Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/332

* EUROPE. 2«8 EUROPE. law-books of Justinian was revived, and in the legists a new learned class appeared from which the kings and princes, heretofore dependent upon the clergy for their administrative official.-, were able to draw servants wholly devoted to their interests. The cities furnished the wealth and power which in the following centuries made monarchy independent of the feudal nobility: the formulated the theories and furnished the trained service which was to make the modem Slate independent of Pope and Church. Changes During the Fourteenth and Fif- teenth Centuries. The consolidation of France was interrupted by a series of wars, in which the English kings strove to make themselves kings of France also. (See Hundred Yeaks' War.) In the fifteenth century, in alliance with Burgundy, Henry V. of England came near accomplishing this end. The French dukes of Burgundy had obtained control of the Netherlands, and aimed to establish an independent middle kingdom. (See Bub- gundy.) In 1435, however, Burgundy made peace with France, and within a score of years England had lost all its conquests except Calais. Alter the death of Charles the Bold of Burgundy, in conflict with the Swiss (1477), the greater pari of the Netherlands passed, by marriage, to tin' Austrian House of Hapsburg, but Burgundy was annexed to France. By the union of Castile and Aragon ( 1479). and the conquest of Granada (1492 1 and of Spanish Navarre (1512), Ferdi- nand the Catholic became ruler of the entire Spanish Peninsula, except Portugal. Thus France and Spain came out of the Middle Ages as well-rounded national States. In each the crown was hereditary and the royal authority i bee ing supreme. In central Europe the conditions were very different. In Germany the emperors were chosen first from one house and then from another, that no precedents for heredi- tary succession might be created; and each em- peror used his position to increase the territorial power of his own house. After 1438. indeed, em perors were regularly taken from the Hapsburg family, but this change of policy indicated only thai (he other territorial princes had become too strong to apprehend any revival of the Imperial power. Thus weakened, the Empire began to lose territory on every side. In the fourteenth cen- tury the Swiss became practically independent of the Empire; in the fifteenth they became a factor in European politics. In the latter ecu tury Burgundy passed definitively to France; Sehles rig and Holstein were brought into per sonal union with Denmark; and the Prussian possessions of the Teutonic Order were partly annexed by Poland and partly held as fiefs from the Polish Crown: Ttaly remained divided, for it was the policy of the popes to prevent any single Slate from obtaining a predominance which would threaten the independence of the Papal Slat, 3. The wealth anil weakness of Italy natu- rally attracted (lie stronger Western Slates. Since the overthrow of the llohenstaiifen, Ara- gonian princes had ruled in Sicily, and French at. Naples. In the first half of the fiftei nth century Aragon obtained control of both o sri in Before the close of the century Charles VIII. bad invaded Italy to enforce the French claim- In Xaples, and the struggle for II nlml of the peninsula was opened. In the north ami Europe, as in (he west. larger political were forming. At the close of the four- teenth century all the Scandinavian countries mic brought by the Kalmar Union under a single ruler, and Norway remained united with Den- mark until 1814; but Sweden was largely inde- pendent during the fifteenth century, and became wholly independent in the sixteenth. In the lat- ter part of the fourteenth century Poland was united with the recently Christianized Lithuania, and became, in territorial extent at least, an important State, stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea: but the elective Polish monarchy never developed sufficient power to make this Slavic State jiermanent. At the close of the fifteenth century Russia freed itself from subjec- tion t« the Mongols. The most important event of this period, however, was the overthrow of the Greek Empire. In the middle of the fourteenth century the Ottoman Turks, having subdued Asia Minor, attacked the European territories of the Empire ; before the end of the century they had conquered nearly all of the Balkan Peninsula, and in 1453 they took Constantinople by storm. Long decadent, the East Roman Empire had, nevertheless, outlived the West Roman for nearly a thousand years; and it had held against Islam the southeastern gate to Europe for more than seven centuries. (See Map: Europe About the Year 1500.) Close of the Middle Ages. Intellectually and spiritually, the closing centuries of the Middle Ages represented ferment and growth. Renewed acquaintance with the literature of the ancient world (see Humanism ) widened the narrow hori- zon of mediaeval thought. The invention of printing immensely accelerated the diffusion of new ideas. The basis of political power also was shifted. The invention of gunpowder com- pleted the change begun by English bows and Swiss pikes; it destroyed the military superiority of the armored horseman and the power of the feudal nobility. The opening by the Portuguese of the sea route to India, and the discovery, under the auspices of Spain, of a new world in the West. signified primarily for modern Europe the open- ing of new sources of wealth, and an increase of the power of the burgess class and of the Crown. Later it was to signify the expansion of Euro- pean civilization over the world; and. last of all, the subordination of European politics to world politics. At the close of the thirteenth century the power of the Papacy had begun to decrease. England and France were already as- serting, as other countries were later to assert, the right of the State to limit ecclesiastical jurisdic- tion and taxation and the taking of land into the 'dead hand.' (See M.nti i i. Statutes of.) Karly in the fourteenth century the French kings brought the Papacy under their control, and for seventy years the popes were in exile at Avignon. Other popes were set up at Rome. The schism was ended by Church councils in the fifteenth cen- tury, but reforms proposed by the councils were not carried into operation. Reformation through revolt found its leaders in Wielif and Huss, and the attempt to crush the Hussite revolt led in the fifteenth century to a long and bloody war. See Wkt.II ; llUSS; lllSSITES. Tin: Period of the Reformation and the Religious Wars. The struggle between France ami Spain for supremacy in ftaly may be regard- ed a- i he beginning of the modern period of inter- national politics. The Reformation (q.v.), by completing (he disintegration of (he Holy Roman