Monday, October 09, 2006

Question from Sarah - Absolutism in Tudor England

Im a freshman and i have a pretty big project about absoloutism, more specifically in Tudor England. Any help about anything is very much appreciated![espcially the topics below]

How did the Tudor Monarchs influence English and European affairs?

How did the reigns of peter the great and Catherine the Great affect Russian nobility and common people?

thank you!!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Absolutism does not become a real issue in the English monarchy until the 17th century and the reigns of James I and Charles I, mostly with Charles. But they are Stuarts, not Tudors. The Tudors consulted with Parliament and acted through it. They very seldom tried to act on their own "absolute" authority.

Anonymous said...

That said, Henry VIII had so much influence over his parliament he was often regarded as one of England's most powerful monarchs, in terms of executive authority.

The key to power was (and in some cases still is) money. So when a King had money, he was all the more powerful. Henry VIII was almost always bankrupt, so I guess his power came from sheer force of personality! Charles II (Stuart) on the other hand, was rich enough to rule without his parliament when Louis XIV of France was paying him a yearly stipend.