Peter the Great

Louis XIV who ruled France from 1643-1715 and Peter the Great who ruled Russia from 1682-1725 both of them wanted a greater state power and to become an absolute monarch. They both tried to obtain and maintain this power in different economic, political, military, and religious ways. They thought that this was very important and attempted to ensure it by conquering the nobles using their power and expanding the territory of their states.

Louis XIV was a Catholic king who opposed religious toleration, and he believed that one law, one king, and one faith were required to maintain unity in France. In keeping with this, he published the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685, which revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had guaranteed freedom of worship to Huguenots. Peter controlled the Russian Orthodox Church by replacing the office of the patriarch with the Holy Synod in 1721. The Synod was a bureaucracy of lay-people under the control of the crown. While Louis used a lot money and manpower to keep Versailles, Peter began the construction of St. Petersburg in 1701, a symbol of his desire to westernize Russia.   Both Louis XIV and Peter the Great controlled their countries by enforcing their own but different religions and expanding it into other territories.

Louis XIV did not just maintain total control over religion in France, he wished to conquer all of France's social groups, especially the nobles. Because of the Fronde, Louis never fully trusted the nobles and spent the rest of his life and a great deal of his resources ensuring that he always had them under control. Also, Peter faced disapproval from the Moscow streltsi. In 1689, while Peter was on his tour of Europe, the streltsi rebelled, forcing Peter to return home. Once back in Russia Peter dealt with them, thousands died. Louis had trouble controlling them. Louis granted them high social status but increased their military obligations, similar to the tactics used by Peter the Great, who created a service...