ABSOLUTISM April 19

WAR AND PEACE

Peace of Westphalia
(1648): Peace
treaties establishing
a European
balance of power
State sovereignty
Mutually recognized
boundaries
Religious
establishment
 THE ANCIEN REGIME

What is the purpose of this

document? Political
agenda?
How does Loyseau describe
the French social order?
How does he justify the
importance of orders?
What kind of society does this
theory create?
Distinction between order
and offi ce?
How are the various orders
related to each other?
Privileges/responsibilities of
each?
 ABSOLUTE MONARCHY

Consolidation of royal
authority targeting
domestic sphere
Divine Right

How does Bossuet

defi ne royal authority?
Royal responsibilities?
What is the proper
relationship between a
prince and his people? France: Louis XIII (r. 1610-
Absolute vs. Arbitrary
1643)
power?
England: Charles I (r. 1625-
1649)
Prussia: Friedrich Wilhelm (r.
 I AM THE STATE

Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715):

Longest-reigning European
monarch
Removing rival sources of
power
Expanding French infl uence

1682 Transfer of French

court to Versailles
1685 Edict of Fontainebleu

Fronde (1648-1653):
Rebellion of French nobility
against royal authority
VERSAILLES
 POLICE STATES

Professionalizatio
n of European
armies
France: 20,000
(1661) 400,000
(1700)
Prussia: 6,000
(1648) 100,000
(1750)
Bureaucratization
of the state
Royal
 FOR FRIDAY

Compare Englands political trajectory to that of

Continental Europe. How does the experience of civil
war impact the practice and theory of politics in
England?

Compare Hobbes conception of sovereignty to

Bossuets. What does he share with the French
absolutists and what new does he contribute?