The failure of foreign policy in the years 1514-1525 can be attributed to many things. The combination of Henry's isolation from European affairs and the fact that his attempts to raise tax were ultimately unpopular failures, meant that he had no way to impose himself upon Europe. Even when he did manage to scrape together the finances needed for a strong foreign policy his reliance on his allies led to disaster. As soon as Henry took the throne in 1509, it was obvious that he was a king that wanted to fight a war. However, wars generally led to very expensive costs to the country.
In 1625 Buckingham decided England needed a new ally in Europe in France after the failure of the Spanish match, they could see diplomatic advantages, France was becoming worried about the successes of the Hapsburg Spanish and might be persuaded to take part against them. This however made Puritan minded MPs suspicious of Charles as not only was Henrietta Maria, the King’s prospective wife, Catholic, but also the terms of marriage included toleration for Catholics – something Parliament would certainly not welcome, rather it resented the Crown’s decision to do this. The Alliance with France however, had broken down by 1627 leading England into war. Buckingham was to blame because it was his flawed policy of creating an alliance with the French under terms not possible to keep such as toleration for Catholics, which caused the French Chief Minister to decide not to join the English in a war against the Hapsburgs, because of which Buckingham reversed his policy of French alliance. Furthermore to gain popularity Buckingham decided to help the Huguenots who were held at the port of La Rochelle – again this was another flawed move as now England was at war with two countries.
Although, the development of change already faced opposition from right-winged supporters, including rich landowners who feared social changes that the Republic would try to implement. Under Generals Sanjurjo, Franco and Mola, the Spanish Civil War began as a military coup, which was aimed to put an end to the democratic political change that was seen in 1931. As seen in Italy with Mussolini in 1922 and with Hitler in Germany in 1933, one could argue that the rise of fascism subsequently kick started the demand of a takeover in Spain. But, we have to bear in mind the bad timing of 1931 to implement such a change, with the worldwide economic crisis caused by the 1929 Wall Street Crash in America, and the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, there was now fear throughout Europe of communism and revolution. Although at the beginning of the rebellion, the three main generals were not actually all in Spain.
Buckingham had too much influence with the King; this meant he was seen as one of the main causes to the break down in parliament. James wanted money from the Parliament in 1625 because of the war with Spain. Parliament decided to grant a tonnage and poundage as the monarch’s main source of Revenue. Opposition MPs discussed Parliament choosing the Kings ministers for him and also the impeachment of those who gained undue influence over him; this was especially aimed at Buckingham. A breakdown in parliament then occurred because Charles realized the parliamentary attack on Buckingham was increasing so in 1625 dissolved his first Parliament in order to protect his close companion.
Edward IV's reigns had faced many problems because of Warwick. Firstly Warwick believed Edward had not rewarded him enough by giving him the captain of Calais. Whilst other nobles such as William Herbert were also rewarded with high titles such as Lieutenant of South Wales. This had begun to create problems between Warwick and Edward, to add to insult Edward would not let Clarence marry Warwickshire daughter Isabel. As a result Edward decided to remove the Archbishop of York who had approved the marriage.
How successfully did Henry VII gain international recognition through his foreign policy between 1485 and 1509? In order for Henry VII to gain respect and recognition from the other major European states he needed to develop a positive relationship with them. Countless allegiances and treaties made between the king and the other leaders in Europe helped gain Henry some recognition, but the likelihood of these methods failing and leading to tension between the nations was a huge obstacle for Henry to overcome. When Henry became king in 1485 he was in no position to start an aggressive foreign policy. Henry had little available soldiers in England due to the Wars of the Roses, or the necessary financial resources to fund such a campaign.
Frederick William shared this view and was unwilling to potentially cause a war with such a powerful state. This caused the Frankfurt Parliament to fail because Prussia did not grasp the opportunity to unite and neither did the King, therefore Germany remained divided. Although he desired power, William IV was not willing to put himself and Prussia under control of the Frankfurt Parliament as he distrusted ‘the gentlemen of Frankfurt’. This meant that the Parliament had no real leader, and so lost support because people distrusted the parliament as an influential figure stated he would not be associated with them. This aided in causing the failure of the Parliament because with no real leader, no one could influence the masses or help to make decisions.
Elizabeth made up a lot of debt mainly by fighting the war with Spain which didn’t end until 1604 and so James had to spend some of the governmental money on funding this war. James also wasn’t very good at political debated or talking to the English parliament as they weren’t keen on his favourable Scots so this led to tension there and them not wanting to help fund the war on Spain now James was king. However id James had worked on getting rid of Elizabeth’s debt from the war, monopolies and purveyance then the economy in England would have been more stable. James had financial issues which were down to Elizabeth and what he inherited from her. In source 1 Smith states that “The Spanish war imposed heavy burdens on the country” which is shown in the fact Elizabeth incurred debts of ‘£300,000 a year in ordinary revenue’, and her expedition in the new world lost the English over £5,000 and gave henry iv of France £20,000 to gain his loyalty.
This shows Henrys naivety in foreign policy and the other European powers were using him to benefit themselves whilst sending him to his downfall. Despite this Henry personally lead an army of 25,000 across the channel and took Therouanne and tournai in northern France and winning memorable battles such as the battle of the spurs. However Thomas Wolsey was the one who very effectively organised the second attempt on besieging France and emphatically orcastrated the peace agreements between the two nations in 1514 so it could be argued that the foreign policy towards the French at the time was policy’s that of Wolsey not Henry. Also in later years in the second French war 1522-25 Henry was yet again let down by his allies Charles V
His main objective for calling Parliament was to raise money to go to war with Spain, which he believed would indirectly help his sister Elizabeth and brother-in-law to regain the Palatinate. He needed 1million in total, however parliament were reluctant to