Changing the Signs: The Fifteenth-Century Breakthrough; Veiled Images: Titian's Mythological Paintings for Philip II

During the Middle Ages a number of territories within the boundaries of the modern Netherlands, Belgium and northern France each developed similar ruling institutions in the form of local parliaments or states. In the fifteenth century, the dukes of Burgundy succeeded in joining most of these territories together under a single ruler, but the tradition of provincial autonomy remained strong. At long last, the Habsburg emperor Charles V (who reigned 1515-1555) ruled all the territories, seventeen in number. The seat of the central government was established at Brussels, with the rights of the provincial institutions being largely oppressed in favour of the Brussels' court. From 1556 onwards, however, Charles V's son and successor, King Philip II of Spain, and his governors rekindled the old spirit of provincial opposition against centralized rule by pursuing fierce religious and fiscal policies. The Protestant iconoclasm of 1566 shook the foundations of their power and caused Philip to install the Duke of Alba as his military governor. Alba's high-handed and arbitrary rule subsequently provoked the Dutch revolt. In 1572, after some initial disturbances, the provincial ruling States of Holland and Zeeland, under the leadership of William of Orange (the Silent), launched a revolt against Alba that soon gained the support of other provinces. A long and fierce struggle ensued, finally to result in the birth of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, comprising Holland, Zeeland and the five other northern provinces of Utrecht, Gelderland, Overijssel, Groningen and Friesland....

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Forgotten and ephemeral? The Palace of the Kings of Majorca, Perpignan

Antiquity ◽

10.15184/aqy.2015.126 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 89 (347) ◽

pp. 1246-1248

Author(s):

Tom Beaumont James

Keyword(s):

Fifteenth Century ◽

Local Authorities ◽

Philip Ii ◽

The Public ◽

Charles V ◽

Benign Neglect ◽

French Military ◽

Significant Extension ◽

Military Control ◽

Late Fifteenth

The titles of these weighty tomes invite questions: the palace of whom? The kings of where? A palace when? Olivier Poisson, concluding the first volume, writes of the restoration programme of 1943–1960 that “le palais est resté, malgré le pari des restaurateurs de la décennie 1950, le souvenir un peu vide et abstrait d’une ‘monarchie oubliée et éphemère’” (p. 539). This ‘forgotten and ephemeral monarchy’ of Majorca, a scion of the kings of Aragon, ruled from 1270–1344. In 1276, the monarchy had made Perpignan the capital of the Kingdom of Majorca and began work on the ‘Palais des Rois de Majorque’. To posterity's good fortune, the final Majorcan monarch, James III (‘the Unfortunate’), left the ‘Lois palatines’ (Palatine Laws) of 1337 that provide key insights into the etiquette and even the significance of colour in the early fourteenth-century palace. Following the dispossession of James III in 1344, Perpignan came into the hands of the Aragonese monarchy until 1462. The Palace then passed into French ownership and was used as a barracks for three decades in the late fifteenth century. Following return to Spanish ownership in 1493, Emperor Charles V, Philip II and their successors made further modifications. The Palace finally came back into French hands in 1659 and was henceforth a barracks, graced by significant extension of the fortifications by Vauban. Under French military control, benign neglect preserved early architectural phases, a signal advantage for those subsequently involved in the restoration of the Palace. Following the fall of France in 1942 (and with Spain in fascist hands), the buildings were largely released from military use and handed to the local authorities of the Pyrénées Orientales. A programme of repair and restoration was established, and brought to fruition by the local socialist mayor, a former member of the Resistance, towards the end of the 1940s. The restored buildings were opened to the public in 1958.

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Chance and Legal History

Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis / Revue d Histoire du Droit / The Legal History Review ◽

10.1163/157181907781352564 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 75 (2) ◽

pp. 179-188

Author(s):

R.C. van Caenegem

Keyword(s):

Fifteenth Century ◽

Legal History ◽

Eleventh Century ◽

Roman Law ◽

Low Countries ◽

Philip Ii ◽

Infant Deaths ◽

Charles V ◽

Late Fifteenth

AbstractThe author presents four cases, where he analyses the role of chance. (1) An accident of chronology caused a dynamic king, interested in legal matters, to rule in England in the second half of the twelfth century. Consequently a modernized English common law was established before the neo-Roman law of the Schools and the officialities could intervene. (2) Finding the complete Corpus iuris civilis in northern Italy in the second half of the eleventh century, was the result of a chance discovery and not due to a search party sent to Greece in order to obtain a copy of Justinian's lawbook. (3) The 'reception' of Roman law in late fifteenth-century Germany was caused, inter alia, by the circumstance that Emperor Maximilian happened to be surrounded by an 'Academy' of humanists and to have Roman-imperial ambitions. (4) The formation of the Seventeen Provinces of Emperor Charles V was the result of a conscious Burgundian and Habsburg policy. But their sixteenth-century separation into present-day Belgium and Holland was the result of their Spanish ruler, King Philip II. He himself had come to rule over the Low Countries because of a fortuitous series of infant deaths in the Spanish dynasty in 1497–1499, which led to the accession of a Habsburg prince to the Spanish throne and eventually to a Spanish king ruling over the Low countries.

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Sierra Leone and the Grand Duke of Tuscany

History in Africa ◽

10.2307/3171965 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 20 ◽

pp. 61-69

Author(s):

P. E. H. Hair ◽

Jonathan D. Davies

Keyword(s):

Fifteenth Century ◽

Sierra Leone ◽

Atlantic World ◽

Philip Ii ◽

Initial Momentum ◽

Permanent Settlement ◽

Marine Disaster ◽

Jesuit Missionary ◽

Made In

In 1606 Philip II of Portugal (and III of Spain) granted to a faithful court official, the Portuguese nobleman Pedro Álvares Pereira, the captaincy of Sierra Leone in Guinea, subject to his establishing an effective settlement there. This was on the lines of previous royal grants of other areas of the Atlantic world—the fifteenth-century grants of the Portuguese Atlantic islands, the grants of segments of the coast of Brazil in the 1530s, and of the coast of Angola in the 1570s. These earlier grants had led to the extension of Portuguese domain, that is, conquista, confirmed in the earlier instances by settlement but the grant made to Pedro Álvares Pereira led to no permanent settlement at Sierra Leone and not even to Portuguese overrule of the African peoples of the district. A first attempt to carry out the terms of the grant, made in 1606 through the agency of a Jesuit missionary, Fr. Baltasar Barreira, lost its initial momentum because of a sudden decline in the fortunes of Pedro Álvares Pereira. In 1608 he fell out of favor at the court, accused of corruption and malpractice—a not uncommon happening in the jealously competitive arena of the Madrid court—and hence was unable to send ships and supplies to Sierra Leone to substantiate his grant. Eventually he returned to favour and between 1612 and 1616 tried again, but for reasons which are not entirely clear but apparently included the loss of agents in a marine disaster, he gave up the struggle and in 1621, just before he died, he relinquished the grant.

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Ritual and ceremony in the Spanish royal chapel, c. 1559–c. 1561

Early Music History ◽

10.1017/s0261127900001984 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 19 ◽

pp. 105-200 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Bernadette Nelson

Keyword(s):

Fifteenth Century ◽

Philip Ii ◽

Charles V ◽

Structural Organisation ◽

Imperial Court

On the abdication of his father Charles V from the Spanish throne in 1556, Philip II was to inherit probably the most important and prestigious court chapel in Europe. Its history, structure and musical eminence were well established during the time of the Burgundian dukes in the fifteenth century, under whose patronage some of the most prominent musicians and composers found their livelihood; as an institution, it was also partly indebted to traditions and an infrastructure inherited from the Castilian court of Ferdinand and Isabella which was passed on to Charles V following the death of Ferdinand in 1516. When Philip II came to power, the amalgamation of his own court and chapel with that of the Emperor resulted in an organisation of unheard proportions, even though many officers of the Imperial court were to accompany Charles V on his retirement to the monastery in Yuste, in Spain, and others of Philip's own train were to return independently to their homeland on periods of extended leave. This was evidently a time of considerable upheaval, during which membership fluctuated and the structural organisation necessarily underwent a period of some adjustment.

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