls Enclosure a way of crown raising profit from common land Levelling of fences, walls and hedges pronounced in 1530s and 40s Rumours of local protest could escalate into regional rebellion, e.g. 1607 Midland Revolt had over 1,000 participants Germany The Peasants War Also begins as a response against enclosure > sparks revolt across South-West Germany.
3. Rhetoric of Riots and Rebellion
The moral economy of the crowd George Rude, The Crowd in History (1964); E. P. Thompson The Moral Economy of the English Crowd (1971) Popular protest stimulated by more than purely material concern. Food rioters not just upset about loss of resources, but identifying what customs and practises violated Crowds see themselves authorities because authority had been corrupted. Law of custom seen in food riots in 1626 at Essex ports, England; 1647 Naples rioters impale loaves of bread on stakes
Grievances of major rebellions and protests cut across social classes: 1536 Pilgrimage of Grace Major revolt against Henry VIII following Protestant Reformation. Revolts spread from Lincolnshire, to Yorkshire. Drew 30,000 men Grievances of rebels covered local and national concerns and issues affecting gentry and ordinary people, e.g. religion, inheritance rights, food prices, sheep tax
Conservative rebellions? Rebels often declare allegiance to the King, but claim he has been corrupted by bad council Pilgrimage of Grace - protested against the evil counsellors who had misled the king. Naples rebellion 1647 down with the government combined with long live the King want to restore old forms of governance under which Charles V had ruled. Can be seen as an act of negotiation seek good government, not no government Claimed restoration, rather than revolution - linked to humanist project of recovering greatness from the past
4. The escalation of rebellions Grey-area between what rebels are claiming to do/stand for and what they are doing No clear-cut legitimate way of doing things
1.Representative Institutions Support for representative institutions as a check upon the crown gives rise to alternative conceptions of how a kingdom should be governed. 1536 Pilgrimage of Grace re-establish Council of the North . 1620s Huguenot Rebellion French Protestants protest against rule of Louis XIII. See regional parlements as preserving their religious liberties. 1560s Dutch revolt against Spain. Invoke rights of 17 provincial assemblies in Netherlands.
2. Invoking regional identity Rebellions engender new conceptions of national identity Dutch rebels Continually attack Spanish rule and see counter- reformation as violation as ancient freedoms of Dutch provinces. Mythology of Dutch nation linked to actions against Spanish (anthem, the Wilhelmus) Ireland Language of Irishness created in opposition to English crown policy 1590s Nine Years War against English rule Invoke association between Catholicism and Gaelic culture (Catholic Priest - Geoffrey Keating History of Ireland )
3. Religion Many rulers ruling over populations of mixed- religious composition Faithful have a duty to overthrow ungodly rule > tensions of conscience to whom should obedience be owed? John Knox (1544): Questioned whether obedience is to be rendered to a magistrate who enforces idolatry and condemns true religion . Regnans in Excelsis (1570): issued by Pope Pious V. Declares Elizabeth I a heretic and Catholics commanded to orchestrate overthrow
3. Religion German Peasants War 1524-25 followed Protestant Reformation stress on individual faith and attack clergy abuses in Twelve Articles. Pilgrimage of Grace, England, 1536 Full of religious imagery, e.g. pilgrims , banner with five wounds of Christ Rooting out of heresy, restoration of monasteries and convents, renunciation of royal control over the church
4. Winning outside support Cam transform rebellions into political revolutions Involvement of foreign powers escalate conflicts, e.g. Neapolitan Rebels of 1647 Often exacerbated by religious affiliation. Irish Rebellion against English rule centred on appeal to foreign Catholic powers: 1596 Spanish troops brought into Ireland Dutch revolt English and German states support Dutch rebels, in hope of destabilising Spanish dominance in Europe
Conclusions? Rebellions can be escalated for a number of reasons: representative institutions, regional identity, help from outsiders and religion. Real effort on part of rebels to stand for the forces of tradition Rebellion presented as negotiation and a legitimate part of politics. BUT dividing line between conservatism and radicalism often very thin.
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