Catherine, Frederick and Louis - Unenlightened Despots in an Enlightened Age

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 …

…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