Unit Overview - Absolute Monarchs

Absolute Monarchs Overview

The formation of modern countries in Europe began with the time of the absolute monarchs in the 1600’s. The term “absolute monarchs” combines two terms that describe the style of leadership during this time period. The term “monarch” describes a leader who is a king or queen, who inherited their power to rule over an area of land, called a kingdom. Monarchy was the traditional style of leadership in Europe going back into the period of the Middle Ages. The absolute monarchs were different from the traditional monarchs in how they ruled their countries. The term “absolute” describes these rulers has having complete and total control over the countries they ruled. There was no other person or group in the country who could challenge the absolute monarchs’ power. This power was summed up by the French King Louis XIV when he said, “I am the state” meaning he was the government. The absolute monarchs were called “sovereigns”, which is a term used to describe the person or group having total power over a region.

The absolute monarchs ruled during a period when the kings and queens of European countries consolidated their power to rule over their countries. Over the long run, the way the absolute monarchs centralized their authority over their lands helped these countries evolve into unified modern nations. France, Spain and Russia were the three countries most affected by this type of leader. However, leaders in other countries acted in a similar way, with similar results that lead to similar national development.

In order to understand the changes that happened in Europe during this period and how this lead to the formation of modern nations in Europe, it is first important to understand how Europe had been ruled prior before the Absolute Monarchs, during a period called the Middle Ages. The term the Middle Ages is used to describe a thousand year period of time between the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of modern nations. The Middle Ages is generally associated with knights and castles. This image of the period is appropriate because it was a time of near constant warfare in which armored warrior knights fought to control lands, which were defended by fortress castles. Society during this time was self-sufficient because the constant fighting prevented trade. In general, most people were either peasants, working to grow food and make basic crafts, or nobles, who were warriors. During this time, Europe was ruled by monarchs, who inherited their power and were military leaders. However, these monarchs were not very powerful because the cost of knights (who trained from a young age to fight) and castles (which were large building projects) were very expensive and the monarchs did not control enough land to directly support large armies. In order to control enough land to support a large army, monarchs used an indirect way to control large amounts of land called the feudal system. In the feudal system, monarchs depended on other nobles, such as counts, dukes and barons, to supply them with knights and castles. In return, the monarch gave these nobles control over part of their kingdom. Nobles were able to support groups of armored knights and build fortress castles because they could force the peasants who lived on their lands to work for them. The peasants were called serfs and had to do work for the nobles in return for the protection of living on nobles’ land. The food grown by the peasants and the castles build by peasants supported the nobles and their armies of armored knights. The noble’s castles protected the monarch’s lands and nobles’ armored knights would also fight as part of the monarch’s army when needed.

While a monarch was more powerful than the other nobles, they were dependent on the nobles for their power. There were many times when the nobles would become so powerful, that they could challenge a monarch for their power. This could happen when a monarch died and there was a dispute over who should be the next monarch (because the monarch who died did not have a son or daughter – or the son or daughter was very young). The rise of the Absolute Monarchs in France and Russia was in response to civil wars where the nobles fought each other for power to be king. The British philosopher Thomas Hobbes advocated that it was good for a strong centralized government, like an Absolute Monarch, should have total control over a country to prevent these brutal civil wars.

Changes at the end of the Middle Ages began to change the relationship between the monarchs and the nobles. The development of guns and cannon reduced the importance of knights and castles. These technologies meant that a peasant commoner with a gun could kill a highly trained knight and cannons could reduce a castle to rubble. This change meant that monarchs did not need nobles anymore for their military power. The Absolute Monarchs began to centralize military power under their command by building professional armies through hiring and equipping trained peasants with guns and cannon. At the same time, they moved to weaken the power of the nobles in their kingdoms by forcing the nobles to give up their armies of knights and tear down protective walls around their castles. Without their own source of military power, the nobles could no longer challenge the monarch.

The process of building and maintain a professional army cost a lot of money and a skilled workforce to make the equipment. Another change at the end of the Middle Ages that gave the Absolute Monarchs the sources of both money and a skilled workforce was the development of towns and cities. The people in towns were merchants and craftsmen, unlike peasants, were commoners with skills useful for managing money and making military equipment. In addition, these skilled commoners did not have a title or special privileges like the nobles. Similarly to how the Absolute Monarchs used peasant soldiers to reduce the military need for the nobles, the Absolute Monarchs began to employ skilled commoners because their organizational and managerial skills were useful to a monarch who wanted to directly control a kingdom, rather than depend on the indirect rule through nobles.

The absolute monarchs were able to directly control large areas of land through the use of armies that they commanded and ruling through a government administration that followed orders. The peasants and townspeople who became the soldiers in the army and the government administrators were loyal and obedient to the monarch because their power came from the monarch. They were more loyal than the nobles because they did not have a title that protected their privileges and they could not give their power to their children. The direct control that the absolute monarchs had over their lands allowed them to collect the tax money needed to pay for the soldiers and government administrators. The absolute monarchs supported an economic system called mercantilism in which the government regulated and controlled the way the economy developed so as to increase the power of the government. The absolute monarchs worked to increase the size of the economy of the countries they ruled because the wealthier the country became the more the absolute monarch could tax the people which meant that they could employ a larger army. In the mercantile system the government financially supports the building of industry and manufacturing, builds roads and canals to promote trade within the country and increases the amount of gold and silver in the country by exporting more to other countries than it imports from those countries. These mercantilist policies were focused on benefiting the absolute monarchs and often the people in their countries suffered and became poorer (because of high taxes) despite the growing economies. The absolute monarchs also engaged in large building projects that help them increase their power and prestige. The absolute monarchs hired the best artists and builders to build large palaces, and even cities, which became centers of culture and art. These displays of wealth were important because they impressed both the absolute monarch’s subjects and people in other countries and this impression made it less likely that people rebel against the monarchs or want to attack a country that seemed so powerful. The absolute monarchs used these building projects to further weaken the nobles by requiring them to live in the monarch’s palace or city so the monarch could keep an eye on them. However, often the nobles wanted to live in these places because of the glamorous art and culture associated with the absolute monarchs. The period of the absolute monarchs is important because the large lands they were able to unite under their direct control became powerful countries. These lands that were originally tied together by the army, roads and administration of the absolute monarchs overtime became countries that were connected by common language and culture. These connections of language and culture slowly became more powerful than the absolute monarchs, and in the long run became the building blocks for the creation of modern nations.