Absolutism and the
State Supreme
“I would rather obey a fine
lion, much stronger than
myself, than two hundred
rats of my own species.”
- Voltaire
I. It’s good to be the king
...sometimes
The strange childhood of Louis XIV
b. 1638
r. 1643-1715
Era of Regents
Cardinal Richelieu
Anne of Austria
Mazarin
“foreigners”
Put away these childish things…
The Fronde, 1649-52
Monarchy v. the Parlements
Paris
Nobles
Peasants
The lesson…?
L’etat, C’est moi!
II. Forging the Modern State
“Life is nasty, brutish and short”
Thomas Hobbes
- Leviathan, 1660
Absolutism
“It is not wisdom but Authority
that makes a law”
Perils of Progress
Wars of religion &
colonization
Price Revolution
Enclosure
III. Absolutism? Absolutely!
A well conducted government must have an underlying
concept so well integrated that it could be likened to a
system of philosophy…All financial, political and military
matters must flow towards one goal…the strengthening of
the state and the furthering of its power.
- Frederick II “The Great” d. 1786
Enlightened despotism
King James (VI & I)
True Law of Free Monarchies – 1598
- material/spiritual well-being
- sacred obedience
- sovereignty lies in the monarch
Joseph II of Austria 1780-1790
Philosophes
“Servant of the state”
Philosophes
Frederick the Great
Joseph II
A. The Renaissance
Machiavelli
1350-1650
The Prince 1513
How things are v. how they ought to be
B. The Reformation
1.
Religion and nationalism
- Fragmentation v. universalism
- Appeal to the Christian Nobility of the
German Nation 1521
C. Decline in Church Primacy
1. State Sovereignty
- Henry VIII, Act of Supremacy 1535
- Charles V, Peace of Augsburg 1555
- Peace of Westphalia 1648
D. Decline of medieval “empires”
1. Ottoman Empire
Suleiman the Magnificent
r. 1520-1566
Battle of Lepanto 1571
2. Poland
- frontier-less
- anti-Semitism
“elective monarchy”
3. Spain
Philip II r. 1550-1598
Revolt of the Netherlands
The Spanish Armada (1588)
IV. Reason of state
A. France
1.
Henry IV
d. 1610
Edict of Nantes 1598
monopolies
2. Cardinal Richelieu d. 1642
(Louis XIII)
intendants
Habsburg wars
France before individuals, classes, or Church
Mazarin
The Sun King
3. “I am the state”
dismissed assemblies
direct rule / appointments
professional army
Gallicanism
Edict of Fontainebleau 1685
Jansenism
Louis XIV
4. King’s Men
bourgeois bureacracy
Jean-Baptiste Colbert
mercantilism
5. “I have loved war too much”
Natural borders
Alliances
Habsburgs
War of the League of Augsburg
War of Spanish Succession
B. Cult of personality
Versailles
Catherine Palace
Sanssouci
When divas ruled Baroque / Rococo style
R&D
1.
Science and the state
- Académie des Sciences 1666
- Royal Academy 1660
Christopher Wren. d. 1723
The Grand Embassy
1697-98
Peter Mikhailov
C. Czar of all the Russias
1. Peter I “The Great”
1689-1725
- Westernization
- Baltic expansion St. Petersburg
- state service of nobles
- serfs as slaves
Romanovs
Eastern Expansion
2. Catherine “the Great”
r. 1762-1796
- un-Enlightenment 1773 revolt
- southern, western expansion
D. Germany stirs
1.
HRE?
-
Reformation
Westphalia 1648
Siege of Vienna 1683
-
Leopold I
r. 1657-1705
Habsburg Dynasty
Austrian Habsburg Dynasty
Maria Teresa 1740-1780
Joseph II 1780-1790
- religious toleration
- abolished torture
- equality before the law
- abolished serfdom
2. Hohenzollerns
(Prussia)
- militarism / state service
Frederick William I
So….
Absolute rulers helped early modern states
negotiate fundamental social and
economic change…
…but Absolutism itself would become the
target of reformers.