ASSIGNMENT 2. Tradition and Enlightenment

When Carlos II died on November 1, 1700, and his will was read, France had won. He preferred the Bourbon candidate to the Habsburg candidate. The will stipulated that Philip of Anjou had to accept the entire inheritance, which meant that Louis XIV would have to reject the partition agreements. If Philip did not, then Spain and its empire would pass to Archduke Charles. In February 1701, seventeen-years-old King Philip V arrived in Madrid. His House of Bourbon replaced the House of Habsburg on Spain's throne.

Madrid gave enthusiastic welcome to teenaged King Philip V. The Habsburgs of Viena had not given Spain up, and Austrian armies marched on Philip's Italian possessions. Louis XIV provoked the English and Dutch into war when he sent French troops into the Spanish Netherlands to secure them for Philip. Thus erupted in 1702 the War of the Spanish Succession, which arrayed the Grand Alliance of Emperor Leopold, england, the Dutch, Savoy, and Portugal against Spain and France.

By the Peace of Utrecht, Philip kept Spain and its overseas possessions. Charles VI received Naples, Milan, Sardinia, and the Spanish Netherlands. The duke of Savoy got Sicily. England won trading concessions in the Spanish empire, including the lucrative African slave trade, and kept Gibraltar and Minorca.

In 1714 Philip reconquered Barcelona. To punish the Catalans, he stripped Catalonia of its ancient privileges, as he had stripped Aragón and Valencia of theirs, and went further, suppressing its universities.

Bourbon Spain was no longer a union of crowns but had become a unified kingdom. It had its capital in Madrid, centralized departments of government, and a single Cortes rendered largely ceremonial. The historic kingdoms became administrative regions and were each subdivided, giving Spain some thirty provinces. The old organization of government by councils, given to passing the buck among councilors, gave way to a government of ministries, each headed by a single responsible minister, on the French model. Not happy with centralized government, the old grandees largely withdrew from public service, though they maintained palaces in the capital for its social whirl. Philip and his Bourbon successors proved generous in bestowing new titles on their public servants an soon created a titled nobility beholden to them.

1. By the time Carlos II died, there were two candidates for the Spanish crown. Who were they? Which Royal Houses did they belong to?
2. What territories did the Hapsburgs win after the war? England got some territories too. Which ones? Why did England get them?
3. Philip punished Catalonia, Why and how did he do?
4. Explain how the Bourbons changed the administration of the Kingdom

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Assignment 1 - Dynastic Union: "The Catholic Monarchs"

Iberian polities circa 1360.

 
In the 15th century, the most important among all of the separate Christian kingdoms that made up the old Hispania were the Kingdom of Castile (occupying northern and central portions of the Iberian Peninsula) the Crown of Aragon (occupying northeastern portions of the peninsula) and the kingdom of Portugal occupying the far western Iberian Peninsula. The rulers of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon were allied with dynastic families in Portugal, France, and other neighboring kingdoms.
The death of King Henry IV of Castile in 1474 set off a struggle for power called the War of the Castilian Succession (1475-1479). Contenders for the throne of Castile were Henry's one-time heir Joanna La Beltraneja, supported by Portugal and France, and Henry's half-sister Queen Isabella I of Castile, supported by the Kingdom of Aragon and by the Castilian nobility.
Isabella retained the throne and ruled jointly with her husband, King Ferdinand II. Isabella and Ferdinand had married in 1469 in Valladolid. Their marriage united both crowns and set the stage for the creation of the Kingdom of Spain, at the dawn of the modern era. That union, however, was a union in title only, as each region retained its own political and judicial structure, and even today Spain remains internally divided. Pursuant to an agreement signed by Isabella and Ferdinand on January 15, 1474, Isabella held more authority over the newly unified Spain than her husband, although their rule was shared. Together, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon were known as the "Catholic Monarchs" (Spanish: los Reyes Católicos), a title bestowed on them by Pope Alexander VI.

Source: Wikipedia (adapted)

1. According to the text, when does the modern era begin?

2. Has Isabella of Castile the right to be the queen? Why/why not?
   
   
3. What does “dynastic union” means?
   
   
4. Explain the following expression: 
   
   
   “Pursuant to an agreement signed by Isabella and Ferdinand on January 15, 1474, Isabella held more authority over the newly unified Spain than her husband, although their rule was shared."
   
   
5. Discussion: The Catholic Monarchs, can we call them “king and queen of Spain”?
   
   
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Introduction to Ancien Régime

The Ancien Régime

1) What is the Ancien Regime?

2) Why are these words French?



3) Which were the king's rights?

3) What is a privilege?

4) Define: clergy, peasant, bankrupty

5) When did Ancien Regime finish?

6) Please write some differences between French and English society