Catherine, Frederick and Louis - Unenlightened Tyrants in an Enlightened Age It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both. -- Niccolo Machiavelli, - The Prince The Enlightenment is touted by modern historians as a time of intellectual and social advancement, an era of optimism and freedom unheard of in earlier times. The era of absolutism is seen as a time of mounting liberty that contributed to the rise of democracy …showed first 75 words of 1176 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1176 total…the Enlightened Despots can still be felt today in Europe, the Middle East, The Americas and elsewhere, people still suffer as a result of decisions made by the absolutists in the sixteenth century. "If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual." ~ Frank Herbert