Question

Account for the emergence of the national monarchies in europe in the sixteenth century. did the monarchs build the national states less by design than by chance?

Answer 1

Civil wars were one of the legacies of the Hundred Years' War and the economic dislocation of the times. The close of the Hundred Years' War had thrown large numbers of professional soldiers out of work, and the concentration of wealth that was characteristic of the period placed money in the hands of the great magnates. They were thus able to hire bands of followers in a process known as livery and maintenance, which means simply that the magnate furnished his employees with uniforms (livery) and a living wage (maintenance). Some individual magnates were able to assemble enough strength to challenge the kings, but, more often, family alliances pooled their money and power. All across Europe, the great families of the magnate class struggled with the monarchs for control of the state