Transcript Absolute Monarchs of Europe

Absolute Monarchs of Europe
Ch. 21
Philip II
Absolute Monarchs
Philip II
 Son of Charles V
 Took power after Charles V divided his empire into 5 parts
and retired to a monastery.
 Inherited Spain, Spanish Netherlands, and the American
Colonies.
 Philip was considered shy, serious, and deeply religious.
 Philip’s guarded personality left many people suspicious of
him, and he was equally suspicious of other people.
 His court historian wrote, “His smile and his dagger were very
close.”
Philip’s Empire
 Thanks to the American Colonies, Spain was becoming very
rich.
 Between 1550 and 1650, Spain had imported 339,000 pounds
of gold and 16,000 tons of silver from the Americas.
 Free money, thanks to mercantilism!!!
How much money?
 Time for some math: get your calculator’s out.
 Based on today’s prices, let’s see how much gold and silver
was stolen from the Americas.
 This gold and silver was mined by the Native Americans, who
were never paid for their work or minerals.
 Today, gold is selling at $1100/ ounce and silver at $16.40/
ounce
Do the Math
Gold @ $1,100/ounce
Silver @ $16.40/ounce
 339,000 lb of gold
 16,000 tons of silver
 Convert lbs to oz:
 Convert tons to oz:
339,000 X 16
 5,424,000 oz X $1,100
 $5,966,400,000
16,000 X 2,000 X 16
 512,000,000 oz X $16.40
 $8,396,800,000
Total: $14,363,200,000
Philip’s Cut
 The king himself kept between ¼ to 1/5 of every shipload for his
royal share
 $14,363,200,000 X .25
 So, King Philip II kept about $3,590,800,000 worth of gold.
 Since money = power, it was pretty easy to see how Philip
continued to gain more power until he was ultimately considered
Spain’s absolute monarch.
The Escorial,
Philip II’s Palace
El Escorial
Defender of Catholicism
 Philip II took the throne while Europe was experiencing
many religious wars.
 1571, Philip sent the Spanish Armada to fight against the
Ottoman Empire’s Navy
 The Battle at Lepanto was one of the world most decisive battles, with the
Spanish Armada completely destroying the Ottoman Empire’s Navy.
 Later, he battled against Protestant England.
 Didn’t fare as well. His fleet was defeated.
 These many religious battles, along with rising inflation from
all of that free money from the American Colonies, would
eventually cause the Spanish state to declare bankruptcy!
 Que Lastima!!!
Louis XIV
Absolute Monarchs
King Louis XIV
 His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, lasted seventy-two years,
three months, and eighteen days.
 longest documented reign of any European monarch.
 Became ruler when he was only 5
 When he first became king, the true ruler of France was Cardinal
Mazarin.
 Many nobles hated Mazarin because he increased taxes and strengthened the
central government.
 During many of the riots, Louis’ young life was threatened by the upset
nobles.
 Louis remembered this and determined to become so powerful that he could never be
threatened again.
 His hatred of the nobles would later affect France’s balance of power.
 When Cardinal Mazarin died in 1661, the 23 year-old Louis took
control of the government.
 Almost immediately, Louis weakened the power of the nobles.
 He excluded them from his councils
 In contrast, he increased the power of government officials called
intendants.
 Intendants worked for Louis, collecting taxes and administering justice.
 Louis devoted himself to helping France attain economic, political,
and cultural brilliance.
 His minister of finance, Jean Baptiste Colbert assisted in achieving these
goals.
 Colbert passed many laws that benefited French business while
discouraging imported goods.
 French business was booming, until Colbert’s death.
 Louis inadvertently hurt the French economy by cancelling the Edict of
Nantes, which protected the religious freedom of the Huguenots.
 As a result, many of the Huguenot businessmen and artists fled the
country.
 This robbed the country of many skilled workers.
Fancy Pants Louis
 Louis spent a fortune to surround
himself with luxury.
 Every meal was a feast
 One observer reported that once devoured
four plates of soup, a whole pheasant, a
partridge in garlic sauce, two slices of ham,
a salad, a plate of pastries, fruit, and hardboiled eggs in a single sitting!
 Nearly 500 cooks, waiters, and other
servants worked to satisfy his needs.
 While walking around his palace, he
enjoyed looking at the fountains.
However, there was not enough water
pressure to run them all at once.
 So, a servant would run ahead of Louis,
turn on the fountain just before Louis
would see it, then turn it off after he had
walked past.
Don’t be tryin’ to
look up my skirt. I
got my tights on….
Is my shirt
tail hanging
out?
Seriously, what
the heck am I
wearing?
The Palace at Versailles
Cost: estimated $2 billion
Main
building:
500 yards
long
2,000 rooms
15,000 acres of gardens
1,400 fountains
Labor force:
36,000 laborers
6,000 horses
The Daily Routine
 Every Morning, the chief valet woke Louis at 7:30
 Outside the curtains of his canopy bed stood at least 100 of
the most privileged nobles in France, waiting to help the king
dress.
 Only 4 were given the honor of handing him his slippers or
holding his sleeves for him
 Once he was dressed, the lesser nobles waited outside his
bedroom, hoping Louis would notice them.
 A kingly nod, a glance of approval, a kind word, – these signs of
royal attention determined whether a noble would succeed or
fail.
A V O I C E F R O M T H E PA S T
 He looked to the right and to the left, not only upon rising
but upon going to bed, at his meals, in passing through his
apartments, or his gardens. . . . He marked well all absentees
from the Court, found out the reason of their absence, and
never lost an opportunity of acting toward them as the
occasion might seem to justify. . . . When their names were in
any way mentioned, “I do not know them,” the King would
reply haughtily.
DUKE OF SAINT-SIMON, Memoirs of Louis XIV and the Regency
Why all the attention?
 It obviously appealed to Louis’ arrogance.
 However, there was an alternative reason that Louis required
his nobles wait on him daily.
 During the feudal times, nobles were very powerful because
they had tremendous freedom to govern as they wished.
 By making the nobles stay within the grounds of Versailles, they
no longer had free time to govern.
 With no time to govern, they lost control of their subjects and, thus, lost
their power.
 That power over the citizens now belonged to King Louis.
 In this sly way, Louis did limit the powers of the nobles, all
without a fight!!!
Louis: Smart guy, bad decisions
War
 1667- invaded Spanish
Netherlands
 1672-invaded Dutch
Netherlands
 1680’s- many other minor
wars with small European
countries
 1689- Many European
countries joined together to
defeat France. Now, even the
small countries had the
protection of the powerful
nations.
Result
 Frequent wars, massive
taxation, and a series of
poor harvests brought
great suffering to the
French people.
 The people were tired of
the King Louis.
 When he died in 1715, the
people of France rejoiced.
Ivan the Terrible
Absolute Rulers
Ivan
 Became ruler when he was only 3.
 The boyars, or nobles, tried to control Ivan when he was
young.
 At the age of 16, he claimed the throne and crowned himself
czar.
 A Czar is an absolute ruler, taken from the Roman “Caesar”
 Married the beautiful Anastasia
 From 1547 to 1560 were known as Ivan’s good period.
 Won great war victories, passed many good laws, and ruled
justly
Now, the Terror
 In 1560, Anastasia died.
 He accused the boyars of poisoning Anastasia.
 He turned against the nobles
 Organized a police force whose job was to hunt down and
murder people he considered traitors.

This secret police force dressed in black and rode black horses.
 Ivan had thousands of people murdered.
 At the height of “crazy”, he killed his oldest son, who was the
heir to his throne.
 When Ivan died 3 years later, he was forced to leave his
kingdom to his weak second son.
Rise of the Romanovs
 Ivan’s son was both physically and mentally incapable of
ruling over Russia.
 After he died without an heir, Russia went through the “Time of
Troubles” in which many boyars were fighting for the throne.
 Eventually, representatives met and chose Michael Romanov,
grandnephew of Anastasia, as the next leader.
Peter the Great
Absolute Monarchs
Peter the Great
 A descendant of Michael Romanov, Peter at first had to share
the throne with his feeble- minded half brother.
 Eventually, Peter became the sole ruler of Russia.
 Came to be known as Peter the Great because he was one of
Russia’s greatest leaders and reformers.
 He was a big man, over 6’6” tall!!!
Russia’s differences from Europe
 During the beginning of Peter’s reign, Russia was still stuck
in the Middle Ages while the rest of Europe was evolving.
 Nobles ruled over serfs
 Their land was physically cut off from interaction with Western
Europe.
 Religious differences (remember the Great Schism) had
separated the Eastern Christianity in Russia from the Western
Christianity in Western Europe.
Peter visits the West
 1 year after becoming czar, he embarked on the “Grand
Embassy”, a long visit to Western Europe.
 His goal was to learn more about Western Europe’s customs and
industrial techniques.
 On his journey, he insisted on keeping his identity secret.
 This was hard to conceal, considering he traveled with 200
servants and 55 boyars.
 Still, he dressed in plain clothes and would rebuke anyone who
addressed him as “Sire” or “Your Majesty.”
 He visited England and Austria before returning home.
Peter’s Reforms
 Peter was determined to Westernize Russia.
 He wanted to remake Russia using Western ideas and technology.
 He knew that many people would refuse, so he increased his
power as an absolute ruler.
 He:
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Brought the Russian Orthodox Church under state control
Abolished the office of patriarch, which was head of the church
Reduced the power of the wealthy landowners.
In order to gain loyalty, he took power away from the wealthy and
gave that power to lower-ranking families that promised loyalty.
 These men and women pledged their lives to Peter.
 Hired European military offices to drill his soldiers
Westernizing Russia
 In order to make Russia more like Western Europe, he:
 Introduced potatoes, which would later become the staple food
of Russia.
 Started Russia’s 1st newspaper (edited the 1st edition himself)
 Raised women’s status by having them attend social gatherings
 Ordered nobles to give up their traditional clothes for Western
European fashions.
A New Capital
 Peter believed Russia’s future depended on having a warm-water
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seaport.
To promote education and growth, Peter wanted a seaport that
would make it easier to travel to the West.
He began building the new capital on the swampy, unhealthy lands
close to the Baltic Sea.
An estimated 25,000 to 100,000 died from disease and poor
working conditions while building St. Petersburg, which is
named after Peter’s patron saint.
When it was finished, he ordered many of the Russian nobles to
leave the comforts of Moscow and relocate to St. Petersburg.