The Coming Of French Absolutism

The introduction of absolutism in France has conventionally been seen as a process of centralization imposed from the top down. The Crown, the chancellor, the principal ministers, and the secretaries of state are all supposed to have worked in concert to break the power of the nobles and governors, abolish local Estates, and even intervene in the selection of municipal councillors. The fiscal and institutional development of the province of Dauphiné, however, suggests a very different absolutist dynamic. While it is clear that the Crown wanted to standardize and, when possible, centralize the institutions of the province, it is equally clear that , from the 1540s on, certain groups anxious for provincial tax reform actively encouraged royal intervention. Daniel Hickey analyses the individuals and groups that directed each stage of the struggle for tax reform: rural villagers, the élite of the ten major cities, lawyers and legal groups, and new and old nobles. Each group expressed itself through the means available to it: peasant revolt, courtroom hearings, local village meetings, or lobbying at court. The social alliances made during the struggle were temporary in nature and often united groups that would normally have been opposed to each other. But they were effective. Hickey identifies two major results of this social movement: the Crown was able to take major steps towards integrating Dauphiné into the kingdom, and the province's fiscal structure underwent a major reform.

Provides a detailed analysis of the political, social and economic history of the France of Louis XIII.

Mazarin was the model statesman of the early modern period in French history. This book follows his career from pupil of the Jesuits, through legate in Paris and Avignon, to service for Louis XIII and beyond. Mazarin's role in the survival of absolute monarchy during the upheavals of the Fronde and his guidance of the young Louis XIV are given full weight. His crucial part in many diplomatic exchanges, and in particular those which brought an end to the Thirty Years War and the Franco-Spanish War, is examined in detail. His life is placed in the context of a study of the times, highlighting the rapidly changing nature of government.

As an introduction to her detailed study Professor Lublinskaya presents a summary and critique of the whole 'general crisis' interpretation of seventeenth-century European history which is regularly a subject for heated debate among Western historians. However, it is as a specialist in the history of seventeenth-century France that Professor Lublinskaya approaches the problem of the general crisis. The major part of her book is a detailed analysis of the political, social and economic history of the France of Louis XIII - a crucial period for the development of the French monarchy.

This analysis of the provincial reality of absolutism argues that the relationship between the regional aristocracy and the crown was a key factor in influencing the traditional social system of seventeenth century France.