Historians often consider France’s Louis XIV the quintessential absolutist monarch.

Here are this week’s questions:

1. Historians often consider France’s Louis XIV the quintessential absolutist monarch. Would you agree with their statement? If so, what do you consider the most important absolutist characteristic of his regime? If you disagree with the historians, who do you think was a better example of absolutism, and why?

2.  In England, the late seventeenth century saw the rise of constitutionalism.  These events inspired what historians call the “Whig school” of historiography, which claims that history is the story of the evolution of political rights.  How well do the events of the late seventeenth century bear this theory out?  Are we seeing an evolution of rights in England or is this more of a revolution?

3. Choose one of the major philosophes discussed in our textbook (Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, or Rousseau). Discuss their beliefs, particularly about government and religion. What form(s) of government would your chosen philosophe believe was best? Why? What religion(s) did your philosophe support? Why?