50 Fun Facts About Age of Absolutism

What did Peter the Great tax from 1698 in his drive to make Russian men look more western?

Beards could be kept only by paying up and carrying a token as proof. Police were empowered to shave refusers forcibly and in public.

By what nickname is Louis XIV known, echoing the Apollo role he danced in a ballet at fourteen?

The Sun King made his debut as Apollo in the Ballet Royal de la Nuit, a court spectacle that took 13 hours to perform.

Which palace, grown from a royal hunting lodge, housed Louis XIV's court and government from 1682?

Versailles began as a modest brick-and-stone lodge built for Louis XIII in 1623, about 19 km west of Paris. Apart from the Regency years after 1715, it stayed the seat of royal government until October 1789.

Louis XIV is credited, probably wrongly, with telling the Parlement of Paris that he was what?

The state is what he allegedly called himself in 1655, yet the line is missing from the Parlement's registers. On his deathbed he said it would outlast him.

Which English king was beheaded in 1649 on a scaffold outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall?

Charles I asked for two shirts that morning so the winter cold would not make him shiver and look afraid. He had been convicted of high treason days earlier.

Which dynasty, marked by a jutting jaw from inbreeding, ruled both Spain and Austria in the 1600s?

Habsburg cousins married to keep lands in the family, and the price included epilepsy, insanity and early death. The clan split into Spanish and Austrian branches in 1556.

Which crop do visitors leave on the grave of the Prussian king who championed it in the 1700s?

Potatoes earned him the nickname Der Kartoffelkönig, the Potato King. He also promoted the turnip and dug canals to carry harvests to market.

What did Prussia's 'Soldier King' recruit from all over Europe for his prized Potsdam regiment?

Very tall men, at least about 6 ft 2 in, filled the regiment nicknamed the Potsdam Giants. Peter the Great sent some as a goodwill gift.

Which craft did Peter the Great practise while touring western Europe under a false name in 1697?

Shipbuilding was the trade he worked at under the alias Peter Mikhailov. Reportedly 6 ft 8 in tall, he towered over other people and fooled no one.

Which Russian city, founded on a Baltic swamp in 1703, replaced Moscow as capital for two centuries?

St Petersburg takes its name from the apostle Peter rather than the tsar who founded it. It served as Russia's capital from 1712 to 1918.

Which chief minister of Louis XIII founded the Académie Française and reined in France's nobles?

Cardinal Richelieu was nicknamed the Red Eminence after his scarlet robes. His hunger for central control made him the lead villain of The Three Musketeers.

Which grant of toleration to Huguenots did Louis XIV revoke in 1685, driving thousands abroad?

Edict of Nantes protections had stood since 1598. Tearing them up closed Protestant schools, wrecked churches and cost France talent and resources.

Which relative succeeded Louis XIV in 1715, when the French king died after 72 years on the throne?

His great-grandson took the throne as Louis XV at the age of five. A regent, the Duke of Orléans, governed France until the boy came of age in 1723.

Which doctrine, defended by the French bishop Bossuet, put monarchs beyond any earthly authority?

Divine right of kings meant a ruler's power came straight from God, so no parliament or pope could call him to account. Bossuet also tutored Louis XIV's heir.

Which philosopher's Leviathan, written during England's civil war, argued for an absolute sovereign?

Thomas Hobbes took the title from a monster in the Book of Job. He saw strong, undivided government as the only way to avoid a war of all against all.

Which export-first economic doctrine did Louis XIV's minister Colbert pursue with high tariffs?

Mercantilism in its French form is known as Colbertism. Its champion also founded the royal Gobelins tapestry works and promoted the French East India Company.

Which French civil war, named after a slingshot, shook the regency of the boy king Louis XIV?

The Fronde left the young Louis XIV with a hatred of Paris and a resolve to move out of the old capital. Its name began as an insult for the rebels.

Which gallery in Louis XIV's main palace later hosted the 1871 proclamation of the German Empire?

Hall of Mirrors glass was the first big order for a royal factory set up to break Venice's monopoly on mirror-making. The 1919 peace treaty with Germany was signed there too.

Which morning ritual at Louis XIV's court let chosen nobles attend the king as he rose and dressed?

The levée came in stages: a select few served the king inside his bedchamber, while the full court waited in the gallery outside for the grand version.

Which first Bourbon king of France reportedly judged Paris well worth a Mass on turning Catholic?

Henry IV fought the Wars of Religion as a Huguenot and barely escaped the St Bartholomew's Day massacre. A Catholic zealot assassinated him in Paris in 1610.

Which English general marched 250 miles to the Danube in 1704 and beat Louis XIV's army at Blenheim?

Duke of Marlborough's victory saved Vienna from a Franco-Bavarian army and kept the alliance against France together. His best-known descendant is Winston Churchill.

Which cavalry commander of the New Model Army went on to rule England as Lord Protector from 1653?

Oliver Cromwell's body was taken from Westminster Abbey once the monarchy returned and hanged at Tyburn in 1661, a posthumous execution.

Which 1688 overthrow of James II handed England's crown to his daughter Mary and William of Orange?

Glorious Revolution leader William landed in Devon with an army on 5 November 1688. He had been invited by opponents who feared a Catholic dynasty after the birth of the king's son.

Which 1689 act stopped English monarchs suspending laws or taxing without Parliament's consent?

Bill of Rights wording against cruel and unusual punishment was later copied almost word for word into the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution.

What nickname mocked the cropped hair of some of Parliament's supporters in the English Civil War?

Roundheads was such an insult that calling a fellow soldier one was a punishable offence in the New Model Army. Royalists, by contrast, came to embrace the label Cavalier.

Which French assembly of three orders sat in 1614 and then never again until 1789?

Estates General meetings began in 1302, when a king wanted backing in a quarrel with the pope. Clergy, nobles and commoners each sat as a separate assembly.

Which wartime coastal levy did England's king extend to inland counties in peacetime in the 1630s?

Ship money could be raised by royal prerogative with no vote in Parliament, which suited a king ruling alone. The outcry became a major grievance before the Civil War.

Which 1713 decree was meant to let an Austrian emperor's daughter inherit all his lands?

Pragmatic Sanction promises did not hold. When the daughter succeeded in 1740, a Bavarian rival backed by France contested her inheritance and war broke out.

Which king of Spain, once married to England's Mary I, sent the Armada against her sister in 1588?

Philip II also gave his name to the Philippines. Despite the wealth arriving from the New World, his exchequer faced bankruptcy several times.

Which metal from the mountain at Potosí paid for Spain's wars and pushed up prices across Europe?

Silver poured from a peak nicknamed the rich mountain, and the flood of New World bullion helped prices rise roughly sixfold over 150 years.

Which complex near Madrid, finished in 1584, was at once a royal palace, a monastery and a tomb?

El Escorial is the largest Renaissance building in the world. The king who ordered it ran a global empire from its rooms as his health failed.

Which land won independence from Spain in 1648 after a revolt remembered as the Eighty Years' War?

The Netherlands, then the Dutch Republic, won recognition in the Peace of Münster, while the southern provinces stayed under Spanish rule.

Which agents did Louis XIV rely on in France's provinces to oversee finances, policing and justice?

Intendants held revocable commissions, not offices that could be bought and inherited, which kept them obedient emissaries of the crown.

Which war began after Protestant nobles threw two royal governors out of a Prague window in 1618?

Thirty Years' War fighting, famine and disease killed an estimated 4.5 to 8 million people. The men thrown from the window survived their 70-foot fall.

Which 1648 settlement, signed in Münster and Osnabrück, ended decades of war in central Europe?

Peace of Westphalia talks drew 109 delegations. Scholars trace the modern principle of sovereign countries running their own affairs back to it.

Whose army besieged Vienna in 1683, only to be routed by a relief force and pushed out of Hungary?

The Ottomans never again challenged Vienna or gained further ground in Europe. The defeat is seen as a turning point in a 300-year struggle.

Which ruler of Austria fought two long wars over Silesia and was the mother of Marie Antoinette?

Maria Theresa gave birth to sixteen children in nineteen years. Her father had spent his own reign persuading Europe to accept a daughter as his heir.

Which flute-playing king seized Silesia from Austria and invited Voltaire to live at his court?

Frederick the Great composed 121 flute sonatas. As crown prince he tried to flee abroad, and his father forced him to watch the beheading of the friend who had plotted the escape with him.

Which global war set Britain and Prussia against France and Austria and cost France North America?

Seven Years' War fighting stretched as far as India, where Britain emerged commercially dominant. Separate treaties in 1763 ended the European and colonial struggles.

Which country vanished from the map in 1795 after Russia, Prussia and Austria carved it up?

Poland stayed off the map for 123 years. The final carve-up came a year after a failed national uprising led by Kościuszko.

Which rococo summer palace did Prussia's king build above terraced vineyards at Potsdam?

Sanssouci has just ten principal rooms and a French name meaning carefree. Its builder's body was finally moved there after German reunification.

Which German-born empress took Russia's throne in 1762 by overthrowing her own husband in a coup?

Catherine the Great was born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst. At sixteen she married a grandson of Peter the Great, the man she later deposed.

Which first tsar of Russia unleashed a political police, the oprichniki, against his own nobles?

Ivan the Terrible is generally believed to have killed his son and heir in a fit of anger. His purge included a massacre in the city of Novgorod.

Which dynasty began when an assembly elected Michael tsar in 1613 and ruled Russia until 1917?

Romanov rule lasted 304 years. Peter the Great was a grandson of Michael, the dynasty's first tsar.

Which old Russian aristocracy, long the tsars' advisers, had its power broken by Peter the Great?

Boyars sat in a council called the duma and held the highest offices. An earlier tsar had already cowed them with public executions and land seizures.

Which kingdom ceased to be a great power after Peter the Great crushed its army at Poltava in 1709?

Sweden suffered the greatest military catastrophe in its history that day. Its king escaped south across the Dnieper with about 1,500 men.

Which Cossack posed as the dead tsar Peter III while leading Russia's largest peasant revolt?

Yemelyan Pugachev, a disaffected former army officer, promised an end to serfdom. He was captured and executed in Moscow in January 1775.

Which system of fourteen grades did Peter the Great create to tie Russian noble status to service?

Table of Ranks rules made every noble start at the bottom and climb by serving the tsar, at least in theory. The Bolsheviks abolished it in November 1917.

Which label do historians give rulers like Joseph II who mixed absolute power with reforming ideas?

Enlightened despots welcomed leading thinkers at court to help redesign their laws. Joseph II's approach is summed up as everything for the people, nothing by the people.

Which 1713 settlement let a Bourbon prince keep Spain's throne by renouncing any claim to France's?

Treaty of Utrecht terms kept the French and Spanish crowns apart for good. They ended Louis XIV's hopes of dominating Europe and ushered in a balance of power.