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France in the 17th Century (Renaissance and Reformation)

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. The 17th century occupies a pivotal place in the history of France between the turbulence of the Wars of Religion and the long calm of the Old Regime. On the one hand, it was a period of political, economic, religious, and social crises. On the other hand, it was the “Great Century” (Grand Siècle) that saw the establishment of France’s hegemony in Europe, its expansion overseas, the efflorescence of French classical culture, and the zenith of the absolute monarchy. After Henri IV (r. 1589–1610) ended the great religious civil wars, Cardinal Richelieu, prime minister to Louis XIII (r. 1610–1643), embarked on a policy of strengthening royal authority. In 1635, he committed France into the conflagration of the Thirty Years’ War and a quarter-century-long duel with Spain. France emerged from these wars as Europe’s dominant power. Yet the cost was high. The monarchy’s efforts to increase its authority and to raise the money it needed to pay its armies provoked massive resistance from all levels of French society. There were 232 popular uprisings between 1635 and 1660. Elite opposition to the crown culminated the Fronde, a near-revolution against Richelieu’s successor, Cardinal Mazarin. After assuming personal rule in 1661, Louis XIV (r. 1643–1715) determined to complete the work begun by his predecessors. He reformed the state, secured the obedience of the French elites, expanded his army to the largest in Europe, and encouraged the growth of colonies abroad. He established a glittering court at Versailles and promoted the development of the arts. The Sun King became a model other European rulers strove to emulate. After 1688, however, Louis XIV’s bellicose foreign policy led to a new round of wars that would darken the end of the century. This entry aims to introduce students and researchers to the historical scholarship on this fascinating period. It begins after the reign of Henri IV. For information on France under the first Bourbon monarch, see the entries on the Reformation and Wars of Religion in France and Henri IV.
  4.  
  5. General Overviews
  6.  
  7. These works survey the major historical developments of the 17th century. Briggs 1998 is a classic account of political developments. Although somewhat dated, it is still useful for undergraduates. Another classic political account is Tapié 1975, which, as its title indicates, focuses on the age of Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu. Kettering 2001 analyzes social structure and social change. The other titles in this section place the 17th century in the broader context of French history. Collins 2009 examines the evolution of the state and argues that the late 17th century saw the emergence of the “mature monarchical state” that would be overthrown by the Revolution of 1789. Beik 2009 surveys social and cultural developments from the 16th to the 18th century. The best introduction to the period for advanced undergraduates and researchers alike is the two volumes of the Short Oxford History of France: Holt 2002 covers the period from the beginning of the 16th century to the death of Louis XIII and Doyle 2001 the reign of Louis XIV to the Revolution. Finally, Jouhaud 2007 provocatively challenges how the French have created and made modern use of the history of the “Great Century.”
  8.  
  9. Beik, William. A Social and Cultural History of Early Modern France. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
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  11. A wide-ranging survey of social and cultural developments from the 16th to the 18th century. Twelve chapters explore such topics as population, peasant life, noble power, traditional ideas and attitudes, and the forces of change.
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  13. Briggs, Robin. Early Modern France 1560–1715. 2d ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
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  15. First published in 1977, this readable but somewhat dated survey focuses on political history while also having useful chapters on society, the economy, and beliefs and culture.
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  17. Collins, James B. The State in Early Modern France. 2d ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
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  19. Surveys the development of the state from Henri IV to the Revolution. Collins argues that the French monarchical state rapidly developed into a mature form by the end of the 17th century.
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  21. Doyle, William, ed. Old Regime France. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
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  23. Begins with the reign of Louis XIV (r. 1643–1715) and ends with the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. It comprises nine chapters by experts on such subjects as society, the economy, and France overseas. The work’s scope places the 17th century in the context of the rise and fall of the Old Regime.
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  25. Holt, Mack, ed. Renaissance and Reformation France. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
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  27. Covers the period 1500 to 1648. Written by experts, its eight chapters treat political, social, and religious topics. The last two chapters cover religious and political developments during the first half of the 17th century.
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  29. Jouhaud, Christian. Sauver le Grand Siècle? Présence et transmission du passé. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2007.
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  31. A study of how the French have made and used the history of the Great Century (Grand Siècle). Jouhaud argues in favor of new accounts of the 17th century that are less bellicose, more humane, and less centered on the achievements of the monarchy.
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  33. Kettering, Sharon. French Society, 1589–1715. London: Routledge, 2001.
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  35. A fine introduction to social structure and social change during the “long 17th century” by one of the foremost social historians of the period.
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  37. Tapié, Victor-Lucien. France in the Age of Louis XIII and Richelieu. Translated by D. M. Lockie. New York: Praeger, 1975.
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  39. A translation of La France de Louis XIII et de Richelieu (second edition, Paris: Flammarion, 1967). A classic account of political developments during the reign of Louis XIII, focusing on the trials and achievements of the king and his famous prime minister.
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  41. Reference Works
  42.  
  43. Those who read French can look up detailed information about different aspects of politics, society, and culture in four excellent historical dictionaries: Bély 1996 and Cabourdin and Viard 1978 cover the 16th to the 18th century; Bluche 1990 and Pillorget and Pillorget 1995 focus on the 17th century.
  44.  
  45. Bély, Lucien, ed. Dictionnaire de l’Ancien Régime. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1996.
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  47. The scope of this dictionary spans the 16th to the 18th century. Written by a team of distinguished historians, the entries cover institutions, places, and concepts. Each entry includes a short bibliography for further research.
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  49. Bluche, François, ed. Dictionnaire du Grand Siècle. Paris: Fayard, 1990.
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  51. This exhaustive reference work consists of 2,418 entries prepared by 248 authors. The entries cover events, people, institutions, society, and culture from the accession of Henry IV in 1598 to the death of Louis XIV in 1715. It is also lavishly illustrated and contains sixty-six maps. A thematic index eases orientation.
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  53. Cabourdin, Guy, and Georges Viard, eds. Lexique historique de la France de l’Ancien Régime. Paris: A. Colin, 1978.
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  55. Part of the Collection U aimed at university students, this dictionary contains 564 entries on political, social, and cultural history from the 16th to the 18th century. The entries cover aspects of “civilization,” rather than events. Coverage of state institutions is particularly good.
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  57. Pillorget, Réné, and Suzanne Pillorget, eds. France Baroque, France Classique. Vol. 2, Dictionnaire. Paris: R. Laffont, 1995.
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  59. Intended for the general reader, this dictionary focuses on the period 1598 to 1715. The topics of its entries range from people to towns and other important places to significant events to key concepts. A short bibliography follows each entry.
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  61. Bibliographies
  62.  
  63. Since 1975, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique has annually published a comprehensive bibliography of French history (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 1975–). The scholarly journal French Historical Studies includes a bibliography of recent books, journal articles, and doctoral dissertations on French history at the end of each issue. The books listed under Reference Works include bibliographies and guides to further reading on numerous aspects of the 17th century. Research on Early Modern France has been transformed by the advent of GALLICA, the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. On the GALLICA site, researchers can find and consult digital copies of primary as well as secondary sources. The site is searchable in either French or English.
  64.  
  65. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Bibliographie annuelle de l’histoire de France du cinquième siècle à 1958. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1975–.
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  67. Published annually, this bibliography of works on French history includes books, articles, and other publications in French as well as other languages. It is organized in thematic chapters and includes both name and subject indexes.
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  69. French Historical Studies. 2000–.
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  71. This scholarly journal includes a bibliography organized by time period at the end of each issue. Bibliographies in early issues covered books, journal articles, and doctoral dissertations; those in more recent issues list either books and dissertations or articles.
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  73. GALLICA. Bibliothèque nationale de France.
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  75. GALLICA is the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and forty-eight partner institutions. GALLICA has digitized and made available online the full texts of over two million books, manuscripts, and other media. More works are being added constantly. The collection includes numerous primary and secondary sources on 17th-century French history. It is searchable in French or English.
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  77. The French Royal State
  78.  
  79. The French royal state entered the 17th century weakened by four decades of religious civil war, succession crises, and factional strife. The subsequent spectacular growth of its power and authority has long been associated with the development of absolute monarchy. Thirty years ago, as part of a reevaluation of the reign of Louis XIV, a debate began about the nature of royal absolutism that shows no signs of ending. Information about this debate is found in the entry on Louis XIV, King of France. Studies of the men who exercised power continue to be a staple for historians. Although they could not rule, queens nevertheless wielded great influence, particularly during periods of royal minority. The state itself has been examined not only through its institutions but through representations and ideas of kingship. Throughout the 17th century, war remained the traditional métier of the French kings and the principal occupation of their state. Recently, historians have recognized that even for a monarchy that claimed absolute sovereignty, public opinion was a potent political force. Influencing it through censorship and propaganda was a vital task for France’s statesmen throughout the 17th century.
  80.  
  81. France’s Rulers
  82.  
  83. Although some have been much more written about than others, good biographies exist for all of the rulers of 17th-century France. Moote 1989 convincingly argues that Louis XIII was a much more effective ruler than has been popularly portrayed. The king’s great prime minister, Cardinal Richelieu, has been the subject of two works by Joseph Bergin: his rise to prominence is examined in Bergin 1991 and his intertwined pursuit of power and wealth in Bergin 1990. Treasure 1995 mounts a vigorous defense of the statesmanship and achievements of Richelieu’s successor as prime minister, Cardinal Mazarin. Louis XIV has been the subject of an enormous number of biographies. Wolf 1968 remains the best one in English. The Salic Law—purportedly of Frankish origin but in actuality a 14th-century invention—barred queens from ruling in their own right. Cosandey 2000 is a comprehensive analysis of the juridical status, symbolic power, and legal authority of French queens during the Early Modern period. Two 17th-century French queens acted as regents for boy-kings. Carmona 1981 examines Marie de Medicis, who exercised enormous influence over Louis XIII until overthrown and replaced by her former client Richelieu. Dulong 1980 argues that Anne of Austria, mother and regent for Louis XIV, was a much more important and able political figure than previously realized.
  84.  
  85. Bergin, Joseph. Cardinal Richelieu: Power and the Pursuit of Wealth. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990.
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  87. An original study that shows how Richelieu’s pursuit of power and wealth were inextricably intertwined. Bergin traces how Richelieu built the fortune that made him the richest man in France at the time of his death.
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  89. Bergin, Joseph. The Rise of Richelieu. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991.
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  91. A meticulous account of the rise of Armand-Jean du Plessis to power and prominence as Cardinal Richelieu, prime minister of Louis XIII. Bergin argues that there was nothing inevitable about Richelieu’s rise and that it was the product of skillful political maneuvering, opportunism, and luck.
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  93. Carmona, Michel. Marie de Medicis. Paris: Fayard, 1981.
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  95. This biography of the wife of Henry IV and mother of Louis XIII focuses on her regency and her expansive political role until her downfall in the famous Day of Dupes (10 November 1630).
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  97. Cosandey, Fanny. La reine de France, symbole et pouvoir, XVe-XVIIIe siècles. Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 2000.
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  99. A major examination of the role of queens in the French state. Cosandey examines the legal justifications for the exclusion of women from the role of ruler, the symbols and ceremonial surrounding queens, the nature and purpose of royal marriage, and the power and authority of queen-regents.
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  101. Dulong, Claude. Anne d’Autriche, mère de Louis XIV. Paris: Hachette, 1980.
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  103. A reassessment of the mother of Louis XIV which argues that she was a much more effective regent and political actor than previously believed.
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  105. Moote, A. Lloyd. Louis XIII: The Just. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.
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  107. A forceful reappraisal of Louis XIII that argues that he was a far more effective and powerful ruler than traditionally and popularly portrayed.
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  109. Treasure, G. R. R. Mazarin: The Crisis of Absolutism in France. London: Routledge, 1995.
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  111. The most up-to-date biography in English on the cardinal-minister. Treasure presents a sympathetic portrait of Mazarin as a dogged defender of the French monarchy and the political mentor of the young Louis XIV.
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  113. Wolf, John. Louis XIV. New York: Norton, 1968.
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  115. An ambitious scholarly biography of Louis XIV. Wolf’s coverage is comprehensive but he is best on the military and foreign policy.
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  117. Representations and Ideas of Kingship
  118.  
  119. During the 17th century, the French monarchy displayed its power and authority through ritualistic, visual, and written representations of kingship. Bloch 1989 (originally published in 1924) is the classic study of the sacred character of the French kings as represented by their ability to cure scrofula through the ritual of the royal touch. Jackson 1984 analyzes the symbols and rituals surrounding the most important royal ceremony of all, the coronation. Hanley 1983 focuses on the lit de justice, a ritual in which the king personally attended the Parlement of Paris to impose his will. The 17th century also saw the elaboration of important ideas of royal sovereignty and authority. Keohane 1980 surveys the development of French political thought in this period. Cardinal Richelieu will forever be associated with reason of state. Church 1973 examines his contribution to this concept. The most important political idea of the 17th century was, of course, royal absolutism. Franklin 1973 studies the most important theorist of absolute monarchy, the 16th-century jurist Jean Bodin. Cosandey and Descimon 2002 is an important study of the history and historiography of royal absolutism. Rowen 1980 argues that French kings regarded their kingdom as the property of their dynasty.
  120.  
  121. Bloch, Marc. The Royal Touch: Monarchy and Miracles in France and England. Translated by J. E. Anderson. New York: Dorset, 1989.
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  123. Originally published as Les rois thaumaturges (Strasbourg: Librairie Istra, 1924), this classic study examines the sacred character of French kingship through the royal touch, a ritual in which the king claimed to cure scrofula. The book focuses on the medieval origins of the ceremony, but it continued to be important into the 18th century.
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  125. Church, William F. Richelieu and Reason of State. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973.
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  127. A study examining Cardinal Richelieu’s contribution to the concept of reason of state. Church argues that while Richelieu pushed for an extremely expansive view of the state’s authority and capacity for action, he also never lost sight of higher goals of a religious nature.
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  129. Cosandey, Fanny, and Robert Descimon. L’Absolutisme en France: Histoire et historiographie. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2002.
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  131. A survey of both the history and historiography of absolutism. The authors contrast the creation of the theory of an all-powerful absolute monarchy by 17th-century political thinkers with the practical realities of government. They also explore how historians have constructed and employed the idea of absolutism.
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  133. Franklin, Julian H. Jean Bodin and the Rise of Absolutist Theory. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1973.
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  135. A classic study of the development of absolutism by its most famous theorist. Franklin argues that the searing experiences of the Wars of Religion pushed Bodin to place more and more emphasis on the absolute authority of kings.
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  137. Hanley, Sarah. The Lit de Justice of the Kings of France: Constitutional Ideology in Legend, Ritual, and Discourse. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983.
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  139. A carefully researched book on the lit de justice, the ritual attendance of the king in a session of the Parlement. Hanley traces the ritual’s evolution into a constitutional instrument by which the king imposed his will on a recalcitrant court and so forced the passage of legislation.
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  141. Jackson, Richard A. Vive le Roi! A History of the French Coronation from Charles V to Charles X. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984.
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  143. A detailed history of the evolution over four centuries of the most important of all royal ceremonies. Jackson convincingly demonstrates that even under Louis XIV, the coronation continued to give symbolic expression to the limitations of absolute monarchy.
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  145. Keohane, Nannerl. Philosophy and the State in France: The Renaissance to the Enlightenment. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980.
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  147. An analysis of sixty 17th-century French moralists and philosophers. Keohane organizes them into three main lines of political thought: constitutionalism, absolutism, and individualism.
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  149. Rowen, Herbert. The King’s State: Proprietary Dynasticism in Early Modern France. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1980.
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  151. Rowen argues that 17th-century French monarchs did not view their states as abstract, disembodied entities but as a form of property they held for themselves and their dynasties.
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  153. Institutions and Government
  154.  
  155. For an overview of the institutions of the 17th-century French royal state, students and researchers can turn to two works. Mousnier 1979–1984 remains the classic guide to the structure of government. Barbiche 1999 is a more up-to-date treatment that includes excellent bibliographies on specific organizations and offices. Throughout the period, the royal court was one of the most important political and governmental institutions. Solnon 1987 provides the best introduction to it. As far as the actual business of government was concerned, finding and spending money, principally for war, became increasingly important tasks as the century wore on. In theory, the French royal state could raise enormous revenues from Western Europe’s wealthiest and most populous kingdom. Collins 1988 shows how a range of practical problems severely reduced its intake from its most important tax. With income always falling short of expenses, the government had no choice but to resort to borrowing. Bonney 1981 examines how it mobilized and sustained credit up to the beginning of the personal rule of Louis XIV. Control of France’s diverse provinces was another key task. At the beginning of the 17th century, the king’s most important provincial agents were the governors, who were invariably drawn from the ranks of the high aristocracy. Harding 1978 thoroughly examines these officials. The inadequacies of the governors compelled the cardinal-ministers to supplement them with more reliable and effective agents, the intendants. Bonney 1978 shows how they were first sent out into the provinces and how they became permanently installed there. Finally, Beik 1985 is a classic analysis of the realities of provincial politics and government under the absolute monarchy of Louis XIV.
  156.  
  157. Barbiche, Bernard. Les Institutions de la monarchie française à l’époque moderne. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1999.
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  159. A meticulous and detailed examination of the institutions of the French royal state both at the center and in the provinces. Barbiche includes excellent bibliographies on specific organizations and offices.
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  161. Beik, William. Absolutism and Society in Seventeenth-Century France: State Power and Provincial Aristocracy in Languedoc. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
  162. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511583797Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  163. A classic study of the realities of politics and government in one important province. Beik argues that the political system in Languedoc worked poorly under the cardinal-ministers. Louis XIV made the system function effectively by collaborating with the province’s elites.
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  165. Bonney, Richard. Political Change in France under Richelieu and Mazarin, 1624–1661. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978.
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  167. A classic study of changes in governmental practices during the rule of the cardinal-ministers. Bonney shows how the institutions of the central government became more organized and effective, but the book’s greatest strength is its analysis of the origins and development of the intendants, the monarchy’s agents in the provinces.
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  169. Bonney, Richard. The King’s Debts: Finance and Politics in France, 1589–1661. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.
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  171. In-depth study of how the royal government borrowed money during the 17th century up to the beginning of the personal rule of Louis XIV. It shows how the government’s ability to rally and sustain credit was crucial to French victory during the Thirty Years’ War.
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  173. Collins, James B. The Fiscal Limits of Absolutism: Direct Taxation in Early Modern France. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
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  175. An analysis of the direct tax system during the 17th century. It demonstrates how massive resistance from peasants and local officials reduced the intake of the royal government’s most important source of revenues.
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  177. Harding, Robert. Anatomy of a Power Elite: The Provincial Governors of Seventeenth-Century France. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1978.
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  179. A detailed social and institutional study of these important provincial agents. In particular, Harding shows how the office became a means to draw the great aristocrats into the government. For their part, aristocrats valued governorships because they provided them with important sources of patronage.
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  181. Mousnier, Roland. The Institutions of France under the Absolute Monarchy 1598–1789. Translated by Arthur Goldhammer. 2 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979–1984.
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  183. A translation of Les institutions de France sous la monarchie absolue (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1974–1980), this study is a comprehensive guide to social structures and state institutions during the 17th and 18th centuries.
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  185. Solnon, Jean-François. La cour de France. Paris: Fayard, 1987.
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  187. A thorough survey of the French court from the 16th century to the Revolution that covers its size and organization, the place of women, and its financial cost. The court was created as an instrument of state power by Francois I, reached its height under Louis XIV, and then declined thereafter.
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  189. War and the Military
  190.  
  191. French kings considered making war their most important duty. Both Louis XIII and Louis XIV spent most of their reigns at war. As a result, the instruments of warfare developed rapidly and expanded prodigiously over the course of the 17th century. Parrott 2001 is a comprehensive study of the nature, structure, and performance of the French army under Richelieu. Lynn 1997 takes the study of the army into the reign of Louis XIV and shows how it became the largest force in Europe. The massive expansion and improvement of the royal armed forces was largely the work of one man, François-Michel Le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, minister and secretary of state for war under Louis XIV. Corvisier 1983 is the authoritative biography of Louvois and it focuses on his efforts at military reform. Baxter 1976 examines one key aspect of that reform: the use of civilian intendants both to improve the army’s performance and to impose tighter ministerial control over it. The monarchy initially devoted far fewer resources to its navy. James 2004 is an invaluable study of the navy and its relationship with the government during the first half of the 17th century. The situation was transformed during the personal reign of Louis XIV. As Minister of the Navy, Jean-Baptiste Colbert was determined to build a French fleet that could rival those of the English and the Dutch. Dessert 1996 analyzes the buildup of the fleet under Colbert and its mixed fortunes afterward. Bamford 1973 shows how one key part of the fleet, the Mediterranean galley squadrons, was not just an instrument of war but also an indispensable penal institution. How Louis XIV used his powerful army and navy is examined in Lynn 1999.
  192.  
  193. Bamford, Paul W. Fighting Ships and Prisons: The Mediterranean Galleys of France in the Age of Louis XIV. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1973.
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  195. A comprehensive study that shows how France’s galleys were built, maintained, officered, crewed, rowed, and fought. Bamford demonstrates that the fighting value of oared warships was negligible by the later 17th century and their main use for the monarchy was as a form of punishment for convict oarsmen.
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  197. Baxter, D. C. Servants of the Sword: French Intendants of the Army, 1630–1670. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1976.
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  199. A social and institutional history of the civilian agents who helped to administer the army. Baxter demonstrates that the intendants not only increased the effectiveness of the army but also played an important part in imposing royal authority over it.
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  201. Corvisier, Andre. Louvois. Paris: Fayard, 1983.
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  203. An authoritative biography of Louis XIV’s great minister of war by France’s leading authority on the French army. Louvois emerges from these pages as a hard, ruthless statesman who made Louis XIV’s army the largest in Europe. Corvisier examines Louvois’ reform efforts in considerable detail.
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  205. Dessert, Daniel. La Royale: Vaissaux et marins du Roi-Soleil. Paris: Fayard, 1996.
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  207. A study of the development of the French navy under Louis XIV. Includes chapters on naval administration and finance, the building of ships, and the conditions of naval service. Dessert emphasizes the importance of Jean-Baptiste Colbert and his network of clients in the astonishing growth of the fleet.
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  209. James, Alan. The Navy and Government in Early Modern France, 1572–1661. London: Royal Historical Society, 2004.
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  211. The only major study in English of the French navy in the first part of the 17th century. James contends that previous historians have misunderstood the traditional role of the fleet as well as overestimated the achievements of Richelieu and Colbert.
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  213. Lynn, John A. Giant of the Grand Siècle: The French Army, 1610–1715. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
  214. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511572548Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  215. A comprehensive study of the French army during the 17th century. Covers such topics as administration, recruitment, logistics, strategy, and weapons. Lynn argues that the army was a successful example of absolutist state-building; in fact, it grew faster than the state that sustained it.
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  217. Lynn, John A. The Wars of Louis XIV. London: Longman, 1999.
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  219. The only modern narrative history in any language of Louis XIV’s wars. Concise and readable, it is highly suitable for undergraduates. It also offers a good, brief account of Louis XIV’s foreign policy.
  220. Find this resource:
  221. Parrott, David. Richelieu’s Army: War, Government and Society in France, 1624–1642. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
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  223. A definitive study of the French war effort under Cardinal Richelieu. Parrott calls into question the longstanding view that warfare drove state building. Instead, he convincingly contends that the requirements of war on a European scale outstripped the capabilities of the French state and were only met through ad hoc expedients.
  224. Find this resource:
  225. Public Opinion and Propaganda
  226.  
  227. A generation ago, historians began to recognize that even in a monarchy where the king claimed absolute sovereignty, public opinion nevertheless remained a potent political force. Gunn 1995 traces the evolution of public opinion in France through the entire Early Modern period: the first three chapters of the book cover the 17th century. Duccini 2003 focuses on public opinion during the reign of Louis XIII through a meticulous analysis of thousands of pamphlets and engravings. Jouhaud 1985 is an important study of perhaps the most spectacular expressions of public opinion against the monarchy during the 17th century: the Mazarinades, the antigovernment pamphlets that appeared during the Fronde. The royal government itself attempted to manage and shape public opinion. Sawyer 1991 is a case study of the print propaganda produced by government pamphleteers in 1614–1617. During his personal rule, Louis XIV made great efforts to influence how the public perceived him. Burke 1992 is a lavishly illustrated examination of how the king attempted to create a magnificent public image through the visual arts and the written word. Klaits 1976 is a pioneering look at how Louis XIV and his minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert mounted major print propaganda efforts with mixed results. Philips 1983 succinctly describes the apparatus of censorship employed by Louis XIV to control the printing press.
  228.  
  229. Burke, Peter. The Fabrication of Louis XIV. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992.
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  231. This lavishly illustrated book examines how Louis XIV and his servants strove to create a coherent public image of the king through the visual arts and the written word. Burke demonstrates how their efforts evolved over the seventy years of the reign, culminating in a “crisis” of representation after 1690.
  232. Find this resource:
  233. Duccini, Hélène. Faire voire, faire croire: L’opinion publique sous Louis XIII. Seyssel, France: Champ Vallon, 2003.
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  235. Traces the evolution of public opinion through the meticulous examination of some four thousand ephemeral publications. Her analysis gives a broad understanding of how an educated Parisian audience perceived political events.
  236. Find this resource:
  237. Gunn, John A. W. Queen of the World: Opinion in the Public Life of France from the Renaissance to the Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
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  239. A survey of the evolution of public opinion in France during the Early Modern period. The first three chapters cover the 17th century. They contend that the monarchy recognized the political importance of its reputation and attempted to unify as well as direct public opinion.
  240. Find this resource:
  241. Jouhaud, Christian. Mazarinades: La Fronde des mots. Paris: Éditions Aubier Montaigne, 1985.
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  243. An important study of the most famous antigovernment expressions of public opinion, the Mazarinades pamphlets of the Fronde. Jouhaud argues that these pamphlets had little substantial ideological content but were essentially verbal blows and insults exchanged between leaders of contending political factions.
  244. Find this resource:
  245. Klaits, Joseph. Printed Propaganda under Louis XIV: Absolute Monarchy and Public Opinion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976.
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  247. A pioneering survey of Louis XIV’s use of printed polemic. Klaits shows that Colbert mounted a major propaganda effort in the early years of the personal rule. This effort was allowed to lapse for most of the reign, only to be revived after 1697 in order to combat the attacks in print by Louis XIV’s enemies.
  248. Find this resource:
  249. Philips, Henry. “Culture and Control: Censorship under Louis XIV.” Newsletter of the Society for Seventeenth-Century French Studies 5 (1983): 61–69.
  250. DOI: 10.1179/c17.1983.5.1.61Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  251. This short article describes the apparatus of censorship established by Louis XIV to control print.
  252. Find this resource:
  253. Sawyer, Jeffrey K. Printed Poison: Pamphlet Propaganda, Faction Politics and the Public Sphere in Early Seventeenth-Century France. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
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  255. A study focused on the analysis of 1,200 pamphlets produced in the period 1614 to 1617. Sawyer convincingly argues that this printed propaganda helped shape the actions of those who held power.
  256. Find this resource:
  257. The Nobility
  258.  
  259. Never constituting more than 2 percent of the population, the nobility was nevertheless the dominant class in French society throughout the 17th century and beyond. Two key characteristics of the French nobility were its diversity and openness. The traditional nobility, the aristocracy and the nobility of the sword, was distinguished by long pedigrees and martial vocations. Yet even within this group there were important distinctions of rank and power. During the 16th and 17th centuries, new nobles arose who based their status on service to the king either as judges in his courts or as managers of his money. The traditional and new nobilities drew closer together as time passed. They intermarried and became bound by personal ties of patronage and clientage. Nevertheless, divisions within the French nobility rooted in function and lineage persisted until the end of the Old Regime. Mettam 2007 is the best short introduction to the 17th-century French nobility. Dewald 1993 provocatively argues that nobles contributed significantly to the development of modern culture.
  260.  
  261. Dewald, Jonathan. Aristocratic Experience and the Origins of Modern Culture: France, 1570–1715. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993.
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  263. An overview of noble culture in the 17th century that argues that nobles were adaptable in the face of change and made significant contributions to the development of modern culture.
  264. Find this resource:
  265. Mettam, Roger. “The French Nobility, 1610–1715.” In The European Nobilities in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Vol. 1, Western and Southern Europe. Edited by H. M. Scott, 127–155. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2007.
  266. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  267. The best brief introduction in English on the 17th-century French nobility. A clearly written survey suitable for undergraduates.
  268. Find this resource:
  269. The Aristocracy and the Nobility of the Sword
  270.  
  271. Traditional French nobles defined themselves through lineage and devotion to martial values. However, there were important gradations of rank within this branch of the nobility. At the top of the noble hierarchy was the aristocracy, extremely wealthy and powerful titled nobles, many related to the king. Béguin 1999 examines perhaps the most powerful aristocratic family of all, the Princes of Condé. Below the rank of the aristocrats, Constant 1989 identifies a “noblesse seconde”: titled nobles who exercised considerable power in their provinces and who thus received patronage from the monarchy in order to act as a counterweight to the aristocracy as well as serve as a vital link with local elites. Nobles were bound to each other through personal ties of patronage and clientage. Kettering 1986 is an indispensable study of how the patronage-clientage system worked. Historians have produced important case studies of individual noble houses. Dewald 1987 traces how the Norman barons of Pont-St-Pierre managed to adjust themselves to political, social, and economic change. By contrast, Haddad 2009 shows how the counts of Belin were unable to cope with the rise of the absolute monarchy and disappeared at the beginning of the 18th century. The economic power of the nobility was based in large measure on their control of feudal or seigneurial lordships. Gallet 1999 analyzes the seigneurial system during the 17th and 18th centuries. As a class, the traditional nobility proved itself adaptable to changing conditions. Motley 1990 describes how the aristocrats responded to the new demands imposed on them by the royal state through better and more thorough education. Smith 1996 offers a cultural history of noble service during the 17th and 18th centuries.
  272.  
  273. Béguin, Katia. Les Princes de Condé: Rebelles, courtisans et mécènes dans la France du Grand Siècle. Seyssel, France: Champ Vallon, 1999.
  274. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  275. Traces the careers of three princes of this most powerful aristocratic house over the course of the 17th century. It focuses particularly on the Condé’s uses of social, political, and cultural patronage. The Condé evolved from princely rebels to courtiers in the service of the Sun King.
  276. Find this resource:
  277. Constant, Jean-Marie. “Un groupe socio-politique stratégique dans la France de la première moitié du XVIIe siècle: La noblesse seconde.” In L’État et les aristocraties (France, Angleterre, Ecosse), XIIe–XVIIe siècles. Edited by Philippe Contamine, 279–304. Paris: Presses de l’École Normale Supérieure, 1989.
  278. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  279. Develops the theory of a second tier of nobles just below the aristocracy who possessed considerable power in their provinces and thus received patronage from the monarchy so that they could act as a counterweight to the aristocracy as well as serve as a vital link with local elites.
  280. Find this resource:
  281. Dewald, Jonathan. Pont-St-Pierre, 1398–1789: Lordship, Community and Capitalism in Early Modern France. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.
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  283. A case study of the Roncherolles, the barons of Pont-St-Pierre in Normandy. Dewald shows how the scions of this noble house managed to adapt themselves, not without considerable difficulty, to the changing political and economic conditions of the 17th and 18th centuries.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. Gallet, Jean. Seigneurs et paysans en France: 1600–1793. Rennes, France: Éditions Ouest-France, 1999.
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  287. A comprehensive examination of the institution of the seigneurie, the feudal lordship. During the 17th century, seigneurs adapted themselves to rapidly changing conditions by making more rational economic use of their domains. At the same time, however, they clung stubbornly to their traditional feudal rights.
  288. Find this resource:
  289. Haddad, Elie. Fondation et ruine d’une ‘maison’: Histoire sociale des comtes de Belin (1582–1706). Limoges, France: Presses universitares de Limoges, 2009.
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  291. Examines the fall of a noble house over the course of the 17th century. Haddad argues that the Belin fell because of their inability to increase their landed wealth and, above all, their failure to develop a stable alliance with the absolute monarchy.
  292. Find this resource:
  293. Kettering, Sharon. Patrons, Brokers, and Clients in Seventeenth-Century France. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
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  295. A thorough and indispensable analysis of the system of patronage-clientage and its fundamental importance for the nobility and other French elites.
  296. Find this resource:
  297. Motley, Mark. Becoming a French Aristocrat: The Education of the Court Nobility, 1580–1715. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990.
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  299. Examines education in the broadest sense as a means of cultural adaptation. Shows that the court nobility adapted to change under Louis XIV by, for example, providing their sons with extra training in French, history, and math to prepare them for service in the army or at court.
  300. Find this resource:
  301. Smith, Jay M. The Culture of Merit: Nobility, Royal Service, and the Making of Absolute Monarchy in France, 1600–1789. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996.
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  303. A cultural history of noble service and state formation. Smith argues that noble service was predicated on a royal gaze that recognized and rewarded merit. Louis XIV made his gaze omnipresent, which encouraged zealous royal service. But that omnipotence rendered the gaze impersonal, opening a gap between king and state.
  304. Find this resource:
  305. Nobles of the Robe and Finances
  306.  
  307. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the expansion of the French royal state led to the rise of a new branch of the French nobility. These new nobles based their status on service to the king either as judges in his courts or as managers of his money. Their rise into the nobility was usually achieved through the purchase of high royal offices. The system of buying and selling public offices—venality—is anatomized in two important studies: Mousnier 1971 and Doyle 1996. The new financial elites, the financiers, made vast fortunes through their handling of royal cash flows and by providing the monarchy with much of its credit. Bayard 1989 is an exhaustive examination of them and their world. Under Louis XIV, they came to colonize the financial apparatus of the royal state. Dessert 1984 thoroughly describes this so-called “fisco-financier” system. The new judicial elites were called the robe nobility from the long robes worn by royal judges. The highest-ranking robe nobles were the members of the sovereign courts, the Parlements. During the great wars of the mid-17th century, Cardinal Richelieu heavily exploited the parlementaires for money desperately needed by the French war effort. The judges responded by first resisting, then openly rebelling against royal authority, becoming key participants in the near-revolution of the Fronde. When Louis XIV came to power, he forged a new relationship with the parlementaires. Hamscher 1976 shows how the Parlement of Paris came to accept absolute royal authority in political matters; in exchange, the judges found the king supporting their traditional juridical role. Two studies of provincial Parlements, Kettering 1978 on that of Aix and Le Mao 2007 on Bordeaux, show a similar pattern of rebellion under the cardinal-ministers followed by pacification and collaboration during the reign of the Sun King. The judicial system run by the robe nobles was ultimately indispensable for the functioning of the absolute monarchy: Parker 1989 convincingly argues that the most important purpose of France’s labyrinthine network of courts was to serve as an arena for the resolution of disputes among the French ruling classes.
  308.  
  309. Bayard, Françoise. Le monde des financiers au XVIIe siècle. Paris: Flammarion, 1989.
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  311. An exhaustive examination of the financiers who ran the financial system of the French state and also provided it with much of its credit. Bayard shows how their success depended on their ability to raise sums from the real holders of money in French society, particularly the court nobility.
  312. Find this resource:
  313. Dessert, Daniel. Argent, pouvoir et société au Grand Siècle. Paris: Fayard, 1984.
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  315. A thoroughly researched study of the financers during the reign of Louis XIV. Explains who the financers were, how they were connected both to ministerial clans and wealthy aristocratic backers, and why they were indispensible to royal finances. Includes biographical details on 534 financers. By no means an easy read.
  316. Find this resource:
  317. Doyle, William. Venality: The Sale of Offices in Eighteenth-Century France. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
  318. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205364.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  319. An analysis of the political, financial, social, and cultural dimensions of venality of office from 1680 to 1789. The first three chapters examine venality under Louis XIV and explain how the king pushed the system to its limits after 1688 by selling new offices as well as exploiting existing ones.
  320. Find this resource:
  321. Hamscher, Albert. The Parlement of Paris after the Fronde, 1653–1673. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1976.
  322. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  323. An examination of the fate of the most important of the sovereign court in the twenty years after it rebelled against royal authority. Demonstrates that the Parlement and Louis XIV forged a new relationship in which the court gave up its political pretensions while the king supported their traditional jurisdiction.
  324. Find this resource:
  325. Kettering, Sharon. Judicial Politics and Urban Revolt: The Parlement of Aix, 1629–1659. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1978.
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  327. A study of a provincial sovereign court that revolted against royal authority three times in thirty years. Kettering clearly shows how these uprisings resulted from a combination of political resistance to increasing royal power and factional rivalries among the judges of Aix.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Le Mao, Caroline. Parlement et parlementaires: Bordeaux au Grand Siècle. Seyssel, France: Champ Vallon, 2007.
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  331. An analysis of perhaps the most turbulent of all the Parlements. Le Mao demonstrates that Louis XIV used a combination of negotiation and coercion to finally bring the court to obedience.
  332. Find this resource:
  333. Mousnier, Roland. La Venalité des offices sous Henri IV et Louis XIII. 2d ed. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1971.
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  335. Originally published in 1945, this study is a highly detailed analysis of the system of venality—the buying and selling of public offices—during the 17th century up to the reign of Louis XIV.
  336. Find this resource:
  337. Parker, David. “Sovereignty, Absolutism and the Function of the Law in Seventeenth-Century France.” Past and Present 122 (February 1989): 36–74.
  338. DOI: 10.1093/past/122.1.36Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  339. Argues that the complex system of law courts of the absolute monarchy functioned as a vital arena for the resolution of disputes among members of the French ruling class.
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  341. Cities and Towns
  342.  
  343. As economic, political, cultural, and military centers, France’s towns and cities had an importance out of all proportion to their small share of the total population. During the 17th century, the rising power of the absolute monarchy pulled urban France closer to the crown; historians continue to explore and debate the effects of this long-term development. Benedict 1989 provides the best introduction to the topic. The largest and most important city by far was, of course, Paris. Ranum 2004 is the best place to start for students interested in investigating the capital. The standard French histories of Paris in the 17th century are two volumes in the lavishly illustrated Nouvelle histoire de Paris series: Pillorget 1988 covers the reigns of Henri IV and Louis XIII, while Dethan 1990 focuses on the age of Louis XIV. There is a fine tradition of urban history in France. Deyon 1967 is a classic history of Amiens, capital of the province of Picardy, that covers demographics, the economy, social structure and social change, and political developments. Saupin 1996 is a more closely focused and exhaustive analysis of the urban elites who ruled the port city of Nantes. Anglophone historians have also produced fine urban studies. Wallace 1995 examines the Alsatian town of Colmar, particularly how its annexation by France affected its inhabitants, who were divided into Catholic and Lutheran communities. Parker 1980 is an important reevaluation of the fate of La Rochelle, the Huguenot-controlled port city that was captured by Cardinal Richelieu after a famous siege in 1627–1628.
  344.  
  345. Benedict, Philip. “French Cities from the Sixteenth Century to the Revolution: An Overview.” In Cities and Social Change in Early Modern France. Edited by Philip Benedict, 7–64. London: Routledge, 1989.
  346. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  347. An overview of the history and development of French cities under the Old Regime. The best introduction to the topic for students and beginning researchers.
  348. Find this resource:
  349. Dethan, Georges. Paris au temps de Louis XIV (1660–1715). Paris: Hachette, 1990.
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  351. A lavishly illustrated history of Paris and its people during the personal reign of Louis XIV. Divided into three parts, each of three chapters: Part 1 is a narrative of events; Part 2 is a social history of Paris’ people; and Part 3 looks at religious and cultural life.
  352. Find this resource:
  353. Deyon, Pierre. Amiens, capital provincial: Étude sur la société urbaine au XVIIe siècle. Paris: Mouton, 1967.
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  355. A classic “total history” of an important provincial city. Organized into four sections dealing with, respectively, demography, the economy, social structure and change, and political developments.
  356. Find this resource:
  357. Parker, David. La Rochelle and the French Monarchy: Conflict and Order in Seventeenth-Century France. London: Royal Historical Society, 1980.
  358. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  359. An important reexamination of the fate of La Rochelle, the Huguenot-controlled port city successfully besieged by Cardinal Richelieu in 1627–1628. Argues that the city’s fall was a vital step in the development of the absolute monarchy.
  360. Find this resource:
  361. Pillorget, René. Paris sous les premiers Bourbons. Paris: Hachette, 1988.
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  363. A comprehensive history of the capital from the entry of Henri IV in 1594 to the return of Louis XIV with his new queen in 1660. Chapters cover such topics as urban development, cultural life, the place of Paris in the life of the kingdom, and the reinvigoration of Catholicism after 1600.
  364. Find this resource:
  365. Ranum, Orest. Paris in the Age of Absolutism: An Essay. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004.
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  367. An updated edition of a book first published in 1969. The original consisted of four parts covering Paris during the Wars of Religion; Henry IV’s expansion of the city; the religious revival under the cardinal-ministers; and Paris under Louis XIV. The new edition includes a chapter on women writers. For undergraduates, the best introduction to the city in this period.
  368. Find this resource:
  369. Saupin, Guy. Nantes au XVIIe siècle: Vie politique et société urbaine. Rennes, France: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 1996.
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  371. An exhaustive investigation of the elites who ruled the important Atlantic port city of Nantes. Demonstrates that the municipal government remained an effective institution even under the increasingly powerful absolute monarchy and positions in it remained sought after by local notables.
  372. Find this resource:
  373. Wallace, Peter G. Communities and Conflict in Early Modern Colmar, 1575–1730. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1995.
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  375. An analysis of an important Alsatian town during the long 17th century. Wallace demonstrates that its annexation by the kingdom of France led to the promotion of its Catholic inhabitants and increased prosperity but also the marginalization of its Lutheran community.
  376. Find this resource:
  377. Urban Society
  378.  
  379. The population of urban France was tremendously diverse. In the south, nobles had long resided in towns. Bohanan 1992 provides a case study of the nobles of Aix-en-Provence. In the rest of the country, nobles took up residence in towns in increasing numbers during the 17th century, drawn by greater political opportunities as well as cultural and recreational amenities. Men of the law dominated cities with important judicial courts. Hamscher 1976, Kettering 1978, and Le Mao 2007 in Nobles of the Robe and Finances examine the judges of the Parlements. Breen 2007 focuses on lawyers in Dijon, particularly their role in municipal government. Hardwick 1998 in Women and the Family studies notaries, an important middling group located between the urban elites and the poor. In manufacturing centers, artisans made up another key middling group. Farr 1988 is an anatomy of the artisans of Dijon. The poor were a constant presence in towns and cities all over France. Gutton 1971 is a classic examination of the poor of Lyon and the city’s responses to poverty. Lottin 1979 uses the chronicle of a textile worker of Lille to open a window on urban popular culture. Beik 1997 in Violence, Revolt, and Rebellion analyzes the urban lower classes in protest and rebellion.
  380.  
  381. Bohanan, Donna. Old and New Nobility in Aix-en-Provence 1600–1695: Portrait of an Urban Elite. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992.
  382. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  383. A case study of the urban nobles of Aix-en-Provence. Bohanan contends that these nobles were highly adaptable and were thus able to retain their power throughout the 17th century.
  384. Find this resource:
  385. Breen, Michael. Law, City, and King: Legal Culture, Municipal Politics, and State Formation in Early Modern Dijon. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2007.
  386. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  387. Examines lawyers and their involvement in urban government in Dijon, capital of Burgundy. In 1668, Louis XIV reorganized the municipality and threw out the lawyers who previously controlled it. The lawyers developed an oppositional stance to the absolute monarchy.
  388. Find this resource:
  389. Farr, James. Hands of Honor: Artisans and Their World in Dijon, 1550–1650. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988.
  390. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  391. A thorough examination of the economic, social, and cultural lives of artisans in Dijon. Farr argues that the craft masters of Dijon formed a distinctive class with its own recognizable cultural characteristics.
  392. Find this resource:
  393. Gutton, Jean-Pierre. La société et les pauvres: l’exemple de la généralité de Lyon (1534–1789). Paris: Société d’édition “Les Belles Lettres,” 1971.
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  395. Classic study of poverty and poor relief in Lyon. Concerned mainly with the period after 1650. Provides a definition and profile of the poor, then goes on to examine the efforts of urban elites to address the problem of poverty.
  396. Find this resource:
  397. Lottin, Alain. Chavatte, ouvrier lillois: Un contemporain de Louis XIV. Paris: Flammarion, 1979.
  398. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  399. Analysis of the chronicle of Pierre Ignace Chavatte (1633–1693), a modest textile worker of Lille. Lottin uses this source to draw wider conclusions about urban popular culture.
  400. Find this resource:
  401. Peasants and the Countryside
  402.  
  403. Peasants made up four out of every five French people. Dewald and Vardi 1998 provides the best brief introduction for students on the French peasantry. Goubert 1986 is an overview that focuses on the 17th century. At the center of peasant political and social life was the village. Follain 2008 examines the development of the village community from the 15th century to the Revolution. Historians of the highly influential French Annales school have argued that impersonal demographic, economic, and climactic forces made the 17th century a time of troubles for the peasantry. Goubert 1960 exemplifies this approach, finding that in the Beauvasis, peasant production and demography were in decline from 1630 to 1730. Le Roy Ladurie 1974 argues that the peasants of Languedoc became caught in a “Malthusian trap” that immiserated them and blocked them from achieving real economic growth. More recently, other historians have challenged these conclusions. Hickey 1987 contends that traditional French peasant agriculture was more innovative and productive than the Annales historians believed. Applying sophisticated quantitative methods to a huge source base, Hoffman 1996 argues that while the output of the French countryside was generally low compared to the most productive European rural economies, there were nevertheless regions such as the Île de France that were distinguished by agricultural innovation and high productivity.
  404.  
  405. Dewald, Jonathan, and Liana Vardi. “The Peasantries of France, 1400–1789.” In The Peasantries of Europe from the Fourteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries. Edited by Tom Scott, 21–47. London: Addison Wesley Longman, 1998.
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  407. A concise survey of French peasants and their place in the rural economy. A very useful introduction to the subject for undergraduates.
  408. Find this resource:
  409. Follain, Antoine. Le village sous l’Ancien Régime. Paris: Fayard, 2008.
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  411. An original study of the development of village communities from the 15th to the end of the 18th century. Focusing on “patterns of evolution,” Follain argues that French village communities gradually freed themselves from seigneurial control and gained more autonomous powers over the course of this period.
  412. Find this resource:
  413. Goubert, Pierre. Beauvais et le Beauvasis de 1600 à 1730. Paris: SEVPEN, 1960.
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  415. A classic work of the Annales school, this is a massive total history of the region around the city of Beauvais in northern France. It finds that economic productivity and demography were both negative from 1630 to 1730.
  416. Find this resource:
  417. Goubert, Pierre. The French Peasantry in the Seventeenth Century. Translated by Ian Patterson. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
  418. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  419. Translation of La vie quotidienne des paysans francais au XVIIe siècle (Paris: Hachette, 1982). A rich and multilayered exploration of the daily life of peasants. Goubert stresses the heterogeneity of the peasantry in 17th-century France. The best overview of the topic.
  420. Find this resource:
  421. Hickey, Daniel. “Innovation and Obstacles to Growth in the Agriculture of Early Modern France: The Example of Dauphiné.” French Historical Studies 15.2 (1987): 208–240.
  422. DOI: 10.2307/286264Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  423. Using a close analysis of agricultural practices and production in villages in Dauphiné, Hickey argues that peasant communities were far more dynamic and innovative than portrayed by Annales historians like Le Roy Ladurie.
  424. Find this resource:
  425. Hoffman, Philip T. Growth in a Traditional Society: The French Countryside, 1450–1815. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996.
  426. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  427. Applying sophisticated quantitative methods to a vast body of sources, Hoffman attempts to measure growth in the French rural economy during the entire Early Modern period. Concludes that while France was not as productive as the most advanced European economies, there were regions marked by agricultural innovation and high productivity.
  428. Find this resource:
  429. Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel. The Peasants of Languedoc. Translated by John Day. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1974.
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  431. A translation, much condensed, of Les Paysans de Languedoc (Paris: SEVPEN, 1966). This classic of the Annales school argues that the French peasantry were caught in a Malthusian trap that reached its nadir in the late 17th century. This translation omits much valuable material from the two-volume French original.
  432. Find this resource:
  433. The Church and Religious Life
  434.  
  435. France emerged from the religious wars of the 16th century officially a Catholic kingdom. The Catholic Church was the only national institution in France other than the monarchy itself. Over 90% of French people belonged to it and its clergy formed an important group in society. The leaders of the church were its bishops, who controlled France’s 113 dioceses. Since 1516, French kings had possessed the right to nominate these prelates. Bergin 1996 and Bergin 2004 examine who the bishops were, how they came into office, and how their relationship with the monarchy evolved. Women could become part of the Catholic Church as nuns. Rapley 1993 is an institutional study of French Catholic female orders. The church was a crucial source of revenues for the royal government. Michaud 1991 is a detailed study of the Church’s role in the French fiscal system. The 17th century saw the Catholic Reformation associated with the Council of Trent make rapid and substantial advances in French society. Taveneaux 1980 is an exhaustive and definitive survey of the new Catholic spiritualities. With the help of a quantitative approach, Hoffman 1984 explores how the parish clergy in one important diocese tried to spread and implement the reforms of Trent. The essays in Briggs 1989 caution that Reformed Catholicism remained a largely elite phenomenon, while popular religious culture remained firmly rooted in tradition.
  436.  
  437. Bergin, Joseph. The Making of the French Episcopate, 1589–1661. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press, 1996.
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  439. A careful examination of who the bishops were, the importance and wealth of their offices, and how the royal government nominated them. Bergin detects a critical change by the middle of the 17th century. Although patronage and nepotism still determined who could become a bishop, all were qualified, mature men.
  440. Find this resource:
  441. Bergin, Joseph. Crown, Church and Episcopate under Louis XIV. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004.
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  443. A dense and detailed study of the formation of the French episcopate during the personal reign of Louis XIV. Bergin investigates who the bishops were, culminating in a 125-page biographical dictionary. In section 2, he describes and analyzes the process by which Louis XIV appointed these prelates.
  444. Find this resource:
  445. Briggs, Robin. Communities of Belief: Cultural and Social Tensions in Early Modern France. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
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  447. A collection of ten essays, five of which deal with religion and religious life. The principal theme in these essays is the great and seemingly unbridgeable gap between official and popular religious cultures.
  448. Find this resource:
  449. Hoffman, Philip. Church and Community in the Diocese of Lyon, 1599–1789. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press, 1984.
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  451. With the help of quantitative methods, Hoffman examines the spread of the Catholic reformation in one key diocese. Emphasizes the critical role of the parish clergy in the implementation of reform.
  452. Find this resource:
  453. Michaud, Claude. L’Eglise et l’argent sous l’Ancien Régime. Paris: Fayard, 1991.
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  455. A dense and highly detailed analysis of the contributions of the Catholic Church to the royal finances. Of particular importance is Michaud’s examination of the Assembly of the Clergy, the organization that granted and channeled funds to the monarchy.
  456. Find this resource:
  457. Rapley, Elizabeth. The Dévotes: Women and Church in Seventeenth-Century France. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1993.
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  459. In spite of its title, this work is an institutional history of the French female religious orders. Rapley argues that the main challenge facing the nuns was confinement to cloisters.
  460. Find this resource:
  461. Taveneaux, René. Le Catholicisme dans la France classique, 1610–1715. 2 vols. Paris: SEDES, 1980.
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  463. An exhaustive, definitive treatment of Catholic spirituality and piety during the 17th century.
  464. Find this resource:
  465. Huguenots and Jansenists
  466.  
  467. Throughout the 17th century, there existed significant groups of religious dissenters in officially Catholic France. The French Calvinists, the Huguenots, comprised at most 3 percent of the population. The 1598 Edict of Nantes had accorded them a wide array of legal and military protections. Ligou 1968 remains a valuable general history of the Huguenots, covering not only political events but the institutional history of the Calvinist churches and the social evolution of the community. Benedict 1991 is a demographic study that charts the slow decline of the Huguenot population and explores some of its consequences. The Huguenot minority faced constant pressure and persecution from the Catholic majority. Parker 1980 (cited under Cities and Towns) examines the significance of the fall of the main Huguenot stronghold of La Rochelle in 1627–1628. After 1650, popular and official persecution escalated dramatically. This culminated in Louis XIV’s decision to revoke the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Garrisson 1985 is a now-classic study of anti-Huguenot intolerance and the revocation itself. Hanlon 1993 paints a contrasting picture of Protestant-Catholic coexistence in a small southern French town. Another group of religious dissenters emerged from within the Catholic Church itself. The Jansenists were followers of the Dutch theologian Cornelius Jansen, who developed a severely austere version of Catholicism. Adam 1968 provides a valuable overview of the movement during the 17th century. For students, Doyle 2000 provides a wonderfully clear and concise introduction to the subject. The movement ran afoul of Louis XIV, who increasingly viewed its heterodoxy as a threat to religious unity and thus the stability of the state. The king solicited a series of bulls from the pope condemning Jansenism, culminating in the 1713 Unigenitus bull, which would have long-lived political consequences during the 18th century. Kostroun 2011 focuses on a famous incident in the struggle between Louis XIV and the Jansenists, the closure of the Jansenist Abbey of Port-Royal and the dispersal of its nuns.
  468.  
  469. Adam, Antoine. Du mysticisme à la révolte: Les jansénistes du XVIIe siècle. Paris: Fayard, 1968.
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  471. A synthesis of French work on Jansenism that provides a narrative account of the development of the movement. A good general overview.
  472. Find this resource:
  473. Benedict, Philip. The Huguenot Population of France, 1600–1685: The Demographic Fate and Customs of a Religious Minority. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1991.
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  475. A demographic study based on archival sources from more than 120 communities across France. Benedict finds that the Huguenot population was in slow decline during the 17th century. This decline transformed the Huguenots from a militant, confident movement into a network of families quietly adhering to their religious traditions.
  476. Find this resource:
  477. Doyle, William. Jansenism. London: Routledge, 2000.
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  479. Concise and clear survey of this controversial religious movement. In ninety pages of text, Doyle explains the theology of Jansenism and also provides a narrative account of the conflicts between Jansenists and Louis XIV. Also includes a useful glossary and bibliography. The best introduction to the topic for students.
  480. Find this resource:
  481. Garrisson, Janine. L’Édit de Nantes et sa revocation: Histoire d’une intolérance. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1985.
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  483. A study of Louis XIV’s Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, which ended tolerance for the Huguenots. As her title indicates, Garrisson regards the Revocation as the culmination of a long process of popular and official persecution of the Huguenot minority.
  484. Find this resource:
  485. Hanlon, Gregory. Confession and Community in Seventeenth-Century France: Catholic and Protestant Coexistence in Aquitaine. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.
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  487. A study of the small southern French town of Layrac-en-Brulhous that finds a striking and long-lasting level of coexistence between its Catholic and Huguenot inhabitants. Only increasing pressure from the absolute monarchy and the internal decline of the Calvinist community ended coexistence and led to its replacement by persecution.
  488. Find this resource:
  489. Kostroun, Daniella. Feminism, Absolutism, and Jansenism: Louis XIV and the Port-Royal Nuns. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
  490. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511976452Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  491. A study of the long struggle between the French royal government and the Jansenist nuns of Port-Royal that ended in the closing of the abbey and the dispersal of its occupants in 1709. Takes a feminist perspective in analyzing how the nuns were able to resist the absolute monarchy for so long.
  492. Find this resource:
  493. Ligou, Daniel. Le Protestantisme en France de 1598 à 1715. Paris: SEDES, 1968.
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  495. A general history of the Huguenot community in France (ignores the Lutherans of Alsace). It offers a narrative of events as well as more thematic treatment of such topics as the structure of Calvinist churches, the duties of pastors, and the social lives of ordinary believers.
  496. Find this resource:
  497. Violence, Revolt, and Rebellion
  498.  
  499. From 1630 to 1675, French country folk and townspeople staged hundreds of popular uprisings. The largest of these engulfed whole towns, provinces, and even regions of the kingdom. They were provoked by the French royal state’s increasingly desperate and brutal efforts to raise the money it needed to fight its wars. Historians have drawn a range of conclusions about the nature and significance of this violent unrest. In Mousnier 1972, one of the leading French authorities on the subject compares the revolts in France to those that occurred contemporaneously in Russia and China. Mousnier concludes that the French revolts united members of all major social groups in violent protest against the actions of the state. Similarly, Bercé 1990 examines the riots and rebellions of the croquants of southwestern France and argues that they were rooted in communal opposition to the intrusions of the tax collector and other state authorities. Hayden 1991 extends the resistance of French rural people to all intrusions by central authorities including not only the state but also the reforming Catholic Church. Examining urban protest, Beik 1997 contends that the riotous actions of townspeople were rooted in an everyday “culture of retribution.” This period also saw widespread noble agitation and explosions of violent unrest. Scholars of the nobility have shown that violence was an intrinsic part of 17th-century noble culture. According to Carroll 2006, nobles regularly resorted to feuding and other forms of “vindicatory violence” against their rivals in quarrels over land, offices, titles, favor, and precedence. Briost, et al. 2008 is a definitive look at the most well-known form of noble violence, the duel. In politics, Jouanna 1989 argues that nobles regarded themselves as protectors of the body politic; therefore, they saw rebellion against a wayward government to be not a right but a veritable duty. The last great noble revolt in Early Modern French history was the Fronde (1648–1653), which drove Louis XIV and Cardinal Mazarin from their own capital and threw all France into upheaval. Ranum 1993 argues that the Fronde was nearly a revolution as opposition to the absolute monarchy reached radical heights. Among its key participants were the robe nobles of the Parlements, as examined in Kettering 1978 and Le Mao 2007, both cited under Nobles of the Robe and Finances.
  500.  
  501. Beik, William. Urban Protest in Seventeenth-Century France: The Culture of Retribution. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
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  503. Examines popular protest and rioting in French towns and cities during the 17th century. Argues that these uprisings were rooted in a distinctive “culture of retribution.”
  504. Find this resource:
  505. Bercé, Yves-Marie. History of Peasant Revolts: The Social Origins of Rebellion in Early Modern France. Translated by Amanda Whitmore. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990.
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  507. Much abbreviated translation of the two-volume Histoire des Croquants: Étude sur les soulèvements populaires au XVIIe siècle dans la sud-ouest de la France (Paris and Geneva, Switzerland: Droz, 1974). Creates a typology of the rebellious acts of the rural inhabitants of southwestern France and concludes that they were carried out by communities united against intrusive royal authorities.
  508. Find this resource:
  509. Briost, Pascal, Hervé Drevillon, and Pierre Serna. Croiser le fer: Violence et culture d’epée dans la France moderne. Seyssel, France: Champ Vallon, 2008.
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  511. A comprehensive, definitive history of the most well-known form of noble violence, the duel. In four parts, the authors examine the rise of modern fencing, fencing art and techniques, the practice of dueling, and criticism of the duel. Contends that dueling was central to noble identity in the 17th century.
  512. Find this resource:
  513. Carroll, Stuart. Blood and Violence in Early Modern France. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
  514. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199290451.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  515. Using evidence drawn from 16th- and 17th-century judicial records, Carroll contends that French nobles regularly resorted to the feud and other types of “vindicatory violence” in their quarrels against each other.
  516. Find this resource:
  517. Hayden, J. Michael. “Rural Resistance to Central Authority in Seventeenth-Century France.” Canadian Journal of History/Annales canadiennes d’histoire 36 (April 1991): 7–20.
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  519. A study of the causes of rural rebellions. It concludes that these rebellions were manifestations of resistance against attempts by the central authorities of church and state to impose change on rural communities.
  520. Find this resource:
  521. Jouanna, Arlette. Le Devoir de révolte: La noblesse francaise et la gestation de l’état moderne, 1559–1661. Paris: Fayard, 1989.
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  523. An important study that contends that nobles regarded themselves as the guardians of the body politic who had the duty to rebel in order to correct a wayward government.
  524. Find this resource:
  525. Mousnier, Roland. Peasant Uprisings in Seventeenth-Century France, Russia and China. Translated by Brian Pearce. London: Harper and Row, 1972.
  526. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  527. A translation of Fureurs paysannes: Les paysans dans les révoltes de XVIIe siècle (France, Russie, Chine) (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1967). Comparative history of 17th-century peasant revolts. Concludes that the French revolts united all social groups in violent protest against the state.
  528. Find this resource:
  529. Ranum, Orest. The Fronde: A French Revolution, 1648–1652. New York: W. W. Norton, 1993.
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  531. The best single-volume treatment of the Fronde in any language. Ranum balances narrative and analysis to produce an admirably clear account of this confusing event. He argues that the Fronde was a genuine revolution because in 1648–1649, defiance of the absolute monarchy reached radical heights.
  532. Find this resource:
  533. Women and the Family
  534.  
  535. Godineau 1993 provides a thorough overview of women’s place and experiences in 17th-century French society. Women were regarded as permanent minors who needed to be under male control. Nevertheless, they played valuable economic roles and could occasionally break into public realms from which they were formally excluded, such as religion, politics, and education. Similarly, Collins 1989 describes the expansive contributions women made to the 17th-century French economy. Fearful of the potential this created for women’s autonomy, male authorities imposed ever more institutional restrictions on women’s work and sought to channel their energies into the family. On the family, the pioneering work is Ariès 1962, which famously and controversially contends that familial bonds of affection as well as a special status for children developed only gradually in the 17th century. Flandrin 1979 is a more up-to-date overview of families and family structures in Early Modern France. The family was the basic unit of patriarchal society; male authorities made great efforts to regulate and strengthen it. Hanley 1989 is a key article that explains how the royal state and French elites came together in a “Family-State Compact” designed to promote the creation and reproduction of patriarchal families. Farr 1995 examines how the robe noble judges of the Parlement of Dijon in Burgundy policed women’s sexuality in order to enforce patriarchal norms. Hardwick 1998 examines patriarchy in practice in the families of notaries. She finds that they often strayed from or modified patriarchal strictures in order to promote their families’ interests.
  536.  
  537. Ariès, Philippe. Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life. Translated by Robert Baldick. New York, 1962.
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  539. Translation of L’enfant et la vie familiale sous l’ancien régime (Paris: Plon, 1960). A pioneering work on the family that famously and controversially argues that affection within the family as well as a recognition of the special nature of children only developed gradually during the 17th century.
  540. Find this resource:
  541. Collins, James B. “The Economic Role of Women in Seventeenth-Century France.” French Historical Studies 16 (1989): 436–470.
  542. DOI: 10.2307/286618Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  543. An important article that argues that both urban and rural non-elite women had expansive economic roles during the 17th century. The potential economic independence of women threatened patriarchy, which led to ever-increasing institutional restrictions on women’s work as well as an effort to channel their energies into the household.
  544. Find this resource:
  545. Farr, James. Authority and Sexuality in Early Modern Burgundy (1550–1730). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
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  547. A study of how the robe noble judges of the Parlement of Dijon attempted to enforce the new, more rigid moral standards of the Catholic Reformation by policing and regulating the sexuality of women.
  548. Find this resource:
  549. Flandrin, Jean-Louis. Families in Former Times: Kinship, Household and Sexuality. Translated by Richard Southern. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1979.
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  551. Translation of Familles, parenté, maison, sexualité dans l’ancienne société (Paris: Hachette, 1976). An overview of the history of the family that addresses many of the issues raised by Ariès. In addition, it looks at the various definitions of kinship in France, the formation of households, and the regulation of sexuality.
  552. Find this resource:
  553. Godineau, Dominique. Les femmes dans la société française 16e–18e siècles. Paris: Armand Colin, 1993.
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  555. An overview of women’s experiences in Early Modern French society. Part 1 examines ideas of women and women’s daily lives, Part 2 focuses on the public domains forbidden to women and how they nevertheless managed to occasionally enter them, and Part 3 looks at women during the 18th century and the Revolution.
  556. Find this resource:
  557. Hanley, Sarah. “Engendering the State: Family Formation and State Building in Early Modern France.” French Historical Studies 16 (1989): 4–27.
  558. DOI: 10.2307/286431Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  559. A pioneering article that analyzes how the royal government and French elites came together to create a Family-State Compact in which state authority supported the creation and reproduction of patriarchal families.
  560. Find this resource:
  561. Hardwick, Julie. The Practice of Patriarchy: Gender and the Politics of Household Authority in Early Modern France. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998.
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  563. An analysis of the household and family lives of the notaries of Nantes during the 16th and 17th centuries. Hardwick finds that patriarchy was not a rigidly imposed set of regulations and standards but something constantly negotiated by families in their day-to-day lives.
  564. Find this resource:
  565. France in Europe
  566.  
  567. During the 17th century, France emerged as Europe’s hegemonic power. Bély 2007 is an overview of Early Modern European international relations by France’s leading authority on the subject; five of its seven chapters trace the rise of France. In order to become Europe’s leading power, France had to intervene in the Thirty Years’ War and defeat Habsburg Spain. Pagès 1937 remains an indispensable account of the debates and factional struggles among French decision makers that preceded the decision to enter the Thirty Years’ War. Parrott 1987 examines the causes of France’s long duel with Spain. The events of these wars are described in Lynn 1999 and Parrott 2001 in War and the Military. Louis XIV initiated a new phase in European international relations. Early assessments of his foreign policy were either unfairly harsh or overly apologetic. The essays in Hatton 1976 and Black 1988 offer important, balanced reconsiderations of the Sun King’s dealings with Europe. Bély 1990 is a meticulous analysis of diplomacy and espionage during the king’s late reign.
  568.  
  569. Bély, Lucien. Espions et ambassadeurs au temps de Louis XIV. Paris: Fayard, 1990.
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  571. A monumental 900-page examination of diplomacy and espionage during the late reign of Louis XIV. It is divided into three parts: “The World of Spies and Espionage,” “The Ambassadors: Honorable Spies,” and “The Congress of Utrecht at Work.”
  572. Find this resource:
  573. Bély, Lucien. Les relations internationales en Europe: XVII–XVIIIe siècles. 4th ed. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2007.
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  575. A comprehensive analysis of Early Modern European international relations by France’s leading authority on the subject. Five of seven chapters analyze France’s rise to hegemonic status.
  576. Find this resource:
  577. Black, Jeremy. “Louis XIV’s Foreign Policy Reconsidered.” Seventeenth-Century French Studies 10 (1988): 199–212.
  578. DOI: 10.1179/c17.1988.10.1.199Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  579. An article that summarizes and synthesizes two decades of reappraisal of Louis XIV’s foreign policy. Black emphasizes that Louis XIV pursued rational goals based on what he and his ministers perceived to be France’s vulnerability in a Europe of hostile powers.
  580. Find this resource:
  581. Hatton, Ragnhild, ed. Louis XIV and Europe. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1976.
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  583. An important collection of essays by European and English-speaking historians that helped to establish a new view of Louis XIV’s foreign policy as rational and subject to evolution over the course of his long reign. Four essays are on “general problems” and seven on specific diplomatic periods and events.
  584. Find this resource:
  585. Pagès, Georges. “Autour du ‘grand orage’: Richelieu et Marillac.” Revue Historique 179 (1937): 63–97.
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  587. An old but nevertheless still essential article on the debates and factional struggles among French decision makers over foreign policy in the 1620s and 1630s.
  588. Find this resource:
  589. Parrott, David. “The Causes of the Franco-Spanish War of 1635–59.” In The Origins of War in Early Modern Europe. Edited by Jeremy Black, 72–111. Edinburgh: John Donald, 1987.
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  591. A judicious assessment of the causes that led France and Spain into their long and ruinous mid-century war.
  592. Find this resource:
  593. France Overseas
  594.  
  595. During the 17th century, France continued the overseas expansion it had fitfully begun in the 1500s. Haudrère 1997 is an overview of the origins and development of the “first French empire.” Throughout this period, the principal French overseas possession was New France. Trudel 1963–1983 is the definitive history of the colony from its foundation to 1660. Greer 1997 is a social history of its people. France was well behind other European powers, particularly the Dutch Republic, in the lucrative trade with Asia. After becoming Louis XIV’s Controller General of Finances (in effect, minister of finances) and Minister of the Navy, Jean-Baptiste Colbert made a belated effort to break into this trade. Ames 1996 is a narrative history of the failed French effort to establish themselves in the Indian Ocean between 1664 and 1674. Nevertheless, France’s links with the Far East continued to develop throughout the 17th century. The essays in Ames and Love 2003 describe various French contacts with Asia. In 1686, Louis XIV received an embassy from the King of Siam. Van der Cruysse 1991 charts the relationship that developed between two powers located on different sides of the globe. But France’s oldest and most sustained overseas contacts were with the Near East and the Mediterranean world. In 1668, a French expedition set out to lift the Ottoman Turkish siege of the Venetian city of Candia on Crete. Bardacki and Pugnière 2008 offers an account of this expedition based on a recently discovered unpublished memoire from one of its participants. Throughout the 17th century, France’s Mediterranean shipping and seacoasts suffered from the depredations of the slave-taking Barbary corsairs. Weiss 2011 examines how the French coped with this menace.
  596.  
  597. Ames, Glenn J. Colbert, Mercantilism and the French Quest for the Asian Trade. Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1996.
  598. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  599. A narrative account of Jean-Baptiste Colbert’s efforts to break into the lucrative Asian trade between 1664 and 1674. This French effort was doomed by the overwhelming strength of the Dutch in the Indian Ocean.
  600. Find this resource:
  601. Ames, Glenn J., and Ronald S. Love, eds. Distant Lands and Diverse Cultures: The French Experience in Asia, 1600–1700. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003.
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  603. A collection of essays dealing with French contacts with Asia. Individual essays cover China, Siam, Madagascar, the Mughal Empire, Ethiopia, and the Ottoman Empire.
  604. Find this resource:
  605. Bardacki, Ozkan, and François Pugnière. La dernière croisade: Les Français et la guerre de Candie, 1669. Rennes, France: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2008.
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  607. A study of the failed French expedition to life the Ottoman siege of the Venetian-held Cretan city of Candia in 1668–1669. Based on a recently discovered memoir by one of the expedition’s participants. In addition to an account of the expedition, it discusses changing French perceptions of the Turk.
  608. Find this resource:
  609. Greer, Alan. The People of New France. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997.
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  611. A social history of the people of New France during the 17th and 18th centuries. Covers such topics as population, rural settlement, urban life, women, and relationships with the Native peoples.
  612. Find this resource:
  613. Haudrère, Philippe. L’empire des rois: 1500–1789. Paris: Denoel, 1997.
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  615. An introductory overview of French overseas expansion and the first French empire.
  616. Find this resource:
  617. Trudel, Marcel. Histoire de la Nouvelle France. 4 vols. Montreal: Fides, 1963–1983.
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  619. A magisterial history of New France by one of Canada’s most celebrated historians. Volume 1 covers the earliest French initiatives in North America and the foundation of the colony; Volume 2 examines the early development of Québec; and Volume 3 (divided into two parts) traces the history of the company of Cent-Associés.
  620. Find this resource:
  621. Van der Cruysse, Dirk. Louis XIV et le Siam. Paris: Fayard, 1991.
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  623. A detailed study of the relationship between Louis XIV’s France and the Kingdom of Siam. Regarding Siam as a steppingstone to China and India, France developed trade and missionary links with the Asian kingdom for thirty years until an attempt to interfere in Siamese internal politics led to disaster.
  624. Find this resource:
  625. Weiss, Gilian. Captives and Corsairs: France and Slavery in the Early Modern Mediterranean. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2011.
  626. DOI: 10.11126/stanford/9780804770002.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  627. An important study of France’s attempts to deal with the Barbary corsairs of North Africa, who enslaved thousands of French men and women during the Early Modern period. The first four chapters of the book cover the 16th and 17th centuries.
  628. Find this resource:
  629. The Arts and Intellectual Life
  630.  
  631. The 17th century in France is known as the ages of the Baroque and of classicism. Tapié 1960 remains a valuable account of the spread of the Baroque from Italy and its reception in France. Mérot 1994 is a comprehensive survey of the development of French painting. Traditionally, classicism in French literature has been associated with the rise of the absolute monarchy: Richelieu’s foundation of the Académie Francaise in 1634 served as its birth. Historians of writers and writing have come to question this neat relationship. Merlin 1994 makes a convincing case that a literary public independent of the court and elite circles had developed by the late 17th century. Viala 1985 argues that while 17th-century writers remained dependent on the patronage of the powerful, they nevertheless were able to communicate to wider audiences through “duplicity”: the creation of multiple meanings in their work. Jouhaud 2000 challenges this argument, contending instead that the creation of 17th-century literature was based on a paradox: writers’ very dependence on powerful patrons and lack of status in the period’s rigid social hierarchy were what gave them the freedom to express themselves. Finally, the 17th century also saw the development of the literary salon. Lougee 1976 is a pioneering study of how the rise of the salonnières, the women who ran salons, affected feminist writing.
  632.  
  633. Jouhaud, Christian. Les pouvoirs de la litterature: Histoire d’un paradoxe. Paris: Gallimard, 2000.
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  635. In this examination of writers, Jouhaud contends that their very dependence on powerful patrons and their lack of status in the rigidly hierarchical society of the 17th century were what, paradoxically, permitted them the freedom to create literature.
  636. Find this resource:
  637. Lougee, Carolyn. Le Paradis des Femmes: Women, Salons and Social Stratification in Seventeenth-Century France. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976.
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  639. A pioneering work on the salons and the salonières, the women who ran them. Lougee argues that the emergence of the salonière provoked new waves of feminist and anti-feminist writing in the 17th century.
  640. Find this resource:
  641. Merlin, Hélèn. Public et littérature en France au XVIIe siècle. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1994.
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  643. In this study, Merlin argues that a literary public independent of the court and elite circles had developed in France by the late 17th century.
  644. Find this resource:
  645. Mérot, Alain. La Peinture français e au XVIIe siècle. Paris: Gallimard, 1994.
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  647. This lavishly illustrated volume is now the standard study of the history and development of French painting in the 17th century.
  648. Find this resource:
  649. Tapié, Victor-Lucien. The Age of Grandeur: Baroque Art and Architecture. Translated by A. Koss Williamson. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1960.
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  651. Translation of Baroque et Classicisme (Paris: Plon, 1957). This older but still useful work contains four chapters on the transmission of the Baroque from Italy and its reception in France.
  652. Find this resource:
  653. Viala, Alan. Naissance de l’écrivain. Paris: Éditions de Minuit, 1985.
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  655. An important work on the writers of French classicism. Viala argues that in spite of these writers’ dependence of the patronage of the powerful, they were nevertheless able to express themselves to wide audiences by employing “duplicity”: multiple meanings in their writing.
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