A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

Characterizing Absolute Rule 245

nents of absolutism, the monarch, whose legitimacy came from God,
nonetheless was subject to limits imposed by reason through laws and tradi­
tions. Western monarchs recognized, at least in theory, the necessity of con­
sulting with institutions considered to be representative of interests such as
the Church and nobility: parlements (noble law courts), Estates, the Cortes
in Spain, and Parliament, which had been victorious in the English Civil
War in non-absolutist England, where the law remained separated from the
will of the monarch.

Characterizing Absolute Rule

Absolute states were characterized by strong, ambitious dynasties, which
through advantageous marriages, inheritance, warfare, and treaties added
to their dynastic domains and prestige. Their states had nobilities that
accepted monarchical authority in exchange for a guarantee of their sta­
tus, ownership of land, and privileges within the state and over the peas­
antry, whether peasants were legally free, as in Western Europe, or serfs,
as in Prussia, Austria, Poland, and Russia. The absolute states of Central
and Eastern Europe—Prussia, Austria, and Russia—shared similar social
structures: a strong nobility with ties to rulers who granted privileges in
exchange for cooperation; a subservient peasantry in the process of losing
remaining rights to rulers and landlords, including—by becoming serfs
attached to the land they worked—that of personal freedom; and a rela­
tively weak and politically powerless middle class. Unlike England and the
Dutch United Provinces, these states had no representative institutions
and few towns of sufficient importance to stand in the way of absolute
rule.
The Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania was an exception and thus did
not fit the Russian or Prussian model. In 1386 the Kingdom of Poland and
the Grand Duchy of Lithuania had been joined in a personal union (Warsaw
became the capital in 1595). The Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania was
created in 1569 by virtue of the Union of Lublin. In the Commonwealth,
the authority of the king was limited by the strength of the landed nobility—
the szlachta, who dominated the Parliament (the Sejm). Particularly in
northern Poland around the port city of Gdansk, a concept of sovereignty
emerged that paralleled similar important transformations in England and
the Netherlands. The Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania is thus some­
times referred to as a “gentry democracy.” Here the parliamentary system,
which had been founded in the fifteenth century, protected the personal
freedom of the citizens of the monarchy.
Although some Western sovereigns were somewhat limited by representa­
tive bodies—diets, parlements, Estates—absolute monarchies nonetheless
created an unprecedented concentration of governing power. Between 1614
and 1788, no king of France convoked the Estates-General, an assembly of