Absolutism In Russia

In early modern europe, from the sixteenth to the early eighteenth century, a revolution in state building transformed what it meant to be a strong state. Modern states were moving away from the archaic feudal and isolationist traditions of warring nobles to more modern ideas of government, from the English Constitutional Monarchy to the Prussian Autocracy, governments and states attempted to and largely succeeded in placing more power in the government. Though still true of parliamentary systems, this was especially important in the development of absolutist traditions-- and how they played off their state's fledgling national identities. By examining two absolutist states, France and Russia, it is clear that the central theme of nation

Determined to stop the conflict, newly ascended Henry IV of France signed the Edict of Nantes in 1598, guaranteeing that Protestant regions and towns had the right to remain Protestant. While this quelled the bloodshed, it also inserted regional tensions into the Estates General, and if it were to be called, it would be unable to assist him in his task of reconstruction. Despite acting alone, Henry did achieve demonstrative success in this task. He built roads, refinanced the government, and re-established a system of justice, without any Estates General. These successes made the idea of an absolute monarch much more easily accepted by French nobility. Henry forced cooperation on a France that did not seem to be unifiable. However, in this disunification he had no choice but to act on his own. This, in turn, laid the foundation for the absolutist policy that his Bourbon successors would be known for. But this grew out of legitimate crisis: he was not an arbitrary despot who used the civil war

However, in 1610, Henry IV was murdered by a fanatic monk who believed him to be a menace to the Catholic Church. With the symbol of a strong government dead, the nobility rallied and demanded a meeting of the Estates General. The incapable assembly was unable to accomplish anything, and Marie de’Medici, widow of the late Henry, gradually shifted power to Cardinal Richelieu, chief Minister. Richelieu filled the void of a strong king-like figure in the government, as he further centralized the government by restraining the power of militant nobles, creating the intendant system to collect taxes, and stripping protestants of their political rights to avoid civil war. Henry may have laid the foundation for the absolutist trend in French Monarchs, but his strength in life left a void in death. In the absence of a strong central governmental figure, the nobility became restless and when the assembly failed to accomplish anything, Richelieu, did. By filling the vacuum left by Henry IV, he secured the absolutist destiny of the French Monarchy. Louis XIV, Henry’s grandson, who ascended to the monarchy in 1638, capitalized on this destiny. He personally ruled the kingdom from his temple of vanity at Versaille, from which he