Government

By Alex and Logan =How people were governed during the Renaissance= There were two primary forms of government in the Renaissance: monarchies with royal families, and republics in some areas. The Roman Catholic Church also had varying degrees of influence on some governments.

Monarchies
In the Renaissance there were elites called the royal family who had power over countries. The royal family was the family of the monarch (either the king or queen or both) who had heirs who would take over after the current monarch dies. The royal family "inbreeded" to keep the royal family "pure". In a monarchy power was inherited by the heirs to the throne, such as the king or queen's children. The royal family had a lot of wealth, as well as power, allowing them to live better than others. Sometimes, a monarch would die with no male heir to the throne. This often led led to power struggles and even war as other branches of the family claimed the right to rule. If a monarch died and his heir was still a child, another family member would rule for the child as a regent. A regent might not always want to give up the throne when the child heir became an adult, and war could break out as his allies fought the allies of the royal child. In most governments, there was a class system (mostly in a monarchy, though) where the peasants, who were not very well off, were at the bottom of the hierarchy. In the middle of the hierarchy, there were the nobles and the king's servants, who somewhat had the monarch's respect and had a decent living environment. At the top were the royal families who were very wealthy and very powerful, and had the best living someone could get back then. The royal family controlled taxes and would take advantage of the peasants and would charge citizens with taxes. Later on in history, there were revolutions against royal families, which would often include killing the king or queen, then starting a government of their own, and that was the start of parliament. Henry VIII was a monarch who had eight different wives whom he either divorced or had beheaded.

Republics
The Republic of Venice and the Republic of Genoa were each ruled by a Doge and one or more councils of leading citizens. The Doge was elected by the councils. The Republic of Florence had a council with representatives from the main guilds and the quarters of the city. The council picked one of its members to be the leader of the city. In theory this could have been a carpenter or dyer, but usually a member of one of the big merchant or banking families.

Roman Catholic Church
The Roman Catholic Church lost some of its power during the Renaissance, but remained the primary religious institute. The Pope was the head of the Roman Catholic Church. Archbishops were in charge of the bishops, who were in charge of the priests, who were in every town and village in their area. The priests had influence and authority over people. They told people what behavior was right and wrong. They counseled and advised people, and they could tell people to obey their nobles and kings. Bishops, archbishops and the Pope advised and counseled the nobles and monarchs of many countries in Europe. One of the things that gave the Church power was that it could excommunicate people, even kings, for doing things the Church considered wrong, and it was a powerful threat. People who were excommunicated couldn't go to heaven. The Pope and the Church also had some political control over the countries in the Holy Roman Empire. The rulers of the countries in the Empire chose one of themselves to be king of the Romans, and the Pope crowned them as the Holy Roman Emperor. The Empire was once most of Europe, but by the Renaissance, some countries were breaking away from the Empire and some were turning Protestant (Switzerland, Netherlands, some German states, Bohemia, England, and Scotland). Martin Luther was an example of someone who was dissatisfied with the Catholic Church and started his own, the Lutheran Church.

Bibliography:
//Cities and statecraft in the renaissance// by Lizann Flatt, page 20 //Great ideas of the renaissance// by Trudee Romanek, page 24 //Age of kings//, pages 135-144 //Francesco's Venice//, BBC documentary DVD, narrated by Francesco Da Mosto, chapter 4: The Doge (2006) //The Renaissance// by James A. Corrick Monarchies Republics: Medieval Sourcebook: The Chronicles of Venice: How the Doges Were Chosen Roman Catholic Church: Renaissance Monarchy: A Crucial Shift in the King-Pope Relationship