Topic 3.7 Notes – Absolutist Approaches to Power

What Absolutism Was

An absolute monarchy claimed sovereign power without being under a parliament, regional estates, nobles, or an independent church. The ruler claimed the last word on law, taxes, justice, war, diplomacy, the military, and often religion too.

The usual justification was divine right. Kings said their authority came from God, not from the people. Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet gave the classic defense of this idea. He argued that monarchy was sacred and resistance to the king violated God’s order.

That did not mean kings could do anything they wanted. Absolutism is better understood as state-building.

• Monarchs still ran into custom and local privilege.
• They still needed money, and finance was often their biggest weakness.
• They still faced local resistance from provinces, courts, nobles, and towns.

What absolutist rulers tried to build:

• Royal bureaucrats and trained officials who answered to the crown
• Central taxation to fund the state directly
• Standing armies and navies under state control
• Control over courts, provinces, and churches
• Court culture that made nobles depend on the monarch for favor
• Mercantilism, meaning economic regulation for state power
• Weak representative bodies, since assemblies could limit the ruler

The social pattern matters a lot on tests. Monarchs cut down nobles’ independent political power, but they usually protected noble status, privilege, and tax exemptions.

How French Absolutism Worked Under Louis XIV

France got to Louis XIV through earlier Bourbon rulers who had already strengthened the crown.

• Henry IV restored order after the French Wars of Religion.
• The Edict of Nantes gave limited toleration to Huguenots.
• Richelieu under Louis XIII weakened noble and Huguenot political independence.
• Intendants extended royal power into the provinces.
• The Fronde (1648-1653) convinced Louis XIV that nobles and disorder were dangerous.

Louis XIV’s personal rule after 1661 became the textbook example of absolutism, and his image was part of that message.

Louis XIV in coronation robes

Versailles and the nobility

Versailles was political theater. Louis drew nobles into court life, where status depended on etiquette, offices, pensions, and access to him. This kept nobles busy competing for favor instead of building independent power.

Administration

Intendants enforced royal policy in the provinces. Louis also relied on councils staffed by trained officials and robe nobility, not just old warrior aristocrats. The Estates-General was not called from 1614 to 1789, which shows how little national representation mattered under French absolutism.

Colbert and mercantilism

Jean-Baptiste Colbert used mercantilism to strengthen the monarchy.

• Tariffs protected French goods
• Royal manufactures increased production
• Infrastructure like roads and canals improved trade
• A stronger navy and chartered companies supported empire and war

The goal was state revenue and military strength, not free markets.

State-controlled military

Louvois helped create a large, disciplined standing army. Officers were often noble, but the army served the state, not private noble armies.

Religious uniformity

In 1685, the Edict of Fontainebleau revoked the Edict of Nantes. Huguenots were persecuted, and many fled France. Louis gained religious uniformity but lost skilled workers.

France came closest to true absolutism, but limits remained. War, debt, noble tax exemptions, and venal offices all kept full centralization from happening.

Other Absolutist Claims and Their Limits

Some rulers sounded absolutist without fully building an absolutist state.

• James I of England defended divine right and royal prerogative, but Parliament, common law, and the local gentry limited him. He matters as a case of absolutist theory without absolutist success.
• Spain under Philip II, III, and IV had strong Catholic monarchy and dynastic authority, but Spain was a composite monarchy. Different regions kept their own laws and privileges.
  • Under Philip IV, Olivares tried to centralize burdens.
  • Resistance led to the Catalan Revolt and Portugal breaking away.

The pattern is simple. Claiming absolute power was easier than actually centralizing a state. France came closest. England and Spain show the limits.

Russian Absolutism Under Peter and Catherine

Russia took absolutism in a more coercive direction. Peter the Great borrowed Western methods to strengthen autocracy, not to copy constitutional government.

• The Great Embassy (1697-1698) exposed Peter to shipbuilding, military techniques, and technology.
• He expanded the army and built a navy.
• In the Great Northern War, victory at Poltava (1709) and the Treaty of Nystad (1721) made Russia a major Baltic power.

Great Northern War in the Baltic

• The Table of Ranks (1722) tied status to state service.
• The Holy Synod replaced the patriarchate in 1721, putting the Orthodox Church under state control.
• Peter promoted Western-style education through technical schools, foreign experts, and the Russian Academy of Sciences, and he pushed Western fashion on elites through Western dress, including the beard tax.
• St. Petersburg, founded in 1703, symbolized Russia’s “window to the West” and the tsar’s power to force change.

Catherine the Great continued westernization from above. She spoke with Enlightenment thinkers, but she kept autocratic rule. After Pugachev’s Rebellion, she relied more on nobles, and the Charter to the Nobility (1785) confirmed their privileges.

The key connection is the same as in France. The state got stronger, but aristocratic hierarchy stayed in place.