Machiavelli Fox Advantages

A new breed of powerful monarchs emerged in 15th and early 16th century Europe. These new monarchs strayed away from the previous Middle-age idea of monarchies, who greatly struggled for power. Monarchs of the 15th and early 16th century utilized Italian humanist Niccoló Machiavelli’s ideas of gaining, maintaining, and increasing power to strengthen their authority and prestige. Machiavelli preached the importance for rulers to exhibit characteristics of a cunning fox, as well as a tough lion in order to be successful. The rulers of France, England, and Spain implemented clever and shrewd tactics which included obtaining power and influence over the papacy, reconstructing their governments, and enhancing state revenues through new and effective

New monarchs of France, England, and Spain displayed wise, fox-like qualities to gain authority over their countries. King Charles VII of France’s Valois Dynasty, emerged after the Hundreds’ Year War, he began rebuilding France through new salt and land taxes knowns as the gabelle and taille. The revenue that he collected from these taxes enabled the Charles VII to stop relying on the nobility’s wealth and were used to strengthen France’s national army who was loyal to him. King Charles VII’s son King Louis XII and King Henry VII of England sponsored new industries and established commercial treaties to raise money for their state and to encourage economic growth. All three powers recognized that the aristocrats and nobility greatly threatened the monarchies’ power, so the new monarchs dramatically reduced nobility’s influence over government. To achieve this they reconstructed their Royal Councils to be primarily made up of educated middle-class men. This act immediately allowed rulers to have a firmer grip over government and halted their reliance on nobility. Monarchs of France and Spain also viewed the Church as a major threat to their power. 14th century problems such as the

Greek and Roman ideas of having a strong national army appears in 15th and early 16th century monarchies. The national armies displayed complete loyalty to the monarch, and they were utilized to conquer new territories, French gained Burgundy and Spain overtook Granada. Armies also stopped rebellions within their countries, England’s Tudor Dynasty successfully crushed the Irish invasion. New monarchs obtained justice and control through harsh threats and violent means. English monarchs established the fierce Court of Star Chambers to reduce the excessive aristocrat mischief. The Court of Star Chambers was a secret organization that allowed English kings to try and punish unjust aristocrats without evidence, often times, torture was implicated on them to extract confessions. The Justices of Peace League handled life on the local level, they were unpaid local officials who assigned criminal’s punishment, enforced parliamentary statutes, fixed wages, and kept moral behaviors in check. The Tudor Dynasty gained major support of the middle class through the Justices of Peace League because the organization fell in the middle class’ favor. Similarly, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, revived the old Medieval institution of the Hermandades, who functioned as local police to repress