http://www.luc.edu/depts/history/dennis/Visual_Arts/page_Absolutism.htm 

The period between 1600 AD and 1770 AD can be known as the Age of Kings. This is because by 1600 feudalism http://tayci.tripod.com/feudalism.html was on the decline; Europe was experiencing the Renaissance and the Reformation; http://www.learner.org/exhibits/renaissance/ the discovery of the Americas and the resulting Commercial Revolution, all helped to increase the power of the Kings and Queens (monarchs) of Europe.  

Monarchs based their increased power on the Divine Right theory. The theory of Divine Right is that the King is appointed by God, so the King’s commands were also the will of God. Thomas Hobbes was a believer in the theory of Divine Right, writing that Kings and Queens were justified to rule because only they could be impartial to maintain order in society. The absolute control of a nation by a King or Queen is known as Absolutism. King Louis XIV of France (1638-1715 AD) provides us with an excellent example of an absolute monarch (http://www.chateauversailles.fr/en/210_Louis_XIV_the_Sun_King.php).

England was one country that had a Limited Monarchy, in which there is a King or Queen but with limited power, this is contrary to Absolutism, where the King or Queen had total power. England was different because there were strong checks and balances to English royal power. The two most important checks on royal power were:

1. The Magna Carta http://www.britannia.com/history/docs/magna2.html

2.   English Parliament http://www.explore.parliament.uk/parliament.aspx?id=6

 

http://www.philosophypages .com/ph/plat.htm

During this “Age of Kings” or period of Absolutism, there were thinkers who did not believe that Monarchs had a Divine Right to rule. These thinkers were part of the Enlightenment, an important intellectual movement during the 18th century, also known as the Age of Reason.   The Enlightenment had its roots in the medieval renaissance where the Humanists (people who looked to the achievements and value of individuals) looked away from the teachings of the Church exclusively and began to re-discover the classic writers and thinkers of the Greco-Roman tradition. Writers like Plato:     “Plato held that the perfect society will occur only when kings become philosophers or philosophers are made kings,”(http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/2h.htm#forms).    While others looked away from the Churches teachings about science and nature in favor of the direct observation  of nature in order to make their own conclusions (Scientific Method), this was part of the Scientific Revolution (http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/rhatch/pages/03-Sci-Rev/SCI-REV-Home/).

One of these people was Galileo who, through his observations discovered that the Sun was at the center of the solar system and not the Earth, which is what the Church had taught.

The thinkers of the Enlightenment believed that by applying scientific reasoning people could better understand both themselves and the natural world. Enlightenment thinkers believed in “natural laws” which governed both nature and society. By using the Scientific Method to observe society and its problems they began to question the divine right of kings, the power of the catholic church, and the privilege of nobility.  

Five major thinkers of the Enlightenment and their most important contributions to Western thought are:  

1.      John Locke: (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/) The government should obtain power from the “consent of the governed” not from “Divine Right”. Locke also believed that the main purpose of the government is to “protect the people’s rights to life, liberty, and property”. Locke defended the right of people to rebel when a government abused it’s power.

2.      Voltaire: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire) Had beliefs in intellectual freedom and religious tolerance.

3.      Jean-Jacques Rousseau: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau)The government should express the “general will” of the people.

4.      Montesquieu: Separation of powers in government as a check against tyranny.

5.      Adam Smith: (http://www.cpm.ll.ehime-u.ac.jp/AkamacHomePage/Akamac_E-text_Links/Smith.html) His book The Wealth of Nations described modern day capitalism; how division of labor and competition drive a free economic system based on self interest (http://www.readprint.com/chapter-8607/Adam-Smith).