Charles I of Spain
became HRE Charles V in 1519, controlled a
large empire, wanted to see unity of the Catholic Church, rival of Francis I of France (Valois family) and they fought the Hapsburg-Valois Wars, argued with Pope Clement VII who took Francis' side,
defended against the invading Ottomans under Suleiman the Magnificent
Peace of Augsburg
1555: acknowledged the divide of the Catholics and the Lutherans and allowed each German ruler to choose which he preferred for his state
King Henry VIII
(b. 1509, English Reformation): in 1533, when the pope refuses to annul his marriage
to Catherine of Aragon, Henry gets his friends Thomas Cranmer the Archbishop of Canterbury to
annul it and approve his marriage to Anne Boleyn; in 1534, Parliament officially breaks with the Catholic church under the Act of Supremacy which declares Henry ruler of the Church of England, Henry seized the lands and belongings of the Catholic Church in England, though not much else changed from one religion to the other
John Calvin
(b. 1509, Reformation): French, fled to Switzerland because of his Protestantism, in 1536
published Institute of the Christian Religion which summarized Protestant thought and made him a
leader of the Reformation, like Luther he believed in salvation through faith alone but he also
emphasized the supremacy of God, he also believed in predestination (it is already chosen who is going to heaven) which lead to militancy in the follower's faith, did not believe in transubstantiation (that the
bread and wine turned in to the body and blood of Jesus), in 1536 he reforms Geneva and establishes the Consistory which had clergy and laymen running the city and his success there made Geneva a protestant hub
Philip II
(b. 1527, Absolutism): Spanish king in 1556, left the largest and most populous empire broke
because of his wars, army lost power, led an inefficient government, his armada was defeated by QEI
Queen Elizabeth I
(b. 1533, English Reformation): the Protestant daughter of Henry VIII who took the English throne in 1559 and returned England to the Anglican Church, during her time as Queen she both refused to marry and depended for advice on her Cabinet, she is famous for the 1588 defeat of the Spanish Armada by the British Navy, as well as for her support of the arts (most notably Billy Shakespeare and Kit Marlowe), she also greatly increased Britain's seafaring trade
Bloody Mary
(b. 1516, English Reformation): following unrest due to Cranmer's changes, Mary (a Catholic) comes to power and proceeds to restore Catholicism to England, married Phillip II of Spain, who disliked the English, in 1554, though she burned 300+ protestants at the stake, England became more protestant at the end of her rule than at the beginning
Edward VI
(b. 1537, English Reformation): becomes king on his father's death in 1547, under him Thos.
Cranmer moves the Anglican church more towards Protestantism by allowing the clergy to marry,
banning images, and introducing the Book of Common Prayer, all of these changes lead to unrest
Francis Bacon
(b. 1561, Scientific Revolution): though he did not know much about science and was in fact a lawyer, he thought that they were not doing science, that they should go from a particular understanding to a general one (not try to come up with evidence for any old idea)
Galileo Galilei
(b. 1564, Renaissance, science): his observations with a telescope were revolutionary, found mountains on the moon, four moons around Jupiter, sunspots, and the four phases of Venus, wrote the Starry Messenger in 1610 with these ideas, became an enemy of the Church and in 1633 was condemned by the Inquisition
King James I
(b. 1566, Absolutism, English Revolution): crowned king of England in 1603 when QEI dies (end of the Tudor reign and start of the Stuart reign), promoted rule by divine right (Parliament disapproves so they refuse to give him any money), religion became a problem as the Puritans pressured James to dismiss the Anglican church in favor of the Presbyterian one, but James supports the Anglican church, so Puritans in the House of Commons got mad
Johannes Kepler
(b. 1571, Renaissance, science): an astrologer interested in hermeticism, was the imperial mathematician to Emperor Rudolph II, said that the planets rotated not in a circle but in an ellipsis with the sun at the focus
Cardinal Richelieu
(b. 1585, Absolutism): became Louis XIII's advisor in 1621 until his death in 1642, worked to have an absolute monarchy in France, destroy the rights of the Huguenots, and increase the power of France in Europe, 1625 the Huguenots in several cities revolt against Richelieu, LaRochelle follows in 1627 but is overrun after 14 months in 1628, Richelieu cracks down on the Huguenots, Richelieu also revives the French opposition to the Hapsburgs so in the Thirty Years War France sides with Protestant Sweden and Germany to fight the Catholic Hapsburgs and at end of the war France was the most powerful nation in France
King Henry IV
(b. 1589, Reformation, Absolutism): the King of France who ended the French Wars of Religion with the Edict of Nantes and his own conversion to Catholicism at the end of the war, his goal was to rebuild France after it was destroyed by the wars, he encouraged agriculture and commerce, lowered taxes, and relieved the debts of many of the wealthy, drained swamps for cropland, encouraged
education, built new highways, bridges and canals, and though he was loved by many he was eventually
assassinated by a fundamentalist Catholic
Rene Descartes
(b. 1596, Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment): wrote Discourse on Method in 1637 about the difference of mind and matter because the mind is true but the world around us may not be, introduced Cartesian Dualism
Oliver Cromwell
(b. 1599, English Revolution): a Puritan and member of the House of Commons of middle-class gentry and a farmer, angered by King Charles I's actions led the English Civil War on the side of the Roundheads, and when they won in 1649 he resumed the place of Lord Protector of England and ruled with the Rump Parliament (Parliament without those who opposed Cromwell) until 1653 when he dismissed them and established a military rule, died in 1658 and when the royalists returned to power in 1660, they dug up his body and hung it