The Renaissance - SAT Subject Test in World History

Following the death of the last Tudor ruler, Queen Elizabeth I, in 1603, the English crown was left without any direct heir. So the Scottish monarch James I, Elizabeth’s cousin, ascended to the throne. In doing so, he began the process of uniting the Scottish and English kingdoms into the Kingdom of Great Britain. Although James I could not himself unify the two kingdoms (he ruled over them both independently), they would be unified a century later during the reign of Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch.

The Peace of Alais was a treaty signed in 1629 between the French monarchy and the leaders of the Huguenots, French Protestants. The peace provided religious toleration for the Huguenots but required them to disarm so that they would no longer be a threat to the crown. The peace did not last, however, as later in the seventeenth century, Louis XIV revoked the arrangement and began official state persecution of Protestants in France.

Louis XIV, often known as the Sun King, is perhaps the most significant ruler (excluding, possibly, Napoleon) in French history. He ruled for an unprecedented period of time in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and did a great deal to strengthen the French monarchy and country. His reforms, directed by his Chief Minister Cardinal Mazarin, established national standards for currency, taxes, and language and also helped codify French national identity.

During the Italian Renaissance, the country we now know as Italy was divided up into several independent city-states. All of the answer choices were city-states except for the United Provinces. The United Provinces refers to territory in what is now the Netherlands and Belgium during the time when this territory was under Spanish control.

Cosimo de Medici was the ruler of Florence throughout a large period of the Italian Renaissance. He is renowned as a patron of the arts who encouraged the Renaissance to flourish in his city-state.

The Sistine Chapel and David are two of the most famous works of the famous Renaissance artist and sculptor Michelangelo.

Leonardo da Vinci is often considered the ultimate "Renaissance man," a term that suggests being supremely skilled in many different areas of life, particularly artistically and intellectually. Perhaps Da Vinci's most famous work is The Last Supper.

Italy's relatively large urban society and emerging middle class allowed for a large number of individuals to be free to pursue artistic or scientific pursuits. This was in contrast to most of the rest of Europe and the world, where the vast majority of people had no free time for pursuits unrelated to simply surviving. This allowed the Renaissance to flourish first in Italy.

The Medici rose to prominence in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in Florence. The Medici were a banking family, and in the fifteenth century, the Medici Bank was the largest in Europe. The Medici are significant because they were frequent and enthusiastic patrons of the early Renaissance in Italy. They funded artistic works and spectacular architectural wonders.

The School of Athens is one of the most famous Renaissance paintings, and it is still considered a masterpiece today. It was painted by the Renaissance artist, Raphael, in the early sixteenth century. The fresco can be found in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.

The Decameron was written by Giovanni Boccaccio in the fourteenth century. It is considered one of the most important works of early Humanism and the Italian Renaissance. It is centered around a series of tales about the Black Death. The Black Death was a devastating plague that hit Europe in the fourteenth century and led to widespread death and suffering. By some estimates as many as a third of all Europeans perished as a direct result of the Black Death. It would take almost two hundred years for population levels to recover.

Lorenzo the Magnificent was a ruler of Florence in the fifteenth century. At the time, Florence was an economic center of Europe and one of the most prominent cities of the Italian Renaissance. Lorenzo the Magnificent is most commonly remembered as a generous and enthusiastic patron of the arts. He sponsored the works of Michelangelo, among many others.

The Glorious Revolution of 1688 was the culminating point of a centuries-long battle between the English monarchy and the British parliament. Earlier in the seventeenth century, Parliamentarians had defeated Royalists in the English Civil War, but the rule of Parliament proved too puritanical for the English people, so the crown was restored, but only temporarily. By 1688, Parliament had grown weary with the ruling James II and "invited" William and Mary to seize power on the condition that they pledge to abide by constitutional laws that placed Parliament above the king. This system of constitutional monarchy has existed in Britain ever since with Parliament constantly and steadily gaining in power and influence.

The chaos of the French Revolution created an immense power vacuum in Paris and the infant republican French nation. This vacuum was filled, in spectacular style, by a Corsican member of the French military called Napoleon Bonaparte. He would go on to become one of the most famous and succesful conquerors in European history before extending himself too far and getting exiled not once, but twice.

Cardinal Mazarin was the Chief Minister to Louis XIV throughout the King's childhood and early adult life. Mazarin was responsible for crushing a revolt of the French nobility and for strengthening the power of the French monarchy.

Cardinal Richelieu and Cardinal Mazarin were the chief advisors to the French kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV, respectively. They were collectively responsible for suppressing the power of the French nobility and increasing the absolute power of the French monarchy. The French monarchy under Louis XIV is generally considered the supreme example of absolutism in seventeenth-century Europe.

King James I inherited a throne that was at odds with the world’s one dominant superpower at the time, Spain. James, fearing Spanish invasion, wanted to make peace with the Catholic kingdom, but the English Parliament, entirely dominated by Protestants, favored war. Eventually, Parliament would win out and James and the English would side with the French against the Spanish.

The formation of the French Estates General in the fourteenth century by French King Philip IV led to the rise of the French nation-state. The Estates General was a form of rudimentary representative democracy in which certain members of society were able to influence the political direction of the country.

Prior to the French Revolution, the French parliament was called the Estates General and was formed of three groups: the First Estate, composed of the nobility, which had the most power; the Second Estate, formed of the clergy; and the Third Estate, formed of just about everyone else. The National Assembly grew out of the Third Estate and presided over the initial phases of government during the French Revolution.