"Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.
This comes to truth in the 17th and 18th century. Most of the monarchs, when .
faced with controlling powerful nations, became corrupt and greedy. One example would be .
Charles I, who came into power after his father James I died. He felt that he should control .
England as a sole ruler, without Parliament. He tried to force the Puritans to accept his .
religous ways, which drove many of them out of England. In 1642, he was finally .
overthrown in a civil war against forces led by Oliver Cromwell, who later removed the .
Parliament by force. Charles I is a obvious example of the corruption of power. .
Another figure in the corruption of power was Louis XIV. Louis, after gaining the throne in .
1661, removed all high nobles from the royal council and replaced them with nobles from .
the new aristocratic families. By doing this, he hoped to remove all opposition from his .
control of power. His new council obeyed every word he said. In addition, to insure that the .
high nobles did not complain, he created the court of Versailles, which busied the nobles .
with court life rather than politics. The court had costed the government untold amounts of .
money. He had complete power iver the traditional sections of power: foreign policy, the .
church, and taxes. Concerning military, Louis XIV pursued war constantly. As a "Sun .
King", he felt that he needed to acheive military glory. All he accomplished was spending .
increasing amounts on his troops. By the end of his reign, Louis XIV had left France with .
great debts and with numerous enemies. His own personal goals had overwhelmed his sense .
of duty to his country. .
The corruption of power was brought up again by Peter the Great in Russia. Peter, who .
made a trip to the West, realized that he needed to modernize Russia. He created an army .
using Western tactics and technology. He also divided Russia up into provinces to create .