European Absolutism and Constitutionalism 1500-1750

England

Henry VIII reigns

1509 - 1547

Henry VIII summons the “Reformation Parliament”

1529

begins to cut ties with the Church of Rome

Henry VIII is excommunicated by the Pope

1533

Act of Supremacy

1534

Henry VIII declared supreme head of the Church of England

Alliance between Henry VIII and Charles V

1543

against Scotland and France

Edward VI reigns

1547 - 1553

Mary I reigns

1553 - 1558

she restores Roman Catholic bishops in England

England returns to Roman Catholicism

1555

Elizabeth reigns

1558 - 1603

she repeals the Catholic legislation in England

England defeates the Spanish Armada

1588

James I reigns

1603 - 1625

Charles I reigns

1625 - 1649

Petition of Right

1628

Parliament trades taxation increase for basic legal rights

Charles I disbands Parliament because of refusal to allow tax raises

1629

Scottish Revolt

1629

results from Charles I’s attempt to impose the English Prayer Book on Scottish Presbyterian Church

“Thorough”

1629 - 1640

Charles I rules without Parliament

Long Parliament

1640 - 1648

Charles agrees to Parliament’s demands including: not being dissolved without consent, meeting once every three years, abolishment of “ship money,” persecutors of Puritans being tried, The Star Chamber used to suppress nobles abolished, common law courts made supreme to king’s courts, they also refused funds to raise an army to defeat Irish revolt

Scotts invade northern England

1640

Short Parliament

1640

Charles attempt to raise taxes to fight the war (disbanded after only a month)

English Civil War

1642 - 1651

starts when Charles declared war against opponents in Parliament

Charles I surrenders to the Scotts

1646

Pride’s Purge

1648

all non-Puritans and Presbyterians removed from Parliament leaving only the “Rump Parliament

Cromwell invades Ireland to put down an uprising

1649

Interregnum

1649 - 1660

rule without king

Oliver Cromwell led the New Model Army to victory during the English Civil War

1649

The Commonwealth

1649 - 1653

republic under Cromwell that abolished the monarchy and the House of Lords

Cromwell reconquers Scotland

1651

Act of Settlement

1652

Catholic property given the Protestant settlers

The Protectorate

1653 - 1659

dictatorship under Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector

Richard reigns

1658 - 1660

Charles II reigns

1660 - 1685

Charles acknowledges Presbyterianism in Scotland

1661

and declares himself head of the Church of Scotland

Clarendon Code

1661

Test Act of 1673

1673

excluded those unwilling to receive sacrament of the Church of England from political or religious involvement

Habeas Corpus Act

1679

James II reigns

1685 - 1688

Glorious Revolution

1688

final act in the struggle for political sovereignty

William of Orange and Mary reign

1688 - 1702

Bill of Rights

1689

start of true English constitutional monarchy

Toleration Act of 1689

1689

granted right to worship for Protestant non-conformists

Act of Settlement

1701

means through which to continue passing of the crown with no heir

Anne reigns

1702 - 1714

Act of Union

1707

unites England and Scotland into Great Britain

George I reigns

1714 - 1727

George II reigns

1727 - 1760

discontinues the king’s meeting with the cabinet

Robert Walpole leads cabinet

1727 - 1760

is considered the first Prime Minister

France

War of the League of Cambrai

1508 - 1516

Francois I reigns

1515 - 1589

Cateau-Cambresis Treaty ends Italian wars

1559

French Wars of Religion

1562 - 1598

St. Bartholomew Day Massacre

1572

Henry IV reigns

1589 - 1610

Henry VI becomes Catholic- religious war ends

1593

Edict of Nantes

1598

Marie d'Medici reigns

1610 - 1617

Louis XII reigns

1617 - 1628

Thirty Year's War

1618 - 1648

Cardinal Richelieu reigns as minister of France

1628

Franco-Spanish War

1635 - 1659

Louis XIV reigns

1643 - 1715

Fronde

1648 - 1653

Peace of Westphalia

1648

Jean-Baptiste Colbert founds the Company of the East Indies

1664

Louis moves the court to Versailles

1682

Edict of Fountainbleau Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes

1685

Louis XIV was almost always at war

War of the Spanish Succession

1701 - 1713

Treaty of Utrecht

1713

ended French expansion and War of Spanish Succession

Louis XV reigns

1715 - 1774

Spain

Isabella dies

1504

Ferdinand dies

1516

Spanish king authorizes slave trade to New World colonies

1518

Magellan’s expedition circumnavigates the world

1519 - 1522

Cortes conquers the Mexica Empire

1521

Charles V abolishes abuses of ecomienda system

1531

Pizarro conquers the Incan Empire

1533

Pope Paul III makes holy office center for the Inquisition

1534

Spanish find Potosi and huge amounts of silver

1545

Philip II reigns

1556 - 1598

The Spanish Armada is defeated in the English Channel

1588

Philip III reigns

1598 - 1621

Expulsion of 300,000 Moriscos or former Muslims

1609

Trade with colonies fall 60%

1610 - 1650

Phillip IV reigns

1621 - 1675

Portuguese Restoration War

1640 - 1668

Peace of Westphalia

1648

Treaty of Pyrenees of 1659 ends French-Spanish conflicts

1659

Treaty of Lisbon is signed

1668

Ends the Portuguese Restoration War and recognizes the independence of Portugal

Charles II reigns

1675 - 1700

War of Spanish Succession

1701 - 1714

HRE

Maximilian reigns

1508 - 1519

Charles V reigns

1519 - 1558

Emperor Charles V and the Diet issued the Edict of Worms

1521

banned Luther’s work

War between France and the Charles V

1521 - 1529

begins after the French support rebels in Spain

Charles V sends armies to sack Rome – symbolically ended Renaissance in Italy

1527

Peace of Augsburg treaty

1555

allows princes to choose the religion for their area

Phillip II reigns

1558 - 1564

Maximilian II reigns

1564 - 1576

Rudolf II reigns

1576 - 1612

Bohemian Phase of the Thirty Years’ War

1618 - 1625

due to Catholics' and Protestants' in Bohemia a civil war

Thirty Years' war

1618 - 1648

Ferdinand II reigns

1619 - 1637

Danish Phase of the Thirty Years’ War

1625 - 1629

Edict of Restitution

1629

granted Catholics the authority to take back any property they had lost since 1552

Swedish Phase of the Thirty Years’ War

1630 - 1635

Gustavus Adolphus supported Protestantism and was supported by Cardinal Richelieu in order to try to weaken the Habsburgs

French Phase of the Thirty Years’ War

1635 - 1648

Richelieu believed that after the death of Gustavus Adolphus, the Habsburgs might gain too much power so they declared war on Spain

Ferdinand III reigns

1637 - 1658

Treaty of Westphalia

1648

Leopold I reigns

1658 - 1705

Charles VI reigns

1711 - 1740

Pragmatic Sanction

1713

Habsburg possessions were never to be divided and had to be passed intact to a single heir

Charles VII crowned Holy Roman Emperor

1742

Austria

Charles V reigns

1519 - 1556

Hapsburg-Valois Wars

1519 - 1559

Treaty of Brussels – Hapsburgers split into Spanish and Austrian Branches

1522

Ferdinand I reigns

1556 - 1619

Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis – ends the Hapsburg-Valois Wars

1559

Ferdinand II reigns

1619 - 1637

Ferdinand II takes control of Bohemia during the 30 Years’ War

1619 - 1637

Ferdinand II demands that Austrian Protestants convert to Catholicism

1628

Ferdinand III reigns

1637 - 1657

centralizes government in the old hereditary provinces of Austria proper

Peace of Westphalia

1648

ends the Thirty Years’ War and Habsburgs declared Roman Catholicism official Austrian religion

Leopold I reigns

1658 - 1705

severely restricts Protestant worship

Leopold I expells Jews from Austria

1670

Siege of Vienna – successfully repell Turks from gates of Vienna

1683

Treaty of Karlowitz ends the war between Austria and the Turks

1699

The War of Spanish Succession

1701 - 1714

between England, the Netherlands, and Austria formed an alliance against France

Emperor Charles VI reigns

1711 - 1740

Pragmatic Sanction

1713

Hapsburg possessions were never to be divided and had to be passed intact to a single heir

Maria Theresa reigns over Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia

1740 - 1780

War of Austrian Succession

1740 - 1748

The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle

1748

ends the War of Austrian Succession and upholds the Pragmatic Sanction

Prussia

Laws required runaway peasants to be hunted down and returned to their lords

1500

Henri VIII reigns

1509 - 1547

Albert von Brandenburg becomes “Duke of Prussia”

1525

and passed the first law of the Protestant Church making Prussia a Protestant state

Elector of Brandenburg inherits Cleves of the Rhineland

1614

Elector of Brandenburg inherits Dutchy of Prussia

1618

Fredrick William reigns – the “Great Elector”

1640 - 1688

Peace of Westphalia

1648

Hereditary subjugation of serfs as payment for noble support of the king

1653

Tartars invade Prussia, carrying off thousands of slaves

1656 - 1657

Frederick I reigns -1st “King of Prussia”

1688 - 1713

War of the League of Augsburg- fought against Louis XIV

1688 - 1697

War of the Spanish Succession- fought against Louis XIV

1701 - 1713

Fredrick William I reigns

1713 - 1740

militarizes Prussia into “Sparta of the North”

Fredrick II reigns- an “Enlightened Despot”

1740 - 1786

Start of First Silesian War

1741

Russia

Basil III reigns

1505 - 1533

Ivan (III) the Great dies

1505

Ivan the Terrible reigns

1533 - 1584

Ivan becomes first tsar

1547

Ivan signs a commercial treaty with England

1555

Fyodor reigns

1584 - 1613

Ivan the Terrible dies

1584

The “Time of troubles” – famine, struggles for power, and war

1584 - 1613

Michael Romanov reigns

1613 - 1645

Alexis reigns

1645 - 1676

A law extends serfdom to all peasants

1649

Russo-Polish War

1654 - 1667

Peace treaty of Andrusovo – gained land in Ukraine from Poland

1667

Rebellion led by the Cossack Stephan Razin

1667

Fyodor III reigns

1676 - 1682

Sophia rules as regent and is replaced by Natalia

1682 - 1694

Peter the Great reigns

1694 - 1725

Improves the army

Great Northern War

1700 - 1721

Construction begins in St. Petersburg for capital of Russia

1703

Sweden is defeated by Russia at the battle of Poltava

1709

Treaty of Nystad – Russia gains Latvia and Estonia

1721

Catherine I reigns

1725 - 1727

Catherine creates a Supreme Secret Council

1726

Peter II reigns

1727 - 1730

Anna reigns- disbands council

1730 - 1740

Ivan VI reigns

1740 - 1764

Russian deportation of Jews

1742