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The Age of Enlightenment and the Age of Absolutism

The Age of Enlightenment and the Age of Absolutism

The Age of Enlightenment and the Age of Absolutism were two different periods of time. The age of Enlightenment had new ideas spreading through out the world about government and human rights. The Age of Absolutism was a time of absolute monarchs who had total control of everything. They made laws as they went along and if they didn’t like what the people said the monarchs would throw the people into jail and or put them to death. The Age of Enlightenment is a response or answer to the Age of Absolutism by the new ideas that spread through out the world.

During the Age of Absolutism there were many different views on how to run a monarchy. There were so many different monarchs at the time; they all had different ways of running their perspective courts. In Machiavelli’s book, The Prince, he states that a prince must rule independently and not trust anyone but himself or herself. This statement is proven to be true with the example of King Louis XIV. He only trusted himself and nobody else, and by bringing the nobles to live with him at Versailles, it proved that he only trusted himself because he wanted to keep an eye on them.

A response to this particular Absolutism idea came from John Locke an English philosopher. In his book Two Treaties on Government, he states that there should not be one ruler but have a democratic form of government. “No one can be…subjected to the political power of another without his own consent…” This quote proves that the ideas of the Enlightenment differed and were an answer to the Age of Absolutism.

Although there were many monarchs during the Age of Absolutism, not all of them believed in the same things. King James I of England believed in the Divine Right. This was the believe of some monarchs that they were chosen by God to rule and that they were God’s, “right hand man/woman,” and that they were the sole ruler and didn’t have to listen to anybody. In a statement made by King James, he is quoted as saying, “ Kings are justly called Gods, for that they exercise a divine power.” This statement justly proves that monarchs did believe that God called them...

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