A01=Malcolm Walsby
anne
Anne De Bretagne
Anne De Montmorency
Author_Malcolm Walsby
baud
Br Ia
Category=NHD
Category=QRAX
Chambre Des Comptes
Charles VII
De Bretagne
De Coligny
De La Bretagne
De Laval
De Rieux
Du Bellay
Du Fresne De Beaucourt
dynastic succession
early
early modern France
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
france
French nobility
Future Henry II
Henry III
Histoire De Bretagne
Histoire De Charles VII
Jean De Bourbon
Jean II
jeanne
Jeanne De Laval
La Chapelles
Le Baud
Louis XI
Marie De Guise
michel
modern
montmorency
NAF
noble family networks in Reformation France
noble patronage
Protestant aristocracy
religious conflict
roche-bernard
sonnius
Young Man
Product details
- ISBN 9780754658115
- Weight: 453g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 10 Apr 2007
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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The Lavals were one of the most important families in late medieval France, rising to a position of unsurpassed eminence by the mid sixteenth century. Yet, at the very point where they reached this position of unrivalled importance, all was put at risk by the dual challenges of dynastic failure and the Reformation. The vagaries of dynastic failure threatened their hard won success and these problems were compounded by the decision of crucial members of the family to support Protestantism in the middle of the century. By the end of the sixteenth century the fortunes of the family were in ruins and the brief eminence of Lavals in western France was over. This monograph offers a fresh look at several of the critical questions facing historians of late medieval and early modern France. It re-examines the clientage of a rising and enterprising family and explores the cultural patronage of a noble court. The book also provides a new insight into the nature of noble Protestantism, notably analysing the connections between nobles, patterns of family loyalty and religious conviction. Finally, it considers the events of wars of religion in western France from the perspective of a noble leadership that simultaneously played a vital role in sustaining the cause and did much to undermine it. This latter issue is examined in particular through the analysis of the relationship between the houses of Laval and Rohan, two Protestant families with shared loyalties but with rival dynastic ambitions. This study is based on a complete re-examination of the archive base in both Paris and the west of France and in English archives. For many centuries the destruction of the archives of the family of Laval during the French Revolution has prevented historians from undertaking a serious study of the family. Indeed, this book is the first monograph to be published on the Comtes de Laval since the manuscript volume written by Le Blanc de La Vignole in the seventeenth century. At the same time it engages with the historiography of both French and Anglo-Saxon historiographical traditions.
Malcolm Walsby is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews, UK.
