Examples Of Absolute Monarchs Of Louis Xiv

In the 15th and 16th centuries, absolute monarchs in western and eastern Europe were qualified by being the sole rulers of their state, expansionism, inspiring loyalty, and centralization of political, economic, and social powers. Perhaps the greatest example of an absolute monarch, Louis XIV of France, summarized absolut views “I am the state.” Louis, also known as Sun King, made efforts to have France completely revolve around himself. Monarchs greedy strive towards power, left Europe in desperate need in political, and most importantly social reform, making way for philosophes and later enlightened despotism to improve quality of life. Philosophes were thinkers of the 18th century who concentrated on expressing social problems, causing

Two or Three examples of varying philosophe views. Monarchs became invested in these ideas through contact with philosophes, and became one part enlightened and other part tyrannical, autocratic despots. But just how enlightened varied per ruler. So called “enlightened despots”, such as Frederick the Great and Catherine the Great, only undertook these enlightened notions when it benefited their own power. Joseph II was a monarch, but not a despot because he ruled in an enlightened way, without absolute qualities.
Frederick II, commonly known as Frederick the Great, was king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786. Frederick's father, Fredrick Williams I cultivated a forceful Prussian army and a militarized nation. Frederick the Great used this military against Maria Theresa’s Habsburg Empire and took control of Silesia, breaking the Pragmatic Sanctions. Frederick ruled in ways that are reminiscent of Peter the Great, an absolute ruler of

As for how she achieved this, Catherine had to be a tyrannical despot just to come to power. She married Peter III of Russia and then had one of her many lovers kill him so she could become the autocratic ruler. Similarly to Peter the Great, Catherine encouraged art and philosophe by way of patronizing and was celebrated by philosophese for restricting torture and making efforts to create an enlightened law code, where Peter the Great, generations before, had only westernized Russia to centralize his own power. Furthermore, Catherine succeeded where other rulers had failed in modernization of Russia, proving her enlighteness. A woman who rules with such power cannot encourage radical thinking unconditionally, because adventually it will threaten her own power as it came to be during Pugachev’s Rebellion. During Catherine the Great’s reign serfdom took place in much of Europe, where former peasants had lost rights to landlords by way of absolute monarchs attempts to keep nobles on their side. Serfs were exasperated with their restrictions and began the rebellion. Another key idea to keep in mind is that the Russian economy relied on serfdom, and if it faltered, it could have destroyed social, economic, and political structure. To protect her state, consequently, Catherine ended her enlightened reign, and became more oppressive by