Week 3: The Age of Absolutism

Textbook reading: Birn, Chapters 3 & 4. This week, we delve more deeply into the particulars of post-1648 political life in Europe; patterns of restoration after mid-century on the continent and in Britain; the emerging balance-of-power system in louisquatorzian Europe; patterns of continuity and change in the domestic politics of European states. Prepare in advance for discussion in class: Sir Robert Filmer, Patriarcha (1680) [Canvas] and Daily Life at the Court of the Sun King [Canvas].

Absolutism and its Alternatives

I. Discussion: Sir Robert Filmer, Patriarcha
Image right: Frontispiece to the 1651 edition of Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan. Source: University of Adelaide.

Image: Cardinal Jules Raymond Mazarin (1602-1661)
Image: The Beheading of King Charles I (1600-1649)

II. Abolutism in Theory
A. Patriarchal Absolutism: Jean Bodin (1530-1596)
B. Social Contract Absolutism: Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
C. Divine Right Absolutism: Jacques-Bénigne de Bossuet (1627-1704)

III. Absolutism in Practice
 A. Elector Friedrich Wilhelm I (r. 1640-1688) and the “Great Compromise” in Brandenburg-Prussia, 1653
B. Reduktion and “Parliamentary Absolutism” in Sweden under Charles XI (r. 1660-1697)
C. Creating a Service Nobility in Russia under Tsar Peter (r. 1682-1725)

Map: The Swedish Empire, ca. 1660

Image left: Friedrich Wilhelm I, Elector of Brandenburg-Prussia (1640-1688). In the German historical tradition, “The Great Elector”is credited with the most consistently absolutist approach to governance among the princes of Germany. Friedrich Wilhelm established a standing army; was an advocate of mercantilism, monopolies, subsidies, tariffs, and internal improvements. Most importantly, Friedrich Wilhelm laid the foundation of a service nobility in his realm. Image source: Preussen.de.

IV. Alternatives to Absolutism
A. Aristocracy Triumphant: England after the Restoration
B. Oligarchy Ascendant: The Dutch Republic

Image: The Russian "Table of Ranks" (1722)
Image: Tsar Peter shearing the beard of an "Old Believer"

Image: Portrait of William of Orange, Stadhouder of the Dutch Republic (1672-1702) and King of England (1688-1702).
Image: King James II (1633-1701, r. 1685-1688)

Map: The Dutch Republic (1705)


Dirck van Delen (1605-1671), The Great Hall of the Binnenhof, The Hague, during the Great Assembly of the States General in 1651 (1651). Oil on panel, copper. 52 x 66 cm. Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Object number SK-C-1350. In 1651 the full States General met from January to August to debate the constitutional situation within the Republic. This was necessary following the sudden death of Stadholder Prince William II in November 1650. This extraordinary assembly took place in the Great Hall of the Binnenhof in The Hague, the former court of the counts of Holland, built in the thirteenth century. Its present name, 'Ridderzaal' or Knight's Hall, is nineteenth-century.For this gathering of more than three hundred delegates the Great Hall was specially arranged. The shops and stalls along the walls were removed. Benches for the delegates were fixed down the sides of the hall. Opposite the hearth, a table was placed for the presiding officials. The table in the foreground, with the inkstand and pens, books and hourglass, may be the actual table. The tablecloth bears the arms and the motto of the Republic: CONCORDIA RES PARVAE CRESCUNT (Through Unity the Small Become Strong). A copper plate is attached to the painting with hinges. When the flap is opened, the assembly is obscured from view by a wall of paintings. The banners in the hall were not hung specially for the assembly. Most had hung there for more than fifty years. These were the banners Prince Maurice had captured from the Spaniards at the battles of Turnhout (1597) and Nieuwpoort (1600). It was suggested that the banners and other trophies be removed for the duration of the sitting: after all, peace had been signed with Spain only three years before. But the opposite happened. The existing trophies were dusted and others were added: Spanish and Portuguese naval flags, recognisable from the crowned coats of arms. They had been captured at the battles of Gibraltar (1607) and The Downs (1639). Image and commentary source: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

Court Society and the European State System
Prepare in advance for discussion in class: Daily Life at the Court of the Sun King [Canvas]

I. Discussion: Daily Life at the Court of the Sun King

Clip: “Lever de la reine” (Marie Antoinette, 2006)

II. Debate: The ‘Court Society’
A. Norbert Elias’ Theory of the ‘Court Society’
1. The Court as Instrument of Social Control
2. Court Society and the Genesis of Emotion
B. Critics of Elias' Theory

Text: Norbert Elias' Theory of the ‘Court Society’
Image: The King's Bedchamber at Versailles

Image right: The royal chapel at Versailles. The Chapel royal at Versailles is consecrated to Saint Louis (that is to say Louis IX of France, the French monarchy's crusader king). The chapel features a tribune on the same level as the royal apartments, overlooking the nave. That is where Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI attended daily mass, an important moment in a king's day. They only descended to the center of the nave for major liturgical ceremonies. Normally, the nave was occupied by the courtiers, who remained standing while the ladies of the Court filled the lateral galleries. Members of the Chapel music, renowned throughout Europe, occupied the steps surrounding the organ. Commentary: Chateau de Versailles. Image: David M. Luebke.


III. Absolutism in France under Louis XIV

Clip: Le Roi danse (2000)

A. Military Pacification and Reform
B. Appointing Dependent Ministers
C.“Taming the Nobility”
1. Disciplining the Officer Corps
2. Subjecting the Nobility to Taxation
3. Increasing the Size of the Nobility
4. Limiting the Power of Sovereign Courts of Law
5. Limiting the Power of Provincial Assemblies (Estates)
D. A System of Mutually Beneficial Alliances

Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683), Minister of Finance to Louis XIV (1665-1683)
Map: Louis XIV's Territorial Acquisitions

IV. Continuity and Change in the ‘Balance of Power’

A. Rules of the Game: The ‘Westphalian System’
1. The Rule of Compensation, or: “Keeping Up with the Joneses”
2. The Rule of Indemnities, or: “Nothing for Nothing”
3. Alliances as Tools of Power
4. Dynastic Competition and Raison d’État

B. Transformations in the ‘Balance of Power’
1. The Wars of Louis XIV and the End of French Domination
2. For Britain: An Era of Continental Involvements
3. New Kids on the Block: Brandenburg-Prussia and the Russian Empire
4. Eclipse of Ottoman Power and the Habsburg Expansion

Map: Europe in 1700
Map: The Rise of Brandenburg-Prussia (1415-1763)
Map: Decline of the Ottoman Empire (1683-1924)
Map: The Expansion of Russia (1300-1796)

Image right: The Siege of Vienna, 1683. This image depicts a pivotal events in the evolution of the European state system during the second half of the seventeenth century: the abortive siege of Vienna by the armies Kara Mustafa Pasha in July-September 1683. The siege very nearly succeeded in overcoming the Austrian defenses; Kara Mustafa Pasha did not, however, defend his siegeworks adequately, nor did he anticipate that a large relief force would arrive as soon as it did--in late August. The siege was broken when Austrian and Polish forces under the command of King Jan III Sobieski assaulted and routed the Turks on September 12. In the aftermath of this defeat, Austrian forces invaded and occupied most of what is today Hungary, Transylvania, and Croatia. The Ottoman Empire would never again be in a position to exert its influence over central Europe. Image source: Wikipedia Commons.
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