Module Code - Title:
HI4063
-
NASTY, BRUTISH AND SHORT? EARLY MODERN EUROPE, C. 1450-1700
Year Last Offered:
2025/6
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
N
Prerequisite Modules:
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
This module aims to give students a thematic and chronological overview of the history of continental Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It is intended as an introduction into the early modern period, combining various aspects of the discipline expected to appeal to second-year students.
Syllabus:
The waning of the middle ages and the culture of the renaissance; the political geography of early modern Europe - republics, new monarchies and composite polities; Europe in the broader context of the discovery of America and the rise of the Ottoman empire; society: orders, minorities and outsiders; family life - birth, marriage and death; humanism and education; confessionalization in the Holy Roman Empire; Wars of Religion in France and the Netherlands; Philip II and Spanish world hegemony; the Thirty Years' War and the military revolution; congress diplomacy at Westphalia, the Pyrenees, Nijmegen and Utrecht-Rastatt; the witch craze and its critique; the scientific revolution; Dutch economic primacy; gender and women; court society and the world of the minister-favourite; France and Spain in the age of Louis XIV and Carlos II; Austrian expansion into the Hungarian plain; the partition of the Spanish Monarchy in 1713-14.
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
Students, who have successfully completed the module, will be able to:
• Define the key themes in social, political and cultural history with regard to Europe in the early modern period.
• Distinguish between an early modern society that was divided legally between estates, and a modern society of economic classes.
• Understand the role of theology within the mindsets of sixteenth-century people
• Acquire a discursive and analytical approach to History writing.
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
On completion of this second-year module students will demonstrate an appreciation of the importance of an especially formative period in European history.
Psychomotor (Physical Skills)
n/a
How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:
The module will be taught through lectures and tutorials by leading experts in the early modern period, who will direct the students towards an understanding of recent scholarship in the field.
Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):
Prime Texts:
Andrew Pettegree (2002)
Europe in the Sixteenth Century
, Wiley-Blackwell
David Sturdy (2002)
Fractured Europe, 1600-17251
, Wiley-Blackwell
Richard Bonney (1990)
The European Dynastic States, 1600-1725
, Oxford University Press
Euan Cameron (ed.) (2006)
The Sixteenth Century
, Oxford University Press
Joseph Bergin (ed.) (2001)
The Seventeenth Century
, Oxford University Press
Other Relevant Texts:
Richard Bonney (1978)
Political Change in France under Richelieu and Mazarin, 1624-1661
, Oxford University Press
Robert Bireley (1999)
The Refashioning of Catholicism, 1450-1700
, Palgrave
David Sturdy (1998)
Louis XIV
, Palgrave
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
Semester(s) Module is Offered:
Autumn
Module Leader:
josemaria.morenomadrid@ul.ie