Treaty of London (1518)

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The Treaty of London of 1518 was a non-aggression pact between the major European powers. The contractors were France , England , the Holy Roman Empire of German Nations , the Papal States , Spain , the Duke of Burgundy and the Netherlands , which between themselves committed by the Treaty not only to peace, but to also support each other in case of war should.

The contract was drawn up by Cardinal Wolsey and signed by the ambassadors present in London . Wolsey played a special role in this, as he was both Lord Chancellor of the British King and papal legate . The treaty represents a reaction to the rise of the Ottoman Empire , which spread increasingly into the Balkans and thus strengthened cohesion within Christian Europe.

background

Cardinal Wolsey

For centuries, the hope for long-term peace was mainly driven by Christian ministers. During the Middle Ages , the church tried to promote peace between Christian peoples and to support war only against rulers of different faiths. The crusades represented the high point of this development. In the Renaissance , however, the identification with the Christian Church increasingly decreased. After the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the development continued, because European Christians identified more and more with their origins than with their religion. During the 15th century, Italy , which was divided into small city-states, began a 50-year period of peace. Only a war between Venice and the papacy, in which it was a question of rule in Ferrara , caused a temporary break in the peace. However, the period of peace ended with the French invasion of Italy in 1494. A series of smaller military conflicts followed and in 1518 the conclusion of a peace treaty between the rulers involved seemed sensible.

The terms of the contract

The treaty made the reign of King Henry VIII of England particularly famous

All European rulers were invited to sign the treaty in London. Only the Ottoman Empire was excluded from the negotiations. Likewise Russia , as it was not considered part of Europe at the time. The treaty was supposed to connect the 20 leading states in Europe and end the warfare between the European countries. It was prepared in October 1518 by representatives of England and France . It was also ratified by other European powers and the Pope . The resulting agreement of the defensive alliance was based on the following contractual terms:

The treaty not only obliged the countries with an active foreign policy to maintain peace among themselves, but also made them promise to wage war against any state that did not comply with the terms of the treaty. The conclusion of the contract was initially seen as a great triumph for Cardinal Wolsey and helped Henry VIII to expand his power within Europe. Since then England has been counted among the great powers.

consequences

It can be assumed that Wolsey saw the treaty as the first step towards Christian-European networking. The conclusion of the contract can be seen as the first attempt to achieve European integration through diplomacy . In fact, the treaty only brought peace for a short time, as war broke out between Denmark and Sweden and between England, Spain and France in the course of a few years . On the other hand, a peace movement developed during this period that took part in the enlightenment movement of the 18th century. One of its most famous representatives was Erasmus of Rotterdam . The goal of establishing long-term peace in Europe was not achieved until the Congress of Vienna in 1815.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey, History at University of Wisconsin ( Memento of the original from September 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / history.wisc.edu
  2. ↑ Tabular life data of the Erasmus of Rotterdam

literature

  • Michael Howard: The Invention of Peace: About War and the Order of the World . Lüneburg 2001, ISBN 3-924245-98-3 .
  • Heinrich Lutz : Peace ideas and peace problems in the early modern times. In: Gernot Heiss u. Heinrich Lutz (Ed.) Peace Movements: Conditions and Effects . Munich 1984, ISBN 3-7028-0226-6 .
  • Garret Mattingly: An early nonaggression pact; in: The Journal of Modern History, 10 (1938) 1; Pp. 1-30.
  • TA Morris: Europe and England in the Sixteenth Century . Routledge 1998, ISBN 0-415-15041-8 .
  • Joycelyne Russell: The search for universal peace: The conferences at Calais and Bruge in 1521; in: Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 44 (1971) 110; Pp. 162-193.
  • Joycelyne Russell: Peacemaking in the Renaissance . London 1986, ISBN 0-7156-1937-3 .
  • Markus Vogl: Vision of Peace and Peace Practice in the Early Modern Era 1500–1649, Augsburg 1996.