ABSTRACT

The myth of English limited monarchy and Continental 'absolutism' is so strongly entrenched that some exaggeration is essential to its correction. The myth of 'absolutism' spot lit the absolute mode in France and the limited mode in England. The myth began with Sir John Fortescue, writing during the 1460s. He was responsible for the ever-popular legend that there was something specially English about parliaments. In constitutional terms the Glorious Revolution was arguably a myth crafted to lull alarmist fears at the growth of the executive. Apprehensions that English liberties were vanishing were rebutted by the assertion that they had never been more secure. Though 'absolutism' cannot sensibly be related to England, in some respects it displayed more of the features commonly associated with it than France itself. In the 1860s absolutism fused conveniently with another nineteenth-century experience - the rise of nation-states with huge armies and modern bureaucracies.