Absolutism and its Critics

Abstract

In the early modern period of European history, absolute monarchy emerged from a general crisis to maintain its position as the predominant form of government from Spain to Russia, most notably in France. There, the reign of Louis XIV could be called the apogee of absolutism, and the first documents (nos. 1, 2 and 3) are intended to promote discussion of the nature of Louis’s power, and of early and later threats to it. While Louis reigned in France, the Romanovs were building up their authority at Europe’s eastern extremity. Peter the Great brought this process near to completion, and document no. g is an assessment of his work by one of the many foreigners who entered his service. Catherine the Great developed and refined the state created by Peter, attempting, for example, to give it the ideological basis of an enlightened despotism (no. 6). Her despotism became less enlightened after a severe threat had been posed to it in the shape of the revolt led by Pugachev, whose decrees reflected the ideology of the various groups participating in it (no. 7). A living threat to absolutism in general in the seventeenth century was the success of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, which impressed visitors from abroad, such as Sir William Temple from the restored English monarchy. In the eighteenth century, absolutism was under attack from several quarters, including the intellectual. This could be seen in the influence of the Encyclopedia, the prospectus of which is included here as document no. 8, and in a growing crisis much greater than that of the seventeenth century, which was to give governments of all complexions, including the Dutch Republic, a tremendous shock (no. 9), and to remove absolute monarchy from one of its chief perches in France.