Crisis and Absolutism in Europe

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Crisis and Absolutism in Europe
Landscape with Merchants (1630), by Claude Lorrain
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I. Wars of Religion

• Reformation created Opponents Conflict
• Protestants and Catholics battled for territory
  authority
• No room for compromise
• only one TRUE faith
• Compounded by Monarchies
• One Ruler promoting One Faith
• Belief of Nobles?

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I. Wars of Religion

• French Wars of Religion (1562-1598)
• Monarchy, vast majority of subjects were Catholic
• Half of nobility were Huguenots
• French Protestants influenced by Calvin
• Peasants side with Huguenots. Why?

Saint Bartholomews Day Massacre(1630), by
Francois Dubois
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I. Wars of Religion

• French Wars of Religion (cont.)
• After many battles, Huguenots win
• Henry of Navarre
• Political leader of Huguenots
• Takes throne as Henry IV
• Converts to Catholicism, why?
• Edict of Nantes (1598)
• Catholicism still official religion
• But Huguenots free to worship, hold public office

Henry IV
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I. Wars of Religion Militant Spanish Catholicism

• Philip II, the Most Catholic King, wanted more
  control over his lands
• Used religion to do so
• Resistance in Spanish Netherlands
• Calvinists destroy Catholic statues
• William the Silent, prince of Orange
• 12yrs of war Dutch independence
• Spain has large empire (where?)
• But also very large debt

King Philip II of Spain
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I. Wars of Religion The England of Elizabeth

• Inherits throne from Bloody Mary
• Repeals Catholic-Friendly laws
• Sought to balance power of France and Spain
• If one seemed to be gaining power, she favored
  the other
• Led to war with Spain
• Spain wanted a Catholic England
• Spanish Armada fails

Queen Elizabeth I of England
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I. Wars of Religion

• The Thirty Years War (1618-1648)
• Battle over religion, politics, territory
• Begins in Holy Roman Empire
• Calvinists nobles (Protestants)
• Ignored by Peace of Augsburg
• Hapsburg Emperors (Catholic)
• France, Spain, others get involved
• Struggle for European dominance
• Devastated German people, land
• Peace of Westphalia (1648)
• All German states able to choose religion
• France now dominant, end of H.R.E.

Battle on the Charles Bridge (1648), Petri Krohn
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II. Rise of Absolutism

• Religious crisis creates need for stability
• Requires strong rulers that resist change
• Absolutism
• System where ruler has total power
• Who put this guy in charge?
• Justification Divine Right of Kings
• King receives power from God
• Responsible only to God

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King Louis XIV of France

• Rise to power
• 1643 Louis takes throne, age 5
• Cardinal Mazarin rules for him
• Stops rebellion, strengthens crown
• Dies when Louis is age 23
• Louis XIV takes complete control
• Builds myth of Sun King

King Louis XIV, the Sun King
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King Louis XIV of France (cont.)

• Palace at Versailles (VURH-sigh)
• Personal household of King
• Many nobles moved in as well
• Louis encouraged it. Why?
• Place where powerful subjects came to find
  favors, offices
• Center of elite French culture
• Examples?

The Palace at Versailles
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II. Rise of Absolutism

• King Louis XIV of France (cont.)
• Religious Policy
• Goal maintain religious harmony
• Anti-Protestant policies
• Hoped to Convert Huguenots
• Destruction of churches, schools
• Huguenots flee
• Economy War
• Adhered to mercantilistic policies
• Waged four wars for fame, land
• On deathbed Regretted war, overspending

Reception of Le Grand Condé at Versailles, by
Jean-Léon Gérôme (1878)
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Wars of King Louis XIV

• War of Devolution 1667-1668
• Spanish Netherlands
• Gains 12 Dutch cities, costs
• The Dutch War 1672-1678
• Treay of Nijmegenneutrality
• Gains Comte-Franche (land) loses
• War of Spanish Succession 1700-1713
• Who will lead Spain? Hapsburg or Bourbon?
• Bourbon becomes King of Spain, but France loses
  N. American territories and Netherlands

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II. Rise of Absolutism

• Pros
• Efficient government
• In touch with people
• Wealth
• Cons
• Taxation system
• Peasants and nobility

Reception of Le Grand Condé at Versailles, by
Jean-Léon Gérôme (1878)
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III. Changes in England

• English Revolution
• Tudor Dynasty ends, enter James I
• King of Scotland
• Believed in Divine Right of Kings
• Role of British Parliament?
• Roots from Magna Carta
• Assumed King shares ruling power
• Puritans (English Calvinists)
• Wanted less moderate Church of England
• Gentry, landowners, Parliament

King James I of England and Scotland
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III. Changes in England

• English Revolution (cont.)
• Charles I
• Supports Divine Right of Kings
• Refuses power to Parliament
• Imposes more religious ritual
• Many Puritans head to America
• 1642 Civil War
• Cavaliers support King Charles
• Roundheads back Parliament
• Led by Oliver Cromwell

Charles I
Oliver Cromwell
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III. Changes in England

• English Revolution (cont.)
• Oliver Cromwell
• Defeats, executes Charles I
• Cleans house in Parliament
• Abolished monarchy, declared England a
  commonwealth
• Frustrated by Parliament, set up military
  dictatorship
• Restoration
• Cromwell dies, monarchy returns
• Charles II Catholic sympathizer
• James II Devout Catholic. conflict?

Charles II
James II
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III. Changes in England

• Glorious Revolution
• James II had 2 Protestant daughters
• His successor would be Protestant
• had son with 2nd wife, a Catholic
• William of Orange (Dutch)
• Son-in-law of James II (Mary)
• Invited by English nobles to invade
• bloodless Glorious Revolution
• William and Mary are monarchs
• Accepted a Bill of Rights from Parliament
• Legitimized role of Parliament
• Granted individual rights
• No Catholic could be monarch
• Solidified Constitutional Monarchy

William and Mary
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IV. Eastern Absolutism Prussia

• Fredrick William the Great Elector
• Small, open land, no natural defense
• Builds 4th largest army in Europe
• Creates General War Commissariat
• Levy taxes, oversees army
• Runs civil services
• Bureaucracy chief tool for rule
• Son becomes King Frederick I

The Prussian State Frederick William, the Great
Elector
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IV. Eastern Absolutism Austria (the Hapsburgs)

• Holy Roman Empire collapses
• Expand south east (defeat Turks)
• Gain large territory, but never becomes full
  absolutist state
• Many different national groups
• Lack of common identity, culture

Seal of the Hapsburgs
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IV. Eastern Absolutism

• Absolutist Russia
• Continual expansion (p. 446)
• Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible)
• First czar, Russian for Caesar
• Crushed power of Boyars (nobles)
• Time of Troubles anarchy
• Peter the Great, 1689
• Claims Divine Right of Kings
• Determined to Westernize
• Updates Army, founds Navy
• St. Petersburg window to West

Russian Expansion, St. Petersburg, and Peter the
Great
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IV. Eastern Absolutism

• Effects of Enlightenment in Eastern Europe
• Prussia
• Frederick I
• Strong bureaucracy to serve King
• Strong state through strong army
• Frederick II (Frederick the Great)
• Big army to watch over bureaucrats
• Abolished torture
• Limited free speech religion
• Kept rigid class system, serfdom

William I and William the Great of Prussia
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IV. Eastern Absolutism Enlightenment in Austria

• Austria
• Maria Theresa (Empress in 1740)
• Tried to centralize Austrian Empire
• Give more power to state
• ease conditions of serfs
• Joseph II, Marias son
• Abolished serfdom, death penalty
• Absolute religious toleration
• Failure, alienates those he tried to help (too
  much too soon)

Maria Theresa and Joseph II of Austria
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IV. Eastern Absolutism

• Enlightenment in E.Europe (cont)
• Russia
• Catherine the Great (1762-1796)
• Open to Enlightenment ideas of reform
• But does nothing, favors nobility over peasants
• Absolutist ideals help gain territory to the
  south and east

Catherine the Great of Russia