Absolutism and its Alternatives
| Discussion topics | Documents | Audio | Reading |
Discussion Topics and Essay Questions
a) Absolutism
- Was absolutism really a 'myth'?
- To what extent was Louis XIV the model for European absolutist monarchs?
- 'Absolutism in the various countries of Europe shared few common features'. Discuss.
b) The Impact of War
- Was the 'military revolution' cause or consequence of a more sophisticated state apparatus?
- How deeply did warfare disrupt the lives of early modern Europeans?
c) The British Alternative
- Did Britain 'escape' absolutism?
- Which were more 'revolutionary' in their consequences, the events of the 1640s, or of the 1680s?
Documents
**NOTE: Some eresources are accessible only on-campus or via off-campus proxies or the athens service**
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Absolutism
The Impact of War
The British Alternative
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Absolutism
The Impact of War
The British Alternative
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Audio Links:
- BBC Radio 4 Programme 'Shadow of the Sun King' Episode 1 and Episode 2
- BBC Radio 4 'In Our Time Programme' 'The Building of St Petersburg'
- BBC Radio 4 'In Our Time Programme' 'The Trial of Charles I'
Search for suitable versions of the following pieces on http://uk.youtube.com
- The Prince of Denmark's March, Jeremiah Clarke
- Philidor La Marche Des Mousquetaires, Music for Louis XIV
- Music at the court of Louis XIV, Allemande 'La Fountainbleau'
Secondary Literature
Selected Key Texts
- P. Burke, ‘The Fabrication of Louis XIV’, History Today 42 (1992)
- H. Butters, 'State Building: Finance, Justice and 'Good Police', in B. Kumin (ed.), The European World, 1500-1800 (2014; 2nd ed.) (ebook)
- J. Glete, Warfare at Sea, 1500-1650: Maritime Conflicts and the Transformation of Europe (1999) (ebook)
- N. Henshall, The Myth of Absolutism (1992), scan of ch 2. 'Louis XIV Reassessed'
- J. Miller (ed.), Absolutism in Seventeenth Century Europe (1990)
- P.K. Monod, The Power of Kings: Monarchy and Religion in Europe, 1589-1715 (1999)
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J. Van Horn Melton, ‘Absolutism and “modernity” in early modern Central Europe’, German Studies Review 8 (1985)
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P. Wilson, Absolutism in Central Europe (2000) (ebook)
Further Reading
a) Absolutism
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D. Bohanan, Crown and nobility in early modern France (2001) (ebook)
- S. Brakensiek, 'New Perspectives on State-Building and the Implementation of Rulership in Early Modern European Monarchies' in A. Fluchter and S. Richter (ed.), Structures on the Move: Technologies of Governance in Transcultural Encounter (2012) (ebook)
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R. Butterwick (ed.), The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context 1500-1795 (2001) (ebook)
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J.B. Collins, The State in Early Modern France (2010) (ebook)
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J. Dewald, Aristocratic experience and the origins of modern culture: France, 1570-1715 (1993) (ebook)
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W. Doyle, The Old European Order, 1660-1800 (1992)
- P. Dukes, The Making of Russian Absolutism 1613-1801 (1990)
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R. Frost, ‘Early Modern State-Building, the Scandinavian Machtstaat, and the Shortcomings of Anglo-Scholarship’, Journal of Early Modern History 7 (2003)
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M. F. Graham, ‘Back to the political narrative in early modern France’, Sixteenth Century Journal 27 (1996)
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N. Henshall, ‘The myth of absolutism’, History Today 42 (1992)
- L. Hughes, Russia in the Age of Peter the Great (1998)
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A. James, The Origins of French Absolutism, 1598-1661 (2006)
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J. Kirshner et al. Supplement: ‘The Origins of the State in Italy, 1300-1600’, The Journal of Modern History, vol. 67 (1995)
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R.J. Knecht, ‘Absolutism in early modern France’, European History Quarterly 27 (1997) (review article)
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K. MacHardy, ‘The rise of absolutism and noble rebellion in early modern Habsburg Austria 1570-1620’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 34 (1992)
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G. Oestreich, ‘From Contractual Monarchy to Constitutionalism’, in Collins and Taylor (eds), Early Modern Europe: Issues and Interpretations (2002) (ebook)
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D. Parker, The Making of French Absolutism (1983)
- D.J.B. Shaw, '"A strong and prosperous condition" - the geography of state building and social reform in Peter the Great’s Russia', Political Geography 18 (1999) (available as print journal)
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D. Stone, The Polish-Lithuanian State 1386-1795 (2001) (ebook)
b) The Impact of War
- V. H. Aksan, Ottoman Wars, 1700-1870: An Empire Besieged (2007) (ebook)
- S. E. Amirell et al. (eds), Persistent Piracy: Maritime Violence and State-Formation in Global Historical Perspective (2014) (ebook)
- M.S. Anderson, War and Society in Europe of the Old Regime (1988)
- J. Black (ed.), The Origins of War in Early Modern Europe (1987)
- ", European Warfare 1494-1660 (2002) (ebook)
- “ , European warfare, 1660-1815 (1994) (ebook)
- “ , War in the Early Modern World (1999) (ebook)
- C. Carlton, Going to the Wars: The Experience of the British Civil Wars, 1638-1651 (1992) (ebook)
- J. Glete, War and the State in Early Modern Europe: Spain, the Dutch Republic and Sweden as Fiscal-military States (2001)
- J.R. Hale, War and Society in Renaissance Europe, 1450-1620 (1985)
- T. Helfferich (ed.), The Thirty Years War: A Documentary History (2009)
- A. James, ‘Warfare and the Rise of the State’, in M. Hughes and W.J. Philpott (eds), Palgrave Advances in Modern Military History (2006) (ebook)
- “ , The Navy and Government in Early Modern France, 1572-1661 (2004)
- ", 'Rethinking the Peace of Westphalia: Toward a Theory of Early Modern Warfare', in J. Davies (ed.), Aspects of Violence in Renaissance Europe (2013) (ebook)
- K. Jespersen, ‘Social change and the military revolution in early modern Europe’, Historical Journal 26 (1983)
- F.C. Lane, ‘Economic Consequences of Organized Violence’, Journal of Economic History 18 (1958)
- D. R. Lawrence, The Complete Soldier: Military Books and Military Culture in Early Stuart England, 1603-1645 (2008) (ebook)
- J. A. Lynn II, Women, Armies, and Warfare in Early Modern Europe (2008)
- M. Mallett and C. Shaw, The Italian Wars, 1494-1559: War, State and Society in Early Modern Europe (2012) (ebook)
- J. Morrill, The Revolt in the Provinces: The People of England and the Tragedies of War 1630-1648 (1999)
- G. Mortimer (ed), Early Modern Military History 1450-1815 (2004) (ebook)
- “ , Eyewitness Accounts of the Thirty Years War, 1618-48 (2002) (ebook)
- R. Murphey, Ottoman Warfare, 1500-1700 (1999).
- Q. Outram, ‘The Socio-Economic Relations of Warfare and the Military Mortality Crises of the Thirty Years’ War’, Medical History, 45 (2001)
- W. Palaver et al. (eds), The European Wars of Religion: An Interdisciplinary Reassessment of Sources, Interpretations, and Myths (2016) (ebook)
- D. Parrott, The Business of War: Military Enterprise and Military Revolution in Early Modern Europe (2012) (ebook)
- D. Parrott, Richelieu’s Army: War, Government and Society in France, 1624-1642 (2001)
- P. Roberts, Peace and Authority During the French Religious Wars c.1560-1600 (2014) (ebook)
- J.R. Ruff, Violence in Early Modern Europe (2001)
- B. Sandberg, War and Conflict in the Early Modern World: 1500-1700 (2016) (ebook)
- B. Sandberg, Warrior Pursuits: Noble Culture and Civil Conflict in Early Modern France (2010)
- C. Stevens, Russia's Wars of Emergence 1460-1730 (Routledge, 2007)
- B. Taylor, Politics and the Russian Army: Civil-Military Relations 1689-2000 (2003) (ebook)
- F. Tallett and D. J. B. Trim, eds., European Warfare 1350-1750 (2010) (ebook)
- F. Tallett, War and Society in Early Modern Europe (1992) (ebook)
- I.A.A. Thompson, War and Society in Habsburg Spain (1992)
- B. A. Tlusty, The Martial Ethic in Early Modern Germany: Civic Duty and the Right of Arms (2011) (ebook)
- O. Ulbricht, O., 'The Experience of Violence during the Thirty Years War: A Look at the Civilian Victims', in J. Canning, H. Lehmann, and J. Winter (eds), Power, Violence and Mass Death in Pre-modern and Modern Times (2004), 97–128.
- P. Wilson, ‘New Perspectives on the Thirty Years’ War’, German History 23 (2005)
- " , Europe's Tragedy: A New History of the Thirty Years War (2009)
- ", ed. and trans., The Thirty Years War: A Sourcebook (2010)
- D. Wolfthal, 'Jacques Callot's Miseries of War
, The Art Bulletin 59 (1977) - J.B. Wood, The King’s Army: Warfare, Soldiers, and Society during the Wars of Religion 1562-1576 (1996) (ebook)
c) The British Alternative (The Civil War and 'Glorious Revolution)
- J. Adamson (ed), The English Civil War: Conflict and Context, 1640-49 (2008)
- S. Barber, Regicide and republicanism: politics and ethics in the English revolution, 1646-1659 (1998) (ebook)
- J. Black, ‘A parliamentary foreign policy? The ‘glorious revolution’ and the conduct of British foreign policy’, Parliaments, Estates and Representation 11 (1991)
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M. J. Braddick, State Formation in Early Modern England c.1550-1700 (2000) (ebook)
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“ , The Nerves of State: Taxation and the Financing of the English State 1558-1714 (1996)
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G. Burgess, ‘Was the English Civil War a War of Religion?’, Huntington Library Quarterly 61 (1998)
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N. Canny, Making Ireland British, 1580-1650 (2001)
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T. Claydon, ‘Problems with the British problem’, Parliamentary History 16 (1997) (review article)
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B. Coward, The Stuart Age: England 1603-1714 (1980, revised 1994) (ebook)
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T. Harris, ‘The legacy of the English Civil War: Rethinking the Revolution, European Legacy 5 (2000)
- G. Harrison, ‘Prerogative and the Glorious Revolution’, PER 10 (1990)
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C. Hill, The Century of Revolution, 1603-1714 (1961) (ebook)
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D. Hirst, England in Conflict, 1603-660: Kingdom, Community, Commonwealth (1999)
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“ , ‘The English republic and the meaning of Britain’, Journal of Modern History 66 (1994)
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C. Holmes, Why was Charles I executed? (2006)
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G. Holme, The Making of a Great Power: Late Stuart and Early Geogrian Britain, 1600-1722 (1993)
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A. Houston; S. Pincus (eds), A Nation Transformed: England after the Restoration (2001)
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J.P. Kenyon, Stuart England (1985)
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M. Kishlansky, A Monarchy Transformed: Britain 1603-1714 (1997)
- J. R. Jones (ed.), Liberty Secured? Britain before and after 1688 (1992)
- J. Miller, ‘The Potential for Absolutism in later Stuart England’, History (1984) 187-207
- “, An English Absolutism? The Later Stuart Monarchy (1993)
- “, After the Civil Wars: English Politics and Government in the Reign of Charles II (2000)
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D. Orr, ‘Sovereignty, supremacy and the origins of the English Civil War’, History 87 (2002)
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C. Russell, The Crisis of Parliaments: English History 1509-1660 (1971)
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A.G.R. Smith, The Emergence of a Nation State, 1529-1660 (1984 & 1996)
- W. Speck, ‘England in the 1690s: the fiscal-military state’, The Historian 38 (1993) (availble as print journal from the Library)
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M. Stoyle, ‘English “nationalism”, Celtic particularism and the English Civil War’, Historical Journal 43 (2000)
Module Forum
Module Homepage
E-Resources
Chronology
External Links
- Absolutism and the Divine Right of Kings - short overview by historian J. P. Sommerville
- Austrian Hapsburgs - collection of primary sources relating to Austrian absolutism
- Civil War, a BBC/Open University website giving an overview of the English Civil War
- French Absolutism - collection of primary sources relating to Louis XIV's France
- Civil War and Revolution, - overview and primary documents on the 'Virtual Norfolk' website
- History of France - links to databases and collections of primary documents relating to French History, 1454-1788
- History of the United Kingdom 1486-1688 - primary documents
- History of the United Kingdom 1689-1815 - primary documents
- The Museum of the Thirty Years' War - overview of the conflict
- Oliver Cromwell - website about the Protector of Britain
- The Palace of Versailles - official website relating to palace and park of Versailles, France
- Portraits of the family of Peter the Great
- Renaissance, Reformation and Early Modern Germany primary documents - links to databases and collections of primary documents relating to German History
- Russian absolutism - collection of primary sources relating to Peter the Great's Russia
- Sweden primary documents - links to databases and collections of primary documents relating to Swedish History, 1397-1814
- The Thirty Years' War - information about particular battles
- The Thirty Years' War primary documents - collection of relating to the conflict