Overview of Absolutism
Following the European Renaissance a New Type of Government Emerged
Absolutism, or an Absolute Monarchy is based on the idea that monarchs have divine rights, and do not need to answer to parliament or their nobility.
Following the Renaissance in Western Europe, two new types of governments evolved: Constitutional State and Absolute Monarchy. These two forms of government would become the model for emerging nations in both North and South America.
Power of the Absolute Monarch
Absolutism, or an absolute state, is based on the idea that kings (or queens, as the case may be) have divine rights and answer only to God. They do not need to heed advice of parliament, the estates general or the nobility. This ultimate political power gave monarchs jurisdiction over every aspect of the lives of their citizens. An absolute monarch regulated taxation and national spending, government, and religious sects. Absolute rulers also maintained standing armies, something that was impossible during the Middle Ages and much of the Renaissance, due to lack of hard coin. In many areas, absolute rulers began limiting personal freedoms of certain groups, such as the Jews. They also limited the power existing legislative bodies, such as the English Parliament or the French Estates General.
Alliance is the Key to Power
One main reason absolute monarchs were able to gain such unprecedented power was through mutual alliances with either the middle class, as was the case in France, or with the nobility, as they did in Spain. Absolute monarchs established bureaucracies to help run the day-to-day business of government. They selected loyal subjects to act as bureaucrats and these men reported directly to the monarch. French kings selected middle class men to run the government business, while Spain, having driven out most of the Jewish and Muslim middle class during the Inquisition, appointed nobles.
France & Spain
France has long been touted as the perfect example of Absolutism. During the very end of the sixteenth century, under the reign of Henry IV (Henry Navarre) and later Cardinal Richelieu, the power of the French throne lasted up until the French Revolution.
While France’s monarchy was strengthened during the seventeenth century, Spain’s political dominance began to wane. During the end of the Renaissance, beginning in the mid sixteenth century, the powerful Hapsburg family rose to power, dominating European politics. Fueled in large party by massive amounts of gold and silver from their new colonies in the Americas, Spanish monarchs were able to maintain a standing army, (recall the “invisible” Spanish Armada) establish a well regulated government bureaucracy and collect national taxes.
Absolutism in Other Parts of Western Europe
In England, the English Civil War was brought on, in part, by the fear that King Charles I was attempting to establish an absolute monarchy. The same fears resurfaced following the civil war, when King Charles II attempted to rule without Parliament. In Denmark-Norway, absolutism was a firmly entrenched idea, as it was in Russia, where it was upheld until the twentieth century, far outlasting every other Absolute Monarchy.
Sources: A History of World Societies Third Edition 1992
