Long live the king
European history is replete with examples of absolutism or monarchical power that was unrestrained by other forces such as the church, laws or social elites. Text books and resources on the subject, however, reveal little discourse about the subject, prompting the EU-funded project 'Absolutism as political language in early modern European discourse on statecraft.' (Absolutism). The project studied political language of early modern European absolutism through political rhetoric and philosophical paradigms employed by patriotic English, French and Spanish absolutist theorists to defend unrestrained monarchies. It shed light on early political thinking and on the thoughts of major philosophers in the last three centuries. After examining political literature in English, French and Spanish, the project looked at crucial historical texts such as letters, sermons and treatises. These were written by dozens of key political thinkers in the 16th and 17th centuries. The research covered several libraries and archives, including the British Library in London and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. As part of this initiative, the project team produced a study titled 'Sir Robert Filmer (1588-1653) and the patriotic monarch: Patriarchalism in 17th century political thought'. This represented a long-overdue study of an important but often misread 17th century absolutist thinker. The Absolutism project was also involved in organising the 2010 international conference 'Absolutism, monarchism and despotism: Historiographical issues and theoretical developments in the 17th and 18th centuries in European context', hosted at the University of Sussex. The publications and conference on monarchical ideas and absolutism have illuminated an important aspect of European history and have helped map the continent's political evolution and maturity. Academics and even policymakers can gain much from understanding the continent's intellectual history, cultural history and historical political thought from a different perspective.