An analysis of history frequently identifies ironic and unexpected connections between historical figures. Upon examining European history between the 16th and early 18th centuries, it becomes apparent that the issue of monarchy surfaces as a central issue during the period. Within this era, two monarchs emerged that had a profound impact on their respective kingdoms: Henry VIII of England and Louis XIV of France. This paper will compare and contrast the two figures in order to examine the ways in which they achieved their authority and defined the role of the monarchy; maintained their authority despite challenges from both domestic and international foes; and, helped create historical patterns that would later result in the dissolution of absolute monarchy.
Contemporary stereotypes of European history frequently depict European nations as being ruled by an absolutist ruler. The deeper reality of this history is that the monarchy was never a firmly established mode of government free from disruptive agents or alternative modes of government. By Henry VIII`s period, English royal succession was approximately 425 years old and had been built uneasily on the ruins of the Anglo Saxon system of tribal rulers following the Norman Conquest (Brown 84). Monarchy in France was also a system in flux throughout the Middle Ages as rulers found their authority challenged not only by competing kingdoms but by the Roman Papacy as well (Hurt 17). By the 17th century—the period typically understood as the age of absolute French Monarchs—rulers had a difficult time establishing their authority against usurpers and against political activists who sought to make French Parliament more powerful than the monarchy. John Hurt observes about the Parliament during Louis XIV`s reign: “They cloaked their intentions in procedural ambiguity and acted under the cover of a trademark rhetorical dissimulation, seeking not to overturn royal power but to infiltrate and weaken it” (Hurt 1). In brief, the absolute authority of monarchs during the age of monarchy was never established; this situation required individual regents to coalesce authority in various ways.
Both Henry VIII and Louis XIV were of such a personal disposition that this situation represented a challenge to be overcome rather than a barrier to their claims to absolute authority. In keeping with the ideology of his period, Henry VIII could be described as a Renaissance man whose interests included political theory, military science and innovation, as well as theology and ecclesiastical-related issues. Retired U.S. Army Brigadier General, John Brown observes that Henry VIII’s accomplishments included: “[the] consolidation of feudal England into a national monarchy, a break with Roman Catholicism, facilitation of the Protestant Reformation and contributions to commercial revolution” (Brown 85). At the same time, however, this plurality of interests and accomplishments broadly related to his political ambitions: rehabilitating England into a European power after years of decline, and establishing himself as the seat of British regal authority. Henry VIII became a political thinker when he began to champion the divine right of kings in English political discourse for the first time. He dabbled in military innovations as a way of ensuring that he had a standing national army and militia to protect England against invaders and himself against challengers to his throne; and he became interested in theology when his power conflicted with the Pope`s. His infamous break with the Catholic Church over the issue of his divorce can be seen as his attempt to break against the Pope`s political authority more than an honest interest in religious reform. Nevertheless, it can also be regarded as a successful attempt to broaden the political concept of the King`s authority in England (Brown 87).
Approximately 91 years after Henry VIII’s death in 1547, Louis XIV emerged as the ruler of France. In some respects, Louis faced similar pressures in his ascension to power as Henry VIII. Namely: the French Monarchy was not yet absolutist in nature and, France like England of Henry VIII’s period, featured a number of interests and thinkers opposed to the monarchy as a political system. Principle among them were the constitutionalists: thinkers active in early French Parliament that sought to mitigate the King`s absolute authority through constitutional legal constraints (Hurt 15). Much like Henry VIII, Louis responded to these pressures by acquiring and centralizing his authority, and by utilizing the divine right of kings as a political authority to support his bid for power and by utilizing political violence against his opponents. Following the chaos of the Fronde in 1653, Louis emerged as the center of French political authority: declaring that he was the state (Hurt 2).
The primary difference between the two rulers, however, relates to the methods in which the figures sought to maintain their authority once they became king. Henry VIII’s ascension to the English throne obequitated on the last ripple in the aftermath of the Wars of the Roses . Brown observes: “the 17-year-old monarch [ascended] on a throne that started out wobbly at best” (Brown 85). In the midst of political chaos during this period, England had declined as a European power. Skirmishes with Scotland and Ireland weakened the stability of the dominion. Henry VIII responded to these pressures through a variety of strategies. One such strategy was the reintroduction of the militia system. Brown notes the militia system empowered the English countryside by: “[putting] arms in the hands of local citizens” (Brown 86). Although this seemed to contradict the principles of an absolute monarchy, it created a stronger sense of national security by enabling remote regions to defend themselves against attacks. At the same time, it helped to generate a stronger bond between regent and subject by making the latter believe that the king invested in the security of his people. Another strategy employed by Henry VIII included the amassment of political allies in Europe. In the Late-Middle Ages, political unions formed through dynastic marital alliances in order to fortify the union between two countries. At the time of Henry VIII’s ascension, Spain was unquestionably the strongest European country. Katherine of Aragon, a Spanish princess and widow via Henry VIII’s brother, represented the cardinal choice for Henry VIII to gain political prowess in Europe. As de Lisle indicates, “His [Henry VIII] marriage to Katherine was intended to gain him the friendship of her father, King Ferdinand, and the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian whose son had married her sister” (de Lisle 125). Truly, Henry VIII’s married into a very influential European family.
In contrast, Louis ascended to the French throne at a time when France was already a world power. Therefore, Louis was significantly less interested in arming the common French people. The greatest threat to Louis throne came from the nobility of France. Louis XIV’s strategy to maintain domestic power included an elaborate plan to modify the behavior of the nobility. He required the higher nobility to spend time at Versailles each year, thus preventing them from developing regional power at the expense of his own. To further frustrate potential efforts of countering Louis XIV’s absolute monarchy, he required the nobility to spend a significant amount of time practicing ballet. In this strategy, Louis XIV not only isolated the power base of France to prevent them from conspiring against him, but he also helped standardized ballet and betrothed ballet dancers in the royal court whose performances were
“… careful to never turn their back on the royal ‘Presence’” (Jonas 131). Louis XIV taught the nobility of France his envisagement of how they are to behave in the royal court by way of the choreography. The nobility then performed in public for a fee. Behind the pomp and circumstance of the ballet came Louis XIV’s true vision; to create exorbitant fashion styles for the French nobility to model. Using the French nobility as models, Louis XIV knew this meant that a lot of money would be spent among the common people. So, his true aim was to tax the subjects of France while nullifying the wealth of the nobility from participation in international affairs. The taxes created in this elaborate ruse were reinvested into developing the French military with the purpose of fortifying France during a series of wars against the Netherlands and Spain. The pure genius of this approach accomplished all the elements needed to anchor Louis XIV as an absolute ruler.
While both kings sought to transform their nations into a centralized monarchy, their legacies had an opposite impact. Henry VIII’s reign coincided with the development of constitutionalist philosophies in England that viewed the relationship between the government and citizens as contractual in nature (Enlow 2). Over time, these philosophies would shift England`s government away from the monarchist model and towards a constitutional government in which Parliament and the Prime Minister have more authority than the British royals. Louis`s reign, in contrast, centralized the authority of the French monarch and would do so at a cost. His authority came at the expense of the French Parliament, and because this later translated into a government divorced from the interests of the people, the excesses of the French monarchy resulted the French Revolution (Enlow 21). Whereas Britain would evolve in terms of its political model,
France would undergo nearly a century of horrors as its system radically transformed from monarchy to the revolutionary government under the Jacobins and then to an emperorship under Napoleon Bonaparte.
In conclusion, Henry VIII and Louis XIV can be viewed as similar personalities who attained power in dissimilar cultural environments. While both figures were ultimately responsible for later developments in their nations` histories, the differences in outcomes reflected the essential political differences between Britain and France. They can also be understood as having a legacy distinct from that which they sought to achieve. Both of them generated a historical process that led to the cessation of European monarchies.
Works Cited
Brown, John. “Historically speaking: King Henry VIII at 500.” U.S. Army Publications, 45.3
(August, 2009): 84-86. Print
de Lisle, Leanda. Tudor : Passion. Manipulation. Murder. The Story of England’s Most
Notorious Royal Family. New York: Public Affairs, 2013. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 05 April 2016.
Enlow, Eric. “The Corporate Conceptions of the State and the Origins of Limited Constitutional
Government.” Washington University Journal of Law & Policy, 6.1 (2001): 1-31. Web.
Hurt, John. Louis XIV and the Parliaments: The Assertion of Royal Authority. Manchester:
Manchester University Press, 2002. Print.
Jonas, Gerald. Dancing. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1998. Print.