350 Chapter 19
The Structures of Government:
Monarchy
The basic political characteristic of the Old Regime
was—as it had been for more than one thousand
years—monarchical government. In the strictest sense,
monarchy meant the rule of a single person who held
sovereignty (supreme power) over a state. The power
of monarchs was frequently challenged by the nobility,
disputed by provinces, or attacked in open rebellions.
But the concept of monarchy was almost universally ac-
cepted at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Even
the skeptical intellectuals of that era still supported it,
and only a few small states, such as the city-state of
Genoa in northern Italy, sustained governments with-
out monarchs, usually called republics.
The forms of monarchy varied significantly: from
absolute monarchy (in which the monarch claimed un-
restricted powers) to limited monarchy (in which clear
legal limits were placed on royal sovereignty, to the
benefit of the propertied classes). Absolutism remained
the predominant form of European monarchy. Most
monarchs wanted such power and aspired to emulate
the absolute monarchs of the seventeenth century, King
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden and especially King
Louis XIV of France, the exemplars of the era called the
age of absolutism. The theory of absolute monarchy
held that rulers received sovereignty directly from God.
They governed by divine right, representing within
their realm the sovereignty of God over all things. This
idea rested on the exegesis of such biblical statements
as “No authority exists unless it comes from God.”
Churches taught obedience to the monarch as a reli-
gious duty: God had given sovereignty, and “No one
but God can judge the king.” Resisting a monarch was
to attack God’s order. An anonymous poem of the eigh-
teenth century entitled “The Vicar of Bray” summarized
the alliance of throne and altar in a succinct rhyme:MediterraneanSeaPoR.Ebro
DouroR. R.SeineR
.Danube
R.DonetsR
.Dnieste
rR.Black SeaAtlantic
Ocean
NorthSeaBalearic IslandsCorsicaKINGDOM
OF SARDINIASicilyCrete CyprusPORTUGALSPAINKINGDOM
OF THE
TWO SICILIESPAPAL
STATESALGERIAOTTOMAN EMPIRE
ANATOLIAKingdom
IRELAND of PrussiaSCOTLANDENGLANDNORWAYSWEDEN FINLANDRUSSIAN EMPIREFRANCESWITZERLANDLORRAINEBRANDENBURG-
PRUSSIAHOLY
ROMAN
EMPIRESILESIAHUNGARYBANAT
BOSNIA
SERBIA BULGARIAMONTENEGROBESSARABIAUKRAINEVOLHYNIA
LITTLE POLANDPOLANDLITHUANIAKINGDOM OF
DENMARK–NORWAYDUTCH
REPUBLICDENMARKBarcelonaSeville
CadizLisbonMadridAvignon
MarseillesGenoa FlorenceRome
NaplesVenice
BordeauxConstantinopleFrankfurt
Plymouth LondonBrussels CologneDublinEdinburghHamburgNantesParisStockholm St. PetersburgOrleansPrague
ViennaTriesteBudaBucharestWarsawVinaMoscowKievBalticSeaSTYRIAAlpsMts.Pyren
eesMts.Carpathian
Mts
.CRIMEARhineElbeRR.0 250 500 Miles0 250 500 750 Kilometers
Habsburg dominions
Kingdom of Prussia
Boundary of the Holy
Roman EmpireMAP 19.1
Europe in 1763