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History of Urcea (1402-1575): Difference between revisions
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→The Counter Reformation: I started on this, not sure if it goes far enuff
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Having defeated the Julio-Angloise and with only a few Protestant partisans left in Urcea, King Leo II now had relatively free reign to prosecute the Great Confessional War on behalf of the [[Holy League]], squarely putting the Protestant Union on the defensive. After defeating a small band of Julio-Angloise rebels south of Cálfeld, Leo marched the Imperial Army south and besieged [[Harzenon]] by the end of 1565. The well-fortified city held out until 1567 when the Imperial Army successfully breached the walls after an extended cannon barrage. Combined with the capture of its loosely-held eastern portions, the fall of its court and capture of its King led to the total collapse of the [[Kingdom of Gassavelia]] soon suffered total and Imperial occupation, ending the Southern Levantine theater of the war. The remaining campaigns of the war were largely siege-based against Protestant cities in northern Dericania, and although the war continued for another eight years, no major Protestant power within the Empire threatened the ascendancy of the Holy League. The peace allowed King Leo II to reign in [[Urceopolis (City)|Urceopolis]] for the first time beginning in late 1567. | Having defeated the Julio-Angloise and with only a few Protestant partisans left in Urcea, King Leo II now had relatively free reign to prosecute the Great Confessional War on behalf of the [[Holy League]], squarely putting the Protestant Union on the defensive. After defeating a small band of Julio-Angloise rebels south of Cálfeld, Leo marched the Imperial Army south and besieged [[Harzenon]] by the end of 1565. The well-fortified city held out until 1567 when the Imperial Army successfully breached the walls after an extended cannon barrage. Combined with the capture of its loosely-held eastern portions, the fall of its court and capture of its King led to the total collapse of the [[Kingdom of Gassavelia]] soon suffered total and Imperial occupation, ending the Southern Levantine theater of the war. The remaining campaigns of the war were largely siege-based against Protestant cities in northern Dericania, and although the war continued for another eight years, no major Protestant power within the Empire threatened the ascendancy of the Holy League. The peace allowed King Leo II to reign in [[Urceopolis (City)|Urceopolis]] for the first time beginning in late 1567. | ||
===The Counter Reformation=== | ===The Counter Reformation=== | ||
Although he came to the throne as an impressive commander, most historians remember King Leo II for his dramatic and revolutionary effect on nearly all parts of Urcean life. These early years of his reign were consumed by cultural and religious changes, and his later, post-war reign would focus on legal reforms. Leo's religious program largely centered around implementation of the {{wp|Counter Reformation}}. His reign coincided with the changes made by the {{Wp|Council of Trent}} and also in the foregoing decades during which time Urcea was under Protestant rule. The earliest changes were in accord with the universal trends of the Counter Reformation: {{wp|seminaries}} were established throughout Urcea, the King paid lavishly for the restoration of defaced icons and Church structures, and monasteries were reformed according to new Church | Although he came to the throne as an impressive commander, most historians remember King Leo II for his dramatic and revolutionary effect on nearly all parts of Urcean life. These early years of his reign were consumed by cultural and religious changes, and his later, post-war reign would focus on legal reforms. Leo's religious program largely centered around implementation of the {{wp|Counter Reformation}}. His reign coincided with the changes made by the {{Wp|Council of Trent}} and also in the foregoing decades during which time Urcea was under Protestant rule. The earliest changes were in accord with the universal trends of the Counter Reformation: {{wp|seminaries}} were established throughout Urcea, the King paid lavishly for the restoration of defaced icons and Church structures, and monasteries were reformed according to new Church prescriptions. | ||
The Counter Reformation would take on an additional level in Urcea beginning in around [[1569]]. Leo's interest in it seems to not only have been institutional reform, but a major cultural revolution. In his private letters, he wrote that "the initial triumphs of the Julio-Angloise came...not only from an apathy towards the true faith among the subjects of the Kingdom, who should have surely rejected their illegitimacy...but also in our inability to curry the divine favor." In this sense, Leo viewed himself to be analogous to the Biblical King {{wp|Hezekiah}}, who enacted religious reform and cleansed the Temple in {{wp|Jerusalem}}. Leo wrote that Urcea "was still hot and formable from the war" and that "it must be reforged...as a holy nation." To this end, Leo began to attempt cultural reform by both example and by means of a recasting of the role of the monarchy in Urcean life. | The Counter Reformation would take on an additional level in Urcea beginning in around [[1569]]. Leo's interest in it seems to not only have been institutional reform, but a major cultural revolution. In his private letters, he wrote that "the initial triumphs of the Julio-Angloise came...not only from an apathy towards the true faith among the subjects of the Kingdom, who should have surely rejected their illegitimacy...but also in our inability to curry the divine favor." In this sense, Leo viewed himself to be analogous to the Biblical King {{wp|Hezekiah}}, who enacted religious reform and cleansed the Temple in {{wp|Jerusalem}}. Leo wrote that Urcea "was still hot and formable from the war" and that "it must be reforged...as a holy nation." To this end, Leo began to attempt cultural reform by both example and by means of a recasting of the role of the monarchy in Urcean life. In {{wp|Easter}} [[1570]], in thanksgiving for his restoration to the Throne, Leo began a Kingdom-wide on-foot procession of himself and his entourage from [[Urceopolis (City)|Urceopolis]] to [[Cálfeld]], which would depart on Easter Sunday and arrive on the feast of {{wp|Corpus Christi}}. During that time, Leo met with thousands of his subjects, endowed dozens of churches, schools, and hospitals, led prayer services, and allowed his retainers and other nobles to live lavishly in camp while he lived in an austere tent. The Pilgrimage of 1569 was remembered by contemporaries - noble and common alike - as one of the most elaborate and memorable occasions of their lifetime, and in some instances it had been the first time an [[Apostolic King of Urcea|Apostolic King]] had visited many places within the Kingdom, not including while on campaign. As part of his overall agenda of engendering greater faith and devotion, Leo erected large statues and other monuments at every city he visited in [[1569]], some of which still remain today. | ||
Pamphleteers and scholars in Leo's employ began to publish a large number of documents and books arguing, in line with the ongoing Counter Reformation, that the Apostolic King governed Urcea on God's behalf for the benefit of the Urcean people. Most scholars made an effort to distinguish this from a {{wp|divine right of kings}}, stating that Leo ruled because of his own devotion to God and the [[Catholic Church]], making the point that the nation would be similarly endowed should it follow him in faith. In [[1570]], the Pope gave Leo the title {{wp|fidei defensor}}, "defender of the faith". As new seminaries began operation, Leo began to generously endow these institutions in order to accept more [[Social_class_in_Urcea#Freeman|freemen]] into the Clergy. Leo wrote that it was his belief many of the commoners saw religion as "...an exercise of the minds of the nobles" and that greater connection between the Crown, Church, and people were necessary. | |||
Leo's religious reforms would continue after the war with a spate of church building that occurred throughout most of the 17th century, rebuilding much of Urcea's ecclesiastical architecture in the unquestionably Catholic {{wp|Baroque architecture}}. Most scholars attribute Leo's reign as the beginning of a distinct Urcean idea of governance and the relationship between the King, Church, and society. | |||
===The Imperial Pivot=== | ===The Imperial Pivot=== | ||
Upon death of the sitting [[Emperor of the Levantines]] in 1572, the [[Collegial Electorate]] met and chose King Leo as Emperor, putting the entire Holy League army under his command. Leo was drawn away from his reform program, and accordingly would delay a [[History_of_Urcea_(1575-1798)#Leonine_reforms_and_17th_century_expansion|large number of legal and social reforms]] until after the war. He spent the next three years prosecuting the war until the Holy League's final victory in 1575, after twenty years of fighting. | Upon death of the sitting [[Emperor of the Levantines]] in 1572, the [[Collegial Electorate]] met and chose King Leo as Emperor, putting the entire Holy League army under his command. Leo was drawn away from his reform program, and accordingly would delay a [[History_of_Urcea_(1575-1798)#Leonine_reforms_and_17th_century_expansion|large number of legal and social reforms]] until after the war. He spent the next three years prosecuting the war until the Holy League's final victory in 1575, after twenty years of fighting. | ||