We explain what a centralized monarchy is, its general characteristics, and examples of this form of government.
In the centralized monarchy, shields and flags were used to unify territories.
What is centralized monarchy?
Centralized (or authoritarian) monarchies They emerged in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuriesThey represented a change in political organization with respect to the feudal system that prevailed in the High Middle Ages. The weakening of the feudal lords due to prolonged wars and the reduction of the population in the countryside precipitated the appearance of these centralized government regimes that concentrated political power in the royal court. The kings recovered the powers that, during the four preceding centuries, had largely been monopolized by the feudal lords.
Centralized monarchies preceded absolute monarchies. and represented the initial step towards the formation of modern Western European nation states. The political decentralization characteristic of the feudal order was replaced by strengthened monarchies with their own armies and bureaucratic administration. They also exercised political dominance over a unified territory under the sovereignty of the king and were financed by taxation and relations with merchants and bankers.
Characteristics of centralized monarchies
- In the centralized European monarchies, political power was concentrated in the king and the royal court to the detriment of the feudal lords.
- The kings of centralized monarchies depended on a body of officials who were in charge of the administration of the State. They usually came from the lower nobility and the bourgeoisie.
- The bureaucratic functioning of centralized monarchies was based on tax collection, which allowed them to pay officials and finance the army. They also resorted to the sale of offices and the obtaining of loans, which strengthened the relationship between the monarchy and the urban bourgeoisie.
- Centralized monarchies promoted the unification of their territories by minting single coins, forming a permanent state army, and developing symbols of territorial unity.
Historic context
Background
During the boom years of feudalism in Western Europe There were some experiences of concentration of power in the hands of kings or members of the high nobility.For example, in France, after the disintegration of the Carolingian Empire, the kings had less political power than their vassal nobles, until the House of Capet (987-1328) took power, confronting the feudal lords and promoting some centralizing measures in tax and administrative matters.
In England, The Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror, seized the throne in 1066 and expelled from their fiefs the nobles who had not supported him, installed administrators in the manors and demanded loyalty to him.
However, in those years the feudal order remained preeminent. Many lords continued to control revenues and justice, and dependence on vassalage relations was almost absolute.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, the situation began to change. The revival of Roman law in the 13th century restored the legal hegemony of a kingdom to the monarch. This justified both the superiority of the king over the feudal lords and his political preponderance over the papacy and the empire. The figures of the king and the crown prince acquired political centrality and religious legitimacy.and simultaneously the boundaries of the territories governed by the monarchs were defined, in spaces that later formed the national States (for example, France, Spain and England).
Why did centralized monarchies emerge?
It is generally accepted that the rise of centralized monarchies was due to several reasons:
- The relative weakness of the feudal lords as a result of recurring wars.
- Lack of labor in the fieldsas a consequence of the demographic effects of epidemics, such as the Black Death (1347-1352), and the migration of peasants to the cities, which promoted the abandonment of serfdom.
- The growth of the urban bourgeoisiewhose commercial and financial activities were approved by the monarchs and benefited from political centralization, which offered fewer obstacles to business than the feudal order. In addition, this bourgeoisie provided income to the monarchies through loans and the purchase of offices, which was necessary to support an army and a bureaucracy. For this reason, some historians suggest that centralized monarchies arose as a result of common interests between kings and bourgeoisie.
- The conformity of the nobility Although their interests were affected in some respects, they did benefit from this process: the armies at the service of the king also provided a guarantee of order against peasant rebellions. Furthermore, this social sector maintained a good part of the privileges it had enjoyed during the height of feudalism.
Political organization
Body of civil servants
Centralized monarchies They organized a body of officials to enforce the lawsto administer justice and collect taxes in the name of the king. This organization is often called “bureaucracy” and is one of the foundations of the modern State, since it concentrates in the State some powers previously dispersed among feudal lords or noble powers. This task was carried out by educated individuals who were employed by the monarchy and who generally came from the lower nobility or the bourgeoisie.
Thus, the exercise of government and justice became professionalized and positions were created that depended both on the technical capacity of their officials and on a certain legal regularity. Particularly important were the areas of finance and justice, which required not only decision-making but also daily management throughout the territory, always under the authority of the monarch.
Representative assemblies
In centralized monarchies, representative assemblies existed for some time. They were convened by the king and They were made up of representatives of the nobility, the clergy and the “common people” or “third estate”.
This last estate was usually made up of the urban patriciate, although it could claim a more general representation. Similarly, the representatives of the other two estates usually came from the high nobility and the high clergy.
In the kingdoms of Spain they emerged under the name of Cortes in the 12th century.while Parliament in England was first convened in the 13th century and the Estates General of France made its debut in the early 14th century.
The function of these assemblies was to dialogue on recognized issues. as being of interest to the various estates, and they were to serve as advisory bodies, particularly in fiscal matters (although in England Parliament also came to have a legislative character). However, their influence was often limited by the authoritarian tendencies of the monarchs.
Taxes and currency
The fact of minting coins contributed to the development of commercial exchange.
Centralized monarchies They were supported by resources from tax collectionas well as loans from bankers and the sale of public offices or church property. In this way they were able to finance the bureaucratic administration and the standing army, and reduce their dependence on the feudal nobility.
Some crowns, such as the Portuguese and Spanish, also benefited from overseas expansion and the circulation of valuable resources such as gold and silver.
One of the policies implemented by centralized monarchies was the minting of single coins within kingdomslike the duchy of the Catholic Monarchs, which since 1497 had to be used in all the territories of the crown (even overseas). This measure contributed to the development of commercial exchange and financial activities, since it simplified transactions. It also contributed to the affirmation of the political power of the monarchies in their territories and in relation to other States.
Standing armies
The most important military body of the centralized monarchy was the infantry.
Centralized monarchies They organized permanent state armies. In this way, they no longer depended on the personal loyalty of their vassals, as happened in feudal times. They also sometimes resorted to mercenaries, who fought in the service of any king who called them in exchange for pay. This system depended heavily on the financial capacity of the monarchy, not only to pay troops or mercenaries but also to invest in weapons.
Unlike what happened in the feudal era, whose distinctive characteristic was the dependence on cavalry, The most important body of these armies was made up of infantrythat is, foot soldiers who were trained in the use of the halberd or the bow. At this time, the use of gunpowder in firearms and artillery, such as the arquebus or different types of iron cannons, also began to spread.
The armies of centralized monarchies were also useful instruments for ensuring internal control.
Symbols of “national” unity
In addition to minting unique coins, The kings adopted shields and flags to manifest monarchical authority and represent the unity of their territories. For example, the coat of arms of the Catholic Monarchs was formed by incorporating the arms of Castile, Leon, Aragon and Granada, and a white flag with the cross of Burgundy came to identify the dominion of Philip “the Fair” and Joanna I of Castile over all of Spain. In any case, the possibility of considering these emblems as “national” is a matter of discussion, since they were still symbols of the monarchy rather than of a modern national identity.
Still, historians often acknowledge that, Between the 14th and 15th centuries, the notion of a collective identity emerged which included the inhabitants of a vast territory but was not primarily defined by subordination to the Catholic Church. The monarch came to represent, even if only theoretically, a large group of subjects who lived in a territory with more or less precise boundaries and who shared a common language and history.
The use of vernacular languages in religious settings and in literature stimulated this process.
Examples of centralized monarchies
Portugal
Perhaps the first experience of centralized monarchy that emerged with the decline of feudalism took place in Portugal at the end of the 14th century. A series of succession conflicts put the interests of the nobility under strainwho supported John I of…