1. Absolutism + Enlightenment
Lesson 2: Absolute Rulers

2. The Age of Absolutism

3. Terms to Understand Divine Right Absolute Monarchy Monarch
The belief that God chose a ruler to rule.
Absolute Monarchy
A monarch who has unquestioned, absolute rule and power.
Monarch
A ruler who is part of a ruling family that passes down power from generation to generation
Balance of Power
Countries have equal strength in order to prevent any one country from dominating the others.

4. bellwork
“The royal power is absolute…The prince need render account of his acts to no one...Without this absolute authority [he] could neither do good nor repress evil. It is necessary that his power be such that no one can hope to escape him...The prince...is not regarded as a prviate person: he is a public personage, all the state is in him; the will of all the people is included in his. As all perfection and all stregnth are united in God, so all the power of individuals is united in the person of the prince.” “Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Scripture” Bishop Jacques benigne Bossuet 1) According to Bousset, what is the role of a king?

5. Louis xiv quote
“The head alone has the right to deliberate and decide, and the functions of all the other members consist only in carrying out the commands given to them... The more you grant... [to the assembled people], the more it claims.. The interest of the state must come first.”
2) Based on these quotes, what is absolute rule?
3) according to Luis XIV, why is absolute rule necessary?
Think and share with partner

6. 4) How are John Lockes ideas different from that of Luis XIV? 5
“The head alone has the right to deliberate and decide, and the functions of all the other members consist only in carrying out the commands given to them... The more you grant... [to the assembled people], the more it claims.. The interest of the state must come first.” - Luis XIV
. . Political power is that power, which every man having in the state of nature, has given up into the hands of the society, and therein to the governors, whom the society hath set over itself, with this express or tacit trust, that it shall be employed for their good and preservation of their property… So that the end and measure of this power, when in every man's hands in the state of nature it can have no other end or measure, when in the hands of the magistrate, but to preserve the member of that society in their lives, liberties, and possessions; and so cannot be absolute, arbitrary power over their lives and fortunes…
Second Treatise on Government - John Locke
4) How are John Lockes ideas different from that of Luis XIV? 5

7. Second Treatise on Civil Government, 1690 John Locke
5) What is Locke arguing for in this passage?

8. Letters Concerning the English Nation (1726), Voltaire
7) What is Voltaire’s main idea about religion in society?

9. 8) What does Wollstonecraft recommend in order to make women equal to men?
9)What methods did Wollstonecraft use to reach her conclusions?

10. Louis xiv France Phillip II’s grandson
#sassy
France
Phillip II’s grandson
Epitome (typical example) of absolute rulers
Absolute Rule
“Sun King”
Used military to enforce his rules

11. Louis xiv Successes Failures Versailles: used it to woo nobility
Mercantilist economy
Failures
Wars  debt
Religious persecution against Protestants

12. Peter the great Russia Absolute Rule Successes Failures
Autocratic ν ruler
Successes
Improved education
Improved infrastructure + trade
Built mighty military
Failures
Strengthened feudalism
Western reforms faded after his death

13. Catherine the great Russia Absolute Rule Successes Failures
Western influence
Controlled law/education
Successes
Codified the law
Required education
Failures
Husband’s murder + her affairs
Sought to expand borders