Enlightened Despotism

Some eighteenth-century monarchs (Frederick the Great of Prussia, Catherine the Great of Russia, Joseph II of Austria) read Enlightenment writers and adopted selected reforms. They modernized administration, codified law, sometimes expanded religious toleration, and patronized intellectuals. But they did not surrender absolute power. Maria should recognize enlightened despotism as a partial, top-down adoption of Enlightenment ideas that left the underlying political system intact.