First published in 1984, Professor Knecht's study quickly established itself as the best short account of the period. The reigns of Francis I and Henry II, spanning the first half of the sixteenth century, are one of the most colourful and formative periods of French history. In addition to examining the nature and effectiveness of their reigns, Professor Knecht also examines their foreign policies which brought them into conflict with other major powers. For this new edition the author has added a new chapter on patronage and the arts.
Evans (classics, U. of British Columbia) examines the history of the great emperor, whose reign marks the transition between Late Antiquity and the Byzantine period, including what is presently known about his life, the social structure of the empire, its relations with its neighbors, and naturally, its wars. It also examines theological issues, which split the empire and left deep divisions after Justinian's death. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.
Claude de Seyssel's important political treatise, "The Monarchy of France" (1515) illuminates the link between warfare, the state, and the social order in the Renaissance. In his effort to describe a state capable of conquest and expansion, Seyssel envisioned a new social and political order with radical implications for the French monarchy.
What determined success or failure in Renaissance monarchy? Why was warfare endemic in Europe in the early sixteenth century and how did the great cultural and artistic changes of the period flourish amid this conflict? How did rival kings relate to each other and what steps did they each take to strengthen their monarchies? In short, how did they govern? Renaissance Monarchy approaches these and related issues in a revealing way, providing the first single-volume comparative history of the most renowned kings of the Renaissance: the Holy Roman Empire Charles V, Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England. Bringing these three kings together, out of the relative isolation in which they are each studied, adds a fresh dimension to our understanding of contemporary ideals of kingship and reveals how these monarchs strove to be regarded as great warriors, effective governors and generous patrons.
"Until the 1960s, it was widely assumed that in Western Europe the 'New Monarchy' propelled kingdoms and principalities onto a modern nation-state trajectory. John I of Portugal (1358-1433), Charles VII (1403-1461) and Louis XI (1423-1483) of France, Henry VII and Henry VIII of England (1457-1509, 1509-1553), Isabella of Castile (1474-1504) and Ferdinand of Aragon (1479-1516) were, by improving royal administration, by bringing more continuity to communication with their estates and by introducing more regular taxation, all seen to have served that goal. In this view, princes were assigned to the role of developing and implementing the sinews of state as a sovereign entity characterized by the coherence of its territorial borders and its central administration and government. They shed medieval traditions of counsel and instead enforced relations of obedience toward the emerging 'state'."--Provided by publisher.
This collection of articles explores changes in images of the French monarchy propagated in ceremonies that townspeople and officials created for their kings. Bryant looks at royal entrées as massive processional and street theaters in which members of the kingdom both discoursed with and exalted the king in a multiplicity of ritual forms, symbolism and public art. These ceremonies personalized the idea of the state as embodied in the king, and they publicized rights and authority, new historical or mythological themes, innovative styles of monumental architecture and art, and theories of ideal and shared government.
The kingdom of France, a byword for upheaval and instability for a century before 1660, was transformed over the subsequent generation into the greatest power in Europe and an institutional model admired and imitated almost everywhere. A further century elapsed befoer this hegemony was challenged, and even then the collapse of monarchy in 1788 took most people by surprise. This book, bringing together an authoritative international panel of historians, portrays and analyses the life of France between two revolutions, a time later known as the old regime. All aspects of French life are covered: the economy, social development, religion and culture, French activity overseas, and not least politics and public life, where our understanding has been completely renewed over recent years. A detailed chronology and full bibliography complete this compelling analysis of an age behind whose calm and assured facade forces were developing which were to shape a very different country and continent.
Suspicious of the French monarchy, and scornful of the new elites that served it, Henri de Boulainvilliers (1658–1722) has been considered one of the Old Regime's paradigmatic aristocratic reactionaries, a founder of modern racist theory. Some scholars, however, have admired his "constitutionalism" and judged him a progenitor of an enlightened aristocratic liberalism now commonly held to have been a major force in shaping the ideology of the French Revolution. In a close contextual study of the writings of this enigmatic, pivotal thinker, Harold A. Ellis persuasively rethinks both images of Boulainvilliers, finding him a controversialist who interpreted French history as a self-consciously political writer seeking to address an emergent political public.
Kings throughout medieval and early modern Europe had extraconjugal sexual partners. Only in France, however, did the royal mistress become a quasi-institutionalized political position. This study explores the emergence and development of the position of French royal mistress through detailed portraits of nine of its most significant incumbents: Agnès Sorel, Anne de Pisseleu d’Heilly, Diane de Poitiers, Gabrielle d’Estrées, Françoise Louise de La Baume Le Blanc, Françoise Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Françoise d’Aubigné, Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, and Jeanne Bécu. Beginning in the fifteenth century, key structures converged to create a space at court for the royal mistress. The first was an idea of gender already in place: that while women were legally inferior to men, they were men’s equals in competence. Because of their legal subordinacy, queens were considered to be the safest regents for their husbands, and, subsequently, the royal mistress was the surest counterpoint to the royal favorite. Second, the Renaissance was a period during which people began to experience space as theatrical. This shift to a theatrical world opened up new ways of imagining political guile, which came to be positively associated with the royal mistress. Still, the role had to be activated by an intelligent, charismatic woman associated with a king who sought women as advisors. The fascinating particulars of each case are covered in the chapters of this book. Thoroughly researched and compellingly narrated, this important study explains why the tradition of a politically powerful royal mistress materialized at the French court, but nowhere else in Europe. It will appeal to anyone interested in the history of the French monarchy, women and royalty, and gender studies.
