Why Absolute Rulers Believe On Divine Right?

Abryl Navarro DBQ Essay During the 1500s and 1600s, Western Europe experienced a period of governments ruled by ab-solute monarchs. Absolute monarchies are forms of government in which the monarch has abso-lute power over the people. The absolutism was caused by religious and territorial conflicts which was crated fear and uncertainty. Rulers/ Kings abused their power of absolutism over their sub-jects.

The Magna Carta was the most significant document in England’s history, written by the barons, which outlined rights the people wanted the king to abide by. It was signed in 1215, a time in history when human rights were not the same for everyone. The peasants felt they were unfairly treated by the king and his government. In this document, the rights of the people, the barons and the church were all outlined as well as the rights of their heirs. Together, they demanded that the king to sign this written document so that their rights as well as the rights of their heirs, would be preserved. By signing this document, everyone in government as well as the king was accountable for their action. This was a kind of protection from governmental

The Magna Carta was the first document in which English subjects to force English king into power; granting and protecting the subjects’ rights. This was important since the king at

Over 800 years removed, this document was mainly technical, as it was the first step towards “the rule of law”. However, there are parts of Magna Carta that clearly reflect into what we know today as due process of the law, such as a chapter saying that “No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed, or outlawed, or banished, or in any way destroyed… except by the legal judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.” This, and a few other chapters concerning taxes, inheritance, and rights retained by the people, were a driving force of change in a world where individual rights were scarce. They lead onwards to a creation of other significant documents that gave rise to personal freedoms, such as the English Bill of

In 17th-18th century Europe, the age of absolutism, absolute monarchs ruled most of Europe. Absolute monarchs are rulers that have complete control over the government and its people. They claimed to rule by “divine right,” where their authority comes from God and they were above the law. The views of being a proper role as an absolute monarch differed very much between rulers and their subjects. Certain rulers had ideas that both the people and ruler should be united, some abused their power with no sympathy towards the people they rule, and the subjects that suffered from the rulings of the monarch had a completely different perspective than the rulers that were in power.

It was widely believed that kings had the power to enforce God's works and messages in the country that he ruled. As expressed by King James the First of England,"...kings are...God's lieutenants on earth..."(Document B). Kings are meant to act as God's second in command on earth and enforce God's mission on the people that he rules. According to Bishop Jaques Bousset's Political Treatise,"... the king is sacred, and that to attack him in any way is sacrilege"(Document F). Kings were believed to be sent by God to rule and, therefore, should not be questioned. This belief allowed absolute monarchies to take hold in countries throughout Europe. The rule of these powerful governments allowed prosperity to take hold in

Almost all governments during the 16th and 17th centuries were absolute monarchies. These monarchs caused a lot of controversy because the people they were residing over believed that it was unfair for them to not have a say in the government. This caused many people to look at at absolute monarchs as tyrannical because they did not like the way that they chose to rule. This period of absolutism caused people to look at monarchs as tyrannical because the people believed that they saw themselves as equal to God, did not listen to their people, and because they thought only they knew how to lead.

The Magna Carta has been a standout amongst the most productive and important documents in history. English Nobles created this paper. They made it to limited the power of the king, protect peoples rights, due process, to show the king has to follow all the same laws the people on his land follow too and many others. The Magna Carta influenced the executive historical process that led to the Rule of Constitutional law, the development of the Common Law, Charters of Freedom and Gettysburg Address. Notably, the U.S Constitution. The following quote from the U.S Constitution supports that is was influenced by the Magna Carta "no person shall ... be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of the law." The Magna Carta's has become

Therefore, the king/queen only had to answer to God, not the people. Since the ruler was chosen by God it was considered axiomatic that the monarch has absolute power, after all God has great power so His earthly representative does as well (Document 7, James I of England 1609). Furthermore, because God chose the sovereign, disobeying the king was considered the same as disobeying God (Document 4, The Ideal State 1697 by Jean Domat). Of course, because the monarchs had such great power and were God’s chosen people they had to govern per God’s will, which was absolute justice. (Document 5, On Social Order and Absolute Monarchy by Jean Domat). As important this concept was in maintaining absolute monarchs, the reason that the Divine Right to Rule was so effective is because absolute monarchies primarily occurred in Catholic countries, where the monarch could gain the partnership of the Roman Catholic Church and thus win power over the

The King began to gain power then eventually he had ultimate power. People began calling Kings, Gods so they became the highest people known to mankind. “Kings are justly called Gods” (Source 4, James I. King of England). Gods were the highest people in the world but eventually Kings started to get the name of a God. Kings started doing whatever they wanted and making new pointless rules because of their new title. Which made the people upset because they were more restricted with more rules. As a result, the Kings were called Gods as an effect of absolutism which gave them more power and made the people

The 16th and 17th centuries brought up the proposition of an absolute monarch, this is a ruler with total power over a country or territory. The idea of kings being chosen by God, or the divine right of kings, lead to absolutism, which was seen throughout Europe. Monarchs could be tyrants, they could take away the rights of their citizens. Monarchs could also be prosperous, improving their country economically, military, or gaining foreign alliances. Europe's absolute monarchs left the 16th and 17th centuries prosperous due to the fewer conflicts, the morals of monarchs, and everybody had an equal chance at upward-mobility.

Prior to the Enlightenment, the rules, laws, and social structures were set in stone, relying on the Kings and Queens to make all decisions and declare rights for them, even if they were completely unfair. People of this time argued that, "Royal power is sacred, and nothing is more firmly grounded in the Word of God than the obedience due, as a matter of faith and conscience, to lawful authority...the prince [is] one to whom obedience [is] due without exception."(Bossuet Doc. 4). They believed that God wishes for the King to rule over the people, and only those people could rule, making all decisions about the civilization on their own, and no person should give anything but

King James I, Machiavelli, and Thomas Hobbes strongly believed in the idea of Absolute government. They believed that King's were "God's Lieutenant's" and they were in power simply because God sent them there. These men believed in divine power upon earth, and that "God hath power to create or destroy, make or unmake at his pleasure, to give life or sent death, to judge all and to be judged nor accountable to none, to raise low things, and to make high things low at his pleasure…and the like power have Kings…" as quoted from doc. 2 of King James I. Being how King James I was a King, it is a conventional belief that Kings had divine rights. In one of Machiavelli's works "The Prince" Machiavelli writes "Men have less hesitation in offending a man who is loved than one who is feared."(Doc.1) Consequently Machiavelli believes in having a fear in your ruler, because if you fear your ruler, you will not hesitate to obey him, for you are afraid of the punishment. Where as, if you love your ruler, you are more lenient to challenge your ruler's authority.

The Bill of Rights is a list of limitations on the power of the government. Firstly, the Bill of Rights is successful in assuring the adoption of the Constitution. Secondly, the Bill of Rights did not address every foreseeable situation. Thirdly, the Bill of Rights has assured the safety of the people of the nation. Successes, failures, and consequences are what made the Bill of Rights what they are today.

During the late 1400s and 1500s, many rulers took great measures to centralize political power and place it in their own hands. This lead to the occurrence of absolute monarchies, some of which I thought were overall very effective. In absolute monarchies, theoretically the monarch is all-powerful, with no legal limitations to his or her authority. Absolutism in Europe was characteristically justified by the doctrine of divine right, according to which the monarch reigns all-powerfully by the will of God. The intention of absolute monarchs is to utilize his or her power in an effective, better-organized way, despite its weaknesses or negative consequences; and from my perspective, I would have to say