Short answers, pulled from the story.
Absolutism describes a form of monarchical power unrestrained by churches, legislatures, or social elites. The term emerged long after the kings who supposedly wielded it had died and was applied post-hoc by historians before the French Revolution.
The era spanned from the 16th century through the 19th century with several notable Medieval precursors. Wilhelm Roscher first attempted to periodize the absolutist age in the 19th century and assigned the enlightened epoch a separate historical position.
Louis XIV ruled France from 1643 until his death on the 2nd of May 1715, earning the nickname the Sun King. Peter I governed Russia from 1682 to 1725 while Frederick II reigned over Prussia between 1740 and 1786.
Jean Bodin lived between 1530 and 1596 and formulated the thesis of sovereignty in his work Six Books of the Republic. He stated the sovereign's claim to omnipotence on which later absolutist systems of rule were built while demanding respect for natural rights and divine commandments.
Enlightened absolutism refers to conduct and policies of European absolute monarchs during the 18th and early 19th centuries influenced by ideas of the Enlightenment. These leaders claimed to rule for subjects' well-being as exemplified by Emperor Joseph II who summarized the approach as everything for the people but nothing by the people.