Table of Content

ZZ LONDON INTERNATIONAL MODEL UNITED NATIONS 2017 Joint Cabinet Crisis London International Model United Nations 18th Session | 2017 Table of Content 1 ZZ LONDON INTERNATIONAL MODEL UNITED NATIONS 2017 Table of Contents I. Introduction 3 II. General Context 4 III. Religious Dynamics 6 IV. Political Dynamics 18 V. Territorial Dynamics 21 VI. The French Court 27 VII. The English Court 31 VIII. The Scottish Court 39 IX. The House of Hapsburgs 46 2 ZZ LONDON INTERNATIONAL MODEL UNITED NATIONS 2017 I. Introduction In the year 1557, young Mary Stuart travels to be wedded to French dauphin Francis in Paris. Meanwhile, succession is at the order of the day in most European Courts. In London, Queen Mary is gravely ill, and while the whole kingdom awaits her death, the imminent succession of her half-sister Elisabeth is questioned due to her illegitimate birth. In Spain and in Austria, successors to Charles V. have only recently gained their thrones, and still have to establish themselves as rulers. Finally, in Scotland, the regents await the return of Mary Stuart, the rightful heir to the throne. Europe is divided by religious disputes, family ties and alliances. Most royal families have mutual connections - however, some ties are stronger than others, and even blood alliances can be broken. Mary Stuart is at the heart of courtly politics; her wedding to Francis should ensure the Scottish alliance with France, but her protestant cousin Elisabeth hardly wishes to have a catholic stronghold so close to her own country. The four courts; Scottish Court, French Court, Spanish Court and English Court all have her priorities and inner politics, whilst they compete for dominance at the European Continent. Court intrigues, marriages, affairs and religious devotion all shape the new face of Europe, too. Starting from 1557, the delegates in all four cabinets will have the chance to change the course of history, and gain as much power as they can for their land and for themselves. Will Mary become the Queen of Scots, and will her reign last long enough? How will the alliances change, which wars will be waged, for religion, for succession, for land? II. General Context 3 ZZ LONDON INTERNATIONAL MODEL UNITED NATIONS 2017 The world stands on the precipice of change. Europe has emerged from the Dark Ages, the horrors and decline of the Bubonic plague are finally overcome. The Renaissance has spread northwards from Italy and has brought with it a new thirst for knowledge both recovered and discovered. New ideas are permeating society and invigorating artists, rulers, philosophers, explorers, traders, humanists and occultists alike. Scholarly people all over Europe are heralding a new Age of Reason. Scientific curiosity is about to replace mediaeval scholasticism as an ideal in the universities. For the first time in centuries, some seem to entertain thoughts of possible alternatives to the predominant feudal and clerical order. It is the age of Michelangelo, Suleyman, Calvin, Timofeyevich, Fugger, Montaigne and Nostradamus. In the year of our Lord 1557, Europe stands as divided as ever. It has been 40 years since a German monk, appalled at the worldliness and moral bankruptcy of the hierarchical papal church, nailed the Ninety-five theses he proposed for its reformation on the door of his local university chapel. This seemingly inconspicuous event was to alter the dynamics of Christendom profoundly and permanently. Princes seeking to curb the rival authority of the church, upcoming burghers and oppressed peasants alike flocked to the banner of The Reformation. The papacy has been unsuccessful in addressing this divide and has had to come to terms with the fact that heresy has become more or less accepted in the Empire.1 In the meanwhile, in the eyes of many Christendom faces an unprecedented danger in the form of the ascendant Islamic Ottoman Empire. The Sultan’s attempt to conquer the Empire was only narrowly repelled.2 ‘The Turk’ has become a staple bogeyman of many a child’s bedtime stories. But the world is also coming closer together, if not in harmony yet in conflict and trade. European thirst for the goods of Asia has been the driving force behind explorations and the establishment of outposts in far removed corners of the world. Courtiers dress themselves in silk, smoke tobacco and drink chocolate out of china cups to demonstrate their splendour and affluence. Meanwhile, Mediterranean conflicts spill over to the Indian ocean, where daring Portuguese and Ottoman captains fight out their Holy (Trade) War to the bafflement of the locals. The accumulation of wealth through trading and the systems of banking developed in Renaissance Italy have also enabled the rise of a confident class of patricians in the cities, counterweight to the aristocracy holding sway over the political sphere.3 The first semblances of a non-agricultural economy are emerging in Flanders and Northern Italy. With the spread of trade comes, as ever, the spread of ideas. Levels of literacy and education are rising slowly but steadily. The milestone invention of the printing press has most famously backed the dissemination of translations of the Holy Bible, but also made secular publications accessible to broader audiences and thereby stimulated the exchange of ideas. Travelogues, treatises, discourses and commentaries are becoming increasingly popular and less exclusive to Latin-versed scholarly circles.4 1Two years ago (1555), the Treaty of Augsburg acknowledged every independent prince’s right to choose his (and thereby his subjects’) confession without ramifications - cuius regio eius religio. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V traded off religious for political unity after being unsuccessful in enforcing both. 2Siege of Vienna (1529), the Empire’s administrative capital. 3Some of them going as far as becoming lenders to monarchs themselves, as the Fuggers of Augsburg who act as the Habsburg Empire’s personal financiers. 4Raising, to name a few, questions about the ideal ruler (Macchiavelli’s Il Principe), the perfect society (More’s eponymous Utopia) or the cosmological place of the earth (Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelesticum). 4 ZZ LONDON INTERNATIONAL MODEL UNITED NATIONS 2017 The dynamism of European societies has in part been possible due to a recent leap in population growth. Many thirdborn sons with no prospects of inheritance have become soldiers of fortune, as mercenaries, sailors, colonists or common vagrants. They constitute a pool of manpower available to everyone who is able to afford it (or can pretend to be) that uproots the previously rather static feudal system based on a chain of personal allegiances. The professionalisation of mercenary warfare, propagated first by Italian condottieri and Swiss reislaufer, has made conflicts more unpredictable and especially prone to escalation.5 The methods of warfare have also been changed by the spread of scientific discoveries, most notably repeated improvements to durability, accuracy and handiness of gunpowder weapons6 and Roman-inspired elaborate tactical formations relying on polearms.7 These are becoming the weapon of choice for professional mercenaries and soldiers. Heavy cavalry on its own is not decisive for the outcome of battles any longer. This has a profound impact on society in turn: the importance of the old knightly aristocracy is dwindling, while rulers are able to amass more power into their own hands. All these portents of modernity, though, should not lead one to forget that the world of the 16th century is still steeped in tradition and mystery. With all rational thought there is no clear distinction between science and occultism.8 The vast majority of peasants continue to live their lives just as their forefathers ‘always’ have. But there pervades an overarching sense of new beginnings through the legacy of antiquity. III. Religious Dynamics By the middle of the 16th century, Europe was firmly in the grip of the Protestant Reformation. Questions of faith and theology were generally inseparable from their worldly, political implications. This section provides an overview of the religious dynamics of the period. It is divided into three subsections: the first provides a timeline and summary of the major religious events and actors in the first half of the century; the second, an overview of Europe’s spiritual landscape in 1557, organised by geographical region; and the third, a concise theological summary of the doctrines of the principal Christian denominations and movements at that time. A: Timeline of the Reformation At the end of the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church’s dominance over Western and Central Europe appeared unassailable. It was a vast supra-territorial organisation, whose clergy and monastics enjoyed 5As demonstrated by the Sacco di Roma (1527), when mercenaries hired by the Habsburgs (ostensibly allies of the Pope) took charge of ensuring their due payment themselves and plundered Rome, sending a wave of outrage throughout the Christian world. 6At the Battle of Mohacs (1526), the Turks demonstrated to the world what it meant to try and oppose a professional army relying on discipline and firearms with feudal methods of warfare, killing the young Hungarian king Louis and most of his feudatories, virtually annihilating his realm as a state in one sweep. 7Spanish mercenary tercios have achieved similar victories against traditional French cavalry. 8In fact, alchemists like Paracelsus are seen as the most prolific scientists of all. 5 ZZ LONDON INTERNATIONAL MODEL UNITED

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