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 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.

Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales was written in the fourteenth century in England. It is famous for helping popularize the use of the vernacular (local) language in writing and helped encouraged the spread of humanism during the English Renaissance. 

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.