The Royal French State, 1460 – 1610

In this second volume of the History of France series,Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie provides an account of the early modernperiod. Readers will discover a compelling narrative combined witha broad analysis of events and wider comparisons with Europeanhistory.

After the traumas of the Black Death and the Hundred Years War,relative social and economic stability provided a backdrop for thesplendors of France′s great Renaissance Prince, Francois I, andthen for the tensions and bloodshed of later sixteenth–centuryFrance. The Wars of Religion were not simply a religious conflictbetween Catholics and Protestant Huguenots, but encapsulated othertensions – between, for example, decentralized, representativegovernment and the much more autocratic monarchical governmentwhich ultimately prevailed. The period also saw the development ofmany features which became hallmarks of French government. Aboveall, the two poles of proto–absolutism and Huguenot theories oflegitimate resistance carried with them the germs of much greaterfuture conflict, which were eventually to culminate in the FrenchRevolution.

Extensively illustrated and containing helpful figures, thisoutstanding book will be of wide interest to specialists andgeneral readers alike.

Preface.

Introduction.

Part I: Valois Flowering:.

1. A Renaissance.

2. War and Recovery.

3. The Italian Adventure.

4. Humanist Strategies: Variable Outcomes.

5. Intolerance and its Aftermath.

Part II: Valois Decadence:.

6. Fracture.

7. War Games.

8. The Point of No Return.

9. The Tree of Justice.

10. The Guise and their Supporters.

Part III: Bourbon Spring:.

11. Broader Perspectives.

12. City, Finance and Office.

13. The Kingdom and the Nobility.

14. National Identity.

Chronology.

Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie is the author of numerous books – including the immensely successful Montaillouand Carnival – and many articles. He is a researcher with a high international reputation, and the diversity of his work and range of his publications have made him one of the foremost specialists on France′s monarchical period.

"The world of the nobility is as vividly evoked as that of thehumble, and the portraits of the kings reveal a virtuosity whichwould have been the envy of Michelet. A History of Franceseries is a work of immense quality." Historama

"Magnificent! The personalities of the kings and queens of theperiod, (among them Louis XI, Louis XII, Henri IV, Catherine deMedici) are admirably captured. The author also provides anincisive account of social, cultural and economic trends, explainswith equal clarity the causes and outcomes of the wars with Italyand of religion, and shows that the reasons the Reformation failedin France were essentially political." L′Histoire

"This stimulating book has been translated with care by JulietVale, the bilbliography has been adapted for a British audience."Literary Review

"Readers of this second volume are unlikely to be disappointed."History