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The rise of the House of Habsburg

European Federation or Fourth Reich?

Part 8

THE Protestant Reformation divided Germany approximately in half. After a few religious wars a kind of truce was worked out whereby individual German principalities could chose to be formally either Catholic or Lutheran. Lutheranism soon spread to all the countries speaking languages derived from German: Sweden, Denmark, Norway and England.

A rival Protestant sect soon appeared in France: Calvinism. This took hold in Switzerland, Holland, Scotland and for a while in Hungary.

THE RISE AND RISE OF THE HOUSE OF HABSBURG

The Habsburg family had already more or less obtained a monopoly of the post of Holy Roman Emperor, the election being achieved usually by extensive bribery.
Their main rivals for election were the kings of France, who claimed descent from the first Emporer Charlemagne, but the Habsburgs always outbid them.

The Hungarian ruler Matthew the Crow said of the Habsburg family: “Others make war: you, happy Austria, get married.” The Habsburg family's territories grew steadily through marriage to heiresses.

Maximilian the First (Emperor 1493-1519) married Mary, daughter of the last ruler of Burgundy, Charles the Rash. Through her the Habsburgs inherited a scattering of lands on the borders of France. Their son Phillip the Handsome married Joanna, heiress of Aragon and Castile. Phillip died young and Joanna went mad and had to be locked up, and their son Charles became king of Spain, and ruler of the vast Spanish empire, at the age of fifteen. In 1519, after his grandfather Maximilian died and at the cost of more than two tons of gold, he became Emperor of Germany as well. So, he ruled two empires: Spain as Carlos I and Germany as Karl V.

Martin Luther met Charles in 1521 and tried to convert him, but Charles declined and the house of Habsburg remained Catholic ever after.

Charles soon became embroiled in Italian affairs, in pursuit of the old Hohenstaufen dream of controlling the pope. The popes of his time were mostly Medicis, allies of France. In 1527 he captured Rome itself, with an army made up largely of Lutherans, and held Pope Clement prisoner for a while. The city was sacked and looted and the tolerant, pleasure-loving Rome of the Renaissance was ended. A new, stern, serious Rome was to emerge, the Rome of the Counter-Reformation and the Inquisition.

Charles retired to a monastery in 1556. Before doing so he split his inheritance. The Habsburg lands within Germany he gave to his brother Ferdinand, who also became Emporer. The rest: the Spanish Empire and the Italian and Burgundian possessions, went to his son Phillip, who became Phillip II of Spain.

THE HUNGARIAN INHERITANCE

In 1526 Hungary was invaded by the Turks and the last Hungarian ruler, Lajos II, was defeated and killed at the Battle of Mohacs, and most of Hungary came under Turkish rule. The only survivor of the old Hungarian royal line was the late king's sister, Ann, who was married to Ferdinand of Habsburg: Emperor from 1556 to 1564. Thus the Habsburgs became titular kings of Hungary, a title the family claims to this day, and the parts of Hungary not occupied by the Turks came under Habsburg rule.

PHILIP THE SECOND

Philip II became regent of Spain in 1543 and king in 1556 and died in 1598, so he ruled Spain for 55 years. He became king of Portugal in 1578 and thus ruler of the whole Iberian land-mass. He also ruled Belgium, Holland, most of Italy and the whole of Central and South America, and the Phillipine Islands: which were named after him. He ruled the greatest empire that ever existed, and it was bankrupt.

Frontiers had to be garrisoned and coasts defended and the cost was ruinous. The revolt by Dutch Calvinists gobbled up resources. Phillip was constantly in debt.
He borrowed money at compound interest, a new invention, and saw his debts snowball alarmingly. Three times he repudiated his debts (in 1557, 1575 and 1596), mostly buying off creditors with annuities, and eventually only the Lutheran bankers of northern Germany would lend him money. The wealth of the Americas flowed across the Atlantic to be passed on immediately to Phillip's bankers, and went to building up the economies of German Protestant cities and states while Spain itself remained backward and underdeveloped.

At the same time a new world power unexpectedly emerged. Under Elizabeth Tudor (1558-1603) England at last abandoned the centuries-long attempt to conquer France. Being on an island, with no frontiers to defend, the English were then able to concentrate resources on building up a large navy: firstly for defence purposes but also to engage in raiding and piracy, especially against Spanish interests. A new European policy was developed in England: the ‘Balance of Power’, under which England would encourage European states to fight each other and leave England free to conquer elsewhere, only intervening in Europe if one power seemed to be getting too strong.

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