In the later portion of the 1600’s, the monarchical systems of both England and France were changing. England strayed away from an absolute monarch and ran toward a mightier parliament instead. The opposite was occurring in France as Louis XIV strengthened his own office while weakening the general assembly of France, the Estates General. Absolutism, the political situation in which a monarch controls makes all political, social, economic, and cultural decisions in a government without checks or balances, had been introduced by Charles I and James I. However, it never took hold. In France, Louis XIV took absolutism to extremes, claiming to be a servant of God. A limited monarch, England’s monarchical system, is a government in which a monarch
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They hoped to gain power by sanctioning the monarch. Bands of fighters, led by nobles, terrorized and plundered the lower classes around the country in an effort to deteriorate the king's authority. Eventually, they hired Spanish troops to carry on their fight, even though Spain and France were presently at war. Although the movement failed, it left an enduring imprint on the general public as to the worth of having a commanding monarch to safeguard them from things in analogous nature to the revolt. When the Cardinal died in 1661, Louis XIV, whom Cardinal Mazarin had been governing for a while, took supremacy. Louis XIV became the absolute, resilient ruler that France had been looking for to reestablish order in France. Louis XIV took hold of the country and put himself at the head of government. An excerpt from Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture seen in Document D states, “Without this absolute authority, the king could neither do good nor prevent evil. His power must be such that no one can hope to escape him”. It also states that, “Royal power is absolute”, and, “All the power of the individual subjects is united in the person of the king”. An example is evident in Document C when Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes. The Estates General was never called together, and most of the feudal lords were enticed to live in Versailles, a city Louis ordered built strictly for the consolidation of government. Louis managed to control all aspects of government, from economics to foreign policy, as is the definition of an absolute monarch. There were no large parliamentary bodies to challenge him as there had been in England, and Louis had support from the majority of the citizens of France, as opposed to
They hoped to gain power by sanctioning the monarch. Bands of fighters, led by nobles, terrorized and plundered the lower classes around the country in an effort to deteriorate the king's authority. Eventually, they hired Spanish troops to carry on their fight, even though Spain and France were presently at war. Although the movement failed, it left an enduring imprint on the general public as to the worth of having a commanding monarch to safeguard them from things in analogous nature to the revolt. When the Cardinal died in 1661, Louis XIV, whom Cardinal Mazarin had been governing for a while, took supremacy. Louis XIV became the absolute, resilient ruler that France had been looking for to reestablish order in France. Louis XIV took hold of the country and put himself at the head of government. An excerpt from Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture seen in Document D states, “Without this absolute authority, the king could neither do good nor prevent evil. His power must be such that no one can hope to escape him”. It also states that, “Royal power is absolute”, and, “All the power of the individual subjects is united in the person of the king”. An example is evident in Document C when Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes. The Estates General was never called together, and most of the feudal lords were enticed to live in Versailles, a city Louis ordered built strictly for the consolidation of government. Louis managed to control all aspects of government, from economics to foreign policy, as is the definition of an absolute monarch. There were no large parliamentary bodies to challenge him as there had been in England, and Louis had support from the majority of the citizens of France, as opposed to