Study smarter with Fiveable
Get study guides, practice questions, and cheatsheets for all your subjects. Join 500,000+ students with a 96% pass rate.
When you're tested on European monarchs, the AP exam isn't asking you to recite coronation dates or count marriages. You're being tested on how rulers consolidated power, how they responded to religious and intellectual challenges, and how their decisions created the political structures—absolutism, constitutionalism, nationalism—that define modern Europe. These monarchs are case studies in the big themes: state-building, the relationship between church and crown, Enlightenment reform, and the forces that eventually toppled the old order.
Each ruler on this list represents a specific model of political sovereignty that the College Board wants you to understand and compare. Louis XIV and Frederick the Great both claimed absolute power, but they exercised it differently. Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great both navigated religious complexity, but in distinct contexts. Don't just memorize names—know what type of power each monarch represents, what challenges they faced, and how their reigns illustrate broader patterns of European development.
These monarchs exemplified the concentration of power in a single ruler, using divine right theory, court culture, and bureaucratic control to subordinate nobles, clergy, and representative institutions to royal authority.
Compare: Louis XIV vs. Frederick the Great—both absolute monarchs, but Louis emphasized divine right and court spectacle while Frederick embraced Enlightenment rationalism and military efficiency. If an FRQ asks about varieties of absolutism, contrast their justifications for power.
These rulers adopted Enlightenment rhetoric and selectively implemented reforms—religious toleration, legal codification, educational expansion—while preserving autocratic control. They illustrate the tension between reason and tradition.
Compare: Catherine the Great vs. Maria Theresa—both powerful female rulers who centralized authority, but Catherine embraced Enlightenment rhetoric more openly while Maria Theresa pursued practical administrative reform with traditional Catholic values. Both reveal how "enlightened" reform served state power.
These monarchs reshaped the relationship between church and crown, whether by breaking with Rome, defending Protestantism, or using religion as a tool of political consolidation. The Reformation created new models of sovereignty that these rulers exploited.
Compare: Henry VIII vs. Elizabeth I—father broke with Rome for personal and political reasons; daughter consolidated a stable Protestant national church. Henry's reign was about rupture; Elizabeth's was about settlement. Both show how religious change served state-building.
Napoleon represents a rupture with monarchical tradition—power claimed through military merit and popular sovereignty rather than hereditary right—while his reign paradoxically created new forms of authoritarian rule and sparked nationalist responses across Europe.
Compare: Napoleon vs. Louis XIV—both centralized French power and pursued European hegemony, but Louis claimed divine right while Napoleon claimed merit and revolutionary legitimacy. Napoleon's empire spread Revolutionary ideals even as it imposed French domination.
Not all powerful rulers fit the absolutist model. These monarchs operated within—or helped create—systems where royal power was checked by law, parliament, or constitutional tradition, while still presiding over dramatic national expansion.
Compare: William the Conqueror vs. Queen Victoria—both presided over transformative eras of English/British power, but William created centralized royal authority while Victoria symbolized a constitutional system where real power had shifted to Parliament. Shows the evolution of monarchy over 800 years.
By the late 19th century, monarchs increasingly had to navigate the forces of nationalism and mass politics. Some tried to harness nationalism; others were destroyed by it. The old dynastic order was giving way to nation-states and popular sovereignty.
Compare: Kaiser Wilhelm II vs. Napoleon—both pursued European hegemony and both were ultimately defeated by coalitions of opposing powers. But Napoleon spread Revolutionary ideals; Wilhelm's defeat discredited monarchy itself and accelerated the rise of mass democracy and totalitarianism.
| Concept | Best Examples |
|---|---|
| Absolute Monarchy | Louis XIV, Peter the Great, Frederick the Great |
| Enlightened Despotism | Frederick the Great, Catherine the Great, Maria Theresa |
| Religious Transformation | Henry VIII, Elizabeth I |
| State-Building & Centralization | William the Conqueror, Louis XIV, Peter the Great |
| Constitutional/Limited Monarchy | Queen Victoria, (post-1688 English monarchs) |
| Napoleonic Disruption | Napoleon Bonaparte |
| Nationalism & Imperial Collapse | Kaiser Wilhelm II, Napoleon (unintentionally) |
| Female Rulers & Power | Elizabeth I, Maria Theresa, Catherine the Great, Queen Victoria |
Which two monarchs best illustrate the contrast between divine-right absolutism and Enlightenment-influenced absolutism? What specific policies or justifications distinguish their approaches to power?
How did Henry VIII and Elizabeth I each reshape the relationship between church and state in England? Why is Elizabeth's settlement considered more durable?
Compare Catherine the Great and Maria Theresa as "enlightened" rulers. In what ways did their reforms strengthen state power, and where did Enlightenment ideals conflict with their political interests?
If an FRQ asked you to explain how Napoleon both continued and disrupted the French Revolutionary tradition, which specific policies and actions would you cite?
What do the reigns of Queen Victoria and Kaiser Wilhelm II reveal about the changing role of monarchy in the age of nationalism and industrialization? Why did one model survive and the other collapse?