Theorizing on the Institution of War in Erasmus and Vitoria During the Universalmonarchie of Charles V

Abstract

AbstractThe achievements of Charles V (1500–1558) have not aroused the same enthusiasm in historiography as his predecessors and successors. He was admired by his contemporaries, as they associated him with the creation of the Spanish Empire in the sixteenth century. However, views on Charles V changed in later centuries until he was seen in the nineteenth century as a distant emperor, who was cold, warfaring, foreign, proud and ruthless. Some authors consider that his reign led to the end of an era (the Middle Ages), others posit that it was the start of a new one (modernity), and a third sector asserts that his universalmonarchie was a time of breakdown (transition) when formal and informal elements of the Empire overlapped, as inferred from examining ideas on war. My proposal addresses the analysis of: (i) law of war as identification of the incipient external sovereignty of the state; (ii) law of war as a just punishment; and (iii) the limits of war from humanist and scholastic stances. I am interested in exploring the Spanish contribution to the secularization of international law based on the conquest of America, the war of religions, internal wars and wars against the Infidels (external wars) in parallel to the formation (and decomposition) of the Empire and the empowerment of state-cities. In particular, I explore the gradual secularization and absolutization of international law and its transformation into a plurality of sovereign states claiming power within their territory and independence in their relationships from religious (the papacy) and political authorities (the Empire). The thought of Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466–1536) and Francisco de Vitoria (1483/86–1546), as well as that of their contemporaries, moulded the outlines of the institution of war and impacted on the Empire’s crisis and the emergence of sovereign states. The chapter ends with some reflections on how the breakdown of the Empire led to the emergence of sovereign entities and the secularization of international law. The fall of the Empire led to a new stage marked by absolutism.