Q: Analyse the principal features of Tudor Absolutism in Britain.

A: Absolutism or The Age of Absolutism a term used to describe a form of monarchical power that is unrestrained by all other institutions, such as churches, legislatures, or social elites. Absolutism is typically used in conjunction with some European monarchs during the transition from feudalism to capitalism, and monarchs described as absolute can especially be found in the 16th century through the 19th century, with its formation beginning slightly earlier such as in the case of the Tudors Absolutist monarchs of England (1485-1603). Absolutism is characterized by the ending of feudal partitioning, consolidation of power with the monarch, rise of state power, unification of the state laws, and a decrease in the influence of the Church and the nobility.

Absolute monarchs are also associated with the rise of professional standing armies, professional bureaucracies, the codification of state laws, and the rise of ideologies that justify the absolutist monarchy. Absolutist monarchs typically were considered to have the divine right of kings as a cornerstone of the philosophy that justified their power (as opposed to the previous order when the kings were considered vassals of the Pope and Emperor).

Monarchs often depicted as absolute rulers include Louis XIII and Louis XIV of France, Ivan III, Ivan IV, Peter the Great and Catherine the Great of Russia, Leopold I ofAustria, John V of Portugal, Frederick III of Denmark, Charles XI and Charles XII of Sweden, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I of England.

Absolute monarchs spent considerable sums on extravagant houses for themselves and their nobles. In an absolutist state, monarchs often required nobles to live in the royal palace, while state officials ruled the noble lands in their absence. This was designed to reduce the effective power of the nobility by causing nobles to become reliant upon the largesse of the monarch for their livelihoods.

There is a considerable variety of opinion by historians on the extent of absolutism among European monarchs. Some, such as Perry Anderson, argue that quite a few monarchs achieved levels of absolutist control over their states, while historians such as Roger Mettam dispute the very concept of absolutism. In general, historians who disagree with the appellation of absolutism argue that most monarchs labeled as absolutist exerted no greater power over their subjects than any other non-absolutist rulers, and these historians tend to emphasize the differences between the absolutist rhetoric of monarchs and the realities of the effective use of power by these absolute monarchs. Renaissance historian William Bouwsma summed up this contradiction:

Nothing so clearly indicates the limits of royal power as the fact that governments were perennially in financial trouble, unable to tap the wealth of those most able to pay, and likely to stir up a costly revolt whenever they attempted to develop an adequate income.

—William Bouwsma

Peter the Great (ruled from1689-1723) installed an absolute monarchy in Russia, with absolutely no concept of the social contract. Serfdom still remained strong in Russia, with no middle class nor urbanization. In Russia, advancement was based upon merit rather than birth or blood line.

The ultimate goal of Peter’s foreign policy was to obtain warm water ports for his nation, which were essential for trade, naval power, and access to the west. He battled Sweden for a port on the Baltic and with the Ottoman Turks for a port on the Black Sea. In the Great Northern War against Sweden, Russia defeated the Swedish army in Poltava by using the scorched earth policy, in which the Russians retreat, burn the crops or villages in the town, and waited for winter to take its toll upon the enemy troops. As a result, the Russians successfully obtained their warm water port on the Baltic, which was named St. Petersburg and known as the “window to the west.”

Peter enacted the “Great Embassy,” which was a tour of Peter and his nobles through many Western European nations. The ultimate goal of the Great Embassy was to use the information collected to westernize Russia, as Peter was afraid of increasing Western power. Through the Great Embassy, Peter acquired many important technological skills, especially military technology, such as naval instruments, army tactics, ship building techniques, and naval strategy. He imported foreign workers with technological skills as well, and introduced new attire that was being worn across the rest of Europe. He implemented the Julian calendar, which although was not the modern Gregorian calendar at the time, was more modern than what was being used in the past. He established much better education, and he also established the first modern Russian army with 200,000 men. Nobles were required to perform state service in either the army or the bureaucracy.

In England we see the rise of absolutism which we see with the rise of Henry VIII. (1458-1509), who was able to establish centralized political power after the War of the Roses. The principle monarchs during this period were King Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Queen Mary I and Elizabeth I. The Tudor dynasty ruled England from 1485 to 1603. Their story encompasses some of the most dramatic and unforgettable events in European history. And they remain the most famous and controversial of royal families. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his father, although ultimately not male line, of the rulers of the Welsh Kingdom of Deheubarth.[2] Through his mother he descended from a legitimized branch of the English royal House of Lancaster. The Tudor family rose to power in the wake of the Wars of the Roses, which left the House of Lancaster, to which the Tudors were aligned, extirpated.

Henry Tudor was able to establish himself as a candidate not only of the traditional Lancastrian supporters, but of discontented supporters of the rival House of York, and rose to capture the throne in battle, becoming Henry VII. His victory was reinforced by his marriage to Elizabeth of York, symbolically uniting the former warring factions under a new dynasty. The Tudors extended their power beyond modern England, achieving the full union of England and the Principality of Wales in 1542, and successfully asserting English authority over the Kingdom of Ireland. They also maintained the traditional (i.e. nominal) claims to the Kingdom of France, but none tried to make substance of it.

In total, five Tudor monarchs ruled their domains for just over a century (Lady Jane Grey, the granddaughter of Henry VIII’s younger sister Mary, was declared Queen for a period of nine days in 1553, but is usually regarded as a usurper rather than a monarch). Henry VIII of England was the only male-line male heir of Henry VII to live to the age of majority; and issues around the Royal succession (including marriage, divorce, and the succession rights of women) became major political themes during the Tudor era.

The Tudor line failed in 1603 with the death of Elizabeth I of England, who died without issue. Through secret negotiations with her cousin James, King of Scotland, (whose great-grandmother was Henry VIII’s elder sister, Margaret) Elizabeth arranged the succession of the House of Stuart to the English throne, uniting the Kingdoms of England and Scotland in a personal union.

In 1603, Elizabeth I died without leaving an inheritance and her nephew, James VI of Scotland (who was also the son of Mary Queen of Scots who was ordered to be executed under Elizabeth’s orders in 1589) took the English throne as James I, making both Scotland and England ruled under the same monarch, and establishing the Stuart dynasty. However the two nations were anything but united – they each had different religions, laws, courts, parliaments, churches and customs, not forgetting a 700 year old mistrust and hatred.

James I (ruled from 1603-1625) Stuart ruled as an absolute monarch, who despised Parliament. He went as far as to dissolve parliament, and ruled without the voice of the people. He declared that the monarch was God’s Lieutenant, his emissary, and reigned supreme over the land. He began the absolute rule of England, followed by his family for the next several generations. James advocated the divine rights of kings, and in turn wrote a book advocating the divine right of kings entitled The Trew Law of Free Monarchies in 1598.

When Charles I (ruled from 1625-1649) took the throne, he inherited a very angry Parliament, but he shared his father James I’s beliefs in autocracy. He appointed Archbishop Laud to make the Anglican church more ceremonial, like Catholicism, instilling fears among the populace about a return to Catholicism.

In 1628 the Parliament issued the Petition of Right. This document declared that Charles could not enact taxes without Parliamentary consent. Charles proceeded to levy the ship money tax without Parliamentary consent, ordering all towns to pay taxes to support the English navy, this angered most of the populace as ship money was traditionally paid by coastal towns. The Parliament of 1640, dominated by Puritan landowners, fired Laud and repealed taxes imposed by Charles. These occurrences resulted in the outbreak of the English Civil War.

The rise of absolutism meant a decay of the feudal society, it inaugurated a concept of between the medieval and ‘modern’ concepts of the society. But the consolidation of centralized power and the growth of royal absolutism did not necessarily imply the acceptance of absolutism in the political theory, they were themselves the felt need in the changing economic and the historical circumstances, and this need for change was indeed reflected in political theory. This led Machiavelli to emphasize on monarchic absolutism and that a strong and stable unity could be established n this way. The growth of absolutism in Europe was also an indicator of the growing national consciousness. The rise of nation-States naturally produced more prolonged reflection on the basis and nature of political society than has been given to the subject in the middle ages. 

Bibliography

  • Anderson, Perry. ‘Lineages of the Absolutist State.’ London: Verso, 1974.
  • Bindoff, ST. ‘The Pelican History of England: Tudor England.’ 1972. Published by Penguin Books.
  • Woodward, EL. ‘History of England.’ 1962. Published by University Paperbacks.
  • Harrison, David. ‘Tudor England: Volume One.’ 1953. Published by Cassell and Company Ltd.