Spain 16th century

I don't know if any of these will do more than give you a starting point for research, but here's a couple of sites that I found. They tend to be very general and English (Elizabethan) dominated. In my brief internet search I could find almost nothing on the lower classes of Reconquista Spain (although plenty on the Hapburgs and the Inquisition). I would suspect that Renaissance Italy will not be a problem either.

maybe something here that can be used to discover other links.

Mostly on Italy

Kathryn Hinds

Thank you very much.

With this starting point I can go on.
I have done already some research, but I didn't find what I was looking for. Probably wrong keywords.

Ul--

A close reading of Don Quixote might be very helpful.

Ul, you beautiful operetta, you . . . allow me to give you some things to think about, and about which you can do web searches.

At the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century, Spain became embroiled in war in Italy with the French lead by François the First. The Catholic Church had been divided--the Papacy had been moved to Avignon, and then back to Rome, resulting in what is known as the Great Schism. There were two Popes, and at one point in the early 15th century, there were even three. Although this had begun in 1378 (the Schism, that is--the Avignon Popes date to an earlier period), and was resolved by the Council at Constanz in 1417, it had badly upset the Church--and had resulted in the first serious Protestant movement, that which had Jan Hus as representative. Hus was lured to Constanz with a promise of immunity, and then seized and burned as a heretic. This began the Hussite rebellion against Austrian dominance in Bohemia both politically and in matters of faith.

That may not seem relevant to the 16th century, however, it happens to have been a "seed" event. When there were competing Popes, they financed their campaigns (political, propagandistic and sometimes even military) against one another by the selling sees--i.e., selling episcopal sees and even cardinal's red hats to the highest bidders. This resulted in absurdities such as illiterate adolescent boys sitting in the Curia as Cardinals. By far, though, the most effective money-maker was simony, the selling of indulgences--basically, for a set fee, one could buy the remission of all of one's sins. Concurrant with that, the Church's legal, investigative arm, the Inquisition, which did not then have the reputation it had now, began to be employed by the Popes and the "Anti-Popes" as weapons against the adherents of their opponents. In particular, the Inquisition became virulent in Spain, which was in the throes of an escalation of war with the Muslims.

These events irretreivably corrupted the Chruch and its institutions--it would literally be centuries before some kind of sanity began to reign again in the counsels of Catholicism. Rulers both religious and temporal became addicted to weilding the Inquisition as a political tool, and the Papacy became addicted to the income provided by simony. In 1492, the powerful ruler of Castile, Isabella, who had married the King of the smaller but warlike kingdom of Arragon, acheived several signal goals. The Reconquista to drive the Muslims out of Spain was accomplished. The expulsion of the Jews was then put in train, and the Inquisition began to acquire the deadly reputation it has today. Columbus was sent on his mission to reach the East by sailing west. And Rodrigo de Lanzòl-Borgia became Pope. He was perhaps the most notorious and corrupt of the "secular" Popes, and you might recall him for the fame of his daughter, Lucretia--his bastard daugher who was also rumored to have been his "lover," as well as the "lover" of her brother. He was the Pope Alexander VI.

This rise of Spanish influence in large measure prompted Francis the First of France to invade Italy, already long a battle ground for the Austrians, French and Spaniards (as it would continue to be for many centuries to come). The "Great Captain," Cordoba, conducted the Spanish campaigns against the French, and many of his soldiers were dirt-poor farm boys from the province of Estramadura, who would later become the Conquistadores of the New World. This inaugurated more than a century of near constant warfare between Spain and France, which was not finally ended until the definitive defeat of the Spanish at Rocroi in northern France in 1643.

Isabella had several children with Ferdinand, and one of them was Juana, known as La Loca--the madwoman. She married Philip, the son of the Holy Roman Emperor, whose mother, Mary of Burgundy, had brought to his family the control of most of the Low Countries. Therefore, Philip and Juana created the line of the monarchs of the newly created nation of Spain. Their son Carlos was to be elected Holy Roman Emperor through judicious and lavish bribery of the German Electors. To their credit, the German Electors did not repeat that mistake.

Carlos became the Emperor Charles V just at the time that Martin Luther was starting the Protestant Reformation in earnest. The experience of Jan Hus ought to have been recognized as a shot across the bows of the Papacy, but it was not. Eager for cash, because Alexander VI squandered the huge revenues of the Papacy on riotous living and on warfare against the French, the Church again turned to simony. One of the worst, most notorious tax-farmers, a Dominican friar named Johann Tetzel, was sent into Germany to sell indulgences, and he was very thorough in fleecing people, saying that "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs." He expanded the selling of indulgences dramatically, with a sliding scale which allowed the impoverished peasant to buy time off for their departed relatives by giving in their hard-earned coppers. The excuse was the renovation of St. Peter's Basilica. The practice enraged Martin Luther, whose protests against Tetzel and his methods lead directly to the Protestant Reformation.

The young, newly-elected Holy Roman Emperor (and King of a rapidly expanding Spanish Empire), Charles, called a diet of the Empire, with the intent of condemning Luther, and then seizing him and executing him, as had been done with Jan Hus. But Luther had been protected in Wittenberg, and now German Imperial Knights accompanied him to the Diet, held at Worms, with instructions to protect him against the Emperor, and to kill him if he tried to recant. It was against this background that the Wars of the Reformation began. Charles spent most of his life fighting these wars until he finally abdicated of his own free will in 1555, turning his kingdom over to his son, Philip II. Philip II was the King of Spain for the rest of the age of the Spanish Empire's expansion, and was the King who opposed Elizabeth of England in the incident of the Armada in 1588.

Because of the marriage of Mary of Burgundy to Maximilien (the HRE), Philip I inherited the Low Countries, and passed them on to his son Carlos. Therefore, Spain, in its wars with France, now had vast territories to the north of France (a large slice of the north of modern France was then a part of the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands). This was to lead to all sorts of complications for both France and Spain, never mind the Dutch and Belgians (and because the Spanish never minded them, the Dutch began a rebellion after 1555, which they openly declared in 1564, and which was not accomplished until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648).

After Columbus, Spaniards continued to expand in the New World. In 1519, Cortez landed in what is now Mexico. At his right hand was one of those veterans of the wars in Italy, a Spaniard of poor origins who had followed Cordoba, Bernal Diaz. Diaz had sailed with two expeditions to the coast of Mexico before 1519, and so he was recommended to Cortez. He was at Cortez' side throughout the conquest, which was not completed until 1522. As an old, old man on his hacienda in Nicaragua (he had followed Cortez there, too), Diaz wrote The Conquest of New Spain--almost never out of print, it stands as the best, short and readable account of the conquest of Mexico by the Spanish.

Another Spaniard typical of the poor farm boys of Estramadura who followed the Spanish tercios (the name for their infantry) to Italy was Francisco Pizzaro. He was the bastard son of a modestly prosperous man with a large family, and had never been educated (he was illiterate all of his life) and who lived as the family swineherd before he ran away to join Cordoba. (His father was a Colonel in the Spanish infantry, and some sources say he followed his father to Italy.) He was also coincidentally a second cousin to Cortez, if one ignores his bastardy. In 1524, he sailed south in the Pacific, looking for the fabled "Piru." In 1526, he landed in what is now Peru with slightly more than 200 men, and, incredibly, conquered the most powerful native empire then existent in the Americas.

The conquests of Mexico and Peru meant, rather quickly, that Spain became richer than any European nation ever dreamed of being. But this influx of fabulous amounts of riches (chiefly silver) had an effect which no one in Europe was prepared to understand--runaway inflation. The Fuggers and other banking families in Germany were slowly ruined because their contracts were not flexible, and they didn't understand the plummeting value of coined money. The Lombard bankers, long in the habit of short-term, high interst loans, became all the wealthier and more influential. Their experience in the early Renaissance had lead them not to trust their creditors, and they made loans for short periods only (usually) and with stiff terms. They cleaned up as a result of an inflation which they did not understand either, and money poured into Italy, a nation which was not a nation. The runaway inflation bankrupted the Valois, just at the time that the French Protestants and Catholics began to war against each other. The eventual victors were the Bourbons of Navarre, when Henry IV decided that "Paris is worth a mass," and he converted in order to become the King of France. The Bourbon were never far from bankruptcy, which was one day to lead to the French revolution. Naturally, the gold and silver continued to pour into Spain, and Spanish rulers could not understand why they were becoming so rich, and their bills always exceeded their revenues.

The greatest work on the Spanish in the New World, and Spain in the 16th Century is William Prescott's 22 volume history, which is probably available somewhere in Operetta Land, although i'd doubt that you'd want to wade through 22 volumes by a 19th Century American historian.

Online, you could read about:

Pope Alexander VI and the Borgias.

Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Arragon.

The Reconquista.

The Marranos (Jews who had converted to Christianity but who were suspected by the Inquisition of being apostate).

The Moriscos (Muslims who had converted to Christianity but who were suspected by the Inquisition of being apostate).

The Alhambra Decree (by which the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 if they refused to convert).

Gonsalvo de Cordoba (also spelled Cordova).

The province of Estremadura.

Philip I of Castile and Juana La Loca.

Carlos of Spain, also known as the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

Philip II of Spain.

Philip II was King of Spain until 1598, which covers almost the rest of the century--he was succeeded by his son, Philip III.

And Noddy is absolutely correct, Don Quixote is one of the classics of world literature, and an amusing look at Spain in that era.

Don Quixote is already in use- and I am really annoyed with myself because I can't read Spanish.
I have several translations here and they are all different in a way.

Thank you very much for your post, Sentanta.
Interesting and "revolting" times.
Years ago I had to prepare an exhibition about a man living in this time and I tried to show not only his career but what might have had an impact on him and connections for the viewers to place him in history.

Our National Library may have Prescott's 22 volume history- but 22 volumes might be too much right now.

Yes, 22 volumes is a bit much. You might find the volumes on Isabella and Ferdinand interesting though, and the (four?) volumes on Philip II would be exceptionally useful. I've personally read the Isabella story, the two volumes on the conquest of Peru, the three volumes on the conquest of Mexico, and one of the volumes on Philip (second volume, i believe--it has been many years ago). Prescott holds up well over more than a century and a half--he was surprisingly free of the prejudices of his age and his social milieu, and he had a wonderful technique of providing background information and short biographies of the the major source historians he had used. Each volume is divided into "tomes," and each tome is divided into books. The beginning of each tome includes at least one biography of a source historian, and usually has important background information.

But, then, i'm a fanatic for history . . .

I have this book, and a couple of others by him, but haven't read it, and not having a vast background in reading history, I doubt I'd be much of a judge on it - but it looks interesting to me:

Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century, Vol. I : The Structure of Everyday Life (Paperback) by Fernand Braudel
The Structures of Everyday Life

But, then, i'm a fanatic for history . . .

Yes, I know and I have often read your posts with great interest. I hoped you would jump in and come to rescue.


Prescott holds up well over more than a century and a half--he was surprisingly free of the prejudices of his age and his social milieu, and he had a wonderful technique of providing background information and short biographies of the the major source historians he had used.

That looks very promising.
Thank you again.

ul ~ As you discover interesting points in your research, I'd appreciate it if you'd post them here. Just for my own curiosity. I have read a little about guilds in the Renaissance period, mostly in Italy and the former Burgundy. If you can find guild information, you'll discover a lot on the burgeoning middle class that was the amalgamation of the minor nobility/richer peasants/merchants of your first post. I know nothing about Spain during that time, other than the great events that Setanta posted. I suspect that it was a more rigid & stratified society than most of Europe of the same period -- and certainly much more so than the Italian city-states.

Am I glad that I dared to ask here.

Ossobuco,
thanks for the link.
The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II

I put this on my book list.

Tico,

I will do- but it will take some time.

This is a point which cannot be stressed too much. Spain has now fully entered the modern world--but it was about the last of the western European nations to do so. Napoleon successfully exported the values of the French Revolution to Italy and Germany, because of the opportunities which it opened to the middle class. Spain had almost no middle class, neither in the 16th century, nor the 19th century when Bonaparte showed up. Napoleon's disasterous miscalculation was a belief that the Spaniard would embrace the principles of the Revolution as the Italians and Germans had done, and for the same reasons.

Not only did that not happen, but the contrarian nature of the Spanish kicked in with a vengeance. When mad King Carlos II died in 1700, Europe had already planned his succession (as though they had any right) because they did not intend that the powerful Bourbon dynasty of France, then represented by Louis XIV, commanding the largest standing army in the world, should take over Spain as well. On the instigation of William III of England (William of Orange of Holland), the old coalition against France from the Nine Years War was reformed, and Austria was added. Europe went to war for 11 years to prevent a Bourbon from mounting the Spanish throne.

Carlos didn't want Europe telling him what to do, and he willed his kingdom and empire to the grandson of Louis XIV, Philip of Anjou. The English parliament backed the government of Queen Anne conducted by Marlborough and Goldophin only because they did not want a Bourbon on the Spanish throne.

The Spanish decided that their late, crazy King's will was law. They embraced Philip, and after 11 years of warfare that stretched across Europe from Holland to Austria, and saw some of the heaviest fighting known in Europe until that time, and the largest armies known in Europe until that time--the coalition which defeated Louis XIV's armies lost the war. Philip V was the Bourbon King of Spain until his death in 1746.

Napoleon, although a fond scholar of history, who got his best marks in school in France in history, seems not to have understood all of that. He lured the corrupt and incompetent Ferdinand VII to Bayonne in 1808 and deposed him by force. He then put his brother Joseph on the Spanish throne, and supported his throne with French bayonets (and Dutch and Polish and German as well). He seems to have thought the Spanish wouldn't mind, and that their middle class would embrace the principles of the Revolution, which were going instantly to transport Spain into the modern world.

Such middle class as there was--and there wasn't much--did mind. They supported the insurrection against Joseph and the French. Local parish priests turned out the peasants and lead the guerilla against the French. To be a French soldier (or Dutch, Polish or German) and to go off alone anywhere in Spain was tantamount to suicide. And they didn't just murder them, they usually tortured and mutilated them before they had sufficient mercy to kill them and put them out of their misery.

The Spanish army was a disaster, and after relying upon them once at Talavera in 1809, Wellington never repeated the disaster. The Cortes at Cadiz was equally a disaster, so Wellington just ignored them. The Spanish theater became a bleeding wound for the Empire which could not be staunched. Napoleon's empire was literally bled white by the insane Spanish adventure, and a reasonable estimate is that he lost a half a million troops there, and more than two billion francs. More than any other single aspect of the Napoleonic wars, the Spanish debacle was responsible for the fall of the First empire.

One cannot stress too much the basic conservatism of the Spanish in most of their history.

Nothing really to add here but I do find it interesting that here in central new mexico we have numerous famlies descended from the Conquistadores that were actually "conversos"

Food in History

I haven't read this book, but a quick scan of the Table of Contents shows that it's a very generalized work. However, it may lead you to other sources. A search on agricultural history may also net some interesting facts. You may be able to extrapolate from what people ate and how they produced the food, the impact of plenty/famine, etc.

This popped into my head because I was sitting here thinking about lunch ... maybe a BLT ... which lead to thinking about tomatoes, and how they are native to the Americas, and therefore introduced to Europe during the 16th century, which lead back to this thread. Think of the huge impact on Spanish and Italian cooking with the introduction of tomatoes, potatoes and corn. And then there's chocolate ...

ul ~ may I ask what your project is?

Thanks Tico.

Tomatoes, corn and potatoes were real great gifts from the Americanas. Potatoes especially, they saved many people from starvation. King Friederich II of Prussia(1712 - 1786) kind of forced his people to grow them.
My little project is nothing scientific nor special. I was asked to write a book for children about Calasanz and to do so I need more background information.

)For a general overview about Spain, I think these two are still quite good:
Hartmut Heine: Geschichte Spaniens in der frühen Neuzeit 1400-1800, München 1984
John H. Elliott: Imperial Spain 1469-1716, London 1963

You might find some more infos via this website and can do own online researches here.

That might be a good portal for Italy as well (since I don't know from personla experiences others :wink:

Walter, thank you.

I only had time for a quick view into the links- they look good.
Despite being off "work" right now I am busy with house guests and doing my on job training studies.
But the night has long quiet hours
:wink: