Q This question should be answered in an essay of approximately 6 (six) double-spaced pages using only materials available to you in the course. Quotations and para-phrasings should be cited using 'scientific notation' at the end of the referenced passage: example -- (Richelieu, p. 30) or (Political Testament, p. 30). There is no need of a Bibliography (works cited page), because you will be using only materials available in the course. The essay must be submitted by 11:59PM (EDT), on Saturday the 14th of March. Essay Question – #1 The efforts of the French Monarchy to establish sovereign control over the totality of French territories at the expense of the Clergy (1st Estate – universal power) and the Nobility (2nd Estate – local power) had made it sound policy for the kings of France to assert and maintain control – in the interest of the monarchy – over Clerical and Noble prerogatives. This attempt by the centralizing authority of the monarchy to create a monopoly on every avenue of influence and power within the state was, not surprisingly, resented (perhaps legitimately) and resisted by the 1st and 2nd Estates as innovation on the part of France’s kings, and a breach of French tradition. Using the materials available to you through the course (lectures/films/readings), examine the specific efforts of Cardinal Richelieu (in service to Louis XIII) and Louis XIV to place the French Monarchy, in the person of its king, above suspicion*; and evaluate whether the efforts of the Tokugawa Shogunate, as described in Beasley’s The Japanese Experience and Noel Perrin’s Giving Up the Gun, were by intention, action or both similarly inspired and implemented. In your answer be sure to use the evidence and examples available in the selections from The Political Testament of Cardinal Richelieu, the section from The Japanese Experience, and the section from Giving up the Gun, as well as lectures, the Western Tradition series film on “Absolutism”, and other appropriate course materials. Note: students will need to make use of the lecture on ‘The French Estates General’ in any attempt to compare Richelieu’s actions to those of Tokugawa Ieyasu and his predecessors as described in Japanese Experience and Giving Up the Gun. *Note: students are sometimes unsure as to what the phrase ‘above suspicion’ implies: to be ‘above suspicion’ identifies a claim that one is above the law as well as unconstrained by the existing social norms of behavior and conventions. Presidents Richard Nixon, and recently Donald Trump have asserted that the office of the Presidency places the individual holding the office ‘above the law’, with President Nixon defending his own actions as President by stating that “…if the President does it, it’s not illegal” – though it should be noted that the Constitution of the United States did not provide for a king, and the Declaration of Independence identifies 17 acts and 9 subsidiary acts by “He” (George III, King of England) representing the King’s illegal abuse of power in the American Colonies justifying the declared need for independence. Louis XIV, as noted in the film on “The age of Absolutism” is believed to have identified his own ubiquitous absolute power with the phrase “L’etat est a moi” (the state is mine).