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Period: Jan 1, 1550 to
Chapter 18/19 Timeline
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Jan 1, 1558
Elizabeth Tudor
Elizabeth Tudor ascended the English throne in 1558. Intelligent, careful, and self-confident, Elizabeth moved quickly to solve the difficult religious problem she inherited from her Catholic half-sister, Queen Mary Tudor. Elizabeth repealed the laws favoring Catholics -
Jan 1, 1560
Spain's Conflicts
Calvinism and Catholicism had become highly militant, or combative, religions. -
Jan 1, 1571
Battle of Lepanto
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Defeat of the Spanish Armada
In 1588, Philip II made preparations to send an armada—a fleet of warships—to invade England. A successful invasion of England would mean the overthrow of Protestantism. -
Henry IV and the Edict of Nantes
In 1589, Henry of Navarre, the Huguenot political leader, succeeded to the throne as Henry IV. He realized that as a Protestant he would never be accepted by Catholic France. Therefore, he converted to Catholicism. When Henry IV was crowned king in 1594, the fighting in France finally came to an end. -
Queen Elizabeth
Queen Elizabeth died -
Truce
Philip faced growing resistance from the Dutch in the northern provinces led by William the Silent, the prince of Orange. The struggle dragged on until 1609 when a 12-year truce finally ended the war. The northern provinces began to call themselves the United Provinces of the Netherlands and became the core of the modern Dutch state. -
The Thirty Years' War
Beginning in 1618 in the Holy Roman Empire, the war first involved the struggle between Catholic forces, led by the Hapsburg Holy Roman emperors, and Protestant (primarily Calvinist) nobles in Bohemia. As Denmark, Sweden, France, and Spain entered the war, the conflict became more political. For instance, France, directed by the Catholic Cardinal Richelieu, fought against the Holy Roman Empire and Spain in an attempt to gain European leadership. -
Civil War and Commonwealth
The victorious New Model Army lost no time in taking control. Cromwell purged Parliament of any members who had not supported him. What was left—the so-called Rump Parliament—had Charles I executed on January 30, 1649. The execution of the king horrified much of Europe. Parliament next abolished the monarchy and the House of Lords and declared England a commonwealth, a type of republic. -
Legal and Political Thought
Thomas Hobbes published the political work Leviathan to try to deal with the problem of disorder. Hobbes argued that before organized society, humans were guided not by reason and moral ideals but by a ruthless struggle for self-preservation. To save themselves from destroying one another, people made a social contract and agreed to form a state. -
Louis in Power
After his minister Cardinal Mazarin died in 1661, Louis XIV took over supreme power. The new king, at the age of 23, stated his desire to be a real king and the sole ruler of France. -
A Glorious Revolution
Another important action of Parliament was the Toleration Act of 1689. This act granted Puritans, but not Catholics, the right of free public worship. It did mark a turning point in English history because few English citizens would ever again be persecuted for religion. -
A Glorious Revolution
In January 1689, Parliament offered the throne to William and Mary. They accepted it, along with a Bill of Rights, which contained many of the same ideas as the Petition of Right. The Bill of Rights set forth Parliament's right to make laws and to levy taxes. It also made it impossible for kings to oppose or to do without Parliament by stating that standing armies could be raised only with Parliament's consent. -
The Emergence of Prussia
In 1701, Frederick William’s son Frederick officially gained the title of king. Elector Frederick III became King Frederick I. -
Peter the Great
Peter employed Russians and Europeans as officers. He drafted peasants for 25-year stints of service to build a standing army of 210,000 soldiers. By Peter’s death in 1725, Russia was a great military power and an important European state.