The Rise of Absolute Monarchs and National States

Rise of the Absolute Monarch

1. From Weak Medieval King to Absolute Monarch.

Near the end of the Middle Ages, the King – particularly in England, France, Spain, Russia, and Austria – began to extend his rule at the expense of the nobles. By the 17th century, the king had become an autocrat, or absolute monarch. His supremacy was acknowledged by commoners and lords.

Exceptions to National Unity: Germany and Italy

Rise of the Absolute Monarchs

Factors Strengthening Royal Power. a. The Crusades and other wars killed many feudal lords. b. The rising middle class supported the monarch to

assure protection of property and trade. c. The introduction of gunpowder equipped the

monarch with a powerful weapon that could destroy castles of feudal lords.

d. The Reformation provided the monarch with some powers formerly held by the Catholic Church.

e. The awakening spirit of nationalism made the monarch the symbol of national unity.

Divine Right of Kings

This theory attempted to justify unlimited royal power with these arguments:

a. The king ruled by God’s authority as God’s earthly representative;

b. Obedience to the king was obedience to God.

c. A mutually supportive and reinforcing relationship between monarch and Church;

Developments in France

Background:

Hundred Years War

Religious Civil wars

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Cardinal Richelieu Guides France (1624-1642)

A cardinal of the Church and minister to King Louis XIII, skillfully directed French affairs to attain supremacy for the king and world power for France.

Cardinal Richelieu

• Supremacy for the King Louis XIII. Richelieu 1. Destroyed the nobles’ fortified castles, 2. Transferred local government functions from the

noble to royal officials, the intendants, 3. Levied taxes without consent of the French

lawmaking body, the Estates General. • World Power for France Richelieu led France into the 30 Years’ War in support of the Protestant cause(even though France is officially Catholic) France defeated its Catholic Hapsburg rivals in Austria.

Louis XIV: The Grand Monarch

a. The Absolute Monarch. Louis XIV represented the height of absolutism. Proclaiming that he ruled by Divine Right, Louis considered himself the Sun King. Near Paris he built the magnificent Palace of Versailles, where he maintained an extravagant court. At Versailles, the nobility fawningly waited upon him and courted his favor. (Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.) Louis exercised unlimited political powers. Not once during his long reign did he convene the Estates-General. To illustrate his attitude, tradition ascribes to Louis the statement, “L’etat, c’est moi,” meaning “I am the state.”

Louis XIV The Sun King

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Palace of Versailles

Versailles

Versailles

Versailles

Versailles

Roslyn Connection

Louis XIV

b. Economic Affairs: Louis entrusted economic matters to his able finance minister, Jean Baptiste Colbert. To further prosperity, Colbert promoted good farming methods, built roads and canals, protected industries with tariffs, aided new industries with subsidies, and helped establish French trading posts in India and colonies in North America. Key to prosperity. In 1685, to compel Catholic religious uniformity, Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes. This action damaged the economy because thousands of Protestant Huguenots (mostly skilled workers and enterprising business people) fled France. Many settled in England, Holland and America.

French Court a Center of Culture

• Concerts

• Theater performances

• Dances

• Plays – Moliere

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This attention to the arts at court was imitated by the nobility and later the rising middle class.

Louis XIV as Patron

Foreign Affairs

Louis pursued an ambitious, aggressive foreign policy. He sought for France its “natural boundaries,” especially the Rhine River. Fighting three major wars, he acquired some territory but failed to achieve the Rhine boundary. In a fourth major war, Louis lost some overseas possessions but place a Bourbon relative on the Spanish throne.

Wars of Louis XIV

Legacy

At Louis XIV’s death France was the leading nation on the European continent. But the French people had wearies of wars, taxes, famine and despotism. France was exhausted and bankrupt.

Louis XVI, a descendant of the Grand Monarch, was to experience the people’s extreme reaction in the 1789 French Revolution.