Centralization Of Power In The Middle Ages Essay

Towards the end of the Middle Ages, many European nation-states were making gains to become more unified. However, the Hundred Years’ War and the Black Plague made doing so increasingly difficult. Much of Europe was still recovering economically and France and England’s military was astonishingly weakened. Despite the turmoil in Northern Europe, the Italian Renaissance brought about changes in political and social thinking which may have, in turn, precipitated much of Northern Europe into its growth and formation into more unified Nation States. The centralization of the papacy, the limitation of power of the nobility and the unification between the 2 kingdoms of Spain propelled Northern Europe into a new era of prosperity and unification. The centralization of power in the state and the collapse of the feudal system in France helped the rest of Northern Europe make strides
The first step that they took was to limit aristocratic influence in monarchical happenings, so they instead chose landowners to serve on the councils and serve the legislative and consultative purposes of the Spanish monarchy. This helped to centralize the power in the government by making the commoners have an influence in society, instead of only having the wealthy nobility being in charge of everything, which probably helped bridge the gap between the nobility and the commoners. Ferdinand and Isabella also got the approval from Pope Alexander VI to have the right to choose their own bishops for their churches, as well as to make churches in Hispanic America, which then led to the development of a national church in Spain. Due to the social power of the aristocracy combined with the power of the church, the revenue from the church estates was used to purchase some of the smaller Spanish nation states, thus working towards a unified