| Description |
1 online resource (256 pages) |
| Contents |
Cover; The Myth of Absolutism; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; Acknowledgements; Preface; Dedication; Introduction; 1. Valois and Early Bourbons; Medieval inheritances; Decentralised corporations; Agents of centralisation; Collapse and recovery; Richelieu; The Fronde; 2. Louis XIV Reassessed; Royal authority; The court of the Sun King -- a cliché re-examined; Instruments of absolutism?; Patrons, brokers and clients; The élite; Instruments of self-government; 3. A Highroad to Revolution?; Faction and ideology; Despotism or consent?; A formative minority; Louis XV and Louis XVI |
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The wages of despotismThe dominance of court faction; 4. France and England: Absolutism Versus Limited Monarchy?; Monarchs; Courtiers; Despots; Bureaucrats; Aristocrats; 5. France and England: Absolutism Versus Parliamentary Liberties?; Parliaments, Estates and parlements; 1688: the great divide?; Economic and fiscal policy; Civil liberties; 6. A Theory of Absolutism?; Problems of evidence; The concept of the state; Theories of royal sovereignty; Bodin and absolutist theory; Two spheres of royal authority; Absolutist legislative and emergency power? |
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Absolutist versus constitutional ideologies?Divine right absolutism?; Conclusions; 7. Royal Prerogatives and their Context; Personal monarchy; Prerogatives and their justification; The main prerogatives; Agents of the prerogative; Prerogative enthroned; Prerogative dethroned; Conclusions; 8. Liberties and Consent; Monarchs and despots; The rituals of consent; Estates: crushed or co-operating?; Conflict; Enlightened Despotism; 9. Life-Cycle of a Myth; Birth; Childhood; Adolescence; Maturity; Senility; Glossary of Recurrent Terms; Bibliographical Essay; Appendix I: The Régusse clientele |
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Appendix II: The Oppède clienteleAppendix III: Major European monarchs 1461-1833; Map: Pre-revolutionary France: principal administrative, judicial and fiscal subdivisions; Index |
| Summary |
Conventionally, ̀̀absolutism'' in early-modern Europe has suggested unfettered autocracy and despotism -- the erosion of rights, the centralisation of decision-making, the loss of liberty. Everything, in a word, that was un-British but characteristic of ancien-regime France. Recently historians have questioned such comfortably simplistic views. This lively investigation of ̀̀absolutism'' in action -- continent-wide but centred on a detailed comparison of France and England -- dissolves the traditional picture to reveal a much more complex reality; and in so doing illuminates the varied ways in |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Despotism -- History
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Monarchy -- France -- History
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Monarchy -- Great Britain -- History
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HISTORY -- Europe -- Western.
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Despotism
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Monarchy
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France
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Great Britain
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| Genre/Form |
History
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9781317899549 |
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1317899547 |
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