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Europe: State Building in the Seventeenth

Century

Elizabeth Hyde

Great Britain: Constitutional Monarchy

France: Absolutism

United Provinces (The Netherlands): Republic

James I and Divine Right of Kings Charles I tangles with Parliament

“Petition of Right” The reforms of the Long Parliament Civil War Execution of Charles I

Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector of Republic Restoration of the Monarchy

Charles II James II

The “Glorious” or “Bloodless” Revolution Ascension of William and Mary Triumph of Constitutionalism and Parliament

Henri IV and Duc de Sully French recovery, modernization Office of intendant

Louis XIII and Richelieu Internal threats to royal power External threats Reproductive threat to dynastic survival

Louis XIV and Mazarin Fronde Peace of the Pyrenees

Louis XIV “takes the reigns of government” Centralization Versailles as both symbol and model

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher EducationVersailles in 1668, BEFORE major expansion.

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher EducationThe court in the gardens of Versailles, c. 1690.

Dutch government Decentralized, local control

Dutch Republic in 1658.

Seven Provinces Each province ruled by “regents” in charge of

local affairs.

States General Elected representatives from each province

serve in States General A weak central authority

Dutch affairs dominated by province of Holland and House of Orange

Dutch “character” Militarily victorious Mercantile triumphant Religious toleration

By the end of the seventeenth century, absolutist France was led by the most powerful kings in Europe:

France had become the wealthiest and most powerful nation in Europe

But it was increasingly challenged by countries with alternative political and economic models (i.e. the British and the Dutch) as they moved into the eighteenth century.