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Reading Preview: Staging Absolutism
WTL 3
1. What was the theoretical basis for absolute royal authority? 2. What was the traditional and what was new in the justification of royal power as expressed in late sixteenth‐ and seventeenth century France? 3. How did such early modern kings as Louis XIV communicate their absolute power in the various ceremonies and symbols of royal authority presented in the evidence? L. M. Stallbaumer‐Beishline copyright 2016
Why “Staging Absolutism” is relevant?
• Centralization of power  European states (p. 74)
• Methods transcend time and space (p. 75)
• Use of symbolism in modern states (p. 75)
Source: Discovering the Western Past, 7th edition
Skills to Develop
• Interpreting text (Text, Context, Subtext)
• Jean Bodin and Jacques Bossuet justify absolutism (sources 1‐2)
• St. Simon describes Versailles Court (source 3)
• Interpreting images and symbols (sources 4‐13)
• Make note of people and their clothing.
• Make note of the objects that you see. What sort of symbolic value do they have?
• What action, if any, is occurring?
• What details in the images support the choice of these for the chapter?
• What is the “author’s” background? i.e. what do we know about the motives of the artist or architect? Consider finding color images of sources 4‐13 on the internet. 1
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Source 4
Source 5
Staging Absolutism in France
Henry IV reign
1589
1598: Edict of Nantes
1610
Louis XIII reign
1624‐1642 Richelieu is chief minister
1643
Louis XIV an adult ruler 1661
Louis XIV reign
1661‐1682 Versailles Built
1665‐1683 Colbert in charge of finances
1685 Revocation of Edict of Nantes
1715
Louis XV reign
1774
Louis XVI reign
1791
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Feudalism
• Complex relationship between lords and vassals.
• Fiefs were grants of land to award vassals
• Poorer vassals might depend upon the lord for food, clothing, shelter. • Fiefs often inherited by descendants.
• Often personal loyalties or written agreements determined the extent in which a vassal could be expected to support the lord of the manor in terms of paying taxes, managing the land, and providing military support in battles and wars.
• Created regional power centers that absolutist monarchs would challenge in the 1500‐1700s
Huguenots
• French Calvinists
• Individuals were predestined to salvation or damnation
• Live a righteous life would prove salvation
• No toleration for dissenters
• View by French Catholic kings as a state within a state
Religious Civil Wars in France
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C. 1560‐1598
French Calvinists (a.k.a. Huguenots) vs. Catholics
Violence erupted between these two groups periodically in these decades
E.g. of violence St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (1572)
• 3000 Parisian Huguenots killed over a few days in August
• 10,000 Huguenots killed between late August and September in provincial areas
• Huguenots declared the right to resist the monarchy, claiming Catholic kings were worshipping idols
• Brought to an end by Henry IV who issued the Edict of Nantes in 1598
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Age of European Religious Wars  Rise of Absolutism
States gained more power by expanding military, even maintaining standing armies, increasing number of state officials, and raising taxes
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German Peasants’ War (1524-1525)
Battle of Kappel in Switzerland (1531)
The Schmalkaldic War (1546-1547)
Eighty Years War (Low Countries,
1568-1648)
• The French Wars (and Civil Wars) of
Religion (1562-1598)
• Thirty Years War (1618-1648)
• Wars of the Three Kingdoms (England,
Scotland, Ireland,1639-1651)
French Wars during Absolutist Age (a.k.a. Ancien Regime)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_France
French Absolutism ‐ Model
Henry IV reign
Louis XIII reign
1589
1610
1643
The Bourbon Dynasty
1598: Edict of Nantes
1624‐1642 Richelieu is chief minister
1648‐1653 Fronde
1661‐1682 Versailles Built
1665‐1683 Colbert in charge of finances
1685 Revocation of Edict of Nantes
Louis XIV reign
Louis XIV an adult ruler 1661
1715
Louis XV reign
Louis XVI reign
1774
1791
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Power behind the Thrones
Colbert
Jean‐Baptiste b. 1619 – d. 1683
Amand Jean du Plessis
Cardinal
Richelieu and of Fronsac
‐Duke of • b. 1585 ‐ d.1642
• Appointed Foreign Secretary 1616
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Appointed Chief Minister to Louis XIII 1624 til 1642
State interest above all else
Expanded use of intendants significantly
Waged battle against Huguenots, e.g. October 1628 LaRochelle fortress destroyed
1665‐1683 Minister of Finances for Louis XIV
• Governments must create economic growth
• Subsidized shipbuilding
• Created trading companies
• Established manufacturing monopolies
• Created government inspection system
Parlements (not parliament)
• Provincial appellate courts spread throughout French kingdom
• Laws and edicts not official until parlements published them.
• Viewed by the French monarchy as a challenge to their authority
• Played a major role in Paris during the Fronde (1643‐1652)
• 1671‐1673 Louis XIV removed some of their powers
Intendants
• Agents of the king
• Job depends upon fulfilling duties
• Collected taxes
• Presided over administration of local law
• Kept an eye on local nobility
• Regulated economic activity in their districts
• Power dramatically expanded under Richelieu 5
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Fronde, 1648‐1653
• Series of violent rebellions
• Nobles rebelled
• Peasants rioted
• Never able to overthrow the Bourbon dynasty because not united
• During Louis XIV’s minority
Absolute Monarchs by Kingdoms
Tudor Dynasty – England, Scotland
Elizabeth I (r. 1558‐1603)
Stuart Dynasty – England, Scotland, and Ireland
James I (r. 1603‐1625)
Charles I (r. 1625‐1649)
Sweden
Charles XI (r. 1660‐1697)
Charles XII (r. 1697‐1718)
Hohenzollern Dynasty –
Brandenburg Prussia
George William (r. 1619‐1640)
Frederick William (r. 1640‐1688)
Frederick I (r. 1688‐1713)
Frederick William I (r. 1713‐1740
Frederick II r. 1740‐1786)
Frederick William II (r. 1786‐1797)
Frederick William III (r. 1797‐1840)
Frederick William IV (r. 1840‐1861)
William I (1861‐1888)
Frederick III (r. 1888)
William II (r. 1888‐1918)
Those denoted in red tend to be labeled absolutist.
Romanov Dynasty – Russia
Peter I (r. 1682‐1725)
Catherine I (r. 1725‐1727)
Peter II (r. 1727‐1730)
Anna (r. 1730‐1740)
Ivan VI (r. 1740‐1741)
Elizabeth (r. 1741‐1762)
Peter III (r. 1762)
Catherine II (r. 1762‐1792)
Habsburg Dynasty – Austria
Leopold I (r. 1657=1705)
Joseph I (r. 1705‐1711)
Charles VI (r. 1711‐1740)
Maria Theresa (r. 1740‐1780)
Joseph II (r. 1780‐1790)
Leopold II (r. 1790‐1792)
Francis II (1792‐1835)
1835‐1848)
Francis Joseph I (848‐1916)
Charles I (r. 1916‐1918)
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