I.  The Age of Absolutism

            A.  The rise of Absolutism in Europe

                        1.  The rulers of continental Europe, including Louis XIV, relentlessly extended their power between 1650 and 1750.  The sovereigns of France, in particular, became absolute rulers, that is in principle above all challenge from within the state itself.  Rulers extended their dynastic domains and prestige.  They made their personal rule absolute, based on loyalty to them as individuals, not to the state as an abstraction.  Absolute rulers asserted their supreme right to proclaim laws and levy taxes, appointing more officials to carry out the details of government and multiplying fiscal demands on their subjects.

                        2.  The absolute state affected the lives of more people than ever before through taxation, military service, and the royal quest for religious orthodoxy.

                        3.  Absolute rule thus impinged directly on the lives of subjects, who felt the extended reach of state power through, for example, more efficient tax collection.

                        4.  Absolutism was at least in part an attempt to reassert public order and coercive state authority after wars of religion had raged through much of Europe.

            B.  Theorists responsible for forming the idealism behind Absolutist Monarchy

                        1.  The emergence of theories of absolutism reflected contemporary attempts to conceptualize the significance of the rise of larger territorial states whose rulers enjoyed more power than their predeccessors.

                        2.  Jean Bodin 1530-1596:

                                    a.  Bodin livede through the wars of religion in the sixteenth century.

                                    b.  He wrote that the principle point of sovereign majesty and absolute power was to consist principal in giving laws unto the subjects in general without their consent.  The ruler became the father, a figure of venevolence, Bodin, who like many other people in France longed for peace and order helped establish the political theory legitimizing French absolute rule. 

                        3.  Thomas Hobbes 1588-1679:

                                    a.  Hobbes emerged as the thundering theorist of absolutism.

                                    b.  In Leviathan (1651), he argued that absolutism alone could prevent society from lapsing into the "state of nature" a constant "war of every man against every man" that made life "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."  People would only obey, Hobbes insisted, when they were afraid of the consequences of not doing so.  Seeking individual security, individuals would enter into a type of contract with their ruler, surrendering their rights in exchanging for protection.

                                    c.  A ruler's will thus became the almost sacred embodiment of the state.

                        4.  Jacques Bossuet 1627-1704

                                    a.  He served as a bishop and tutor to Louis 14^th.

                                    b.  He postulated that kings ruled by "divine right" that is by virtue and by the will of God. 

                                    c.  Bossuet held that the ruler's authority stemmed from God alone.

                        5.  Theorists of absolutism recognized the difference between absolute and arbitrary power.  Inherent in their theories was the idea that the absolute ruler was responsible for looking after the needs of his people.  According to even the most determined proponents of absolutism, the monarch, whose legitimacy came from God, nonetheless was subject to limits imposed by reason through laws and traditions.  Western monarchs recognized at least in theory the necessity of consulting, when the occasion arose, with institutions considered to be representative of interests such as the Church and nobility.  Theorists recognized the difference between absolutism and despotism.

            C.  What elements characterized an absolutist monarchy in Europe at this time?

                        1.  Strong dynasties:  Absolute states were characterized by strong, ambitious dynasties, which through

                                    a.  advantageous marriages

                                    b.  inheritance

                                    c.  warfare

                                    d.  treaties

added to their domestic domains and prestige.

                        2.  A strong nobility:  Absolute monarchs often had nobilities that accepted monarchical authority in exchange for a guarantee of their status, ownership of land, and priviledges within the state over the peasantry.

                        3.  A centralized bureaucracy:  Absolute states contained an increasingly centralized and efficient bureaucracy able to extract revenue.

                        4.  A large standing army:  These states were also characterized by the presence of a large, standing army capable of maintaining order at home and maintaining or expanding dynastic interests and territories in the context of European power politics.

            D.  Exploring the relationship between absolute monarchs and their nobles

                        1.  In each absolute state, the relationship between ruler and nobles determined the specific character of absolutism.

                        2.  Monarchs negotiated compromises with nobles, awarding titles and privileges for obedience, or at least compliance. 

                        3.  Emphatic assertions of royal authority reduced nobles to the role of junior ruling partners in governance. 

                        4.  Nobles themselves, frightened by the social and political turmoil that shook Europe more willingly served rulers as royal officials and military commanders.

                        5.  In exchange for loyalty and in many cases service, rulers confirmed noble privileges and allowed them to continue to dominate state and local government.

                        6.  Rulers also placated nobles by ending a turbulent period of peasant uprisings—insurrections occurred less frequently and were savagely repressed by kings.

            E.  Expanding the bureaucracy & the mechanics of government

                        1.  Absolute monarchs extended their authority within their territories by expanding the structure of the state.  To fill the most prestigious offices, they chose nobles for their influence and wealth more than their competence.

                        2.  The importance of the Italian city-states:  The Renaissance city-states of Italy had created relatively efficient civil administrations.  The apparatus of administration, taxation, and military conscription gradually became part of the structure of the absolute state.  The result was that the number of government officials grew about fourfold.

                        3.  Business monopolies:  To raise money, absolute rulers sold monopolies on the production and sale of salt, tobacco, and other commodities (such as slaving in the late 17^th century).

                        4.  Selling offfices:  Rulers also filled state treasuries by selling hereditary offices.

            F.  Warfare under an absolute monarch

                        1.  The regular collection of taxes and the expansion of sources of revenue increased the capacity of absolute rulers to maintain standing armies, maintain fortifications and wage war.

                        2.  Standing armies continued to grow in size during the 18^th century.

                        3.  As absolute monarchs consolidated their power, the reasons for waging international wars changed.  The wars of the previous century had been fought in principle, over the rivalry between the Catholic and Protestant religions although religious rivalries still constituted an important factor.  Reasons of state became the prevalent justification for the rulers of France, etc. to make war on their neighbors.

                        4.  Warfare both encouraged and drew upon the development of credit institutions, further expanding the capacity of the state to raise money to wage war.

                        5.  Even in peacetime, military expenditures took up almost half of the budget of any European state.  In times of wra, the percentage rose to 80% or even more.

                        6.  For the first time, uniforms, colorful signs of the state's influence, became standard equipment for every soldier.

            G.  Absolutism and Religion:

                        1.  Absolute monarchs intruded in matters of faith and self-expression by aiding established churches and limiting ecclesiastical authority within their states.  An alliance with established churches helped monarchs achieve and maintain absolute rule.

                        2.  In particular, the Catholic Church's quest for uniformity of belief and practice went hand in hand with the absolutist monarch's desire to eliminate challenges to his authority. 

                        3.  Absolute monarchs lent their authority and prestige to the Catholic Church, the support of which, in turn, seemed to legitimize absolute monarchical power.  The Church helped create an image of the king as a sacred figure, benevolent but strict, who must be obeyed because he served God's interests on earth.  In turn, absolute monarchs obliged the Church by persecuting religious minorities.

                        4.  Absolute rulers also reduced ecclesiastical autonomy in their realms.  They also retained authority over ecclesiastical appointments, in effect creating national churches.

            H.  Monumental Architecture and Art in the Age of Absolutism:      

HH1.  Absolute monarchs embraced the extravagant emotional appeal of monumental architecture.  They designed their capitals to reflect the imperatives of monarchical authority.                       2.  Cities such as Madrid and Paris were planned, shaped, and invested with symbols of absolute rule.  These cities were laid out according to geometric principles.  Straight, wide boulevards were created—boulevards that led from arches of triumph symbolized the organized and far-reaching power of absolutism and the growth of the modern state.  Royal armies paraded down the boulevards to squares or royal palaces.

3.  Monarchs paid artists and architects to combine baroque elements with a more restrained, balanced classicism, influenced by the Roman style of the Renaissance. 

II.  Absolutist France:  the reign of Louis XIV

            A.  Prior to Louis 14^th…

                        1.  Absolutist France became the most powerful state in Europe.  Louis XIII aided by his invaluable minister Cardinal Richelieu.  Richelieu piled new administrative structures on old ones, to centralize and further extend kingly authority.

                        2.  Louis XIII's death:  the state was set for Louis XIV (who ruled 1643-1715) to rule as a divine-right king of an absolute state.

                        3.  Louis XIV was four years old at the time of his accession to the throne in 1643.  His mother Anne of Austria (1601-1666) served as regent.

            B.  Louis XIV's rule

                        1.  Mercantilism under Louis XIV

                                    a.  Following Mazarin's death in 1661, Louis XIV, now 22 years of age, assumed more personal responsibility for the day-to-day running of the monarchy.  The state's firmer financial footing owed much to the cool calculations of Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683), controller-general of the realm, who directed administration, taxation, and public works.

                                    b.  Formerly only about a quarter of these revenues reached royal coffers, now as much as four-fifths of what was collected poured into the royal treasury.  State revenues doubled.

                                    c.  Mecantilism provided the financial basis for absolutist France.  Mercantilists believed that all resources should be put into the service of the state and that a state's wealth was measured by its ability to import more gold and silver than it exported to other countries.

                                    d.  Colbert became the chief proponent of French mercantilist policies, which emphasized economic self-sufficiency.  He founded commercial trading companies to which the king granted monopolies on colonial trade.

                                    e.  He encouraged the textile industry and the manufacture of other goods that could be exported.  He improved roads and oversaw the extension of France's network of canals.

                                    f.  Unfortunately the king had a great talent for emptying the royal coffers as fast as they were filled, and his successors plunged into an ever deepening financial crisis.

                        2.  Absolutism under Louis XIV

                                    a.  As Louis 14^th grew into manhood, he looked the part of a great king:  handsome, proud, energetic and decisive. 

                                    b.  Louis built his rule more on ceremony than on intelligence and sense.  His love of gambling, hunting, and women sometimes took precedence over matters of state.

                                    c.  The king became a shrewd judge of character, surrounding himself with men of talent.  He conscously avoided being dependent on any single person.

                                    d.  Louis selected governors, intendants, and bishops who would be loyal to him.

                                    e.  The presence of royal garrisons, which towns once resisted, not only affirmed the sovereign's authority but were welcomed by local elites as protection against insurrection. 

                                    f.  In 1667 Louis took another important step in affirming his authority by appointing a lieutenant-general of police for Paris.

                                    g.  Louis portrayed himself as God's representative on this planet, charged with maintaining earthly order.  During his long reign the monarch was indeed identified with the state itself.  The royal propaganda machine provided ideological legitimacy by cranking out images of the king as a glorious monarch.  The emphasis shifted toward a view of the king as the father of his people, while hammering home the necessity of obedience.

                                    h.  Louis 14^th described himself as the first seigneur of the realm.

                                    i.  In exchange for acknowledgement by the nobles of monarchical legitimacy, the king confirmed their privileges, including titles, ownership of land, and seigniorial rights over peasants.  Nobles were almost completely immune from royal taxes until Louis made tem subject to taxes.  They benefited from the economic development the monarchy could encourage.

                                    j.  Greater efficiency in the collection of taxes on wealth, too, benefited nobles.

                                    k.  The king awarded ever more titles, ecclesiastical offices, and government and military positions to those who loyally served him.  This was the easiest way for the king to raise money, as well as to enhance loyalty.