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Europe in the Age of

Absolute Monarchs

Western Civ – Chapter 19

Thirty Years War

The Cardinals

• Richelieu

• Mazarin

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Louis XIV’s Childhood

• Nominally made King at age 5

• Real power rested in the hands of Cardinal Mazarin

• Revolts against Mazarin called the Fronde threatened Louis’ life

Louis XIV’s Grand Style

• Louis the “Sun King”

• Was Louis’ court a

triumph of style over

substance?

Louis & Absolutism

• The exaltation of the ruler as the embodiment of the state

-- “L’etat c’est moi” = “I am the state!”

• Absolutism is not totalitarianism, but there are some similarities between the two.

• New scale and feel to political life—looming presence of the state

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Objectives of the Absolutist State

• To Secure Obedience

• To Exert Control over Economic Life

• To Protect its Territory and the Expansion of its Claims

• To Create a State Bureaucracy

• To Enlist the Service of the Church

--Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685)

-- “One King, One Law, One Faith”

• To Employ Culture to Exalt the State

--

Objectives of the Absolutist State

• To Gain the Loyalty of the Nobility

– “Nobles of the Sword”: The Old Aristocracy with landed wealth

– “Nobles of the Robe”: The New Aristocracy with commercial ties

• Implicit and structured

social inequality

Features of Baroque Planning

• Center of the City was the Palace

• Broad, straight avenues radiated out from the Palace

• Along these avenues were built the important government buildings

• Aristocratic passion for parading along these avenues

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Creating a “Spectacle”

• To be seen was the supreme social duty of the nobility

• To shine at court was to keep the rest of the world at a distance

• The monarch created the spectacle, or theater, for this social drama

Versailles: A Model Palace of Baroque Absolutism

“You gaze, you stare, you try to understand that it is real, that it is on

earth, that it is not the Garden of Eden”--Mark Twain

Versailles

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Versailles

Versailles

• http://www.french-touch-art.com/en-

panorama_versailles.htm

Versailles Palace features . . .

• Baroque planning

• Law

• Order

• Uniformity

• Conformity to the

King’s will

• Geometry reigned

supreme

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A. The Grounds and Gardens

• The triumph of man over nature

• Acres and acres of formal gardens

• The symbolism of geometrical patterns

B. The Palace Square

• Central point of Versailles was always

the King

• Massive canal and

1400 formal fountains

C. The King’s Bedroom

• Center of the Palace

• The Significance of the daily ritual of the King’s Rising

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D. The Hall of Mirrors

• The difference between Baroque interiors and Baroque urban planning

• The role of movement, tension and theatricality

• The significance of optical illusions—the trick of the ceiling

• The deep emotionalism of the room

E. The Chapel

• Mass held at 12:30 p.m. each day

• The people worshipped the King

while the King worshipped God

F. Life at Versailles

• Tedious and extremely expensive

• Only those at Court had any influence with Louis XIV

• Costume parties, masked balls, and gossip

• The drama of flirtation and the public role of the bedroom

• The bedroom will be replace by the salon

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G. An Imaginary World

• Versailles was the great theater upon which the drama of absolute power was staged.

• Ideas were treated as realities—the “make believe world” of the powerful and rich.

• Real people, real cities, and real problems were treated as if they were imaginary.

The Emerging Culture of Capitalism

• The difference between mercantilism and capitalism

• France under Colbert—a case study of mercantilism

• Orderliness and rationalization reflected the themes of Baroque urban planning

France Leads Europe…in the Arts

• Three unities

– Single plot

– Single setting

– Single day

• Comedy

– Moliere

• Tragedy

– Cornielle & Racine

• Patronage

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Louis fights costly wars

• Population demographics favor France– France

• 20 million

– Spain

• 5 million

– England

• 5 million

– Netherlands

• 2 million

War of Spanish Succession & Treaty of Utrecht

Louis the War Hero?

• Expansion to the Rhine & Alps• Alliances among England, Sweden,

Netherlands, Spain, Austria, and several German states in response to Louis’ invasion of the Netherlands

• War of Spanish Succession– Treaty of Utrecht

• Louis’ grandson keeps the Spanish throne (as long as France & Spain remain apart)

• France keeps the Alsace

• Britain gets Gibraltar• Austria gets Belgium, Northern Italy, and Sardinia

• Prussia & Savoy set up as independent kingdoms

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Louis XIV’s end

• “Do not imitate me in the taste that I have

had for building or for war. Try, on the contrary, to be at peace with your

neighbors…Try to comfort your people,

which unhappily I have not done.”

Peter’s Russia

Isolation from Europe

• Geographic– No warm water port

• Religion– Russian Orthodox

• Social– Boyars & Serfs

• Education– Renaissance, Scientific Revolution, Age of

Exploration….little or no contact/impact

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Impressions of Peter

• Bishop Burnet, Peter the Great 1698

– “… He is a man of very hot temper, soon inflamed and very brutal in his passion. He raises his natural heat by drinking much brandy, which he rectifies himself with great application. He is subject to convulsive motions all over his body, and his head seems to be affected with these. He wants not capacity, and has a larger measure of knowledge than might be expected from his education, which was very indifferent. A want of judgment, with an instability of temper, appear in him too often and too evidently. “

Impressions of Peter

• http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/peter

great.html

Modernization

• Status of women

• Russian Calendar

• Agriculture

• Factories & Mines

• Newspapers

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Absolutism

• Abolished the church’s highest office

• Established the Holy Synod

• Reduced the power of the boyars

• Life-time military service

Expansion of Empire

• Azov

• “Great Northern War”

New Capital

• St. Petersburg

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Central Europe

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Geography

• Elbe in the West

• Polish Marshes in the East

• Northern Plains

• Southern Mountains

Society

• Aristocrats dominate serfs

• Few middle-class merchants or artisans

Government

• Holy Roman Empire

– 300 separate states, no central authority after the 30 Years’ War

• Ottoman Empire

– After Sulieman the Magnificent, Ottoman Empire was in a state of decline

• Poland

– Elected king, little power, no income, courts, no standing army

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Hohenzollerns & Hapsburgs

Hapsburg Austria

• Heir to Charles VI

• Pragmatic Sanction

– Formal recognition

of Marie Therese

• Conflict with Prussia

Hohenzollern Prussia

• Frederic William –

“The Great Elector”

– Standing army

– Alliances

• French

• Swedes

• Dutch

• Poles

– Mercenary Service

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Prussia’s Army

• Frederick I• Frederick

William I– Junkers

• “Prussia is not a state that possesses an army, but an army that possesses a state.”

Frederick II’s invasion of Hapsburg Lands

• Frederick II ignores the Pragmatic Sanction

• Invades Silesia

• Marie Therese receives aid from Hungary, Britain, Russia, Dutch

Shifting Alliances & Seven Years’ War

• Austria allies with France

• Britain drops Austria, allies with Prussia

• Austria, France, Russia vs. Britain & Prussia

• Seven Years’ War (French & Indian War)

• Peace of Paris

– Austria & Therese lose Silesia, France loses Canada & most of its Indian lands

– Britain emerges as the “winner”

• Absolutism starts to crack

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