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CHAPTER 5: ABSOLUTE MONARCHS IN EUROPE, 1500-1800

SECTION 1: SPAIN’S EMPIRE AND EUROPEAN ABSOLUTISM

A. Absolutism in Europe:

1. The Age of Absolutism takes its name from a series of European

monarchs who increased the power of their ____________________.

Absolute monarchs:

2. The monarchs justified increasing their power by using the theory of

_________________________.

Divine right:

SECTION 2: FRANCE’S ULTIMATE MONARCH

A. Religious Wars Create a Crisis:

1. _________________________, a member of a powerful Italian banking

family, had married the French king Henry II. Three of Henry’s sons

ruled after his death, but they were all as weak and incompetent as their

father. Catherine was the _________________ behind the throne. She

was also one of the most __________ figures of her day.

2. From 1562 to 1598, France experienced several religious wars between

_____________ and _______________ (Protestants). Catherine,

however, was determined to stamp out French Protestantism. Therefore,

she ordered the _____________ of a number of _______________ nobles

who were attending the marriage of her daughter to a Huguenot prince,

______________ of Navarre. The _______________________________

sparked a nationwide slaughter of Huguenots, which lasted several weeks.

3. Henry, however, managed to ____________, and in 1589, when both

Catherine and her last son died, he inherited the throne. Realizing that the

overwhelmingly Catholic population would not accept a Protestant king,

Henry chose to ____________ to Catholicism.

4. Henry IV’s true religious beliefs may never be known, but outward

conformity to the Catholic Church was the only way to reestablish

__________. He did, in 1598, grant the Huguenots a degree of religious

_______________ through the ________________________. Some,

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however, hated Henry for his religious compromises. In 1610, a Catholic

fanatic leaped into the royal carriage and _____________ Henry to death.

5. Henry IV’s son, ______________, came to power after his father’s death.

Who was the real power behind the throne during Louis’s reign?

6. Richelieu took several steps to consolidate Louis XIII’s power. He first

targeted the ______________. He refused to allow Protestant cities to

have ___________. He also sought to weaken the _____________ power,

ordering them to take down their fortified castles. He also increased the

power of the ___________________ by giving them higher positions in

the government.

7. Richelieu felt that the greatest external threat to France came from the

________________________, who ruled Spain, Austria, the Netherlands,

and parts of Germany—in effect, all the lands that surrounded France. To

limit Hapsburg power, Richelieu involved France in the ______________.

B. Louis XIV Rules Absolutely:

1. Who is the most powerful ruler in French history?

How old was he when he inherited the throne?

Who was the real ruler of France until Louis XIV became an adult?

2. Mazarin’s greatest triumph came in 1648, with the ending of the

_______________________. The peace treaty made France the most

____________ country in Europe. Many of the French, however, hated

Mazarin because he increased ___________ and strengthened the central

government.

3. Sensing their power was slipping away, French nobles ___________

several times from 1648 to 1653. At times, they even threatened to

________ the young king. Louis never forgot his hatred or fear of the

nobility.

4. How old was Louis when he took control of the government?

What year did he take control?

5. One of the first things that Louis did as king was to _____________ the

nobles from his ________________. Instead, he increased the power of

the government agents called _________________. They collected taxes

and administered justice.

6. Also, as king, Louis cancelled the __________________________, which

had granted the Huguenots limited freedom of religion. This action hurt

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the French _______________ because thousands of Huguenot artisans and

businessmen fled the country after his announcement.

C. Louis’s Grand Style:

1. What was the name of the grand palace that Louis built for himself?

How far did it stretch?

2. Versailles was a center of the _________ during Louis’s reign. What, in

Louis’s opinion, was the chief purpose of art?

SECTION 3: CENTRAL EUROPEAN MONARCHS CLASH

A. The Thirty Years’ War:

1. The ______________________ began in ______ and was one of the most

destructive conflicts in European history. Initially, it began as a

________________ conflict between Catholics and Protestants in the

_________________________________.

2. Which family ruled the Holy Roman Empire?

Were they Catholic or Protestant?

3. The war started when ______________________, the future Holy Roman

Emperor and head of the Hapsburg family, closed some ______________

______________ in Bohemia. The Protestants _______________, and

Ferdinand II sent an army to crush the revolt. At this point, several

Protestant German princes who wanted __________________ from the

Holy Roman Empire saw their chance to challenge the Catholic emperor.

4. During the first twelve years of the war, Hapsburg armies from _________

and ____________ crushed the troops hired by the Protestant German

princes. However, the army of the Protestant king of Sweden,

____________________________, turned the tide of the war in the

Protestants’ favor in 1630. They were able to drive the Hapsburg armies

out of ________________________. Unfortunately, however, Adolphus

was killed in battle two years later.

5. At this point, the Thirty Years’ War shifted from being mainly a religious

war to a _____________ one as _____________ entered the war because

it wanted to be the dominant power in Europe. Which French cardinal was

responsible for France’s entry into the Thirty Years’ War?

6. Even though France was a ____________ country, Cardinal Richelieu

feared the _______________ family more than the Protestants. The

Hapsburgs controlled most of the countries around France, and he did not

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want other European rulers to have as much power as the French king.

Therefore, in 1635, French troops joined the German and Swedish

Protestants in their struggle against the Hapsburg armies.

7. The Thirty Years’ War finally ended in ________. What was the name of

the peace treaty that concluded the Thirty Years’ War?

8. Consequences of the Peace of Westphalia:

It weakened the Hapsburg countries of ____________ and

_____________.

It strengthened ____________ by awarding it German territory.

It made German princes independent of the ________________

______________.

It ended ______________________ in Europe.

It introduced a new method of ______________________. In

that method, which is still used today, ______ combatants meet

to settle the problems of a war and decide the terms of the

____________.

The most important consequence of the Peace of Westphalia was

that it recognized Europe as a group of _______________

_____________ that could negotiate for themselves. Each

independent country was seen as ____________ to the others.

This marked the beginning of the modern ______________

system.

SECTION 4: RUSSIAN CZARS INCREASE POWER

A. From Ivan to the Romanovs:

1. Ivan III liberated Russia from the ______________ in the 1400s and

established the first Russian state. His grandson, __________________,

successfully reduced the power of the Russian nobility. What were the

landholding nobles in Russia called?

2. Ivan IV, also known as Ivan the Terrible, came to the throne when he was

only _____ years old. The boyars fought to _____________ young Ivan.

However, when Ivan turned 16, he seized power and crowned himself

__________, which is Russian for _____________. He also married

____________________, who was related to an old boyar family, the

____________________.

3. Ivan IV and Anastasia had thirteen happy years together. However when

she died in 1560, Ivan believed that the boyars had _______________ her.

He organized a _____________________________ to hunt down and

murder those he considered traitors. Ivan suffered another personal

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tragedy in 1581 when he killed his ___________________ and heir in a fit

of rage.

4. Ivan’s second son assumed power when Ivan died in 1584, but he was a

weak ruler. When he died without an heir, Russia experienced a period of

turmoil as a number of different groups struggled to _________________.

Finally, in 1613, representatives from many Russian cities met to choose

the next czar. Their choice was _________________________,

grandnephew of Ivan the Terrible’s wife Anastasia. Thus began the

Romanov dynasty, which ruled Russia for ________ years.

B. Peter the Great Takes the Throne:

1. Over time, the Romanovs restored order to Russia, paving the way for the

absolute rule of Czar ___________________________.

2. Russia was quite different from the rest of Europe. Russia freed its

_________ much later than Western Europe. Due to Mongol rule, Russia

had not experienced the __________________ or the Age of Exploration.

________________ barriers also isolated Russia. Its only seaport,

Archangel, was choked with _________ for most of the year.

3. Additionally, _____________ differences widened the gap between

Western Europe and Russia. The Russians were ____________________

Christians while most Western Europeans were either ________________

or ___________________.

4. Peter realized that if Russia was to become a powerful empire it must

___________________. To this end, he looked to the _________. Just

one year after Peter became the sole rule ruler of Europe, he traveled in

_____________ to a number of different European nations to learn about

their customs and ways of life. He spent a total of ____ months abroad.

C. Peter Rules Absolutely:

1. Peter’s goal upon returning home was _______________________.

Westernization:

2. He knew, however, that many people would ____________ with the

reforms he planned to enact. Therefore, to force change upon his state,

Peter increased his powers as an ____________________________. Like

Ivan the Terrible, Peter reduced the power of the _______________ by

recruiting able men from lower-ranking families.

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3. To modernize his army, Peter hired ______________ officers, who drilled

his soldiers in European _____________ with European _____________.

Being a soldier became a _______________ job. To pay for this huge

standing army, Peter had to impose ____________________.

4. In order to promote education and growth, Peter needed a _____________

that would make it easier to travel to the West. Therefore, he fought

_____________ to gain a piece of the Baltic coast. In 1703, Peter began

building a new city, ______________________, on Swedish lands. When

St. Petersburg was finished, Peter ordered many boyars to leave the

comforts of ________________ and settle in his new capital. Peter I died

in 1725, but by that time, Russia was a power to be reckoned with.

SECTION 5: PARLIAMENT LIMITS THE ENGLISH MONARCHY:

A. Monarchs Clash with Parliament:

1. What prevented England’s monarchs from becoming absolute monarchs?

2. Who became king of England when James I died in 1625?

3. Charles I became embroiled in a number of expensive foreign wars, and

when Parliament refused to give him __________, he dissolved it. To get

money, he imposed all kinds of ________ and __________ on the English

people. Not surprisingly, his popularity dramatically _______________.

B. English Civil War:

1. When Scotland threatened to invade England, Charles I was forced to call

Parliament back into session. This gave Parliament the opportunity to

oppose him. During the fall of 1641, Parliament passed laws to ________

royal power.

2. An angry Charles tried to ____________ the leaders in Parliament in

January 1642. When this attempt failed, Charles and his supporters were

forced to ________ to northern England, where he raised an __________.

From 1642 to 1649, supporters and opponents of King Charles fought the

_____________________________________.

3. What were supporters of Charles I called?

What were his opponents called?

Who became the general of the Roundheads (the Puritan army) in 1644?

4. In 1646, Cromwell’s ________________________ defeated the Cavaliers.

By the following year, the Puritans had _______________ Charles I. In

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1649, Cromwell and the Puritans placed Charles on trial for ___________.

They found him ____________ and sentenced him to ____________.

5. The execution of Charles was ____________________. Kings had often

been _______________, killed in ______________, or put to death in

____________. Never before had a reigning king faced a _________ trial

and execution.

6. In England, Cromwell and the Puritans sought to reform society. They

made laws that promoted Puritan morality and abolished activities that

they felt were ____________, such as going to the _____________ and

____________. What type of rule did Cromwell eventually have to

establish?

C. Restoration and Revolution:

1. Cromwell ruled until his death in 1658. Not long afterward, the

government he had established _______________, and a new king was

selected. In 1659, Parliament voted to ask the ___________________ of

Charles I to rule England. What is this period of rule called?

2. During Charles II’s reign, Parliament passed an important guarantee of

freedom, __________________________. This gave every prisoner the

right to obtain a _____________ (document) ordering that the prisoner be

brought before a _____________ within a certain amount of time. The

judge would decide whether the prisoner should be _________or ______

__________. Because of the Habeas Corpus Act, a monarch could not put

someone in jail simply for ______________ his rule. Also, prisoners

could not be held _____________________ without trials.

3. Charles II died in 1685, and his brother ________________ became king.

James was a ______________, and when his wife gave birth to a _______,

many English Protestants were terrified by the thought of a line of

Catholic kings. Consequently, Parliament invited James’s daughter

___________, who was Protestant, and her husband _______________, a

prince in the Netherlands, to overthrow James. When William led his

army to London in 1688, James fled to France. This ________________

overthrow of King James II is called the __________________________.

D. Political Changes:

1. William and Mary agreed to govern the English people according to the

laws passed by ____________________. By doing so, they recognized

Parliament as their _____________ in governing. England had not

become an absolute monarchy but rather a _________________________,

where laws limited the ruler’s power.

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2. To make clear the limits of royal power, Parliament drew up the

____________________________________________. According to the

English Bill of Rights, a ruler could not ____________ Parliament’s laws;

impose __________ without Parliament’s permission; interfere with

____________________________ in Parliament; and punish citizens who

petitioned the king about _________________.

3. After 1688, the British monarch could not rule without Parliament’s

_____________. At the same time, Parliament could not rule without the

consent of the ____________________. If the two disagreed, government

came to a _________________. During the 1700s, this potential problem

was solved by developing a group of government ministers called the

______________.

4. These ministers acted in the ruler’s name but in reality represented the

_____________ party of Parliament. Under the cabinet system, the leader

of the majority party in Parliament heads the cabinet and is called the

_____________________. This system of English government continues

today.