England is an island. This is very important to know–it's why she developed differently than Europe. England had been fighting France in the 100 Years War (14th to 15th Century). They had been winning with the English long bow which was armor piercing and has so much forces that it can go through chain mail. But then there came this witch in Southern France whom they caught and killed, but it was too late–she'd already cast her spell and they lost. (Joan of Arc, for those of you not paying attention in the last lecture.) Actually, the 100 Years War was good cuz it nationalized both countries (they got their stuff together, so to speak).
Right after the 100 Years War, England got involved in a Civil War over who was to be king. (Some people never get tired of fighting!) It was called the War of the Roses (actually it was misnamed by a later historian who thought the crests of both houses was a different colored rose during the war–the House of Lancaster adopted a red rose at some point after the war while the House of York had a white rose in its crest). It was fought between 1450 and 1500 mostly by the two families (or "houses") of Lancaster and York. One of the big nobles was Henry VII who was a Tudor (family name–though he was related to the Lancasters). He won the last big battle (Bosworth Field) against Richard III (from the House of York) and became king. Henry was similar to Ferdinand of Spain: he wasn't worried about the quality of his honesty. His policies: 1. Destroy the nobility who kept squabbling over their rights to be king, 2. Gain power through financial independence, 3. Make his family the only royalty and stop the war. Henry loved power. Henry (on the Lancaster side) married Elizabeth of York to make peace through making babies with both bloodlines. He ran out or killed all of his royal competition. His older son (Arthur) married the #2 daughter of the king of Spain (Catherine of Aragon), which is not as good as marrying the #1 daughter, but it gave England enough brownie points to join the Royal club of Europe when before it had been considered a nothing country. Arthur spoiled things (almost) and kicked off too fast (before Catherine could have an heir), but by very fast maneuvering and with a little help from the Pope, Henry married her off to Arthur's younger brother, Henry (who will become Henry VIII).
To destroy the nobility, Henry designed the Court of Star Chamber to try "treasonous" nobles. If you're charged, your household staff always managed to testify to your guilt (out of "persuasion" from the king no doubt). So it's decided that you're guilty. Henry fines you some property and /or money. He doesn't kill you so your children won't rebel. He also doesn't take everything cuz then he wouldn't have anything to tax and besides your children would be robbed of their inheritance and still feel rebellious. Henry also collected benevolences (small loans or gifts from nobles to their needy king). He sent out Cardinal Morton to check out who could give benevolences (called Morton's fork cuz it's two-pronged). If you were rich, you could obviously afford to loan some money to the king. If you were poor, you must have your $ stashed somewhere and could afford to float a loan. Now you may ask what the odds of seeing your money that had been loaned to the king back again? You had two chances–slim and none. After all, are you going to send the king a bill? Henry called Parliament to get a war tax against France which they okayed and then Henry bribed the king of France to keep the peace, meanwhile storing the extra revenue in his treasury. He tried to get some trade going and fired Cabot off toward the direction of the New World but Cabot didn't find anything. Now you may think Henry was greed–but actually he only wanted power and to get it you have to have money. Henry died in 1509. He left a stable succession, lots of $ in the treasury, and peace in England.
The Holy Roman Empire was ruled by the Habsburg family. It occupied the territory around Germany. It used to be strong but the Habsburgs squandered the power by trying to conquer Italy instead of trying to squash their nobles like everyone else did. The whole thing got to the ridiculous point of having the nobles decide everything, when they could agree that is. The office of emperor became elective.
Italy was a series of independent city-states. It was very rich, especially North Italy cuz of trade from the Crusades. It was also very weak cuz it had never nationalized. The city-states attacked each other rather than pulling together. They hired mercenary armies to get each other. Plus foreign armies had been scrapping in Italy trying to conquer and/or protect it.
Machiavelli as an Italian patriot. He wanted a strong Italy. To get unity, he wrote The Prince as an instruction manual for a ruler on how to pull Italy together. He wrote it was better to be feared than loved if, as a ruler, you must choose.
The Renaissance ("rebirth") started in Italy. The glorious ancient world of the Greeks and Romans had been followed by the grimy Middle Ages. After the Modern World began, there came a rebirth of Greek and Roman ideas that said man was basically a neat and unique thing. The Middle Ages man was supposed to renounce his body and concentrate on getting his soul into the tingly bliss of heaven: be humble because you are crud! Lice were called Pearls of God cuz they afflicted your evil body. The rebirth started in Italy cuz they had the money to buy things and therefore the leisure time for education. Besides, Northern Italy never sunk quite so medievally as everyone else cuz they had the old Roman buildings to look at so they could sit around and try and figure out how to put them together (which somehow nobody could figure out in the Middle Ages). Greek and Roman art was all around too and they had done real bodies. In the Middle Ages, the body was yucky. During the Renaissance, man acquired real bodies again. Renaissance man was an individual with worth, dignity, and self-reliance.