Absolutism is the political system in which a monarch controls all aspects of a government without any checks or balances. Many absolute monarchs declared that their rights and privileges came directly from God. They claimed to rule by divine right. (source: James I, p. 24)
France and England in the second half of the 17th century developed two very different forms of government. In France absolutism grew, while in England absolutism declined and limited constitutionalism began to rise. The reason for each growth or failure was mainly the conditions and political system present in each country when the idea of absolutism was introduced.
In France during the middle of the 17th century a civil war involving the monarch, Cardinal Jules Mazarin, took place. Royal bureaucrats, judges in the parliaments, and others felt that Mazarin was ignoring their political interests. Some nobles even led bands of fighters around the country raiding and terrorizing the peasants in an attempt to weaken the Mazarin's power. (textbook: p. 536)
These attacks had the opposite effect and resulted in the general public realizing the value of having a powerful monarch that could protect them from future rebellions or other attacks. When Cardinal Mazarin died in 1661, Louis XIV, whom Cardinal Mazarin had been governing for, took power and became the strong, absolute leader France had been looking for. Louis XIV took control of the country and put himself as head over all of the government. (textbook: p. 536)
During the first half of the 17th century, two Kings attempted to develop royal absolutism in England. Both James I and Charles I tried to rule without involving Parliament. However, Parliament had so much control that both James and Charles were not able to disband Parliament, and they were not even successful in decreasing the role of Parliament in English government. (textbook: p. 549)
The English people had been under the combined rule of both the King and the Parliament for too long for Parliament to be ready to give up all its power to a single person. Many of the merchants and land-owning nobles, as well as many of the lower-class, supported Parliament rather than an absolute monarch who had no restraints. (video: Cromwell)
In 1642, differences between Charles I and Parliament sparked England's civil war. This civil war was caused by Charles's refusal to share control of the country and by Parliament's refusal to give up its power in government. This war marked the beginning of the end for absolutism in England. (video: Cromwell)
Louis XIV managed to control all the parts of French government. There was no large parliament to challenge him as there was in England. English Parliament was much stronger because there was only one unified assembly in all of England. Louis had support from the majority of the citizens of France, while English absolute monarchs had very little support from the general people. As a result, Louis XIV was able to create a strong absolutism that was popular with the citizens of France, almost the opposite of the absolutism in England. It is because Parliament was so strongly integrated into the English process of government that Parliament survived in England, while absolutism declined.