The Expansion of Enlightened Absolutism in Eighteenth Century Europe: The Great Enlightenment Monarchs

Enlightened absolutism prevailed in many European monarchies. Although the prime examples of this new conception of the monarchy’s function arose in Austria and Prussia—and, therefore, in Italy, as the Peninsula was ceded to the Austrian empire by virtue of the Peace of Utrecht in 1713,^[489] its principles were also applied in Russia, Spain and Portugal.

10.5.1 The Austrian and the Prussian Models and Its Reception in Russia

Enlightened absolutism was not, however, just an abstract model, but rather one applied by specific monarchs who would become, a posteriori, the paradigms of

Enlightenment-era kings. These would include the aforementioned Germanic monarchs Maria Theresa and Joseph II of Austria, Frederick II of Prussia, and Catherine II of Russia (who was also of German origin).^[490] Catherine II managed to establish a stable regime and serve as a worthy successor to Peter the Great (1682­1725). In addition to pursuing an ambitious foreign policy, essentially aimed at expanding Russia’s borders, mainly at the expense of Poland and Turkey, Catherine “the Great” was infused with French culture, regularly corresponding with the leading French philosophes (Whittaker 2003). This explains her religious tolerance, which led her to offer asylum in Russia to the Jesuits after the suppression of the order in 1773, and her tolerant stance towards Muslims (Fisher 1968, 542-539), one surely driven as well, by her desire to counter the influence of the Orthodox clergy, who she ended up bringing to heel by confiscating their property (de Madariaga 2002, 21-22). Domestically, Catherine II’s great push involved the colonization of southeastern Russia, a task she entrusted to Orlov and Potemkine, who went about seeing to the repopulation of a vast territory that remained virtually uninhabited, despite the fertility of its soil, to this end building roads, towns and cities, and encouraging its settlement by German peasants.^[491] In addition to all this she was a great reformer, through the Legislative Commission, convened in 1767 (Alexander 1989, 112-120) which, following the guidelines of the statement of legal principles known as Nakaz, (Butler and Tomsinov 2010), authored by Catherine herself,^[492] carried out major reforms of government, legal proceedings, courts and territorial organization, especially at the municipal level.^[493] When Catherine II died in 1796,

even though most of the population still lived in destitution or slavery, Russia had significantly expanded its territory, the Russian upper classes were more cultured, the government more reliable, and its administration more effective.^[494]

Enlightened absolutism triumphed also on the Iberian Peninsula, in the king­doms of Portugal and Spain.

10.5.2 Portugal in the Pombal Era

In Portugal, the reign of Joseph I (1750-1777) is noteworthy, thanks to his powerful minister Sebastiao Jose de Carvalho e Mello (1699-1782), better known by his title of Marquis of Pombal, granted to him by the king. Of humble origins, when he came to head the government, Pombal forcefully applied in Portugal the political philosophy of enlightened despotism which he had absorbed in London and Vienna. With energy, vigor and determination he set about reforming the Portuguese state and its economic and social life, though this would spark violent resistance by Portugal’s most privileged bodies, as their interests were in jeopardy. The growing opposition to his policies led Pombal to exercise a genuine dictatorship (Cheke 1969) and to employ repression as an instrument of government, including the death penalty, in what Maxwell (1994, 75) has defined as the paradox of Enlightenment and Despotism.^[495]

As a thorough adherent to Enlightenment political ideas, Pombal aggressively imposed secularism, the most relevant sign of this commitment being his expulsion of the Jesuits, which took place from 1758 to 1759. The Jesuits’ opposition to his radical political and social reforms, and the problem of what to do about the largely autonomous Jesuit missions in Paraguay, rose after Spain’s transfer of part of its territory to Portugal, spurred Joseph I’s all-powerful minister to convince the king to issue a decree eradicating these missions in the American colonies. Shortly thereafter Pombal took advantage of an attempted regicide in which the Society was unfairly implicated to order the expropriation the Jesuits’ property and to expel them from Portugal on January 19, 1759, a measure carried out with unrelenting ferocity through the laws of September 3, 1759 and the expelling of the Papal Nuncio on June 14, 1760 (Maxwell 1995, 101).

10.5.3 The Eighteenth Century Revolution in Spain

Spain was a country ripe for the full application of enlightened absolutism thanks to the abolition of the public legal institutions of the former states of the Crown of Aragon, by Philip V.

The peak of enlightened despotism in Spain would coincide with the reigns of Philip V’s children, Ferdinand VI (1746-1759), and Charles III (1759-1788),^[497] though the latter had an advantage over his brother, as prior to governing in Spain he had extensive experience, having served as king in Naples and Sicily for 25 years (1734-1759) (Petrie 1971). The reformism of the early Spanish Bourbons was so effective that it triggered what has been called “the 18th-century Revolution” (Herr 1980), which radically transformed Spain.^[498]

Enlightened Spanish economists came to embrace the liberalization of the domestic economy, defending the elimination of deep-seated obstacles to agrarian growth, including restrictions on the domestic grain trade, the end of highly disruptive transhumance practices protected by the traditional privileges enjoyed by the powerful stockbreeders lobby known as La Mesta, and a moratorium on the further acquisition of property by the Church (Paquette 2008, 65). The abolition of internal customs, the liberalization of trade with the American colonies, and major fiscal and administrative reforms allowed the monarchy to multiply its revenues,^[499] which facilitated the creation of a permanent army and navy, indispensable to defend the country’s overseas territories and allow Spain to regain its status as a great international power.

Also noteworthy was the extensive reform of Spain’s governmental structure, with the development of a powerful central government featuring new institutions, such as secretariats, ministries and the Council of Ministers, the Junta Central Suprema^[500] and the reinforcement of the Royal Council of Castile as the monarchy’s highest advisory body, the imposition of administrative centralization thanks to the creation of the office of the intendente (intendant), and a territorial reorganization of the state at the provincial and local levels. All of this was made possible by the Bourbons’ appointments of capable government ministers, first foreigners, such as Orry, under the reign of Philip V, and Esquilache under Charles III, with Spanish ministers soon to follow, such as Jose Patino, the Marquis of Ensenada, and the Count of Floridablanca. The crucial state reform initiatives undertaken by the Spanish Bourbons between the reign of Philip V and Charles III, nurtured a feeling of “Spanishness” among the Crown’s subjects, evidenced by the establishment of the Spanish Cortes^[501] and the emergence of two of the symbols of the Spanish state still existing today: the flag and the national anthem.^[502]

All of this put Spain and its monarchy back on the European map after the crisis of the seventeenth century. In 1721, Montesquieu would describe how Spain had become once again one of the great European monarchies: “The most powerful states of Europe are those belonging to the emperor, and to the kings of France, Spain and England. Italy, and a large part of Germany, are divided into an infinite number of small states ruled by princes who are, in reality, the martyrs to sover­eignty” (Montesquieu 2008, 136).

It is true that in many cases, reform went further than the people could bear and ended up failing, such as virtually all those measures imposed by Joseph II in Austria. In Portugal, part of the reform introduced during the reign of Joseph I failed because of the Portuguese nation’s indifference and even hostility to it.

10.5.4 The French and British Exceptions

Paradoxically, where enlightened absolutism had the least practical impact was in France, despite the fact that most of the leading philosophes were from there. The French monarchy during the reigns of Louis XV (1715-1774) and Louis XVI continued to embrace divine right theory, with the kings adhering to the schemes of government characteristic of classical absolutism, albeit with some exceptions— such as when Louis XVI abolished torture and slavery, granted legal status to Protestants in 1787, and the following year appointed a commission to study the question of the Jews in France (Gagliardo 1968, 47). This fact surely goes a long way to explaining the violent reaction of the French Revolution, which broke out in a kingdom ruled by a monarchy which had insisted upon conserving the old order and had rejected reform.

Nor did enlightened absolutism triumph in England, but for totally different reasons: since the “revolutions” of the seventeenth century, the principle of auto­cratic monarchy had been rejected, and by the eighteenth century, the English polity had already evolved into a model of government in which “royal prerogative” was kept in check by Parliament. The key entity transformed by reform and the adaptation of the government to new times in Britain was not the crown but, as we shall see, Parliament.

TIMELINE

1701 Rise of the Kingdom of Prussia (capital at Berlin). Frederick of Hohenzollern, son of the Great Elector (of Brandenburg) Frederick William (1640-1688) receives from the Emperor of Austria, Leopold I, the title of “King of Prussia” for his support of the Archduke Charles of Austria in the War of the Spanish Succession.

1711 The Archduke Charles of Austria, aspirant to the throne as a rival to Philip V, is elected as Emperor Charles VI (1711-1740). His election precipitates the end of the war and the signing of the Peace of Utrecht.

1713 Frederick William I rises to the throne of Prussia (1713-1740), the “Sergeant King” who forges Prussia into Europe’s premiere military power. He is the father of Frederick the Great.

1715 September 1. Death of Louis XIV (king from 1643, personal reign from 1661).

1723 End of the Regency of Louis XV of France (born in 1710).

1725 Death of Tsar Peter I the Great (1682-1725), founder of St. Petersburg, after converting Russia into a great European power.

1740 Frederick II the Great of Prussia (1740-1796) and Maria Theresa of Austria (1740-1780) ascend to the throne.

1746 Ferdinand VI assumes the Spanish throne (1746-1759).

1750 Joseph I takes the throne in Portugal (1750-1777), leaving the government in the hands of the Marquis of Pombal, Sebastiao Jose de Carvalho e Melo (1699-1782). This would be Portugal’s last era of splendor.

1755 Death of Charles Louis de Secondat, better known as Montesquieu (born in 1689).

1756 Birth in Salzburg (Austria) of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791).

1759 Charles III (1759-1788) rises to the Spanish throne after having been king of Naples and Sicily (bearing the title of Charles VII) between 1734 and 1759.

1762 The Russian throne is occupied by a German princess married to Tsar Peter III, who she overthrows after organizing a conspiracy against him. Catherine II (1762-1796), better known as the Catherine the Great, along with Peter I, would serve as the leading paladins of enlightened absolutism in Russia.

1774 Death of Louis XV of France after areign of 59 years. He is succeeded by Louis XVI.

1778 May 30. Death of Francois Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire (born in 1694). On July 2 of the same year Jean Jacques Rousseau dies.

1780 Joseph II becomes Emperor of Austria (1780-1790). Unlike his mother, he adopts a policy of aggressive reform which ultimately fails, rejected by the majority of his subjects.

1784 Death of Denis Diderot, one of the leading French encyclopedists.

1786 Death of Frederick II of Prussia.

1788 Death of Charles III of Spain.

1790 Death of Joseph II of Austria.

1796 Death of Catherine II of Russia.

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Further Reading

Arendt, H. (1992). Lectures on Kant's political philosophy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Beales, D. E. D. (2009). Joseph II against the world: 1780-1790. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Behrens, C. B. A. (1985). Society, government and the enlightenment: The experiences of eighteenth-century France and Prussia. London: Harper & Row.

Bhat, G. (2007). Recovering the historical Rechtsstaat. Review of Central & East European Law, 32(1), 65-97.

Blanning, T. (2008). The pursuit of glory: The five revolutions that made modern Europe, 1648-1815. London: Penguin.

Blanning, T. C. W. (2013). Joseph II. New York: Routledge.

Broadie, A. (2003). The Cambridge companion to the Scottish enlightenment. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Ptess.

Byrne, J. M. (1997). Religion and the enlightenment: From Descartes to Kant. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

Crocker, L. (1984). Diderot as a political philosopher. Revue Internationale de Philosophie, (148’149), 120-139.

d’Alembert, J. L. R., & Diderot, D. (Eds.). (2003). Encyclopedia of Diderot & d’Alembert. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Library. (Originally published as: d’Alembert, J. L. R., & Diderot, D. (Eds.). (1765). Encyclopedie ou Dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers. Paris: Briasson et al.)

Dickson, P. G. M. (1985). Finance and government under Maria Theresia: 1740-1780. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Ferguson, R. A. (1997). The American enlightenment: 1750-1820. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Gay, P. (1996). The enlightenment: An interpretation. The science of freedom (repr., 2nd ed.). New York: W. W. Norton.

Gershoy, L. (1983). From despotism to revolution, 1763-1789 (Repr.). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Hampson, N. (2004). The enlightenment. In E. Cameron (Ed.), Early modern Europe: An Oxford history (pp. 265-297). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Hargreaves-Mawdsley, W. N. (1979). Eighteenth-century Spain, 1700-1788: A political, diplo­matic and institutional history. London: Rowman and Littlefield.

Hayton, D. W., & Bergin, J. (2010). The eighteenth-century composite state: Representative institutions in Ireland and Europe, 1689-1800. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hespanha, A. M. (1992). Poder e Instituigdes na Europa do Antigo Regime. Lisboa: Cosmos.

Israel, J. (2011). A revolution of the mind: Radical enlightenment and the intellectual origins of modern democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Jacob, M. (2006). The radical enlightenment: Pantheists, freemasons, and republicans (2nd rev. ed.). Lafayette, LA: Cornerstone Book.

Krieger, L. (1975). An essay on the theory of enlightened despotism. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Kruger, P., & Schroeder, P. W. (2003). The transformation of European politics, 1763-1848. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Lefebvre, G. (1969). Enlightened despotism. In H. Lubasz (Ed.), The development of the modern state (pp. 48-64). London: Macmillan.

Lynch, J. (1989). Bourbon Spain: 1700-1808. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

McKay, R. (2007). The limits of royal authority: Resistance and obedience in seventeenth-century Castile. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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