Powerful Absolute Monarchs

Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV was a powerful French monarch who ruled in the late 1600's to early 1700's. At the age of four Louis claimed the thrown, but he was not the true ruler of France until he was older. While technically Louis controlled France, the real ruler was Cardinal Mazarin. As discussed in The History of France, Mazarin was extremely corrupt and the French people did not respect him as their ruler because he was of Italian descent. It got even worse for the Cardinal after it was revealed that the royal treasury had no money. Mazarin blamed this on the Thirty Years' War, but the nobles were not satisfied and began to riot and revolt. At times these riots threatened the life of the young king. He never forgot these uprisings, and to prevent them from ever happening again he decided to become as powerful as possible to be able to crush the nobles if need be. He started his power search at the beginning of his real reign, when he declared himself his own prime minister. Meaning he eliminated the other main source of power in France. Now he had not only the power of a king, which had political and religious power because they believed God chose the kings, therefore going against a king was viewed as going against God. But also all the power that prime ministers previously had. He made his complete and utter power over his country clear to its people by saying "L'etat c'est moi." which translates to "The state is me." During his reign Louis gained the power of every part of his country. He controlled are the armed forces by creating a lieutenant-general position who controlled the police force. Louis had full control and allegiance of these generals. He also created an army who only answered to him. At the slightest hint of rebellion, he would send this force in and crush the riots before they even started.
One problem with Louis' ruling style was that he suppressed so many different religions and types of people, and was always paranoid of rebellion. At one point he locked up all the Gypsies, Protestants, beggars, jobless, mentally ill, "witches", and prostitutes he could get in Les Invaldives which is this big prison. He pissed off so many different people and had them locked up or shipped away. He was a big supporter of the arts and French literature flourished under his rule. But towards the end of his reign he began persecuting people with more vigor, the Protestants in particular. By doing this, he essentially sent most of his brilliant scientists, artists, workers and writers to his enemies like Prussia, the Netherlands, and England. He also fought long unnecessary battles against the Turks and a lot of non-Catholic and non-Christian empires, which cost a lot of money. He aimed to conquer all these people and be the great Catholic king of Europe, but that didn't happen, he just depleted his resources and died. He did manage to expand French territory, but he wanted more than he could ever get. W. Scott Haine explains it best when he says, "Louis tried to satisfy his virtually inexhaustible thirst for glory and power by waging war." He was constantly terrified of losing his power, and that's what really drove him to do all these things to get more power.

Ivan the Terrible of Russia

Ivan IV or as he's more commonly known, Ivan the Terrible, ruled Russia as the czar from 1547-1584. According to Absolute Terror: Ivan the Terrible, Ivan was orphaned at the age of eight, and after that "boyars" took care of Ivan and his brother Yuri. Except they didn't really take care of them. They were neglected and starving for most of their childhood, the boyars also molested them. He also witnessed murder, torture, and executions. Ivan had a lot of pent up anger and blood thirst and he would often torture and kill animals. Needless to say, Ivan had an awful upbringing that played a major role in making him the warmongering, cruel ruler he grew up to be. Ivan took the power away from the boyars in 1543, he made it very clear who was in charge by feeding Prince Andrew Shuisky, the leader of the boyars, to a pack of starving dogs. Ivan IV (The Terrible) explains how Ivan was fascinated with the arts and promoted literacy and artistic endeavors throughout Russia, like Louis XIV in France. In 1547 Ivan became the first ruler to title himself the tsar which means Caesar in Russian. He started off his new rule by expanding Russian territories, building up the military, and eliminating corruption. Soon after his first wife Anastasia Romanovna gave birth to Ivan's son, they both died. Ivan became very paranoid and suspected the boyars of poisoning his family. Ivan only had a handful of advisers, and at this point he started to truly become an absolute ruler. He killed one of his advisers and sent the other to jail. A few years later he left Moscow and wouldn't come back until he was given absolute power over everything. His blackmail worked, and Ivan became a full blown absolute ruler. After he gained sole power over Russia, Ivan, like Louis, created a group called the Oprichniki. They were a group of warriors loyal only to him, who rode all around Russia threatening everyone they could find. This is how Ivan made sure his people obeyed him fully. Also, anytime Ivan heard even the smallest rumor of rebellion, he ordered the whole town to be tortured and killed, he did this multiple times. Ivan's downfall was his paranoia and mental instability. He slaughtered his own people over small rumors, and was generally a very unstable bloodthirsty ruler. Like Louis, he was always afraid of losing his power or having to share it. This fueled his paranoia and caused him to kill all those people.

Philip II of Spain

Philip II was the ruler of Spain, the Netherlands, and for a time, Portugal. He felt like God was calling him to conquer as much land as possible and convert everyone to Catholicism. So that is exactly what he tried to do. in the Netherlands, Philip's Catholic views were not very popular, and for many years civil wars were fought between the Protestants and Philip's troops. During this time, Philip married Mary I, or Bloody Mary, which briefly caused an alliance between Spain and England. He only married Mary to try to rule England through her, but only a year into their marriage Mary died.Philip felt that it was "God's will" that he convert the British to Catholicism, so he did not give up on his pursuits of ruling England. He did however, put them on hold. What really caused Philip to go after England was when Elizabeth I, the then current queen of England, sent troops to help the Protestant troops in the Netherlands. This helped the people he tried so hard to suppress and prevent their religious freedoms fight against him even more. But the final straw was when English ships kept attacking Spanish ships coming back from the New World. When Elizabeth didn't tell her ships to stop the attacks, Philip decided to conquer England. He sent a fleets up to the Netherlands and after many were picked off there, they went down to England. Very few ships made it back to Spain.

Philip's downfall was that he was too ambitious with his attacks, and he was always very slow to let something go because he felt God was always calling him to wage war and end countless lives. Of coarse Philip saw it as expanding Catholicism and carrying out God's will. Not suppressing and murdering people. He always wanted more land, more people to be converted, and he hardly ever gave up on an endeavor. Even after his fleet's numbers were largely reduced after passing through the Netherlands, he still had them push on to England where they were obliterated. He wanted too much power, and wasn't practical about whether or not he could actually get the power.

Akbar the Great of India

I consider Akbar to be the most successful absolute ruler out of these five, except for maybe Louis XIV. While he was in control of the Mughal empire, it tripled in size and became much more wealthy. As said in Akbar the Great, Akbar abolished a tax on Hindus called the sectarian tax. He was one of the only absolute rulers who weren't killing his own people, or preventing religious freedom. He was the first Mughal leader to earn the loyalty of Hindu people, because he didn't discriminate against them. He participated in Hindu festivals, had books translated into Hindu to encourage them to become literate, and he married a Rajput princess. Rajputs were Hindu warriors, who after the marriage were allied with Akbar. He also allowed people from all over the Islamic world to come to his empire and participate in discussions and to study literature. He created a library with books written in all different languages. A possible downfall for Akbar would be the Christian empires wanting to conquer his empire and convert his people to Christianity. Aside from that, Akbar improved his empire in terms of wealth, size, allies and tolerance.

Frederick William of Prussia

Frederick ruled Prussia from 1713 to 1740. He improved Prussia by making a better army and a more centralized government. Count von Sechendorf explains how the Prussian troops were obsessed with beauty and order. Everything about them was efficient and orderly, from drills to their tactics in warfare. Frederick also made sure that all civil servants were completely and fully loyal to him. This allowed him to control more and more aspects of his country. At the beginning of his rule he abolished all the previous armies of his successor Adam von Schwartzenberg. Immediately afterward, he made an army loyal to only him, and allied himself with powers like France. He added more territory to Prussia. He was able to have complete control over the country by making sure all the civil servants were fiercely loyal to him, and that they kept a vigilant eye on all those working for them.

Frederick's downfall was partially due to circumstance. Later on in his reign, the Tartars killed or enslaved many Prussians. Also there were very bad problems with the agriculture in Prussia during that same time. In order to afford importing more food, and to fight back against the Tartars, Frederick increased the taxes. His people did not like this, and on top of all these problems he had to deal with he still fought the king of France Louis XIV.

Absolutism

 I think almost all absolute rulers fail in some way because they are always too ambitious in their need for power. They sacrifice the needs and well being of their people to gain more power. A ruler is supposed to protect and look out for the citizens of their country, and aside from Akbar, these rulers suppressed, overly taxed, and murdered their own people to pursue power. These rulers were willing to sacrifice everything to gain more. For example, Philip sent a fleet of ships to England they were hugely outnumbered especially after they fought a couple battles along the way in the Netherlands. A weak, now small fleet of ships fighting against one of the most powerful countries of the time, this mission was obviously going to fail. But Philip was blinded by his lust for power and essentially murdered everyone on those ships. Ivan was even worse, he would kill whole towns just because there was the smallest chance that they might threaten his power. Akbar was the only ruler who didn't hurt his people in his search for power, and he was the only one who didn't have any major ways he could be overthrown. Absolute monarchy failed because they were too power hungry and people followed them without question partially because of fear and because they believed that God chose the monarchs.

Works Cited:

Haine, W. S. The History of France. Westport: Greenwood Group, 2000. Print.

Witherbee, Amy. "Ivan IV (the Terrible)." History Reference Center. EBSCO Industries, Inc., 2014. Web. <http%3A%2F%2Fweb.a.ebscohost.com%2Fhrc%2Fdetail%3Fvid%3D4%26sid%3D0ce7879e-b06d-4ea2-92f8-6e32ac9be370%2540sessionmgr4001%26hid%3D4206%26bdata%3DJnNpdGU9aHJjLWxpdmU%253d%23db%3Dkhh%26AN%3D27455261>.

 Haarman, Susan. "Absolute Terror: Ivan the Terrible." Western Civilization. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2014. <http://academic.mu.edu/meissnerd/ivan-terrible.htm>.

Moose, Christina J., ed. "Akbar Mughal Emperor of India." The Renaissance & Early Modern Era. Vol. I. Pasadena: Salem, 2005. 15-17. Print.

Moose, Christina J., ed. "Philip II King of Spain." The Renaissance & Early Modern Era. Vol. II. Pasadena: Salem, 2005. 778-81. Print.

"Akbar the Great." Taj Mahal. PBS, n.d. Web. <http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/taj_mahal/tlevel_2/t1mughal_2akbar.html>.

"The Decline of the Holy Roman Empire and the Rise of Prussia." Internet History Sourcebooks. Fordham University, n.d. Web. 15 May 2014. <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/hre-prussia.asp>. 

Sommerville, J. P. "Prussia in the Later 17th Century." Prussia in the Later 17th Century. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2014. <http://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/351/351-151.htm>.