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Janet Tran

Mrs. Proffer

AP European History

12 November 2013

The Reign of Two Absolute Rulers

Many great rulers in the past have had great power, cunning, and wit to aid them in their

reign. All of these attributes have been associated with both Louis XIV The Sun King of

France and Peter I The Great of Russia. Bothof the kings ruled their people with absolute

power, but took slightly different paths in achieving and maintaining that absolute power.

Simply, Louis XIV and Peter I had similarities and differences in their political, religious, and

social views about how they governed their people.

To begin, both sovereigns saw the necessity of oppressing the power of the nobility and

smaller governing bodies to gain political absolutism. They accomplished this in their own

distinct ways. For instance, Peter the Great installed systems of administrative colleges, which

were bureaus of several persons operating according to written instructions rather than

departments headed by a single minister. This would have put the power in his hands as these

departments oversaw matters such as collection of taxes, foreign relations, war, and economic

affairs. He also discouraged any rebellion through his demonstration of brute power by

murdering and torturing the streltsy, the guards of the Moscow garrison, who had rebelled

against him. On the other hand, Louis XIV took a more subtle path of gaining absolute political

power by gathering all the nobles at his extravagant Palace of Versailles. There he steadily made

the nobles more dependent on him while making sure none could rise against him in power. He

also effectively curtailed the power of the parlements, regional judicial bodies of Paris, in 1673

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when he required that it register laws before raising questions about them. Louis XIV was like

the puppet master behind all the nobles and councils through which he ruled. In short, Peter I

was more straightforward in his climb to absolute power, brutally issuing laws and commands,

while Louis XIV was more manipulative in his rise to power, pulling the political strings his

favor. Regardless, both monarchs acquired that exquisite absolute power for which they are

known for today.

In addition, both rulers concerned themselves with the religious affairs of the kingdoms

they governed. During his reign, Peter I sought to have his own secular control over the Russian

Orthodox Church. He wanted the church under the authority of persons closer to the tsar. To do

this he abolished the Patriarch and established the Holy Synod which consisted of eight several

bishops headed by a layman, called the procurator general. Peter I used the church to increase his

own power over the nation and people. In contrast, Louis XIV thought religious conformity was

one of the key elements to political unity and stability. Though it might have helped with his

reign, Louis XIV did not force his will on the church as Peter I had done. Rather, he decided that

he wanted the people to have one religion to unite under. This lead to his oppression of the

Jansenists, who followed the teachings of Saint Augustine. They lived austere and pious lives,

but also became associated with opposition to the government. For this, Louis XIV agreed to the

papal bull banning Jansenists. In addition, to promote religious conformity, Louis XIV revoked

the Edict of Nantes. Because of this, Louis XIV was known for his repressive religious policies

and lost much of the middle class people who were Protestant. Both Peter I and Louis XIV had

different views of how to deal with religious matters and the church, and both dealt with these

concerns according to their own desires and opinions of how it would benefit their kingdom.

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During both of their reigns, Louis XIV and Peter I also altered the social and cultural

aspects of their kingdoms. In his palace Versailles, Louis XIV defined the new trends and fads

of France that the nobility eagerly strove to comply to. He was able to tailor the lives of the

nobles to his daily tasks. In this sense, he was able to have the nobles on a leash. If a noble

wanted to climb the social ladder in France, they would have definitely had to get closer to the

inspiring Louis XIV, the Sun King. His influence on the cultural and social environment was

great due to this fact. In comparison, Peter I sought to imitate or emulate the western styles and

cultures in Russia rather than create new ones of his own. This was best exemplified in his

construction of the city of St. Petersburg, The Window on the West. Peter I had also forced the

Russian nobility, boyars, to shave their long beards and cut the long sleeves of their coats and

shirts to follow the trends of Western Europe. This shows his desire to catch up with Western

Europe and his control over the nobility. Also, Peter changed the social system in Russia with

the Table of Ranks, which equated a persons social position and privileges to their rank in

bureaucracy or military rather than noble lineage. This encouraged more nobility to partake in

the government and put them closer under the authority of Peter I. Both sovereigns Peter I and

Louis XIV used and changed the social and cultural values of the kingdom to their advantage and

the advantage of their kingdoms

Two great absolute rulers, Peter I and Louis XIV ruled their kingdoms according to their

own political, religious and social views of how they should govern their countries. The two

sovereigns were both successful in their paths to power and have been remembered down history

for their power, cunning, and wit. They obviously had different methods and journeys to

achieving greatness, but those types of elements were the type that defined them individually as

the great rulers they are known as today.