A nation is a body of people, organised into a single state. One of the most characteristic of the ideas of the Age of the Renaissance was that of the Nation and its sovereign independence - an idea still very active in our own days. The Middle Ages had been dominated by the Catholic ideal of world unity. The great institutions of those ages were international - for example, the Feudal System, and above all the Church and the Papacy. Latin, too, was an international language; and though the various peoples had their own languages, the continual use of Latin in both Church and State affairs helped educated men to regard themselves as members of one society, the society of Christendom. Above all, these peoples - English, French, Spanish, Italian, German - were all members of one Church. All belonged in some measure to the Christendom of which the heads were the Pope and the Emperor. Then, gradually, from the early days of the Renaissance, the newer idea of the 'Nation' took root, and this in time changed the unity of 'Christendom' into the disunion of 'Europe'.
Modern Europe is dominated by national feeling and is divided into independent national states; and these have no longer even the common bond of one Church. Europe has lost as well as gained by the disappearance of medieval Christendom. She has gained, because the old feudal divisions in most countries meant internal disunion, civil warfare, and baronial tyranny. But Europe has also lost, because the old ideal of a united Christendom has disappeared in the jealous rivalries of warring nations. From time to time attempts have been made to check these dangerous rivalries. But the problem of international peace and co-operation - of a 'society of nations' - is one which mankind is still trying to solve in a satisfactory manner. The nations which took the lead in Europe in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries were those that first achieved national unity, and the chief of these were France, Spain, and England. Italy, which had given so much to the world in art and letters, did not share in this political change. Great men lived in Italy - in Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples, and Milan - but all these cities were the capitals of small states. In short, Italy was not a nation; hence she became from 1494 the prey of powerful neighbours. As with Italy, so with Germany.
The Holy Roman Empire was an empire only in name; in practice, Germany contained three or four hundred separate States. Both Germany and Italy retained, until even the nineteenth century, their internal divisions and discords. France, Spain, and England had achieved national unity in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, whereas Germany and Italy had to wait another three centuries - and some of our problems to-day are due to the fact that they are still comparatively new nations. The means by which national unity was brought about in France, Spain, and England was the monarchy. It was their kings who saved and made these countries - saved them from feudal anarchy and made them into nations. It was monarchs like Henry VII and Henry VIII of England, Louis XI and Francis I of France, and Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain who united their countries under a strong rule, and led them to a great destiny. A Holy Roman Emperor (Maximilian) contrasted the new monarchs with himself as follows: 'The Emperor is indeed a king of kings, for no one feels bound to obey him; and the King of Spain is a king of men, for, though resisted, he is still obeyed; but the King of France is a king of beasts, for him none dare gainsay.' Research Nation
Alessandro Algardi was an Italian sculptor. He was born in 1602 and died in 1654. He was one of the chief Italian sculptors of the seventeenth century and lived and worked chiefly at Borne. He executed the tomb of Leo XI in St. Peter's, and a marblerelief with life-size figures over the altar of St Leo there. Research Alessandro Algardi
Charles the Bold was Duke of Burgundy. He was born in 1433 at Dijon. He was the son of Philip the Good and Isabella of Portugal. While his father yet lived Charles left Burgundy, and forming an alliance with some of the great French nobles for the purpose of preserving the power of the feudal nobility, he marched on Paris with 20,000 men, defeated Louis XI at Montlheri, and won the counties of Boulogne, Guines, and Ponthieu. Succeeding his father in 1467 he commenced his reign by severe repression of the citizens of Liege and Ghent.
In 1468 he married Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV of England. Liege having rebelled, the duke stormed and sacked the town. In 1470 the war with France was renewed, and although the duke was forced to sue for a truce he soon took up arms anew, and, crossing the Somme, stormed and fired the city of Nesle. Louis meanwhile involved him in greater embarrassments by exciting against him Austria and the Swiss. Charles, ever ready to take up a quarrel, threw himself on Germany with characteristic fury, and lost ten months in a futile siege of Neuss. He was successful, however, in conquering Lorraine from Duke Rene.
Charles now turned his arms against the Swiss, took the city of Granson, putting 800 men to the sword. But this cruelty was speedily avenged by the descent of a Swiss army, which at the first shock routed the duke's forces at Granson, on March the 3rd, 1476. Mad with rage and shame Charles gathered another army, invaded Switzerland, and was again defeated with great loss at Moral. The Swiss, led by the Duke of Lorraine, now undertook the reconquest of Lorraine, and obtained possession of Nancy. Charles marched to recover it, but was utterly routed and himself slain. The house of Burgundy ended in him, and his death Without male heirs removed the greatest of those independent feudal lords whose power stood in the way of the growth of the French monarchy. His daughter Mary married Maximilian of Germany, but most of his French territory passed into the hands of the French king. Research Charles The Bold
Charles VIII was king of France. He was born in 1470 and died in 1498. He succeeded his father, Louis XI in 1483. In 1491 he married Anne, the heiress of Brittany, and thereby annexed that important duchy to the French crown. The chief event in the reign of Charles VIII is his expedition into Italy, and rapid conquest of the kingdom of Naples, a conquest as rapidly lost when a few months later Gonsalvo de Cordova re-annexed it to Spain. Charles VIII was meditating a renewed descent into Italy when he died in 1498. Research Charles VIII
Charles XI was king of Sweden. He was born in 1655 and died in 1697. He was the only child of Charles X (2) whom he succeeded in 1660 under a council of regency until he attained his majority at the age of seventeen. Misled by the Chancellor De La Gardie and his other counsellors he embarked on a war with Brandenburg in 1675. Research Charles XI
Charles XII (also known as Alexander of the North) was king of Sweden. He was born in 1682 at Stockholm and died in 1718. He was the sole surviving son of Charles XI, whom he succeeded in 1697, when he was but fifteen years old, he was declared of age by the estates. To his jealous neighbours this seemed a favourable time to humble the pride of Sweden. Frederick IV of Denmark, Augustus I. of Poland, and the Czar Peter I of Russia concluded an alliance which resulted in war against Sweden. With the aid of an English and Dutch squadron the Danes were soon made to sign peace, but Augustus of Saxony and Poland, and the czar were still in the field. Rapidly transporting 20,000 men to Livonia, Charles XII stormed the czar's camp at Nerva, slaying 30,000 Russians and dispersing the rest on the 30th of November 1700. Crossing the Dwina he then attacked the Saxons and gained a decisive victory. Following up this advantage he won the battle of Clissau, drove Augustus from Poland, had the crown of that country conferred on Stanislaus Leczinsky, and dictated the conditions of peace at Altranstadt in Saxony in 1706.
In September, 1707, the Swedes left Saxony, Charles XII taking the shortest route to Moscow. At Smolensk he altered his plan, deviated to the Ukraine to gain the help of the Cossacks, and weakened his army very seriously by difficult marches through a district extremely cold and ill supplied with provisions. In this condition Peter marched upon him with 70,000 men, and defeated him completely at Pultawa. Charles XII fled with a small guard and found refuge and an honourable reception at Bender, in the Turkish territory. Here he managed to persuade the Porte to declare war against Russia. The armies met on the banks of the Pruth on July the 1st 1711 and Peter seemed nearly ruined, when his wife, Catharine, succeeded in bribing the grand vizier, and procured a peace in which the interests of Charles XII were neglected.
The attempts of Charles XII to rekindle a war were vain, and after having spent some years at Bender he was forced by the Turkish government to leave. Arriving in his own country in 1714, he set about the measures necessary to defend the kingdom, and the fortunes of Sweden were beginning to assume a favourable aspect when he was slain by a cannon-ball as he was besieging Frederikshall on November the 30th, 1718. Firmness, valour, and love of justice were the great features in the character of Charles XII, but were disfigured by an obstinate rashness. After his deathSweden sank from the rank of a leading power. Research Charles XII
Edward IV was King of England from 1461 to 1483. He was born in 1442 and died in 1483. Edward IV was very probably the illegitimate son of the his mother, the Queen, and an archer in the royal garrison - his 'father', Richard, duke of York, the king, being away at battle in France at the time when Edward IV was conceived. As an illegitimate child, Edward IV had no claim to the throne, and as such the English entire royal line since has been flawed.
When Edward IV became the first Yorkist king he was able to restore order, despite the temporary return to the throne of Henry VI from 1470 to 1471, during which time Edward fled to the Continent in exile, supported by the Earl of Warwick, 'the Kingmaker', who had previously supported Edward and who was killed at the Battle of Barnet in 1471. Edward also made peace with France; by a shrewd display of force to exert pressure, Edward reached a profitable agreement with Louis XI at Picquigny in 1475. At home, Edward relied heavily on his own personal control in government, reviving the ancient custom of sitting in person 'on the bench' (i.e. in judgement) to enforce justice. He sacked Lancastrian office-holders and used his financial acumen to introduce tight management of royal revenues to reduce the Crown's debt.
Building closer relations with the merchant community, Edward IV encouraged commercial treaties; he successfully traded in wool on his own account to restore his family's fortunes and enable the King to ' live of his own', paying the costs of the country's administration from the Crown Estates profits and freeing him from dependence on subsidies from Parliament. Edward rebuilt St George's Chapel at Windsor (possibly seeing it as a mausoleum for the Yorkists, as he was later buried there) and a new great hall at Eltham Palace. Edward collected illuminated manuscripts - his is the only intact medieval royal collection to survive - and patronised the new invention of printing. Edward died in 1483, leaving by his marriage to ElizabethWoodville a 12-year-old son Edward to succeed him. Research Edward IV
Francessco Bianchini was an Italian historian and astronomer. He was born in 1662 and died in 1729. Pope Alexander VIII bestowed on him a rich benefice, with the appointment of tutor and librarian to his nephew Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni; and Clement XI appointed him secretary to the commission for the correction of the calendar. He spent eight years in meridian measurement; left a portion of a Universal History, and works on the planetVenus, etc. Research Francessco Bianchini
Franz Beckenbauer is a German Association Football player. He was born in 1945. He played for Bayern Munich and West Germany, proving an outstanding player in the 1966 and 1970 World Cup competitions, before captaining West Germany in their 1974 World Cup victory. In 1968 he played in the Rest of the World XI against Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Research Franz Beckenbauer
Jean Francois Casimir Delavigne was a French poet and dramatist. He was born in 1793 at Havre and died in 1843. At the restoration he published a set of elegies, entitled Les Messeniennes, which deplored the faded glories of France. He produced in 1819 his tragedy of Les Vepres Siciliennes; Lea Comediens appeared in 1820, and the tragedy of Le Paria in 1821. Of his other plays which followed these may be mentioned: L'Ecole des Vieillards; Marino Faliero; and the dramas of Louis XI - founded on Cornmines' Memoirs and Quentin Durward - and Don Juan d'Autriche. His hymn's La Parisienne and La Varsovienne, and the ballad La Toilette de Constance, are among his more popular poetical pieces. He died a member of the Academy. Research Jean Delavigne
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Nation
