Monarchy, the Estates and the Aristocracy in Renaissance France
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€173.60
A01=J. Russell Major
Author_J. Russell Major
Category=NHDJ
Category=NHTB
early modern governance
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Estates General
estates general decline in France
feudalism transformation
French political history
noble class structure
patron client networks
Popular Initiative
Renaissance Monarchy
representative assemblies
Product details
- ISBN 9780860782278
- Weight: 720g
- Dimensions: 150 x 224mm
- Publication Date: 30 Jun 1988
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Professor Major's aim in these articles has been to stimulate new assessments of the political, constitutional and social history of France in the 15th - 17th centuries. The first group examines the nature of the Renaissance monarchy, its strengths and its weaknesses and lack of effective controls. The next group explores the issue of why the Estates General, and some of the provincial estates, failed to develop in France, in marked contrast to the triumph of representative government in England. Finally, the author turns to the question of how the nobles succeeded in remaining the dominant social class. On the one hand, he traces the evolution of a patron-client relationship which compensated for the decay of the feudal ties of the Middle Ages; on the other, he challenges assumptions made of a decline in nobles' incomes, and contends that, so long as they held on to their lands and could escape the depredations of war, for most of the period they actually benefited from a marked increase in real income.
J. Russell Major
