Political History - AP European History

Mary I, eldest child of Henry VIII, came to power after the death of her brother, Edward VI. Mary had been displaced in the line of succession when Henry had his marriage with her mother annulled so that he could marry again and father a male heir. This, combined with the fact that she was a devout Catholic, made Mary bitter at her family. When she became queen in 1553, she reinstated Roman Catholicism as the official religion of England, although she declared that people did not have to practice her religion. Mary then went about arresting and trying many Protestant leaders for heresy in helping England break away from the Church and for helping to implement the new religion. Overall around two hundred and eighty “heretics” were sentenced to death as a result of these trials, giving Mary I the infamous nickname of “Bloody Mary.” Upon her death in 1558, she was succeeded by her sister, Elizabeth I.

The acceptance of Protestant beliefs in the sixteenth century, even by monarchs, was rarely uniform and often quite complicated. England, Scotland, and Denmark, all of which became firmly Protestant, had Protestant monarchs briefly ascend to the throne in the middle of their reformations, while Catholic France had a Protestant on the throne in Henry IV, until he converted to Catholicism in 1593. The Holy Roman Empire, while being the home of Martin Luther and many other reformers, was always ruled in the era by the staunchly Catholic Habsburg dynasty.

Mussolini's Fascist government used many methods to subdue the Italian population including the establishment of leisure organizations, propaganda about race and the return to the glory of the Roman Empire, and a violent secret police force. The state did not give the people the right to vote for government representatives.

Edward VIII became King of the United Kingdom on January 20, 1936, following the death of his father, George V. After becoming the sovereign he began to dislike some of the aspects of court and eventually proposed to Wallis Simpson, a divorced American. This caused a crisis, as the monarch of the United Kingdom cannot be married to someone who has been divorced. The monarch is the head of the Church of England and so being married to a divorcée would have been very problematic and would have caused a lot of turmoil within Parliament. Edward decided to abdicate rather than try to continue as a monarch who had upset the Parliament and the people. Edward was succeeded by his brother, George VI, and was later created the Duke of Windsor.

Conservative ideology developed as a response to the political upheaval of the French Revolution. This is best demonstrated in the ideas of Edmund Burke. Liberals took the defense of individual liberties as one of the cornerstones of their ideology. The abolition of slavery took place after Conservative ideology began developing. Socialists, rather than Conservatives, responded most directly to the social changes caused by the Industrial Revolution.

Monarchs are most associated with absolutism. This is because monarchs often claimed the divine right of kings in order to justify and maintain absolute power over the nation they ruled. The underlying logic of the divine right to rule lends itself to an absolutist approach to leadership, as opposed to, say, a republic, which is not based on an absolute divine right but on communal human principles. Oligarchs are not monarchs, and anarchy is, by definition, the state of having no government or ruler.

Monarchs argued that they had the right to absolute power because God had determined that they should be the ruler, as evidenced by their birth into the royal family. Divine right held, basically, that monarchs represented God's will on earth.

Charles thought the Hapsburg empire had become too large given its possession of Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, the Holy Roman Empire, and colonies around the world. He decided it would be better to split the empire in two. His brother Ferdinand becoming the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Austria, and his son Philip Becoming King of Spain.

Oliver Cromwell rose to the position of Lord Protector following the declaration of a Commonwealth, and was tasked with suppressing the revolts of Ireland and Scotland against the new Parliamentarian rule.

Henryk Walezy was the first man elected to be King of the Commonwealth. He was actually a son of the reigning King of France, and he abdicated the throne in order to become King of France in 1574.

James was an open Catholic, but his daughters from his first marriage were Protestant, thus the people of England thought his Catholic eccentricities would be short lived; however, he granted religious freedom to Catholics, allowing them to take public office in 1687, and in 1688 his second wife gave birth to a son who would be raised Catholic, thus meaning there could be a permanent Catholic dynasty ruling over England. These two events caused many influential members of Parliament to invite William of Orange to invade England and take the throne.

William of Orange was one of the lords that ruled over various parts of the Netherlands. His wife Mary was daughter of the King of England, and they were asked by parliament to force May's father from the throne and take it for themselves.

A limited monarchy is one where a monarch must share power with a legislative body (Parliament), or has their power defined and limited by a legal document (Constitution or Bill of Rights). Absolute monarchies are directly ruled by the monarch with no check from a legislative branch.

Louis XIV was called the Sun King because, like the galaxy revolving around the sun, France revolved around Louis.

The estates General functioned similarly to, but was functionally much weaker than, the English Parliament. It was their job to raise taxes, recruit soldiers, and enforce laws in the provinces. Louis appointed trusted people to do these tasks, and thus never called the Estates General to session.

Ivan the Terrible was the final Duke of Moscow and the first Czar of Russia. He declared himself to be the emperor of Russia when his Duchy of Moscow grew so large that it reached the size and stature of an empire, thus needing a new name.

The nobility of Russia were referred to as Boyars, which is derived from old Turkic meaning rich men. Members of the peasant class were referred to as "kulaks."

Ivan V was Peter's elder half brother, and therefore was also the rightful heir; however, Ivan was severely hindered by physical and mental disabilities and was unfit to rule. Therefore he and his younger brother Peter were named co-Czars so Ivan could rule in name and Peter in practice until the time of Ivan's death.

The Sejm is the Polish Parliament. Historically members were elected by popular vote of landed nobility. Today it is elected by universal ballot.