Classes, Estates and Order in Early-Modern Brittany

Classes, Estates and Order in Early-Modern Brittany PDF Author: James B. Collins
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521533140
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
The classes and their interests are analyzed first, in an examination of the Breton economy, and then the social system and the political superstructure that preserved it. Finally, Professor Collins addresses the question of order itself. How did the elites preserve order? What order did they wish to preserve? His analysis suggests that early modern France was a much more unstable, mobile society than previously thought; that absolutism existed more in theory than in practice; and that local elites and the Crown compromised in mutually beneficial ways to maintain their combined control over society. They imposed a new order, one neither feudal nor absolutist, on a society reexamining the meaning of basic structures such as the relationship of the family and the individual, the role of women in society, and property.

Classes, Estates and Order in Early-Modern Brittany

Classes, Estates and Order in Early-Modern Brittany PDF Author: James B. Collins
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521533140
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
The classes and their interests are analyzed first, in an examination of the Breton economy, and then the social system and the political superstructure that preserved it. Finally, Professor Collins addresses the question of order itself. How did the elites preserve order? What order did they wish to preserve? His analysis suggests that early modern France was a much more unstable, mobile society than previously thought; that absolutism existed more in theory than in practice; and that local elites and the Crown compromised in mutually beneficial ways to maintain their combined control over society. They imposed a new order, one neither feudal nor absolutist, on a society reexamining the meaning of basic structures such as the relationship of the family and the individual, the role of women in society, and property.

Crown and Nobility in Early Modern France

Crown and Nobility in Early Modern France PDF Author: Donna Bohanan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350317357
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
This book analyses the evolving relationship between the French monarchy and the French nobility in the early modern period. New interpretations of the absolutist state in France have challenged the orthodox vision of the interaction between the crown and elite society. By focusing on the struggle of central government to control the periphery, Bohanan links the literature on collaboration, patronage and taxation with research on the social origins and structure of provincial nobilities. Three provinical examples, Provence, Dauphine and Brittany, illustrate the ways in which elites organised and mobilised by vertical ties (ties of dependency based on patronage) were co-opted or subverted by the crown. The monarchy's success in raising more money from these pays d'etats depended on its ability to juggle a set of different strategies, each conceived according to the particularity of the social, political and institutional context of the province. Bohanan shows that the strategies and expedients employed by the crown varied from province to province; conceived on an individual basis, they bear the signs of ad hoc responses rather than a gradnoise plan to centralise.

Bretons and Britons

Bretons and Britons PDF Author: Barry Cunliffe
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192592475
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
What is it about Brittany that makes it such a favourite destination for the British? To answer this question, Bretons and Britons explores the long history of the Bretons, from the time of the first farmers around 5400 BC to the present, and the very close relationship they have had with their British neighbours throughout this time. More than simply a history of a people, Bretons and Britons is also the author's homage to a country and a people he has come to admire over decades of engagement. Underlying the story throughout is the tale of the Bretons' fierce struggle to maintain their distinctive identity. As a peninsula people living on a westerly excrescence of Europe they were surrounded on three sides by the sea, which gave them some protection from outside interference, but their landward border was constantly threatened - not only by succeeding waves of Romans, Franks, and Vikings, but also by the growing power of the French state. It was the sea that gave the Bretons strength and helped them in their struggle for independence. They shared in the culture of Atlantic-facing Europe, and from the eighteenth century, when a fascination for the Celts was beginning to sweep Europe, they were able to present themselves as the direct successors of the ancient Celts along with the Cornish, Welsh, Scots, and Irish. This gave them a new strength and a new pride. It is this spirit that is still very much alive today.

A Companion to Eighteenth-Century Europe

A Companion to Eighteenth-Century Europe PDF Author: Peter H. Wilson
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 111873002X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 630

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Book Description
This Companion contains 31 essays by leading international scholars to provide an overview of the key debates on eighteenth-century Europe. Examines the social, intellectual, economic, cultural, and political changes that took place throughout eighteenth-century Europe Focuses on Europe while placing it within its international context Considers not just major western European states, but also the often neglected countries of eastern and northern Europe

A Spirited Exchange

A Spirited Exchange PDF Author: Henriette De Bruyn Kops
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004160744
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 397

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Book Description
This economic and social history assesses the impact of the coastal wine and brandy trade on the early modern French, Dutch, and Atlantic economies, and highlights the importance of interconnecting personal networks of Dutch, Sephardic Jewish, and New Christian merchants.

Exile, Imprisonment, Or Death

Exile, Imprisonment, Or Death PDF Author: Julian Swann
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019878869X
Category : France
Languages : en
Pages : 546

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Book Description
On the accession of Louis XIII in 1610 following the assassination of his father, the Bourbon dynasty stood on unstable foundations. For all of Henri IV's undoubted achievements, he had left his son a realm that was still prey to the ambitions of an aristocracy that possessed independentmilitary force and was prepared to resort to violence and vendetta in order to defend its interests and honour. To establish his personal authority, Louis XIII was forced to resort to conspiracy and murder, and even then his authority was constantly challenged. Yet a little over a century later, asthe reign of Louis XIV drew to a close, such disobedience was impossible. Instead, a simple royal command expressing the sovereign's disgrace was sufficient to compel the most powerful men and women in the kingdom to submit to imprisonment or internal exile without a trial or an opportunity tojustify their conduct, abandoning their normal lives, leaving families, careers, offices, and possessions behind in obedience to their sovereign.To explain that transformation, this volume examines the development of this new "politics of disgrace", why it emerged, how it was conceptualised, the conventions that governed its use, and reactions to it, not only from the perspective of the monarch and his noble subjects, but also the greatcorporations of the realm and the wider public. Although that new model of disgrace proved remarkably successful, influencing the ideas and actions of the dominant social elites, it was nevertheless contested, and the critique of disgrace connects to the second aim of this work, which is to useshifting attitudes to the practice as a means of investigating the nature of Ancien Regime political culture and some of the dramatic and profound changes it experienced in the years separating Louis XIII's dramatic seizure of power from the French Revolution.

The Reformation and Rural Society

The Reformation and Rural Society PDF Author: C. Scott Dixon
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521893213
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
What was the effect of the Reformation movement on the parishioners of the German countryside? This book examines the reform movement at the level of its implementation - the rural parish. Investigation of the Reformation and the sixteenth-century parish reveals the strength of tradition and custom in village life and how this parish culture obstructed and frustrated the efforts of the Lutheran reformers. The Reformation was not passively adopted by the rural inhabitants. On the contrary, the parishioners manipulated the reform movement to serve their own ends. Parish documentation reveals that the system of parish rule diffused the disciplinary aims of the church and rendered the pastors impotent. A look at parish beliefs suggests that the nature of parish thought worked to undermine the main tenets of the Lutheran faith, and that the legacy of the Reformation was a dialogue between these two realms of experience.

The English and French Navies, 1500-1650

The English and French Navies, 1500-1650 PDF Author: Benjamin W. D. Redding
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1783276576
Category : England
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Challenges the received wisdom about the relative weakness of French naval power when compared with that of England. This book traces the advances and deterioration of the early modern English and French sea forces and relates these changes to concurrent developments within the respective states. Based on extensive original research in correspondence and memoirs, official reports and accounts, receipts of the exchequer and inventories in both France, where the sources are disparate and dispersed, and England, the book explores the rise of both kingdoms' naval resources from the early sixteenth to the mid seventeenth centuries. As a comparative study, it shows that, in sharing the Channel and with both countries increasing their involvement in maritime affairs, English and French naval expansion was intertwined. Directly and indirectly, the two kingdoms influenced their neighbours' sea programmes. The book first examines the administrative transformations of both navies, then goes on to discuss fiscal and technological change, and finally assesses the material expansion of the respective fleets. In so doing it demonstrates the close relationship between naval power and state strength in early modern Europe. One important argument challenges the received wisdom about the relative weakness of French naval power when compared with that of England.

Crown, Church, and Episcopate Under Louis XIV

Crown, Church, and Episcopate Under Louis XIV PDF Author: Joseph Bergin
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300103564
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 550

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Book Description
"Joseph Bergin explores the king's practice of appointing qualified and worthy men as bishops, and of the difficulties and tensions inherent in it. Candidates generally began their careers with theology degrees and graduated to minor clerical positions, where they might gain valuable, practical experience, prior to their appointment as relatively mature men. Rarely were archbishops chosen who had not served as bishops, but appeal was to be found in family credit as well as demonstrable ability. The author explains the provenance of this system, illustrating it with numerous well-drawn examples and examining it in detail. In addition he accounts for the deficiencies of this elastic policy of appointment, which occasioned a group of some 120 bishops, not all of whom the king and his advisers could have personal knowledge." "This book uncovers a crucial part of the reign of Louis XIV and is essential for anyone with a serious interest in early modern French history."--BOOK JACKET.

Disputing New France

Disputing New France PDF Author: Helen Dewar
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0228009391
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
From the early sixteenth century, thousands of fishermen-traders from Basque, Breton, and Norman ports crossed the Atlantic each year to engage in fishing, whaling, and fur trading, which they regarded as their customary right. In the seventeenth century these rights were challenged as France sought to establish an imperial presence in North America, granting trading privileges to certain individuals and companies to enforce its territorial and maritime claims. Bitter conflicts ensued, precipitating more than two dozen lawsuits in French courts over powers and privileges in New France. In Disputing New France Helen Dewar demonstrates that empire formation in New France and state formation in France were mutually constitutive. Through its exploration of legal suits among privileged trading companies, independent traders, viceroys, and missionaries, this book foregrounds the integral role of French courts in the historical construction of authority in New France and the fluid nature of legal, political, and commercial authority in France itself. State and empire formation converged in the struggle over sea power: control over New France was a means to consolidate maritime authority at home and supervise major Atlantic trade routes. The colony also became part of international experimentations with the chartered company, an innovative Dutch and English instrument adapted by the French to realize particular strategic, political, and maritime objectives. Tracing the developing tools of governance, privilege granting, and capital formation in New France, Disputing New France offers a novel conception of empire – one that is messy and contingent, responding to pressures from within and without, and deeply rooted in metropolitan affairs.