The political map of continental Europe was quite different during the Renaissance from what it is today, and different in the 16th century from what it had been during the previous century. In 1400 the kingdom of France possessed less than half the area it had by 1600, Spain was divided into several kingdoms, Germany was peppered with independent principalities and townships, and Italy had more than a dozen city-states and republics, with the peninsula split across its central region by the Papal States, and Aragon possessing the kingdom of Naples after 1443. At the beginning of the 15th century, the Netherlands and Flanders (roughly present-day Belgium plus Zeeland) had been consolidated into one realm under the control of the dukes of Burgundy, and by 1519 the Holy Roman Empire extended from Vienna to Madrid. Except for skirmishes along their common border, England and Scotland had the same boundaries in the Renaissance that they have today.
In the Italian Peninsula, the papacy ruled the Papal States, territories stretching from Rome to the
Adriatic Sea, and the pope also claimed Bologna. The Republic of Venice, which included an extensive area of the mainland near Venice during part of the Renaissance, controlled the northeastern Italian Peninsula. The Republic of Genoa dominated the northwestern coast, and the Republics of Florence and of Siena ruled most of Tuscany. Other major city-states and principalities were the duchies of Milan, of Ferrara, and of Savoy, as well as the mar-quisate of Mantua and the smaller duchy of Modena.
The Holy Roman Empire encompassed lands owned or claimed by the Habsburgs. Germany formed the core of the empire during the 15th century, and several regions later broke away as a result of the Protestant Reformation. The territories ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain Charles V (1500-1558) were Spain, the kingdom of Naples, and the Holy Roman Empire, including a huge swath of territory in eastern Europe extending from the Tyrol to the borders of Hungary and from Bohemia (today part of the Czech Republic) to the Venetian republic.
The geographic area of early 15th-century France was much smaller than the country ruled by Francis I (1494-1547) at the end of his reign. The rich province of Burgundy became part of eastern France in 1477, the very large province of Brittany (the peninsula comprising most of northwestern France) in 1532, and the eastern region of Bresse in 1536. France also ruled Navarre (on the border with Spain) during the Renaissance. France’s northeastern border, including Alsace and Lorraine, was disputed during much of the Renaissance. The port city of Calais was ruled by the English until the mid-16th century.
The Iberian Peninsula still had an enclave of Muslims ruling the kingdom of Granada in the south of present-day Spain. They were conquered by the Spanish in 1492. Except for Navarre to the northeast and the kingdom of Aragon along the Mediterranean coast, the remainder of Spain belonged to Castile and Leon. Portugal, which had its modern borders during the Renaissance, was ruled by Spain from 1580 to 1640. Spanish forces also controlled much of the Netherlands during the second half of the 16th century, as well as the entire southern half of Italy and the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.
During the 15th century, the Netherlands (“Low Countries”) had become part of the Burgundian duchy, which included Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and
Introduction
Several areas in northeastern France. Through marriage this territory, called the Circle of Burgundy in the early 16th century, was absorbed into the Holy Roman Empire. Charles V officially claimed the Netherlandish provinces as part of the empire in 1548. The Protestant Reformation and its resultant hostilities led to the Dutch Revolt in the latter 16th century, with a truce in 1609 and ultimately the independence of the United Provinces by the mid-17th century.
Renaissance Poland was a tremendous territory, joining the Baltic states with present-day Belarus and Ukraine. By the early 15th century, Poland was linked dynastically with Lithuania. The grand dukes of Lithuania were also kings of Poland during much of the Renaissance.
World History
