Discuss the political changes which occurred during 15th and 16th centuries in Europe.

The political changes that occurred during 15th and 16th centuries were as follows:

• European kings strengthened their military as well as financial power during 15th and 16th centuries. They created powerful new states. These were much significant for Europe. Economic changes were also occurring. Historians have, therefore, called these kings “the new monarchs”.
• Louis XI in France, Maximilian in Austria, Henry VII in England and Isabelle and Ferdinand in Spain were absolutist rulers. They initiated the process of organizing standing armies, permanent bureaucracy and national taxation. In Spain and Portugal, they began to play a role in European expansion overseas.
• Rulers dispensed with the system of feudal levies for their armies and introduced professionally trained infantry equipped with guns and siege artillery directly under their control.
• The social changes started to take place in the 12th and 13th centuries after the triumph of monarchies. The dissolution of the feudal system of lordship vassalage, and the slow rate of economic growth had given the first opportunity to kings to increase their control over their powerful and not so powerful subjects.
• With the increase in taxes, the treasury of monarchs filled. They had enough revenues to support larger armies. They also defended and expanded their frontiers and ruthlessly destroyed the internal bickerings. Without resistance from the aristocracy, centralization could not be done. In England, the rebellions occurred in 1497, 1536, 1547, 1549, and 1553 simultaneously.
• In France, Louis XI (1461-83) waged a long struggle against dukes and princes. In the 16th century, the religious wars in France were a contrast between royal privileges and regional liberties.
• The king was now the center of an elaborate courtier society and a network of patron-client relationships.
• All monarchies, whether weak or powerful, needed the cooperation of those who could command authority. It did not matter whether they were weak or strong. Patronage became the means of ensuring cooperation. It could also be obtained by means of money.
• For ensuring survival, the nobility managed a tactical shift. They quickly transformed themselves into loyalists. Loyal absolutism has been called a modified form of feudalism. The lords were given permanent position in the administrative service. Now they started dominating the political scene.