The Age of Absolutism

1. The Age of Absolutism

2. Absolute Monarchs in Europe1500-1800 l

3. Monarchy • A monarchy, (from the Greek "monos arkhein" -- "one ruler") is a form of government that has a monarch as Head of State. • The position of monarch often involves inheritance in some form. Henry VIII of England

4. Three Models of European Development Parliamentary Monarchy or Constitutional Monarchy in England a)Stuarts b)“Parliament” (House of Lords and Commons) Absolutism a)Tudors and Bourbons b)“Old Regimes” Estates General c)Cardinal Richelieu and Mazarin trained kings to be hard working and gain trust from their people. Enlightened Despots: a)Frederick II, Maria Theresa and Joseph II, and Catherine II b)Rejected Divine Right c)Used absolute power to make much needed reforms for country

5. Reasons Europe Developed Into Absolute Monarchies • Feudalism had collapsed. • National monarchies replaced. • Intense competition for land and trade lead to many wars. • Religious differences sparked civil wars. • Absolute monarchy emerged to protect the nation and preserve order. • “Gunpowder Revolution” began.

6. Reasons Absolute Monarchies Developed • Centralizing authority was made easier because of the decline of feudalism, the rise of cities, and the expansion of national kingdoms. • Monarchs were supported by a new middle class because they promised good conditions for business. • For all of their ambitions, they used the colonies’ wealth. • Monarchs’ authority rose even more as the church’s authority decreased during the late Middle Ages and the Reformation.

7. Reasons Absolute Monarchies Developed • Religious and territorial conflicts between states led to massive amounts of warfare. • This warfare caused governments to build armies and charge extremely high taxes. • In Europe, absolute monarchs could not completely break the power of the nobles, so they included the nobles into their new bureaucratic institutions. • As the nobles revolted, absolute rulers increased their own power to try to restore order.

8. Connections between the Renaissance and Absolute Monarchs • Rise of cities! • Means that trade and formation of towns produced wealth for the King. (Power for the King)

9. Connections between the Protestant Reformation and Absolute Monarchs • The Church lost power. • Religious wars caused chaos. • People wanted safe, stable gov’t

10. Connections between the Age of Exploration and Absolute Monarchs • Added wealth and power • Mercantilism

11. Rise of Absolutism Absolute Monarch Rise of cities Wealth of colonies Growth of national kingdoms Breakdown of Church authority Decline of feudalism Growth of middle class Economic and religious crises Revolts Reduced power of nobles and representative bodies Created new government bureaucracies Regulated worship, social gatherings, and economy Increased size of court

12. Characteristics of the New Absolute Monarchies • They offered the institution of monarchy as a guarantee of law and order. • They proclaimed that hereditary monarchy was the legitimate form of public power  all should accept this without resistance. • They enlisted the support of the middle class in the towns  tired of the local power of feudal nobles. • They would have to get their monarchies sufficiently organized & their finances into reliable order.

13. Characteristics of the New Absolute Monarchies • They would break down the mass of feudal, inherited, customary, or “common” law in which the rights of the feudal classes were entrenched. • The kings would MAKE law, enact it by his own authority, regardless of previous custom or historic liberties  What pleases the prince has the force of law!

14. What is an absolute monarch? • Rule by ONE PERSON—a monarch, usually a king or a queen—whose actions are restricted neither by written law nor by custom. • Absolute monarchy persisted in France until 1789 and in Russia until 1917. • Today only Swaziland and the Vatican are absolute monarchies

15. Absolutism • The idea is based on that monarchs have divine rights and do not have to answer to any form of government and /or the people. • So they didn’t take advice from Parliament, the Estates General, or from the Nobles. • They regulated the taxation and national spending, government, and the religion. • Would limit personal freedoms of certain groups ex. Jews or Protestants. • They would also limit the power of the existing government bodies like the English Parliament, and the French Estates General.

16. Absolute • unrestrained or unlimited by a constitution, counterbalancing group, etc., in the exercise of governmental power, esp. when arbitrary or despotic

17. Sovereign • being above all others in character, importance, excellence, power, etc.

18. Absolutist Theory • There must be one - and only one - sovereign in every state (although it can be a body consisting of more than one person). • The sovereign holds all legitimate power and should never be actively resisted. • If the sovereign commands a contravention of God's law, disobey, but accept the punishment (= "passive obedience").

19. One theme = CONTROL!!! • Control the government -Centralize & create bureaucracies -Reduce power of representative bodies • Control the nobility -Increase size of court; regulate social gatherings -Reduce nobles’ power in the government • Control economics -Great works -Economic policies centralized • Control power -Divine right & regulate religion

20. Examples England  stability under the Tudors France  consolidation of power under the Bourbons Spain  unification by marriage under the Habsburgs Holy Roman Empire  different model: the cost of decentralization under the Habsburgs

21. Dictatorship • A DICTATORSHIP is a government headed by a dictator. Similar to an absolute monarch • It is often equivalent to a police state, but the term "dictatorship" refers to the way the leader gains and holds power, not the watch kept on the citizens. • Some dictators have been popular enough not to have to employ many very oppressive measures. Examples: Julius Caesar & Adolph Hitler

22. Characteristics of Absolute Monarchs It’s GREAT to be the King! • They made all the laws • They were NOT subject to the laws. “I am the state”

23. The Rise of Absolute Monarchies(1400’s-1700’s)

24. Divine Right • The belief that certain Kings were chosen by God • The Kings were only accountable to God and no one else • This idea was reinforced by Bishop Jacques Bossuet.

25. Divine Right of Kings • Medieval belief that God gives power to the king; therefore, his actions are sanctioned by God

26. Absolutism and Divine Right • Divine right theory was a branch of absolutism • Most divine right theorists thought that monarchy was the best form of government and that monarchs should never be resisted by the people. • Divine right theorists insisted that the ruler's authority was from God alone (not from the community). They quoted Scripture in their support: • Proverbs 8.15-16: By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.

27. Divine Right Theory • Proverbs 8.15-16 • “By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.” • Romans 13.1-2 • “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resists the power, resists the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive damnation.”

28. They Ruled by “Divine Right” • They believed that they derived their right to rule directly from GOD. • Accountable only to GOD. • Not the people!

29. Divine Right and Hierarchy • Sixteenth century western Europe expressed unfaltering loyalty to a patriarchal Christian God and to a view of the world as his creation. • Hierarchy regarded as part of God’s divinely appointed plan and guarantor of stability. • Reflected in belief in a Great Chain of Being. • God had arranged the universe in a certain order, and so the structure of society should reflect this in its own composition

30. Great Chain of Being • God • Archangels • Angels • Kings • Nobles • Merchants & landowners • Peasants • Slaves • Big predatory animals • Plants • Rocks • Dirt

31. Great Chain of Being: Rhetorica Christiana (1579)

32. James 1: Patriarchy and Divine Right • … Kings are not onely GODS Lieutenants upon earth, and sit upon GODS throne, but even by GOD himselfe they are called Gods. …Kings are also compared to Fathers of families: for a King is trewly Parens patriæ, the politique father of his people. (James 1 speech to Parliament: 1610) • 1597–1598:The Trew Law of Free Monarchies • Basilikon Doron

33. Homily on Obedience (1559) • In all things is to bee lauded and praised the goodly order of GOD, without the which no house, no Citie, no Commonwealth can continue and endure, or last. For where there is no right order, there reigneth all abuse, carnall liberty, enormitie, sinne, and Babylonicall confusion.

34. Earlier political thinkers like Bodin paved the way. . . • Jean Bodin (1530-1596) • Promoted royal power as solution to end the French civil wars of religion • Six Books of the Commonwealth, 1576 • sovereignty lies with the monarch

35. Absolutism and Divine Right Theory • More authoritarian views of government developed during 16th century when France was torn apart by the Religious Wars between Catholics and Protestants. • Some French writers began to argue that only a strong central government could prevent anarchy, and that resistance to the monarch was never legitimate. • The most important French absolutist theorist was Jean Bodin (1530-1596), who in 1576 published Six Books of the Commonwealth. • Bodin argued that the sovereign could not be limited by human laws - since whatever institution had the right to judge if the law were being infringed would itself be the real sovereign.

36. Absolutism and Divine Right Justified • 1st theorist • Bishop Jacques Bossuet Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture • Government was divinely ordained • Matthew 22:21 “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s” • 1 Peter 2:13-17 [Obey the secular ruler] • Romans 13:1-2 "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.“

37. Absolutist Theorists:Bishop Bossuet (1627 – 1704) • “God is holiness itself, goodness itself, and power itself. In these things lies the majesty of God. In the image of these things lies the majesty of the prince.” • “The Prince is not a private person. . . All the state is in him. . . As all perfection and strength are united in God, all the power of individuals is united in the person of the Prince. What grandeur that a simple man should embody so much.”

38. Jean Domat---Another Defender of Divine Right • “The sovereign power of government should be proportionate to its mandate, and in the station he occupies in the body of human society that makes up the state, he who is the head should hold the place of God. For since God is the only natural sovereign of men, their judge, their lawgiver, their king, no man can have lawful authority over others unless he holds it from the hand of God .... The power of sovereigns being thus derived from the authority of God, it acts as the arm and force of the justice that should be the soul of government; and that justice alone has the natural claim to rule the minds and hearts of men, for it is over these two faculties of men that justice should reign.” –Jean Domat, Jurist

39. “What is done for the state is done for God, who is the basis and foundation of it......Where the interests of the state are concerned, God absolves actions which, if privately committed, would be a crime.” — Cardinal Richelieu • What does this primary source quote mean? • What impact would this have on a country?

40. Divine Right and Patriarchialism • Patriarchialism defended divine right theory. • It rested on the widely-held belief that husbands had authority over their wives and fathers over their children. • This power was held both to be natural (since every society in the world accepted it) and divine (since God endorsed it in the Bible). • Some theorists argued that sovereigns as naturally held power over their states as fathers did over their families. • A monarch was no more accountable to his subjects than a father was to his children.

41. Robert Filmer (1588-1653): Patriarcha (1631 pub. 1680)

42. Royalism, Absolutism and Thomas Hobbes: (1588-1679) • Royalists supported the King and principle of hierarchy against what they believed to be the threat of anarchy. • Hobbes, a Royalist and defender of the King published two influential works of political thought De cive (1642, 1647) and Leviathan (1651)

43. What does Hobbes believe is the natural state of humanity?

44. What, for Hobbes, is the solution for a peaceful society?

45. The Philosopher Behind the Age • Thomas Hobbes • 1660 – Wrote the Leviathan (Giant) • Discussed the perfect government • People first lived in anarchy • Needed a “social contract” • Required an absolute monarch to maintain order • People retained the right only to maintain their lives.

46. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) “The obligation of subjects to the sovereign is understood to last as long, and no longer, than the power lasteth by which he can protect them.” • Sovereign free to rule- must act in interest of subjects • Monarchy best form of govt. • All powerful, centralize state • If ruler fails to ensure stability, society will dissolve into a state of nature/chaos until new ‘contract’ is made • Denies the people’s right to rebel in such instances • Most famous work is Leviathan (1651) • response to English Civil War

47. Thomas Hobbes • Wrote during the English Civil War • Life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” . • Man forms peaceful societies by entering into a social contract. • According to Hobbes, society is a group of individuals that give up just enough of their natural rights for the gov’t to be able to ensure internal peace and a common defense. • This sovereign, whether monarch, aristocracy or democracy (though Hobbes prefers monarchy), should be a Leviathan, an absolute authority. • Leviathan is a sea monsterr

48. Royalism, Absolutism and Hobbes • The most basic axiom of Hobbes' system of political thought was that everyone naturally aims at self-preservation. • He argued that in "a state of nature" (i.e. where there was no government), life would be completely insecure. • Without any protection against aggression, life would be miserable and dangerous. • "No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short"(Hobbes, Leviathan, 1.18). • Under such conditions, people would be willing to surrender their own powers to an absolute government that would protect them from everyone else. • Hobbes argued that the sovereign's power was absolute - (s)he made the law, and no other law could limit sovereign power. • The only right Hobbes left to subjects was the right to defend themselves against the sovereign's direct attack. 

49. Imagine that you are a mid-17th-century ruler aiming at absolutist rule: What steps do you need to take? • DO THIS ON YOUR LEFT SIDE OF YOUR NOTES. • THEN SHARE WITH YOUR PARTNER. • BE SURE TO EXPLAIN WHY.

50. Definitions for Historical Categories • Political: • Government • King or President • Parliament • Laws • Military • Wars • Political Rebellions • Economic: • Budget • Taxes • Industry • Agriculture • Trade • Transportation • Unemployment • Colonies