Topic Seven: Enlightened Rulers (and those not so Enlightened)
A. Goal of Rulers who embraced Enlightenment Reform
1. Wars limited to engagements between professional armies
2. Economic reforms
a. especially taxation systems
3. Legal reforms
a. codification of laws
4. Religious reforms
a. greater toleration
5. State run education systems
6. Justify absolute authority by using power to push reforms
B. Prussia
1. Frederick William I (1713-1740)
a. “large army with a small nation attached to it”
- called the ‘sergeant king’
- canton system
2. Frederick II, the Great (1740-1786)
a. Domestic
- “first servant of the state”
- abolish serfdom
- religious toleration
- increased bureaucracy
- state education system
- codification of legal system
- economic reforms
b. Foreign Policy
- War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748)
- Seven Years War (1756-1763)
- the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756
- First Partition of Poland 1772
c. Results
C. Austria
1. Maria Theresa (1740 – 1780)
a. Domestic
-diversity of the empire
- administrative units
- modernized army
- modernized bureaucracy
- peasant reform
- married her daughter into French Royal Family
2. Jospeh II (1765-1790)
a. abolish serfdom
b. religious toleration
c. legal reforms
d. Hungarian reform
e. education systems
f. economic reform
g. failure of reforms to take hold
h. French Revolution starts 1789
3. Leopold II (1790-1792)
a. rescinded most of Joseph’s reforms
b. succeeded by his son Francis II (1792-1835)
D. Russia
1. Peter the Great dies in 1725. Catharine rules until 1727
a. Peter makes Russia the dominant E. European power
b. Great Northern War (1700-1718)
2. Peter’s successors are ineffectual and there is infighting within the
Romanov family due to Alexei I’s two marriages
a. Peter II (1727-1730), grandson of Peter I
b. Anna I (1730-1740), daughter of Ivan V
c. Ivan VI (1740-1741), great-grandson of Ivan V
3. Elizabeth I, (1741-1761)
a. stages a coup against Ivan VI
b. kicks out foreigners
c. reformed army, Russia military power again
d. University of Moscow, Academy of Fine Arts
e. political reform
f. Seven Years War
g. her heir is Grand Duke Peter of Holstein
h. marries him to his cousin Sophia-Augusta in 1745
4. Catharine II, the Great (1762-1796)
a. married to heir of Russian throne when she is 16
b. precarious position at court
c. gives birth to Paul in 1754
d. was exceedingly intelligent
e. embraced Russia and Enlightenment
f. Elizabeth dies in 1762, Peter becomes Peter III
h. Peter unpopular with Russians
i. Catharine seizes power
5. Domestic Policy of Catharine
a. consolidate power
b. eliminate Ivan VI
c. political reforms
-the usual
d. religious toleration in name only
6. Foreign Policy of Catharine
a. this is why she is called ‘the Great’
b. added 200,000 square miles to Russia
c. Crimea annexed
d. 2nd and 3rd Partition of Poland
e. end of any Swedish power
f. broke with Enlightenment because of Fr. Revolution
7. Paul I (1796-1801)
a. succeeded when mother Catharine dies of a stroke
E. Great Britain
1. The House of Hanover
a. Anne I, last Stuart monarch, dies in 1714
b. Act of Union creates Great Britain in 1707
c. throne goes to a great-grandson of James I
d. George, prince of Hanover becomes George I
e. Jacobite Rebellion suppressed in 1715
2. Irish Catholics fare poorly under the Hanovers
a. no weapons
b. no Catholic schools
c. cannot send children abroad for education
d. cannot marry Protestants
e. cannot run for Parliament or vote in elections
f. subsistence living
g. by 1700, only 14% of Irish own land in Ireland
3. George II (1727-1760)
a. like his father, relied on Sir Robert Walpole
b. Prime Minister guides Parliament
c. patronage system introduced
d. two political parties, Tories and Whigs
e. Britain is the leading naval power in the world
f. able to raise money through the Bank of England
g. social protest among middle class and lower class
h. Wilkes Affair
F. France
1. The Regency
a. Louis XIV lives so long his great-grandson becomes Louis XV
b. Louis XV, 1715-1774, is 5 years old when he becomes king
c. his great-uncle, the Duc d’Orleans becomes regent
d. Orleans gives more power to nobles and local parlements
e. had to cope with huge financial debt created by wars
f. dies in 1723
h. Cardinal Fleury takes over
i. manages to balance the budget and create jobs
2. Reign of Louis XV
a. Fleury dies in 1743, Louis decides to rule alone
b. much loved at first
c. weird personality
d. the Enlightenment took place during his reign
e. famous mistress is the Marquise de Pompadour
f. tried to enact reforms like changing the judicial system
-no more hereditary parlements, could not buy or sell
g. backfired against him
h. his private perversions didn’t help
i. died the most despised king in recent French history
j. rules so long his grandson inherits as Louis XVI