Lesson Plans

The Western Heritage ©2000

by Kagan, Ozment, and Turner

Focus Lesson 5

Chapter 13: "Paths to Constitutionalism and Absolutism: England and France in the Seventeenth Century"

AP* Course Description

1. Intellectual and Cultural History
   • Changes in religious thought and institutions
   • Major trends in literature and the arts
   • Intellectual and cultural developments and their relationship to social values and political events
   • Developments in social, economic, and political thought
   • Impact of global expansion on European culture
2. Political and Diplomatic History
   • The rise and functioning of the modern state in its various forms
   • The evolution of political elites and the development of political parties and ideologies
   • The extension and limitation of rights and liberties (personal, civic, economic, and political); majority and minority; political persecutions
   • The growth and changing forms of nationalism
   • Forms of political protest, reform, and revolution
   • Relationship between domestic and foreign policies
   • Efforts to restrain conflict: treaties, balance of power, diplomacy, and international organizations
   • War and civil conflict: origins, developments, technology, and their consequences
3. Social and Economic History
   • The development of commercial practices and their economic and social impact
   • The growth of competition and interdependence in national and world markets
   • Private and state roles in economic activity

Key Components

• Instructor's Manual: pp. 27–29
• Study Guide and Workbook, Vol. II: pp. 1–10
• Test Item File: pp. 67–72

Key Web Sites

• Absolutism
• The European Enlightenment Glossary: Absolutism
• The Tudors
• The Stuarts
• Oliver Cromwell
• The Cromwell Association

Key Words and Terms

Suggested Pacing

Test Strategy

Key Concepts

• England's constitutionalism and France's absolutism
  The development of England and France during the seventeenth century is an interesting study in comparison and contrast. Through a series of conflicts, England moved its form of government from a slightly restricted monarchy (the Magna Carta) to a parliamentary form of government in which the monarch was also the head of the state religion. On the other hand, the French embraced the theory of absolute monarchy, capped by the ascendancy of Louis XIV, the Sun King, to the throne. The Roman Catholic Church remained a powerful force in the conduct of political as well as religious affairs.
  
  
• Impact of religious differences within England and France
  In England, religious differences had a tremendous impact on who would succeed to the throne or who would otherwise rule. In France, religion did not influence the choice of who would rule. But the monarch influenced the Church and the practice of religion in France as he attempted to create conformity among his subjects.

Summing Up Student Understanding

• the decisions made by either Catherine de Medici, Henry IV, Cardinal Richelieu, Cardinal Mazarin, or Bishop Bossuet as the influencing factors in the development of Louis XIV's absolutism in France
• the impact of the Magna Charta, the Tudors (Henry VIII, Mary I, Elizabeth I), the Stuarts (James I, Charles I, Charles II, James II), and Oliver Cromwell in creating an England that welcomed the rise of parliamentary government and the Glorious Revolution

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Aspects of Western Civilization, Vol. II, edited by Rogers—Chapter 1, All Sections
• Sources of the West, Vol. I, edited by Kishlausky—Part IV, "Subjects and Sovereigns"