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Theory of the Monarchy
Theory of the Monarchy: * In theory all nobles were equal, but in practice they were divided by office and wealth
King: “1st Noble” - Source of Kings authority was representing the nobility - Nobility never disobeyed a direct order, may at times subvert orders
Royal Family: “Princes of the Blood” - Direct relatives of the king were the next highest nobles in practice
Great Nobles: had titles (Duke, Earl, Count, Etc.) and wealth - Held cast lands and amassed great wealth - Typically lived at or visit court for extended periods of time - Usually had direct access to the king - Importance of wealth
Middle Nobility: Had enough money to visit court but could not stay - Lived in the countryside - Connected the upper nobility and the people
Lower Nobility: Had enough money so that they did not labor directly - Could not afford to visit court, relied on Great Nobles - Served to connect upper nobility to the people
* Nobles increased their wealth (thus power) through Royal Offices and Pensions - Meant that they needed contact with the King - Must go to court
16th Century Government - Very weak relative to contemporary standards - No ability to enforce policy - No police or significant bureaucracy - Key to government power was the ability of the govt. (King) to influence the nobles through a sense of personal persuasion - Moral Authority to lead - The greater a king’s Moral Authority the more difficult to resist - In the purest form kings will make themselves out to be a sacred element of govt.
Keys to Moral Authority: 1. Effective “Public Display” - Purpose: to show that the king’s will was that of the people and must be followed - Image was everything - Used quasi-religious rituals and ceremonies to demonstrate Moral Authority - Goal was to establish a sense of “deference” to illustrate a king’s right to lead - Kings used Royal Offices and Pensions as an enticement - Result: King became seen as a divine figure Ex. Louis XIV made himself into a sacred object to increase his Moral Authority
2. “Mystery of the State”: Ruling became a “cult” of knowledge not shared among the nobility or people - “State Secrets” were closely guarded - Develop the idea that only the king could make key decisions, thus no one should question him - Knowledge was power
3. “Reason of the State”: Kings were to act in best interests of the state for reasons known only to themselves (connects w/ “Mystery of the State”) - Others may not / could not understand the higher purpose
4. Law: An expression of the Kings will - Justice was the kings will, thus Kings not subject to Justice - All justice was performed in the King’s name
Overall Result: Concept of the State was tied directly to that of the King - Created a tension between Kings and the State (Nobles)
Eastern Europe: Tensions solved by a winner: 1. Poland: Nobles won, central govt. failed 2. Russia: Peter the Great won, despotism | Western Europe: Tensions remained unsolved: 1. France: King gained advantage over nobles: Absolutism 2. England: Nobles gained advantage over king: Constitutionalism |
French Absolutism:
Response to growing social, political and economic crisis / change:
Absolutism: Ultimate authority rests w/ monarchy through Divine Right - Note Arbitrary govt. was hated, govt. not subject to any control / law
How to extend state power: 1. Extension of the Legal System: Sacred right of kings - Kings implemented officials to enforce justice - usurp power of hereditary monarchy (Nobles of the Robe) 2. War - Armies increasingly became the province of the government - Forced states to reform taxation 3. Taxation - Money meant power, had to establish the RIGHT to taxation - Fr. Paulette, tax on office holding - Sp. Millions, tax on consumption (meat, wine, oil) - Eng. Customs duties Impact: Conflict between the states right to taxation and the nobles view of taxation as arbitrary government (theft) - Fronde was an example
King's Court: - Where decisions were made - Dominated by the king and their "favorites" - Fr. Cardinal Richelieu - Sp. Count-Duke Olivares - Eng. Duke of Buckingham - Court favorites had to balance favor of the king with hatred from their peers - Often times the subjects of conspiracy and assassination - "fall guy" of the regime
France: Louis XIII: became king as a boy Cardinal Richelieu ruled for him, two goals: 1.Strengthen Monarchy 2.Strengthen France - Tried to weaken Huguenots independence (revokes Edit of Nantes) - Tried to weaken Nobility - Control local government officials - Sided with Protestants in 30 Years War - Very much a Hobbesian view Louis XIV: became king as a boy Cardinal Mazarin ruled for him, same goals as Richelieu - Fronde (Nobles revolt in Paris- Richelieu) - Crushed early revolt by the nobility 1661 Louis Ruled for himself (Surprised everyone) Used central policy making to control all of France -Relied upon on intendants to enforce policy instead of nobles -Controlled nobles by making them dependent on king for appointments to public office - Required them to come to court (Versailles)
Jean Baptiste Colbert: Finance Minister under Louis XIV -Mercantilism: Wealth tied to accumulation of gold / silver through favorable balance of trade - Import raw materials, export finished products to achieve a Favorable Balance of Trade - Protect industry with Tariffs and subsidies - Develop colonies for source of raw material and markets - Build infrastructure for trade
Marquis de Louvois (Minister of War) used $ to build a massive standing army - Reorganized and built the largest army in all of Europe - Increased Louis's control over the nobles
Versailles: Louis XIV hunting lodge turned into a palace and center of the royal court - Great "display" of Royal power / authority - Louis XIV as "Sun King" - Became a symbol of Louis XIV’s power and strength of the monarchy
- Center of French government
- Place of prominence for nobility (everyone wanted to be there, to get a good job from the king)
- Nobles became too busy with the hierarchy of Versailles to get involved in politics, leaving Louis total control - Complex set of etiquette - Expensive to live there - Gambling problems of the Nobility Problems / mistakes: 1. Foreign wars bankrupted the French monarchy while achieving little 2. Persecution of Huguenots (Revoked Edict of Nantes in 1685) - Commercially inclined Huguenots emigrated to the Netherlands Impacts: 1. France became the leading European Nation 2. French language became an "international" language 3. France became a commercial powerhouse of Europe - Fought many wars both successful and unsuccessful - Further weakened Spain - Left France in economically weak position from wars
Crisis of the Royal State
Growth of Royal Government resulted in a Backlash - Church, Towns and Nobles - Why? - Taxation - More Laws - Declining harvests throughout the 17th Century
Need to resist: - General population decline signaled difficult times - Bad harvests - War (indirect effects: disruption of agriculture / trade & disease) - Govt. raised taxes, people didn’t have the money - Peasants hit hardest, along with nobles dependent upon rents for income
Resistance: Grain riots: largely peasant revolts, localized and ineffective, unless local authorities joined Bread riots: urban riots led by women over the price of bread Riots: a form of political expression
Resistance Theory: - Luther and Calvin: Authority to rule tied to god, lower magistrates had authority to revolt - French Wars of Religion - Mornay: A Defense of Liberty Against Tyrants - Nobles had the right to rebel - Mariana: The King and the Education of the King - Commoners had the same religious duty as nobility to revolt against an ungodly king - Milton: The Tenure of Kings - Society formed by a convent b/w king and people, one side broke the convent so could the other
Examples of Rebellion - Spain: Catalonia rebelled over taxation and extension of kingly power
- Weakened Spanish monarchy, pulled the French into Spanish politics 2. France: Fronde. Parisian revolt of traditional nobility, office holders and land owners - Mazarin and Anne of Austria (Louis XIV’s regent) taxed all of the above groups and they rebelled - Began a tradition of revolt by the Parlement of Paris 3. English Civil War
English Civil War: Elizabeth I: Henry VIII’s daughter, image was astoundingly popular among the people - Left English treasury empty - Paid bills by selling off Royal Lands (seized from the Catholic Church)
Chronology of Stuart Kings: James I Charles I Charles II James II
James I: Elizabeth’s cousin from Scotland, began the Stuart Monarchy - King of two countries (Scotland and England) - Religious divide in England (Episcopal and Puritan) - Ireland unsettled (conquered under Elizabeth), began colonization of protestants to subdue the Irish (has not worked well) - Generally not popular in either Scotland or England
Charles I: - Just as generally unpopular as James I Two Problems: - Elevated William Laud to archbishop of Canterbury - Religious reforms provoked Scottish rebellion - Tried to collect taxes without consent of Parliament 1640: - Charles called parliament to raise taxes to put down Scottish rebellion - Parliament refused - Charles disbanded them - “Short Parliament” - Charles called a second parliament: “Long Parliament” - To get money Charles agreed to not disband current Parliament and to call parliament on a triennial basis - Henrietta Maria convinced Charles to eliminate Parliamentary leadership - “Five Members incident” - Disagreements became more radical - Charles forced to leave London, goes to York - Both sides began to raise troops
Civil War: - Charles forces won at first - Parliament made a deal with the Scottish – Covenant - Began to press Charles - 1644 Scots and Parliament fight over religion and Charles once again gained the advantage - New Model Army - Rise of Oliver Cromwell, increased discipline and promoted on merit - Crush Royalist forces by 1646 - Charles was captured and ransomed by the Scots, then kidnapped by the New Model Army - Parliament tried to negotiate a peace with Charles I, he refused to compromise - Charles tried to ally with the Scots - New Model Army crushed the Scots - New Model Army tried Charles I for Treason and sentenced him to death - Parliament began to show signs of unreliability (refused to convict king) - “Prides Purge” led to the Rump Parliament (only N.M.A. supporters) - Convict king, why? - Parliament dominated by Cromwell – create the Commonwealth - Parliament not following Cromwell, 2nd purge – “Barebones Parliament” - Eventually eliminated the “Barebones Parliament” - Cromwell declared himself “Lord Protector” - “Instrument of Govt” – Lord Protector and Council of State - Cromwell’s death – Richard took over (son) - Failed to have the charisma to lead - Army took over and restored the Stuart Monarchy to provide stability
Sequence of Events: - Reform Monarchy
- Monarchy denied reform
- Radicalization
- Dictatorship
- Power vacuum
- Return to the beginning
Charles II became king - Largely a powerless king - Take away king’s power of secrecy - Weakened moral authority
James II (brother) succeed Charles II - Elderly and childless, English will tolerate him - Attempted to restore the power of the monarchy - Catholic, hired Catholic ministers - Had a son, attempted to create a Catholic dynasty
Glorious Revolution - Parliament feed up with James II - Negotiate a take over with William and Mary (James’s daughter) of Orange - Protestant - Accept the Declaration of Rights (ensured Parliamentary meetings) and Toleration Act (religious freedom) 1689 - Basis for a Constitutional Monarchy - Locke provided the intellectual basis for the English Revolution
Prussia Fredrick William built a large standing army to protect Prussia - Military became the basis for Prussian unification under Fredrick William’s son, who became King Fredrick I - Prussian Monarchy controlled the nobility through inclusion in the military Result: Prussia became a high centralized and militaristic state
Austria Hapsburgs defeated in 30 Years War, but they drove the Turks back in 1687 and expanded eastward - Austrian Empire included: Czech, Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia and Slovenia Result: Austrian Empire included a multitude of nationalities making effective centralization difficult
Peter the Great
Peter became Tsar in late 17th century
Determined to westernize Russia in order to MAKE RUSSIA INTO A GREAT STATE AND MILITARY POWER - Borrowed technology in an attempt to increase power of military - Reorganized the Army (standing army of over 300,000) created first navy - Divided Russia into provinces to better enforce central policy o Used force to control bureaucrats, but still wanted them to use free will - Tried to institute a form of Mercantilism, but it was ineffective o Relied on raising taxes to increase revenue - Gained total control of the Russian Orthodox Church - Tried to implement Western Cultural practices in Russia o Shaving, short coats, etiquette o Women moved into a more public role - To increase trade Peter needed a warm water port o Fought Sweden and eventually built St. Petersburg
Reforms help and hurt the Russian people: - Powerful military – very expensive
- Westernized culture – only wealthy class (coats, beards, dentistry)
- Used of force – leads to distrusted of Tsar
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