1. ABSOLUTISM
France

2. Review England James I (1603-1625) Charles I (1625-1642)
Oliver Cromwell: “The Protectorate” or “Interregnum” ( )
Charles II ( )
James II ( )
Glorious Revolution (1688)
William and Mary

3. What is absolutism?
Conscious attempt by state sovereigns to extend their legal and administrative power over their subjects
Not to be confused with despotism

4. Why is the seventeenth-century known as the Age of Absolutism?
What were the causes of or conditions surrounding the rise of absolutism or the centralization of the state?

5. Absolutism was a reaction to:
Decline in the feudal state
Religious and dynastic wars
Triumph of secularism over religious ideas
Triumph of the king over the nobility
Modern government versus feudal

6. What were the conditions which allowed absolutism to take hold?
Territorial expansion
Control over nobles
Improvement of economy
Secular control of church
Vernacular
Improved technology

7. What are the major characteristics of a strong government?
Military
Effective administration/bureaucracy
Parlements
Central and local courts
Intendants
System of taxation and finance
Control over Church and nobility
Suppression of political and religious minorities (i.e. Huegenots)

8. Who lost power in this shift?
Nobles
Church
Towns and provinces with special privileges and exemptions

9. What is ‘Divine Right Theory’?
Captured in the phrase “un roi, une loi, une foi”
Characteristics:
King is divinely appointed
Answerable to God alone
Does not need consent to rule

10. Also a secular theory… Thomas Hobbes Leviathan (1650) Royalist
Without strong authority “life is nasty, brutish, and short.”
Power of the King is not divine
Strong law and rule preferred
Secular justification for absolutism

11. Who are the theorists?
James I
Jean Bodin
Bishop Jacques Bossuet

12. Why was Divine Right accepted without question?
Rooted in scripture
Familial metaphor
Corporeal metaphor

13. Were there restraints on the King’s power? If so, what were they?
God’s approval
Fear of rebellion
Parliament (UK)
Parlements (law courts, France)
English Bill of Rights (1688)

14. Context France Wealthiest and most populous country
French king successful at circumventing nobles power
Representatives assemblies traditionally had to approve important royal acts such as making war and levying taxes

15. Bourbons Henry IV (1589-1610) Louis XIII (1610-1643)
Edict of Nantes (1688)
Created titles of nobility
Louis XIII ( )
Regency under Cardinal Richelieu ( ) and Marie de Medici
Estates General

16. Bourbons
Louis XIV ( )
Regency under Cardinal Mazarin and Anne of Austria
Fronde ( )
“Sun King”
Versailles Palace

17. Who or what were threats to Louis XIV’s power?
Nobles of the sword
Provincial governors
Huegenots
Separatism

18. How did Louis XIV counter them OR integrate them?
Intendants
Revocation of Edict of Nantes (1685)
Versailles
Nobles of the robe
Promoted national industries as part of mercantilism
Invested in infrastructure