1. The Age of Absolute Monarchs LOUIS XIV and IVAN the TERRIBLE
ABSOLUTISM
The Age of Absolute Monarchs
LOUIS XIV and
IVAN the TERRIBLE

2. Absolutism
What is an Absolute form of government? How did the governments of Louis XIV and Ivan IV fit that style of governing?

3. Absolutism What? It is an absolute leader.
A leader who has unlimited power.
These rulers do not share power with anyone.
There are no law making bodies:
No parliament
No congress
No other power but the KING.

4. Absolutism There are two kings who exemplify this kind of governing:
Louis XIV: France
Ivan the Terrible: Russia

5. Absolutism Louis XIV: French Monarch (king)
Referred to himself as the “Sun King”: Just as the Sun is the center of the Solar System, Louis was the center of French government.
Famous Quote: "L'état, c'est moi" (I am the state).
3rd king of Bourbon Dynasty
Dynasty: series of rulers from the same family
Much violence when he was young (riots, etc.)

6. Absolutism Louis XIV: Became king at age 23.
Ruled for 54 years:
He hated cities, loved the countryside
He loved to eat: 500 cooks.
Much ceremony in his court.
There was nothing he liked so much as flattery
He had fourteen personal wigmakers and 1,000 wigs
He had servants dress him
n 1674, when he was visiting a school at Clermont, he heard from the school's authorities that one of the children, a nine- year-old Irish lad named Francis Seldon, had made a pun about the king's bald head. Louis was furious. He had the child arrested and thrown into solitary confinement in the Bastille. He spent sixty-nine years "in the hole" for making fun of the king's baldness.

7. Absolutism
Louis XIV
He loved good music and helped Opera to become popular throughout Europe.
He hated washing and took only three baths in his whole life.
Louis fought many wars:
Reason: To expand French territory: unsuccessful
Large army. Advanced.
At this time, France was stronger than any other country.
BUT:
His wars brought the country to near bankruptcy.

8. Absolutism Louis was known for his excesses
The French people were heavily taxed to pay for the wars of Louis XIV and his excessive life style. These excesses laid the ground for the French Revolution.
No freedom of religion: Edict of Fontainebleau: provided for the destruction of Huguenot churches and the closing of their schools
Why: Louis followed the motto, "one king, one law, one faith"

9. Absolutism
The story of poor Francis Seldon

10. Absolutism Louis XIV: The Builder: More excesses
He had the Palace at Versailles built for himself.
Versailles is located 11 miles south of Paris.
36,000 workers used to build palace.
He moved in in 1682.
All of this just for his home!

11. Absolutism Versailles Palace: No walls, but gardens
The palace stretched for 700 yards.
It contained a chapel, theater, library and official chambers.
About 4000 lived in the palace.
Most famous room: Hall of Mirrors. 246 ft long and 33 ft wide.
Gardens covered over 250 acres.
Importance: Center of French government. This palace reflected his absolute power.

12. Absolutism
Versailles Palace:

13. Absolutism
Versailles:

14. Absolutism
Louis XIV:
On his Deathbed he said to his great grandson Louis XV: “Do not imitate me in the taste I had for building and war. Try to be at peace with your neighbors, to comfort your people, which unhappily, I have not done”.

15. Absolutism Ivan the Terrible: Russia Ivan IV = Ivan the Terrible
First leader of Russia to be crowned Czar
Czar = king
1533 became Czar but was crowned in 1547.
There were power struggles in Russia when he was young.
Held as prisoner until age 16 by boyars or nobles.
He hated nobles for the rest of his life.
Ivan IV was only three years old when he succeeded his father, Basil III, as grand prince of Moscow in 1533, and for five years his mother served as regent while the boy was educated in statecraft. But when she died, possibly a poison victim, he became the center of a power struggle among several factions of boyars, or noblemen. At the age of 13 he made a decisive move, ordering one of the rivals arrested in his presence and later executed. It was a cruel age. boyars, who were the highest ranking level of the feudal hierarchy
Ivan was able to reduce the power of the Russian nobles, as well as the boyars, who were the highest ranking level of the feudal hierarchy. In essence, Ivan brought the nobility and the boyars under the law as represented solely by the will of the Russian Tsar.

16. Absolutism Ivan the Terrible 1547, he was crowned Czar.
Capital: Kremlin
the Good Period:
Won victories vs. Mongols.
Created code of laws in 1550.
Created a standing army
Gave local governments more power.
Increased trade
The Bad Period began in 1560 after his wife, Anastasia died.
Treated the nobles with brutality.
Secret Police Force: Oprichniki, to hunt down traitors.
Dressed in black and rode black horses.
1000’s were killed.
Killed his own son in a fit of rage in 1581.

17. Absolutism
Ivan sought even more absolute power with the institution of the oprichniki.
Ivan divided his kingdom in two.
One half was to be ruled in the traditional manner, with support of the boyars.
the other half, called the oprich, or widow's part, was treated as his personal possession.
Defended by a force of 1,000 to 6,000 men.
For the Russian people it became a reign of terror. The czar himself was said to participate in the torture and murder of opponents.
Ivan had seven wives!

18. Absolutism Painting depicts Ivan and son, after Ivan killed him
The reason for the confrontation was a result of Ivan beating his son’s wife for dressing immodestly while pregnant
In 1581 Ivan's oldest son and namesake, the czarevitch Ivan, was 27 and married for a third time. His first two wives had been banished by the czar and the third, Elena, was equally displeasing to him. When Ivan reprimanded his pregnant daughter in law for immodesty of attire, the czarevitch intervened. As their voices rose in anger, Ivan lunged out with an iron-pointed staff and mortally wounded his son with a blow to the head. The series of events commenced with Ivan beating his son's wife for dressing immodestly while she was pregnant. The beating may have caused her subsequent miscarriage.

19. Absolutism
Overcome with remorse, Ivan began compiling a list of the victims of his terror
The list that grew to more than 3,000 names before his death in 1584.
Copies of the list, along with donations, were sent to Russia's principal monasteries with instructions that prayers be offered for the repose of their souls.

20. Absolutism Ivan’s religious nature
He was a very complex Christian:
He might rise early in the morning to get in several hours of prayer, only to spend the afternoon ordering that any priests who spoke out against him be burned alive.
Said to have died while playing chess on March 18, 1584.