The year 1519 was a year of special significance for King François I of France.
First, at the beginning of the year, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian died, and the battle for the emperor's position quietly began, and François I was also eager to move. His most formidable rival was Karl I of Spain, the grandson of Maximilian, who inherited large tracts of territory from his parents, maternal grandfather, etc.
The rivalry between the two monarchs is undercurrent, but both face the problem of insufficient funds. A financier named Fogg gave them a high loan, and eventually Karl I added a new title of "Charles V" to himself at a high price of about 500,000 jineju, and François I was not eligible for the position of Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
In April, the "king's painter" Leonardo da Vinci died in the arms of François, who left Behind masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa to France, and the atmosphere of French humanities and arts became increasingly strong. As a result, François I was later called the first "Renaissance king" of France.
Left-handed politics, right-handed art, was not exclusive to François I. In the same year, in other countries in Europe, new changes were brewing.
King Henry VIII of England, who was also a friend and foe, was also immersed in a happy marriage with Catherine of Aragon. In Istanbul, at the junction of Eurasia, Suleiman the Great will ascend to the throne the following year. Coincidentally, all four kings were "peers" born between 1491 and 1500. Since then, a political drama between the four monarchs is about to begin.
The book "Four Monarchs" by the British historian John Julius Norwich abandons the traditional way of telling history according to country and chronology, and takes the four monarchs François I, Henry VIII, Charles V, and Suleiman the Great, who lived in the first half of the 16th century, as the protagonists, telling the entanglement of their relationship and dissecting how their political decisions affect the modern European map.
Among them, there are bloody wars and family marriages, and there are factors such as the Reformation, the Renaissance, and the development of overseas colonies, and the root of all this is the word "interest" that can never be bypassed.
01 Warlike Kings: Faithful to Mars, the god of war
In ancient Greco-Roman mythology, there were two gods of war, Namely Mars and Athena, the latter of which was also the goddess of wisdom and the goddess of textiles. Mars was an avid war enthusiast, and although he was handsome and heroic, he was far inferior in wisdom to his sister Athena.
In Europe in the first 50 years of the 16th century, all four monarchs were followers of Mars, the god of war, and were keen to use war to seize territory and profits.
The more famous wars of this period include: François I's defeat at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 and becoming a prisoner of Charles V; in 1529, the Sultanate army attacked Viana, but was blocked by bad weather; in 1544, a huge naval battle between England and France took place.
The place where Mars, the god of war, passed not only caused bloodshed and sacrifice on the battlefield, but also caused immeasurable other losses.
On the one hand, war is a costly military game that requires the support of a strong financial system. In order to raise enough money, monarchs have their own tricks, but it is often the people at the bottom who pay in the end.
In the case of Henry VIII, for example, the invasion of France in 1513 cost about £350,000 in just half a year, and the subsequent wars put pressure on the national treasury.
François I, who was defeated in the Franco-Spanish War, chose to raise taxes for a year to raise ransom in order to redeem the French prince who was held hostage in Spain.
On the other hand, for people in the places where wars take place, there are frequent lootings, which put their lives and property at risk.
Charles V's army consisted of a significant proportion of mercenaries, and their only motivation for participating in the war was to receive a good salary, loyalty and discipline were low. It is also said that before the start of a war, mercenaries on one side defected to the enemy camp only because the other side offered higher salaries.
When they could not get the promised salaries, they used an alternative to make up for the monetary loss: looting the city.
The "Roman Catastrophe" of 1527 was the cause of this, 34,000 soldiers looted the most prosperous city at that time, Rome, and most of the city's residents were not spared, dying and fleeing. Even pope Clement VII, who was of high status, had to choose to go into exile, his life was in dire straits, and he even had to sell the jewels on the triple crown.
02 Extensive Marriage and Alliance: Aphrodite, the god of love, is busy
Although the war made the blood of these four European monarchs boil, but it was not a long-term solution, the army needed to recuperate, and the people could not afford the high war costs, so "peace" became their inevitable choice. There are two main ways to achieve peace: marriage and contract.
At this time, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, took the place of Mars, the god of war, and wandered between countries, using love and marriage to adjust the shadow of war.
Let's look first at marriage, in European history, marriage between royal families is commonplace, forming a delicate and complex network of relationships.
Victoria in the United Kingdom is known as the "grandmother of Europe" because her children and descendants are spread across Europe. One of the slogans of the Habsburgs was "Let's get married", and marriage became one of the means of the continuous expansion of the Habsburg family's territory.
In the first half of the 16th century, in addition to Suleiman the Great, the other three monarchs were related to each other by marriage. If you seriously calculate the generations, it is simply dazzling.
Charles V's aunt Catherine of Aragon married King Henry VIII of England, and his sister Eleanor married François I of France. In this way, François I became the nephew of Henry VIII.
Mary, the eldest daughter of Henry VIII, was married twice to François I's eldest son and her cousin Charles V, who was 16 years older than her, but later married Charles V's son Philip II. In other words, Mary married her own nephew again.
Looking at the conclusion of the covenant, over the course of several decades, the state of the alliance between the four monarchs has been constantly changing, sometimes tit-for-tat "enemies", and at the next stage, they may become "friends" who talk about wine.
In July 1520, Henry VIII and François I met in The Golden Mile, each with thousands of retinues, craftsmen, and horses, and set up a luxurious tent in the valley, almost becoming a grand "show off" party. The two monarchs dined together every day, exchanged gifts, and had a wrestling match.
Artist Friedrich Buttvik once painted a wonderful painting on the theme of the Meeting of the Golden Hazel, recreating the grandeur of the year.
Although expensive, the meeting only brought a brief peace between the two countries, because just over a year later, Henry declared war on France again.
The "covenant of instability" between France and England was only one of countless alliances, with France and the Ottomans having established Franco-Turkish alliances; Charles V and François I signed the Treaty of Madrid after the Battle of Pavia; charles V convened an ecumenical council in Taranto on the pretext of "restoring Catholic status", which influenced the later pattern of religious belief in Europe.
Regrettably, despite frequent marriages and constant changes in political alliances, they have not brought lasting peace.
03 Generous patrons of the arts: the heyday of the Renaissance
The first half of the 16th century was not only marked by political struggles and the Reformation, but also by the heyday of the Renaissance. At that time, Europe gathered a large number of excellent artists, in addition to the famous "three masters", there were Titian, Giotto, Little Holbein and so on.
Although the center of the Renaissance was in Florence, Italy, its influence spread throughout Europe. European monarchs often appeared as patrons, customizing paintings or statues to the artists they admired, leaving behind countless artistic masterpieces and moving stories.
Titian once painted a horseback portrait for Charles V. It is said that once when Titian was painting, the brush accidentally fell to the ground, and he was about to bend down to pick it up, but he was picked up by Charles V first, and Charles V's respect for the artist was evident.
In his later years, leonardo da Vinci was invited by François I to live in France. François I arranged a comfortable residence for him at the Château de Clu, asking him to help design important ceremonies such as baptism and dowry for members of the royal family, as well as the palace complex on the banks of the River Solde.
The German painter Holbeth The Younger came to England to escape the war and became the royal painter of Henry VIII, painting portraits of the king and his queen, children, courtiers and others. His famous work "Two Ambassadors", through the clothing of two young French envoys, the paper scattered around, instruments and equipment, etc., reflected the complex situation and trend of the times in Europe at that time.
The admiration of the artist by European monarchs pushed the Renaissance to a certain extent to the climax.
Another Suleiman the Great, although he did not have much direct intersection with the three monarchs, he himself was a true practitioner of the "Renaissance spirit".
Under his rule, the Ottoman Empire underwent many new changes, reflecting respect and tolerance for human nature. He fell in love with Hurem, who was born of a slave girl, and broke through the traditional constraints to marry her, and the title of "female sultan" began here. He was not stingy about expressing his love, and once used the pseudonym Xu Rem to write moving love poems.
From 1547 to 1566, four European monarchs died, and their successors took over a new european map.
Because of henry VIII's marital turmoil, England was in the predicament of the Reformation, which had to take three kings to end; after the creation of the "Empire of the Sun Never Sets", the Habsburg dynasty was divided in two; the struggle between France and Spain continued, and Catherine de Medici from Italy would affect French politics; the Ottoman Empire reached its peak at the hands of Suleiman the Great, and then faced inevitable decline.
Henry VIII, François I, Suleiman the Great, Charles V, these four monarchs had different temperaments, different political concepts, religious beliefs, they changed their countries in their own ways, and the European pattern they jointly shaped affected the next few hundred years.
Resources:
1. The Four Monarchs, John Julius Norwich
2. The Biography of Da Vinci, Walter Isaacson
3. "Famous Paintings in the Museum", Esther Singleton
4. BBC documentary, The Real Game of Thrones: A History of Europe