Warm Up

• Write the Roman Numerals for #1-20.– We will be using them today in class and you

need to know them.

Absolutism

French Wars of Religion

French Wars of Religion 1562-1598• Catholics v. Protestants (political /economic)

– French monarchy = Catholic

• persecuted French Protestants (Huguenots)

– many nobles = Huguenots

– St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre – Aug. 24, 1572- Paris

• (Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici planned the massacre)

• Wedding celebration of Catholic princess to Huguenot heir to throne

• 70,000 + were killed throughout France

• 1589- Henry IV of Navarre (1st Bourbon king- royal family))

– converted to RC, “Paris is worth a mass”• Edict of Nantes, 1598

– Catholicism still official religion – Huguenots had right to worship/hold political office

• Henry IV eliminated French debt, created industries, encouraged trade and agriculture (eventually reverted to Protestantism, annulled marriage, remarried, was assassinated for helping Huguenots on French border)

St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre

France before Louis XIV• absolutism – system in which ruler holds absolute (total,

complete) power

• Cardinal Richelieu – chief minister for Louis XIII

• Louis XIII inherited the throne as a child, had to eventually take it from his Italian mother and her Italian advisors

– strengthened monarchy and helped create absolutism– took away political/military rights of Huguenots w/o taking

away religious rights– set up network to spy on nobles,

• crushed conspiracies• Tore down nobles’ castles if not for French defense

Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIII

Louis XIV; the Sun King• Louis XIV became king at 4; Cardinal Mazarin chief minister

– 23 when Mazarin died, held absolute power

• “Sun king” - everything came from him;– “L’Etat c’est moi” “I am the state”– Best example of absolutist monarch

• Royal court moved to Versailles (outside Paris), 3 purposes:– personal household of the king– offices of state located there – powerful subjects had to come there to talk to Louis (and serve him)– Long-term cause of French Revolution (wealth and royalty no longer in Paris)

Versailles = gilded cage, nobles help royal family dress, nobles ran out of money…had to rely on king, etc.

• Ended tolerance of Huguenots ,closed churches– Protestants fled (200,000- mass exodus)

• Fought 4 wars; 1667-1713– to gain power/prestige, many countries formed coalitions against Louis

to keep him from controlling all of Europe

Louis XIV

Palace of Versailles

Hall of Mirrors

Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648)

1. Began w/ Calvinist Bohemia (Czech Republic)

v. Holy Roman Empire (Catholic)– War fought in Holy Roman Empire (German provinces) – all nations in Europe, except England, involved– very bloody, 25-40% of German population killed

• 50% of German males died• Height of European witch hunts (famine, droughts, death= blamed on

supernatural powers)… Catholic leaders in HRE killed thousands of “witches”

2. Peace of Westphalia

– By 1648:• German states- could determine own religion/ own

foreign policy• Limited power of HRE in German states

Thirty Years War

Central Europe

• Frederick William the Elector – set up powerful Prussian state (in HRE) > strong army

– gov’t sponsored economic activity, civil service main occupation for middle class

– Austrian Hapsburgs (royal family of Austria and Spain) created empire in SE Europe

• Austria- never centralized absolutist state b/c so many ethnicities in it, never fully unified– (we will come back to this problem in 1800’s)

Frederick William

Russia• Ivan the Terrible- czar (Caesar)

– expanded territory,– mental illness, killed son– left Russia with no heir

• Peter the Great- 1682, absolutist monarch (Eastern Orthodox)– visited Europe, westernized Russia (made it more

European)– formed standing army, created navy, wanted ordered state

ruled by law– western customs/manners (men had to shave beards)– fought war w/ Sweden to gain port on Baltic Sea, access to

open water– 1703 began building St. Petersburg, finished during Peter’s

lifetime, Russian capital

Peter the Great

Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great