Absolutism

In the 17th and 18th centuries, various European monarchs claimed absolute powers within their states. Monarchs claimed a divine right to rule with their subjects having no claim to limit their powers. The Danish “King's Law” of 1665 states that the monarch was the most perfect and supreme person and stood above all human laws, having no judge above him apart from God. Louis XIV of France is claimed to have stated, “L'État c'est moi” (“the state is me”). The Russian tsars Ivan III, Ivan IV, Peter the Great, and Catherine the Great all had absolute powers; Russia had no parliament until 1905. Even in the 1906 constitution, the tsar is described as an autocrat. Similarly, absolute monarchs ruled in Austria, Portugal, Prussia, and Sweden.

The term absolutism is thus often used to describe the nature of the state in these countries at [Page 3]this time. These monarchs had great formal powers, which in practice extended to closing down other power centers, emasculating parliaments, creating powerful bureaucracies and standing armies, and generally centralizing power to a greater extent than previously happened. This was the time when many European nation-states were formed, though not all had absolutist rulers. The English Civil War was caused by Charles I's attempt to assert absolutist powers. The idea of a single supreme sovereign power was an influential doctrine given rational rather than religious justification by Thomas Hobbes, precisely because of the fear that divided sovereignty would lead to discord, strife, and civil war. Even Hobbes, though, argued that sovereigns cannot arbitrarily take the life of subjects: that is one power too far because undivided sovereignty is justified by the security it brings.

The power of these monarchs can be overemphasized. Certainly there were other centers of power, notably the churches and nobility, though absolutist monarchs attempted to enfeeble the latter by requiring them to work with state officials on their lands. Although the idea of absolutism was established at this time, it is not clear that the absolute rulers had significantly greater power than other rulers. Absolute rulers still needed to negotiate with barons and with the church and were beholden to powerful figures within their palaces and bureaucracies.