Analyze the extent to which rulers and their subjects viewed the proper role of an absolute monarch differently. Document 1

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1 DBQ 5 Absolutism Analyze the extent to which rulers and their subjects viewed the proper role of an absolute monarch differently. Historical Background: Absolutist governments were viewed by some as a solution to the upheaval of the Reformation and the subsequent rapid growth and change in seventeenth-century Europe. Absolute monarchs ruled over centralized bureaucracies that oversaw armies, trade, and agriculture, and they negotiated with other rulers to help maintain peace in the age of crisis. This new political system was adopted by governments in France, Spain, Prussia, Austria, and Russia. They were viewed by their subjects as the literal embodiment of a government that used suppression and the claim of God-given authority to carry out its abuses. Document 1 Source: Jean-Baptiste Colbert, French Minister of Finance, letter to Louis XIV, Having summarized the condition of domestic and foreign trade, it will perhaps not be inappropriate to say a few words about the advantages of trade. I believe everyone will easily agree to this principle, that only the abundance of money in a State makes the difference in its greatness and power. Aside from the advantages that the entry of a greater quantity of cash into the kingdom will produce, it is certain that, thanks to the manufactures, a million people who now languish in idleness will be able to earn a living. An equally considerable number will earn their living by navigation and in the seaports. The almost infinite increase in the number of [French] ships will multiply to the same degree the greatness and power of the State. These, in my opinion, are the goals that should be the aim of the King s efforts and of his goodness and love for his people. A-20

2 DBQ 5 A-21 Document 2 Source: Frontispiece for Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil, etching by Abraham Bosse, with input from author Thomas Hobbes, Private Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library. Document 3 Source: The Twelve Articles, manifesto of German peasants in Swabia, It has been the custom hitherto for men to hold us as their own property, which is pitiable enough, considering that Christ has delivered and redeemed us all, without exception, by the shedding of his precious blood, the lowly as well as the great. Accordingly, it is consistent with Scripture that we should be free and should wish to be so.... We are aggrieved by the appropriation by individuals of meadows and fields which at one time belonged to the community. These we will take again into our own hands.

3 A-22 Document-Based Questions Document 4 Source: King James VI of Scotland, True Law of Free Monarchies, And according to these fundamental laws already alleged, we daily see that in the Parliament (which is nothing else but the head court of the King and his vassals) the laws are but craved by his subjects, and only made by him at their rogation and with their advice. For albeit the King made daily statutes and ordinances, enjoining such pains thereto as he thinks meet, without any advice of Parliament or Estates, yet it lies in the power of no Parliament to make any kind of law or statute without his sceptre be to it for giving it the force of a law.... And as ye see it manifest that the King is overlord of the whole land, so is he master over every person that inhabiteth the same, having power over the life and death of every one of them. For although a just prince will not take the life of any of his subjects without a clear law, yet the same laws whereby he taketh them are made by himself or his predecessors, and so the power flows always from himself; as by daily experience we see good and just princes will from time to time make new laws and statutes, adjoining the penalties to the breakers thereof, which before the law was made had been no crime to the Subject to have committed. Document 5 Source: Arthur Young, English agricultural scientist, Travels [in France] During the Years 1787, 1788 and The abuses attending the levy of taxes were heavy and universal.... Such an enormous power, constantly acting and from which no man was free, must in the nature of things, degenerate in many cases into absolute tyranny.... What must have been the state of the poor people paying heavy taxes from which the nobility and clergy were exempted? A cruel aggravation of their misery to see those who could best afford to pay, exempted.... The Capitaineries [lords exclusive hunting rights] were a dreadful scourge on all the occupiers of the land.... Such were the exertions of arbitrary power which the lower orders felt directly from the royal authority. Document 6 Source: Adam Olearius, German diplomat to Moscow, Travels in Moscovy, ca Although the Russians, especially the common populace living as slaves under a harsh yoke, can bear and endure a great deal out of love for their masters, yet if the pressure is beyond measure... a dangerous indignation results, turned not so much against their sovereign as against the lower authorities, especially if the people have been much oppressed by them... and have not been protected by the higher authorities. Document 7 Source: French bishop Jacques Bossuet, Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture, There are four qualities essential to royal authority. First, the royal authority is sacred; second, it is paternal [fatherly]; third, it is absolute; fourth, it is submitted to reason.... Even when princes do not do their duty, we must respect their office and ministry.... However, because their power comes from above, princes must not think that they are free to use it at their pleasure; rather must they use it with fear and discretion, as a thing which comes to them from God, and of which God will demand a strict account.

4 DBQ 5 A-23 Document 8 Source: Catherine the Great, empress of Russia, Instruction (Nakaz) to the Legislative Commission of. 9. The Sovereign is absolute The Extent of the Dominion [of Russia] requires an absolute Power to be vested in that Person who rules over it What is the true End of Monarchy? Not to deprive people of their natural Liberty; but to correct their Actions, in order to obtain the supreme Good General or political Liberty does not consist in that licentious Notion, That a Man may do whatever he pleases. Document 9 Source: Louis XIV, king of France, letter to his heir from Mémoires for the Instruction of the Dauphin, ca.. Kings are absolute seigneurs, and from their nature have full and free disposal of all property both secular and ecclesiastical, to use it as wise dispensers, that is to say, in accordance with the requirements of their State. Document 10 Source: Hyacinthe Rigaud, Louis XIV, King of France and Navarre,. Scala/Art Resource, NY. 34_McK_68773_BM_AP1300_DBQ.indd A-23 9/1/10 11:32:58 AM

5 A-24 Document-Based Questions Document 11 Source: Siegfried Isaacsohn, History of the Prussian Civil Service, ca The absolute subordination of the Civil Service from the highest to the lowest, their unquestioning obedience to the King, together with their absolute responsibility not only for their own actions, but also for those of their colleagues and their inferiors, created among them an extremely strong sense of professional honour, solidarity, and of professional pride.... The service of the King required undivided attention. The King s uniform, which every Civil Servant had to wear when on duty, kept the feeling alive among them that they were the King s servants and had to represent the King s interests.