1. Absolute Monarchies
10th Grade World History
I. Duration, 1 day, 80 minute class periods
II. Materials
a. Teacher: KWL worksheet printed (150 copies), Reading packet printed (150
copies), RAFT assignment printed (150 copies)
b. Student: Notebook for notes and a writing instrument
III. TEKS Objectives
a. §113.42. (c). (19): Government: The student understands the characteristics of
major political systems throughout history.
b. §113.42. (c). (19). (B): Identify the characteristics of the following political
systems: theocracy, absolute monarchy, democracy, republic, oligarchy, limited
monarchy, and totalitarianism.
IV. Student objectives:
a. The student will write a description about absolute monarchies with no errors
through a RAFT strategy.
V. Engagement:
a. Warm up (10 minutes): Students will receive a larger sized index card and would
write their answers to the question, “If you were absolute ruler of this country,
what would be one law you would implement and why?” The cards will be
collected and I will read a select few of them, randomly chosen, and ask the rest
of the class for their opinions on the new law.

2. b. Next, this video would be shown to the class
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb4j29AbQXQ), which is a funny animation
video about King Henry VIII and his 6 wives.
VI. Procedure:
a. Pre reading (10 Minutes): Students will complete a KWLS (attached). This will
allow the students to use prior knowledge they have about monarchies in general
to form questions they have about absolute monarchies. Will also serve as an exit
slip since they will be writing what they learned from that day’s lesson.
i. Students will need to put 3-5 points of interest in each section under
“What I know” and “What I want to learn”.
1. Points can include information about specific absolute monarchs,
absolute monarchies, or general information about
monarchs/monarchies.
ii. This whole reading activity would be done after I had already given a
lesson discussing the monarchs the reading selections discuss and absolute
monarchs/monarchies.
b. During reading (45 Minutes): ReQuest: for each of the selections, students will
have a brief period of time to ask the teacher any questions they have. Once I
have answered them, then I will ask them questions about the selections focusing
on how each monarch centralized their power and why. We would do this one
selection at a time, so the students will read one selection, the ReQuest will
happen, and then they will read the next selection.
c. Post reading:

3. i. RAFT (10 Minute explanation): Once all the selections have been read
and all the questions answered, for homework I would have the students
complete a RAFT. Detailed assignment attached.
1. Choose one absolute monarch.
2. Role: Journalist
3. Audience: The people of the country your chosen monarch rules.
4. Format: You are reporting on your chosen monarch’s expression of
their power. Create some form of propaganda for the people of
your country.
ii. Completion of KWLS (5 Minutes): Students will fill in the last box of the
KWLS chart with 3-5 points of interest they learned in class and 3-5
points would still like to learn about.
1. Can include more information on some of the absolute monarchs.
2. More information on absolute monarchs.
3. More information on monarchs in general.
VII. SI Modification:
a. ELL students: for the RAFT they can choose to either complete the assignment
alone or with a partner who has the capability to translate. For all the writing
portions of the assignments, they would have leniency for grammar and spelling.
They could also choose to summarize what they learned to me orally.
b. SPED mainstreamers: These students will have extra time to complete all the
assignments. They will also have the choice to work with a partner if they so
choose and would have leniency in grading.

4. c. The reason I have ELL’s and SPED mainstreamers choose if they want to work
with a partner is because I want them to assess their abilities and then make an
informed decision based on that. I don’t want them to feel like they are obligated
to work with a partner or work alone. I feel as if this develops personal
accountability. I fully expect them to choose to work with a partner but I don’t
want them to feel like they have to.
VIII. Reading Lesson Plan Report
a. I’ve always enjoyed the process of writing a lesson plan. I like to sit down and
think how I can layout the information I need to teach in an effective, coherent,
and engaging manner. I like to think of different activities I can utilize so my
classroom is always changing. I don’t like the idea of a teacher lecturing
everyday.
b. I see the benefits of peer review but I think when you throw in a teacher also
providing feedback, the person being reviewed is less likely to take what the
“peers” say and only implement what the teacher says.
i. I had one comment from a peer talking about how I should require ELL’s
and SPED mainstreamers to work with a partner. I ended up adding an
explanation in my lesson plan discussing why I won’t require them to
work with a partner but instead offer them the choice.
ii. I had put an activity in the wrong location on my lesson plan so that same
student thought I hadn’t had enough detail in that section and directed me
to a website of strategies to use. While I found the website useful, after I

5. moved the strategy to the correct location, I felt like I didn’t need to
expand on it anymore.
iii. When the professor told me to move a certain strategy, I did no questions
asked. I also edited my objective according to the professor’s comments.
Honestly, if one of my peers had told me to edit my objective, I probably
wouldn’t have, but that’s just me.
iv. I feel like my peer’s reviews of my lesson plans had less of an impact on
my editing my lesson plan than did the professor’s suggestions.

6. What I know What I want to learn What I learned What I still want to learn
Name: ______________________________________________ Date: ___________________Class: _____________
Instructions: Write 3-5 main points in each box about Absolute Monarchies and their leaders.

7. Document 1
Source: Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, ed. W. K. Marriott. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1908.
The Prince ought to have no other goal or thought than war and its rules and discipline; for
this is the sole art that belongs to him who rules. It is much safer to be feared than loved,
because in general men are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and they will offer
you their blood, property, life, and children when they need something or another. And that
prince who relies entirely on promises is ruined, because friendships that are obtained by
payments are not secure, but fear never fails...
…a prudent ruler cannot, and must not, honour his word when it places him at a
disadvantage … Because men are wretched creatures who would not keep their word to
you, you need not keep your word to them…
…A prince ought also to show himself a patron of ability, and to honor the skilled of every
art. At the same time he should encourage his citizens to practice their art peacefully, both
in commerce, agriculture, and every other following; but the prince ought to offer rewards
to whoever wishes to do these things and to honor his city or state…
Instructions: Read the paragraphs and write down any questions you have as you read.

8. Document 2
Source: Erik Sass and Steve Wiegand. The Mental Floss History of the World. London: Harper, 2008.
Building on his father’s achievements, Henry VIII wielded unprecedented control over
England. Because the pope wouldn’t allow him to divorce his wife – or his second wife,
or his third-in his endless quest to produce a male heir, Henry simply established a new
church, independent of Rome, called the Anglican Church. He also enriched the royal
treasury by looting Catholic monasteries and established a special court with its own
secret police, the Star Chamber, to dispose of uncooperative nobles. Thus Henry VIII
paved the way for the greatest monarch of English history: his daughter Elizabeth.

9. Document 3
Source: Jackson J. Spielvogel. Western Civilization (St.Paul,1991) pp. 523-528 (adapted)
Absolute monarchy or absolutism meant that the sovereign power or ultimate authority in
the state rested in the hands of a king who claimed to rule by divine right. But what did
sovereignty mean? Late sixteenth century political theorists believed that sovereign power
consisted of the authority to make laws, tax, administer justice, control the state's
administrative system, and determine foreign policy. These powers made a ruler sovereign.
One of the chief theorists of divine-right monarchy in the seventeenth century was the
French theologian and court preacher Bishop Jacques Bossuet (1627-1704), who expressed
his ideas in a book entitled Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture. Bossuet
argued first that government was divinely ordained so that humans could live in an
organized society. Of all forms of government, monarchy…was the most general, most
ancient, most natural, and the best, since God established kings and through them reigned
over all the peoples of the world. Since kings received their power from God [divine right],
their authority was absolute. They were responsible to no one (including parliaments)
except God.…There was also a large gulf between the theory of absolutism as ex pressed
by Bossuet and the practice of absolutism. As we shall see in our survey of seventeenth-
century states, a monarch's absolute power was often very limited by practical realities. ...

10. Document 4
Source: Carl L. Becker, Modern History, Silver, Burdett, and Company
…That it might be amusing for the nobles to obey the king, Louis built a splendid new royal
residence at Versailles, near Paris, where he established the most brilliant court ever known in
Europe. The most influential nobles were encouraged, and even commanded, to leave their castles
in the country, where life at best was dull, and to come and live with the king at Versailles. Here the
king provided amusements for them, and here he could keep his eye on them. The nobles could not
well be discourteous or disobedient to the king while they lived in his house and ate at his table.
Almost without knowing it, Louis’s noble guests fell into the habit of trying to please him. The
king’s manners were imitated, his words repeated. All smiled when the king smiled, all were sad
when the king was sad, “all were devout when the king was devout, and all were sorry not to be ill
when the king was ill.” If a noble at court displeased the king, he was sent back to the country to
live in his own house, in which case everyone felt—and he did too—that he was in deep
disgrace.…

11. Document 5 & 6
Source: Robert K. Massie, Peter the Great: His Life and World, Alfred A. Knopf
Source: Michael Gibson, Peter the Great, Wayland Publishers
. . . A year later, in January 1700, Peter transformed persuasion into decree [law]. With
rolling drums in the streets and squares, it was proclaimed that all boyars [Russian
nobles], government officials and men of property, both in Moscow and in the
provinces, were to abandon their long robes and provide themselves with Hungarian or
German-style caftans. The following year, a new decree commanded men to wear a
waistcoat, breeches, gaiters, boots and a hat in the French or German style, and women
to put on petticoats, skirts, bonnets and Western shoes. Later decrees prohibited the
wearing of high Russian boots and long Russian knives. Models of the new approved
costumes were hung at Moscow’s gates and in public places in the city for people to
observe and copy. All who arrived at the gates in traditional dress except peasants were
permitted to enter only after paying a fine. Subsequently, Peter instructed the guards at
the city gates to force to their knees all visitors arriving in long, traditional coats and
then to cut off the coats at the point where the lowered garment touched the ground.
“Many hundreds of coats were cut accordingly,” says Perry, “and being done with good
humor it occasioned mirth [humor] among the people and soon broke the custom of
wearing long coats, especially in places near Moscow…
… How great an effect did Peter have upon Russia? When he came to the throne,
Russia was an insignificant state. He made it into a great power feared by all. At his accession
[becoming Czar] Russia had no armed forces except for the inefficient and untrustworthy
Streltsy [hereditary military units]. When he died, there was a professional army of 210,000
men. He created a navy out of nothing, leaving behind him a fleet of forty-eight ships-of-the-
line and many smaller vessels.…
Peter signally [noticeably] failed to create the large, thriving middle class that Russia
needed. In spite of the most strenuous efforts, Russia’s commerce and industry remained
dependent upon the Tsar, so that when he died, there were not enough wealthy, far-sighted
traders and industrialists to develop what he had begun. This lack of private initiative and
enterprise was to remain one of Russia’s greatest social weaknesses until the Communist
Revolution of 1917.…

12. …all serfs and peasants who disobey their landlords shall be arrested and taken to the nearest
government office, there to be punished as disturbers of the public, according to the laws and without
leniency [kindness]. And if any serfs and peasants should continue to be disobedient to their landlord,
then they shall be punished by the knout and forthwith deported to Nerchinsk to penal servitude for
life…
Catherine had some remarkable accomplishments. She built dozens of towns, took a census, and mapped
the provinces. She organized and reformed government in St. Petersburg. She built orphanages and
made prisons more humane. She established schools for both boys and girls. She promoted books and
reading and founded a medical college. And she expanded the Russian Empire until it stretched from the
Baltic to eastern Siberia.
Documents 6 & 7
Source: G. Vernadsky, trans. A Source Book for Russian History, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972
Source: Zu Vincent. Catherine the Great: Empress of Russia. Scholastic, 2009.

13. RAFT Homework
You are a journalist tasked with keeping up with an absolute monarch’s expression
of their power. Pick one of the absolute monarchs we have talked about and create
a form of propaganda telling the people of the country what their monarch is up to.
Pick one of the following:
1. Newspaper or Magazine article or Blog post
a. Must be 1-2 pages in length and include 1-2 pictures.
2. Political cartoon with short political blurb
a. Must be 1-2 pages
3. Create a comic
a. Must be 1-2 pages
For whatever method you chose, you must mention 3 things your monarch did to
centralize their power and how that affectedthe country. Also, include a cover
page that has your FULL NAME, DATE, CLASS PERIOD, TEACHER
NAME.
**Remember, you are a journalist living in the same time period as your monarch;
you should be writing or talking in the present tense.