Short answers, pulled from the story.
Absolutism is a historiographical term describing a form of monarchical power unrestrained by other institutions such as churches, legislatures, or social elites. It is associated with European monarchs from roughly the 16th through the 19th centuries, characterized by the consolidation of power with the monarch, the rise of professional standing armies and bureaucracies, the codification of state laws, and a decline in church and noble influence.
Jean Bodin, a French jurist and professor of law who lived from 1530 to 1596, gave absolutism its first systematic theoretical foundation. In his work Six Books of the Republic, he formulated the concept of sovereignty and the monarch's claim to omnipotence, though he also demanded that rulers respect natural rights, divine commandments, and the protection of family and property.
Louis XIV of France, who reigned from 1643 to 1715, is the prime example of courtly absolutism. His court at Versailles represented the height of baroque royal spectacle, and the practice of requiring nobles to live there - separating them from their own lands - became a defining model of absolutist political control.
Enlightened absolutism, also called enlightened despotism, refers to the conduct of European absolute monarchs during the 18th and early 19th centuries who adopted Enlightenment ideas to enhance their power while claiming to rule for their subjects' well-being. Notable practitioners include Frederick II of Prussia, who described himself as 'the first servant of his state', Catherine II of Russia (reigned 1762-1796), and Emperor Joseph II of the Holy Roman Empire (reigned 1765-1790), whose rule was summarized as 'Everything for the people, nothing by the people'.
Historians disagree significantly on this question. Roger Mettam disputes the very concept of absolutism, while Perry Anderson argues that some monarchs achieved genuine absolutist control. William Bouwsma pointed to a key contradiction: governments were perennially in financial trouble, unable to tax the wealthiest, and prone to costly revolts when they tried - suggesting that absolute power was often more rhetorical than real.
The divine right of kings was the cornerstone ideology justifying absolutist monarchies, holding that rulers derived their authority directly from God rather than from the pope or emperor as under the earlier medieval order. This shift in justification was central to the absolutist claim that monarchical power could not be checked by other earthly institutions.