ABSTRACT
Absolutist ideology of the eighteenth century stated that the monarch ruled according to his own sentiments only, free from consulting the laws. However, this understanding of absolutism should not be taken too literally.1 It has often been pointed out that there were several channels of political communication between the regent and the people in absolutist monarchies – some existed in political institutions, others were part of the debates in the public sphere.2 We will be looking at the latter, in an attempt to bring to the fore a kind of plurality that may actually have been a characteristic of the eighteenth century public sphere, despite the regime of absolutist monarchy.
