ABSTRACT
The individual figures which we have hitherto been contemplating—the succession of popes and of Valois and Hapsburg sovereigns—had to deal with the main central problems of Christendom. They settled the course of events in Italy, France, Spain, and Germany. But the same spiritual and political questions which they had to face were also to be found in the more outlying parts of Europe, and these came under the control of some personages of outstanding interest to the historian, though their doings had not the world-wide importance of the activities of popes and emperors.
