Week 6: The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century

Discussion: The War over Women
Read and discuss:
1. Joseph Swetnam, “The Arraignment of Lewd, Idle, Froward, and Unconstant Women” (c. 1615) [Also available on Canvas]
2. Rachel Speght, “A Mouzell for Melastomus” (1617) [Also available on Canvas]


The Challenge of Calvinism

I. A Second Reformation?
A. Calvin's View of Himself
B. Guiding Principles: The Majesty of God and Liturgical Purism
C. The Reformed Model of Church Governance

II. The Wars of Religion in France (1562-1598)
A. Why Were they So Ferocious?
1. Centralization and a Power Vaccum
2. Competition among the Magnates
3. Absence of Mediating Institutions
4. Militant Christianities
B. The Course of the Wars

Image: “A survey, or Table declaring the order of the causes of Salvation and Damnation”

Map: Image Breaking in the Netherlands, 1566
Image: Pieter Saenredam (1597-1665), Interior of the Church of St. Odulphus, Assendelft (1649)

Image: A Schriftaltar in the Church of St. Ludger, Norden
Image: The 'Paradis' Church in Lyon, ca. 1564
Chart: The Genevan Model of Church Governance (1541)

Image: The Death of Henri II (10 July 1559)
Map: The Spread of Calvinism in France
Chart: Publishing in Calvin's Geneva, 1536-1572
Image: Procession of the Catholic League (1590)

Image above: The City of Geneva and its Environs (1552). Source: Sebastian Münster, La Cosmographie Universelle (Basel: Petri, 1552). Image source: Historic Cities. Image right: Jean Calvin (1509-1564)


Identifications:

Predesination
Iconoclasm
(Image-Breaking)

Henri II, King of France (1510-1559, r. 1547-1559)
François II, Duke of Guise (1519-1563)
Gaspard II de Coligny (1519-1572)

Charles IX, King of France (1550-1574, r. 1560-1574)
Henri III, King of France (1551-1589, r. 1574-1589)
Henri IV, King of France (1553-1610, r. 1589-1610)

Massacre of Vassy (1 March 1562)
Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre (23 August 1572)
The Edict of Nantes (13 April 1598)

Image right: Francois Dubois, Le massacre de la Saint-Bathélemy (ca. 1572-1584). Oil on panel, 94 x 154 cm. Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne. Image source: Wikimedia Commons.


Was There a General Crisis in the Seventeenth Century?

I. Environment: An Age of Global Cooling

Graph: Wine Harvest Date in Northern Switzerland, 1525-1800
Images: The Retreat of the Rhône Glacier, 1705-2007
Map: The Retreat of the Rhône Glacier, 1602-2014

II. Economy: Price Inflation
A. African Gold & American Silver
B. Currency Debasement

Image: The King of Mali (1375)
Map: The Songhai Empire (c. 1464-1592)
Graph: Spanish Imports of Treasure, 1505-1650
Graph: Price Inflation in Cologne, 1531-1586
Graph: Wages and Prices in England, 1260-1800
Graph: Property Crime in England, 1566-1602

III. State and Society
A. The Burdens of State
B. A Plague of Insurrections

Image: Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), Winter Landscape with Skaters (1608). Oil on oak panel. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Source: Wikimedia Commons.


 


Identifications

English Revolution (1640-1660)
The “Fronde” (1648-1653)
Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648)

“Little Ice Age”
Potosí (Peru
“Venality of Office”

 

Global Warming

This figure shows a comparison of proxy-based Northern Hemisphere temperature reconstructions, showing model simulations of mean temperature changes over the past millennium. Also shown are two independent reconstructions of warm-season extratropical continental Northern Hemisphere temperatures and an extension back through the past two thousand years based on eight long reconstructions. Image source: NOAA.

Holocene Temperatures

This figure shows eight records of local temperature variability on multi-centennial scales throughout the course of the Holocene, and an average of these (thick dark line) to 10,000 BCE (from 12,000 BP to the present). The records are plotted with respect to the mid-twentieth century average temperature, and the global average temperature in 2004 is indicated. An inset plot compares the most recent two millennia of the average to other recent reconstructions. At the far right of this plot it is possible to observe the emergence of climate from the last glacial period of the current ice age. During the Holocene itself, there is general scientific agreement that temperatures on the average have been quite stable compared to fluctuations during the preceding glacial period.


Thirty Years’ War and the Military Revolution in Europe

I. Introduction: War Comes to the Village of Linden, 1634

II. The  Many Faces of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648)
A. A Conflict of Religions
B. A Confrontation Between Monarchs and Estates
C. A War of Imperial Expansions
D. A Dynastic Struggle: Bourbon vs. Habsburg

III. The Military Revolution
A. Gunpowder and Cannons
B. New, Costlier Fortifications
C. The Tactics of Volley-Fire

Image: Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Map: Population Losses during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648)
Image: The Edict of Restitution, 1629

Image: Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1619-1637)
Image: Christian IV, King of Denmark (r.1588-1648)
Image: Gustav II Adolf, King of Sweden (r. 1611-1632)

Image: Cities and Fortifications: Some Dutch Examples
Image: The Siege of Bautzen, 1620
Map: The Siege of Breisach, 1638
Image: The Siege of Vienna, 1683
Map: Turkish Siegeworks, Vienna, 1683
Image: European Countermarch
Field Sketch: The Battle of Lützen, 1632
Image: The Battle of Jankow, 1645

Chart: State Expenditures by Category, 1600-1700
Chart: European Armies, 1475-1705
Chart: Spending by the City Council in Warendorf, 1603-1623


King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden (1594-1632)

Vrancx

Sebastiaen Vrancx (1573-1647), Soldiers Plundering a Farm during the Thirty Years' War (1620). Oil on panel. Deutsches Historisches Museum. Source: Wikimedia Commons.


Image: the city of Turin, capital of the Duchy of Savoy, in 1682, showing its fortifications in the new style. Source: Atlas van der Hagen, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, Netherlands

Identifications

Phases of the Thirty Years' War:
1. The Bohemian Phase (1618-1623)
2. The Danish Phase (1625-1629)
3. The Swedish Phase (1630-1635)
4. The French Phase (1635-1648)

The Protestant Union (1608)
The Catholic League (1609)

Emperor Ferdinand II (1619-1637)
King Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden (1594-1632)

“Trace Italienne”: the method of building low, thick, angled, zig-zag fortifications, for superior defense against canon artillery (see illustration below).

Count Wilhelm Ludwig of Nassau (inventor of "volley fire" tactics)
Battle of Breitenfeld (1631): the battlefield advantages of volley fire are revealed.

Map: The Thirty Years' War in Europe, 1618-1648



Image: A cross section of fortifications in the new style, as conceived by Philip Staynred in A Compendium of Fortification: Both Geometrically and Instrumentally by a Scale (London, 1683). Image source: The Geometry of War, 1500-1750.


Go to Week 7