I. Inventing the “Sun King”

II. Three Ideas of Absolutism
A. Patriarchal Absolutism (Bodin)
B. Social Contract Absolutism (Hobbes)
C. Divine Right Absolutism (James I, Bossuet)

III. Absolutism on the Continent
A. Absolute Monarchs and Their Nobles: The Case of Brandenburg-Prussia
B. France in the Age of Louis XIV
1) Military Pacification & Reform
2) Taming the Nobility
3) Mutually Beneficial Alliances

Image: Cardinal Jules Mazarin (1602-1661)
Image: Louis XIV as Romanorum Imperator (1670)
Image: “The Crossing of the Rhine by the Army of Louis XIV” (1672) , by Joseph Parrocel (1646-1704)
Image: “Louis Victorious” (1673), by Pierre Mignard (1612-1695)
Image: “The Apotheosis of Louis XIV” (1677), by Charles Le Brun (1619-1690)
Image: Louis XIV as Conqueror of Heresy (1686)
Image: “The World Pays Homage to Louis” (1687)
Image: A Medallion of Louis XIV
Image: Bad Press for Louis: Louis XIV with his Harem (1693)

Image: Preface to Jean Bodin, Six Books of the Commonwealth (1576)
Image: Titlepage of Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan (1651)
Image: Bishop Jacques Benigne de Bossuet

Image: Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg (r. 1640-1688)
Map: The Growth of Brandenburg-Prussia (1600-1795)
Map: France in 1697
Map: Vauban's Pre Carré
Image: Vauban's fortifications at Rocroi

Map: Europe in 1700

Louis XIV, King of France (r. 1643-1715)
Cardinal Jules Mazarin (1601-1661)

Jean Bodin (1530-1596), author of Six Books of the Commonwealth (1576)
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), author of Leviathan (1651)
Bishop Jacques Benigne de Bossuet (1627-1704), author Politics Derived from the True Word of Holy Scripture (1709)

Frederick William I, Elector of Brandenburg (r. 1640-1688)
King Charles XI of Sweden(r. 1660-1697) 
King Charles XII of Sweden (r. 1697-1718)
Tsar Peter the Great of Russia (r. 1682-1725)

Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1629-1683), Minister of Finance
François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois (1639-1691), Minister of War
Sébastien Le Prestre, Marquis de Vauban (1633–1707), Marshal of France

Versailles

Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685)

Louis XIV's tactics for taming the nobility:
Disciplining the Officer Corps
Subjecting the Nobility to Taxation
Increasing the Size of the Nobility
Limiting the Power of Sovereign Courts
Limiting the Power of Provincial Estates

Constitutionalism and Revolution in England

Image: Anthony Van Dyck, Charles I After the Hunt (1635). Canvas, 2.66 m x 2.07 m. This is by far the most royal portrait of Charles, showing him as distinguished and well bred courtier, his elbow jutting toward the viewer in a gesture of self-confident authority. Source: Musée du Louvre.

I. Introduction: A Gray Day in January, 1649

II. The “Absolutism” of the Stuarts
A. James I and “Divine Right” Monarchy
B. Court versus Country under Charles I

Image: King James I & IV of England and Scotland (1567/1603-1625)
Image: Henrietta-Maria of France (1609-1669)

III. Parliament, “Gentry,” and the Crisis of Authority
A. The English Parliament in European Comparison
B. Establishing the Permanence of Parliamentary Rule

Map: English Parliamentary Boroughs
Image: England's Great Joy and Gratitvde Expreß'd
Image: An Anti-Cromwell Broadsheet, The Royal Oake of Brittayne

IV. Religion, Culture--and Social Conflict?

Archbishop William Laud (1573-1645)
The Trial of Archbishop Laud (1645)
Image: Parliamentary Soldiers Destroying "Popish pictures"
Image: The Souldiers Pocket Bible

V. The “News Revolution” of Seventeenth-Century Britain

Image: Samuel Cooper (1609-1672), Portrait of Oliver Cromwell (1657). Watercolor, unfinished, Drumlanrig Castle at Scotland. Source: CGFA.

James I Stuart (r. 1603-1625)
Charles I Stuart (r. 1625-1649)
Archbishop William Laud (1573-1645)

Riksdag (Sweden)

Arminianism
“Popish Plot”
The “Middling Sort”

Oliver Cromwell (Lord Protector, 1648-1658)
Factions: “Presbyterians,” Independents, and Radicals (“Levellers” and “Diggers”)

England during the revolution, 1643. The lines of confrontation in the English Revolution were complex and constantly shifting with the ebb and flow of military and political events. But generally speaking, the parliamentary forces were strongest in the southeast of the kingdom, the royalists in the north and the west. 

Image above: Pieter Breugel, Peasant Wedding (1568). Oil on wood, 114 x 164 cm (45 x 64 1/2 in); Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.  Source: WebMuseum

Social Disciplining in the ‘Iron Century’
Image right: Diego Velázquez, Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Pink Dress (1660). Museo del Prado, Madrid. Source: Wikimedia

I. Introduction: The Rise and Fall of Sumptuary Laws

Map: Frankfurt am Main (c. 1552)
Chart: An Overview of Sumptuary Laws (1100s-1700s)
Chart: Social Discipline in a Single Town (Emden, 1559-1825)
Chart: Moral Discipline in Emden (1558-1825)
Chart: Sexual Discipline in Emden (1558-1825)
Chart: England's Social Hierarchy as Defined in Sumptuary Legislation (1363-1553)

II. Flexibility and Inflexibility in the “Society of Orders”

Graph: The 'Three Orders' of European Society
Image: A Contemporary Representation of the Three Orders

III. Some Consequences of Social Rigidity
A. For Women: Narrowed Opportunity and Patriarchy
B. For the Poor and Vagrants: Relief for Some, Confinement for Others
C. For Jews and Other Minorities: Stigmatization and Ghettoization

Chart: Trends in the Persecution of Witchcraft
Image: The House of Correction (Tuchthuis) in Amsterdam (1612)
Map: The Jewish "Ghetto" in Frankfurt (c. 1552)
Image: Pogrom in Frankfurt during the "Fettmilch" Uprising, 1614