Sp.

Ch15 part 2
Pages 417-424

The Practice of Absolutism: Western Europe

I. Absolute monarchy or absolutism meant that the sovereign power or ultimate
authority in the state rested in the hands of a king who claimed to rule by divine
right.
A. Jean Bodin believed that sovereign power consisted of the authority to
make laws, tax, administer justice, control the state’s administrative
system, and determine foreign policy
B. One of the chief theorists pf divine-right monarchy in the 17thc was the
F theologian and preacher Bishop Jacques Bossuet who expressed his
ideas in a book titled Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy
Scripture. He argued that government was divinely ordained so that
humans could live in an organized society. God established kings and then
ruled through them.
C. Since kings ordained their power from God, their authority was
absolute. They were responsible to no one expect God.
D. There was however, a large gulf between Bossuet’s theory and the
practice of absolutism. A monarch’s absolute power was often limited by
practical realities.
Absolute Monarchy in France
I. F culture, language, and manners reached into all levels of E society. F
diplomacy and wars shaped the political affairs of western and central E.
II. The reign of Louis XIV seemed to be imitated everywhere in E.
Foundations of French Absolutism: Cardinal Richelieu
I. The 50 years of F history before Louis XIV came to power were a time in
which royal and ministerial governments struggled to avoid the breakdown of the
state
A. When L XIII and L XIV took the throne as boys, the government
became dependent on royal ministers. Two especially competent ministers
played crucial roles in maintaining monarchial authority
II. Cardinal Richelieu, L XIII’s chief minister from 1624-1642, initiated policies
that eventually strengthened the powers of the monarchy
A. By eliminating the political and military rights of the Huguenots while
preserving their religious ones, R transformed the H into more reliable
subjects. He acted more cautiously in damaging the nobility. He
understood the influential roles played by the nobles in the F state
B. The dangerous ones were those who asserted their territorial
independence when they were excluded from participating in the central
government. R developed an efficient network of spies to uncover noble
plots and then crushed the conspiracies and executed the conspirators.
III. To strengthen the central administration, initially for financial reasons, R sent
out royal officials called intendants to the provinces to execute the orders of the
central government. As their function grew, they came into conflict w/provincial
governors.
 A. they were often victorious in these disagreements, strengthening the
central government
IV. So many people benefited from the financial system’s inefficiency and
injustice that the government faced strong resistance when it tried to reform it.
A. The taille—an annual direct tax usually levied on land or property—
was increased and crown lands were mortgaged again
B. R’s foreign policy goal of confronting the growing power of the
Habsburgs in the 30 years war led to ever increasing expenditures, which
soon outstripped the additional revenues. F debt continued its upward
spiral under R
Cardinal Mazarin
I. Anne of Austria allowed Cardinal Mazarin to dominate the government. He
attempted to carry on R’s policies
A. the most important event in his rule was an event known as the Fronde
B. He was disliked by a lot of the population b/c he was a foreigner. The
nobles, who especially resented the centralized administrative power being
built at the expense of the provincial nobility, temporarily allied
themselves w/the members of the Parlement of Paris, who opposed new
taxes levied by the government for the cost of the 30 years war, and w/the
masses in Paris who didn’t like the additional taxes
II. The Parlement of Paris was the most important court in F, w/jurisdiction over
½ the kingdom, and its members formed the nobles of the robe, the service of
nobility of lawyers and administrators. These nobles of the robe led the 1st Fronde,
which broke out in Paris and was ended by a compromise
A. The 2nd Fronde, which began in 1650, was led by nobles of the sword,
whose ancestors were medieval nobles. They were interested in
overthrowing Mazarin for their own purposes: to secure their positions and
increase their own power. The 2nd Fronde was crushed by 1652, a task
made easier when the nobles began fighting each other
III. W/the end of the 2nd Fronde, the vast majority of the F concluded that the best
hope for stability in F lay w/the crown. When Mazarin died in 1661, the 17thc
monarch Louis XIV came to supreme power
The Reign of Louis XIV (1643-1715)
I. L established a conscientious routine from which he seldom deviated, but
he did not look on his duties as drudgery since he considered his
profession grand, noble, and delightful
A. Eager for glory, L created a grand and majestic spectacle at the court
of Versailles. L and his court came to set the standard for monarchies
and aristocracies all over E
II. He believed in the theory of AM and fostered the myth of himself as the
Sun King, the source of light for all his people. However, the realities fell
short of his aspirations
A. Despite the centralizing efforts of Cardinals R and M, 17thc F
possessed a system of overlapping authorities. Provinces had their own
courts, local Estates, and sets of laws. Members of the high nobility,
w/their huge estates and clients among the lesser nobility, still
 exercised authority. Both towns and provinces possessed privileges
and powers seemingly from time immemorial that they would not easy
relinquish.
Administration of the Government
I. One of the keys of the L’s power was that he was able to restructure the central
policy-making machinery of government because it was part of his own
government and household
A. The royal court at V was an elaborate structure that served different
purposes: it was the personal household of the king, location of the central
government, and place where powerful subjects came to find favors and
offices for themselves and their clients and well as the arena where rival
aristocratic factions fought for power.
B. The greatest danger to L’s personal rule came from the high nobles and
princes of the blood who considered it their natural function to assert their
royal ministers. L eliminated this threat by moving removing them from
the royal council and enticing them to his court, where he could keep them
preoccupied w/court life and politics. L relied on his ministers instead of
other nobles.
II. L domination of his ministers and secretaries gave him control of the central
policy-making machinery of government and thus authority over the traditional
areas of monarchial power: the formulation of foreign policy, the making of war
and peace, the assertion of the secular power of crown against religious authority,
and the ability to levy taxes.
A. he was less successful at the w/the internal administration of his
kingdom. The traditional groups of F society—nobles, officials, town
councils, guilds, and representative Estates—were too powerful for the
king to have direct control over.
B. Control of the provinces and the people was achieved by bribing the
individuals responsible for executing the king’s policy. Local authorities
could obstruct execution of policies they disliked.
Religious Policy
I. The desire to keep religious harmony led L into conflict w/F Huguenots
A. He did not want to let P practice their faith in largely Cath F. He felt
that the existence of a minority undermined his power.
II. In October 1685, L issued the Edict of Fontainebleau. In addition to revoking
the Edict of Nantes, the new edict provided for the destruction of H churches and
closing P schools.
A. 200,000 H defied the prohibition on their leaving F and sought asylum
in England, the United Provinces, and the German States. Many of them
were skilled artisans, and their exodus weakened the F economy and
strengthened the states they moved to, which later joined a coalition of P
states formed to oppose L
Financial Issues
I. The cost of building V, maintaining his court, and pursuing his wars made
finances a crucial issue of L XIV
 A. He was fortunate in having the services of Jean-Baptiste Colbert as
controller general of finances. Colbert sought to increase the wealth and
power of F through general adherence to mercantilism, which stressed
government regulation of economic activities to benefit the state. To
decrease the need for imports and increase exports, C attempted to expand
the quantity and improve the quality of F goods.
B. He drew up instructions regulating the quality of goods, founded new
luxury industries, oversaw the training of workers, and granted special
privileges including tax exemptions, loans, and subsidies to individuals
who established new industries.
C. In order to increase communication, he built roads and canals. In order
to decrease imports, he raised tariffs on foreign goods and created a
merchant marine to facilitate the conveyance of F goods
II. Regulations were often evaded, and the imposition of high tariffs brought
foreign retaliation. F trading companies entered the scene too late to be
competitive w/E and D. Colbert’s economic policies, which were supposed to
make the king more powerful, were ultimately self-defeating
A. the more revenue C gathered to enable the king to make war, the faster
L depleted the treasury. At the same time, the burden of taxes fell
increasingly on the peasants
Daily Life at the Court of Versailles
I. The court set a standard soon to be followed by other E
II. It was the residence of the king, a reception hall for state affairs, an office
building for the members of the king’s government, and the home for thousands
of royal officers and aristocratic courtiers. V became a symbol for the F absolutist
state and the power of the Sun King, Louis XIV. It became home to the high
nobility and princes of the blood, the powerful figures who had aspired to hold the
policy-making role of royal ministers.
A. by keeping them involved in the myriad activities that made up daily
life at the court of V, L excluded from them from real power while
allowing them to share in the mystique of being among the king
III. Life at V became a court ceremony w/L in the center. He had little privacy.
Most daily ceremonies were carefully staged.
A. A mob of nobles aspired to assist the king in carrying out these solemn
activities. It was considered a great honor to participate.
B. Active involvement in the activities at V was the king’s prerequisite for
obtaining offices, titles, and pensions that only he could grant. The policy
reduced nobles and ecclesiastics, the “people of quality” to a plane of
equality, allowing L to exercise his control and prevent them from
interfering in the real lines of power.
C. To maintain their social prestige, the “people of quality” were expected
to adhere to rigid standards of etiquette appropriate to their rank
IV. Court etiquette became a complex matter. Nobles and royal princes were
arranged in an elaborate order of sonority and expected to follow certain rules of
precedence
 A. Saint-Simon lived there, a left a controversial and critical account of
his time at V
The Wars of Louis XIV
I. Both the increase in royal power that L pursued and his desire for military glory
led him to wage war
A. F developed a professional army numbering 100,000 men during peace
and 400,000 during war.
B. L made war an almost incessant activity in his reign. To achieve
prestige and military glory as well as to ensure the domination of his
Bourbon dynasty over E affairs, L waged four wars b/w 1667 and 1713
II. In 1667, L began his 1st war by invading the Spanish Netherlands to his north
and Franche-Comte to the east. But the triple alliance of the Dutch, English, and
Swedes forced L to sue for peace in 1668 and accept a few towns in the SN.
A. He never forgave the D for arranging the alliance, and in 1672, after
isolating the D, F invaded the United Provinces w/some initial success.
B. The F victories led Brandenburg, S, and the HRE to form a new
coalition that forced L to end the Dutch War by making peace at
Nimwegen in 1678.
C. While the D territory remained intact, F received F-C from S, which
served merely to stimulate L’s appetite for more land
III. This time, he moved east towards the HRE, which he perceived as feeble. The
general annexation of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine was followed by the
occupation of the city of Strasbourg, a move that led to widespread protest and the
formation of a new coalition.
A. The creation of the League of Augsburg—consisting of S, HRE, UP,
Sweden, and England—led to L’s 3rd war, the War of the League of
Augsburg (1689-1697).
B. This struggle brought economic depression and famine to F.
C. The Treaty of Ryswick ending the war forced L to give up most of the
conquests his empire
IV. L’s 4th war, the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713) was over the
succession of the S throne. Charles II, the son childless son and Habsburg ruler,
left the throne of S in his will to a grandson of Louis XIV. When the latter became
King Philip V of Spain, the suspicion that S and F would eventually be united
caused the formation of a new coalition, determined to prevent a Bourbon
hegemony that would mean destruction of the E balance of power.
A. This coalition—England, UP, Habsburg Austria, and G states—opposed
F and S in a war that dragged on in E and the colonial empires in north
Am for 11 years
B. An end to the war came w/the Peace of Utrecht in 1713 and of Rastatt
in 1714. Although these peace treaties confirmed Philip V as the S ruler,
they also affirmed that the thrones of S and F would remain separated.
C. The S Netherlands, Milan, and Naples were given to Austria, and the
emerging state of Brandenburg-Prussia gained additional territories.
England received Gibraltar as well as F possessions in Am.
 D. Two years after the treaty, L died, leaving F impoverished and
surrounded by enemies
The Decline of Spain
I. At the beginning of the 17thc, S possessed the most populous empire in the
world, controlling almost all of S Am and a # of settlements in Asia and Africa
II. The treasury was empty, Philip II went bankrupt in 1596 from war
expenditures, and P III did the same in 1607 by spending a fortune on his court
A. the armed forces were out of date, the government inefficient, the
commercial class weak in the midst of a suppressed peasantry, a luxury-
loving class of nobles, and an oversupply of priests and monks
B. S continued to play the role of great power, but appearances were
deceiving
III. During the reign of P III, many of S weaknesses became apparent. Interested
only in court luxury or miracle-working relics, P III allowed his 1st minister to run
the country
A. Lerma’s primary goal was accumulating power and wealth for himself
and his family.
Reign of Philip IV
I. The reign of P IV seemed to offer hope of a revival of S energies, especially in
the hands of his chief minister, Gaspar de Guzman, the count of Olivares, who
dominated the king’s every move and worked to revive the interests of the
monarchy.
A. A flurry of domestic reform decrees, aimed at curtailing the power of
the CC and the landed aristocracy, was soon followed by a political reform
program whose purpose was to further centralize the government of S and
its possessions in monarchial lands.
B. All these efforts met w/little real success. However, b/c both the
number and the power of the S aristocrats made them too strong to curtail
in any significant fashion
II. Most of the efforts of P and O were undermined by their desire to pursue S
imperial glory and by a series of internal revolts.
A. S involvement in the 30 years war led to a series of expensive military
campaigns that incited internal revolts and years of civil war.
Unfortunately, for S, the campaigns failed to produce victory.
B. At the battle of Rocroi in 1643, much of the S army was destroyed
III. The defeats in E and the internal revolts of the 1640s ended any illusions
about S greatness.
A. D independence was formally recognized by the Peace of Westphalia in
1648, and the Peace of Pyrenees w/F in 1659 meant the surrender of Artois
and the outlying defenses of the S Netherlands as well as certain border
regions that went to F