Popular Revolt Notes

GIII Revision Notes.

Popular Revolt.

Case studies:

• P Blickle focuses on Norway.

• Until 1550, mainly in SE Norway. E.g. rural Oslo Fjord.

• Early 1520s: Western Norway at centre of conflict.

• In Denmark, 1520s and 30s = similarly troubled.

• First half 1500s – polit struggles in Orkneys mobilised people.

• N’lands:

• 5 April 1566: 300 nobles marched through streets of Brussels. Offered ‘Petition’ to governess Margaret of Parma – afraid of Inquisition encroaching.

• ‘General crisis of the C17th’:

• 1500s had seen price rises and inflation, started to slow down beginning of C17th.

• Crises inc’d Eng Rev, Fronde in France, anti-Habsburg revolts in Catalonia, Naples, Sicily, Bohemia, Khmelnitsky revolt in Ukraine, celali revolts in Ottoman Empire, collapse of Ming rule in China.

• Goldstone on Eng and French Revs: “brought on by purely polit conflicts and exacerbated by chance conjunctions of unfortunate circumstances”

• L Stone also blamed the Eng Rev on weaknesses of the Stuarts.

1. What caused rebellions in this period?

• Built in feature of society.

• “Resistance was a normal feature of the relations between subjects and authority” – Peter Blickle.

• J A Goldstone also talks of “routine tension”.

• Change in general was disruptive.

• E.g. tension over serfdom major cause in rural areas (Blickle).

• New forms of taxes.

• Overseas expansion.

• Religious change = particularly strong example.

• E.g. refs appeared in German PW manifestos of 1524-5.

• E.g. Philip II to the Duchess of Parma, 17 Oct 1565 calls revolts ‘the relig probs’.

• E.g. March 1571 – violence broke out between armed Calvinists and Cath procession

• E.g. Wars of Relig in France brought French recruits into bands of bandits (J H Elliott).

• Although Luther emph’d need for obedience initially, using example texts like 13^th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans.

• However, he always emph’d that one should obey God rather than men. Oct 1530, started to waver - Torgau Declaration: may be imperial and canon law grounds for resistance.

• Religious factions often clashed politically.

• e.g. in France, Huguenot political strongholds = La Rochelle, La Charité, Cognac, Montauban.

• E.g. Huguenot pamphlet of 1568 declared that ‘the people’ had existed long before the monarchy.

• As is organisational change assoc. w/ capitalism – MARXIST ARGUMENT FOCUS (e.g. Hill [‘61], Moore [‘66]).

• E.g. in Eng, 2/3 of all enclosures 1500-1850 took place during 1600s.

• Taxes were a major cause.

• E.g. Bundschuh revolts, German PW – peasants demanded abolition of all taxes.

• E.g. Big opposition to Ungeld – levied on daily essentials.

• E.g. King Christian II (1513-23) ^ tax (Tiendepenningeskatten) provoked peasants on western coast of Norway.

• E.g. Orkneys, oslo Fjord 1420s.

• E.g. 1539 peasants in Telemark turned kings’ miners out of Seljord.

• Economic growth.

• In some areas highlighted inequalities.

• E.g. Dutch economic growth 1490-1565.

• Influx of money from Empire: Spain 1570s, consignments of silver started to be sent to Genoa by way of Barcelona. Bandits took opportunity, ^ violence.

• Political situations could impact in different ways in different areas.

• E.g. N’lands.

• “precarious balance of power” (Martin Van Gelderen) between central and local governments. Also territories of Spain – vast Habsburg Empire.

• E.g. Regent Margaret of Parma regularly sought advice from men like Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (1517-86).

• During C14th and C15th, towns feeling threatened led to “a tradition of urban revolt” (Van Gelderen). E.g. Brabant 1420, Flemish revolts of 1482, 1540.

• Combined with freq absent leaders, e.g. Philip II (acceded 1555). Communicated secretly but not the same as being there.

• Goldstone explains how contemps viewed taxes as fair trade for gov’t maintaining stability, so credits authorities’ failure to do this as a key reason for rebellion.

• Some natural difficulties affected diff parts of Europe throughout the period.

• E.g. N’lands, 1565: harvest failure, grim winter.

• Oppressive responses from authority further encouraged.

• E.g. Norway 1490s (Blickle).

• E.g. Duke Christian of Norway nicknamed ‘Christian the Tyrant’.

• E.g. Attempts of authorities to round up ringleaders of 1572 riots...

Buy the full version of these notes or essay plans and more in our General History III: 1400–1650 (Renaissance, Recovery and Reform) Notes.