Reality vs. Perceptions: The Treatment of Early Modern French Jews in Politics and Literary Culture

Abstract

REALITY VS. PERCEPTIONS: THE TREATMENT OF EARLY MODERN FRENCH JEWS IN POLITICS AND LITERARY CULTURE By Michael Woods, Master of Arts. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2014. Director: Dr. George Munro Professor, Department of History Although historians have written extensively on both the early modern era and the development of an absolute monarchy, the history of Jewish communities in France and the role they played has been largely ignored. Beginning with the French Wars of Religion, this study analyzes to what extent France’s religious situation affected the growth of absolutism and how this in turn affected the Jews. Taking advantage of the fractured nature of the early French monarchy, Jews began settling in provinces along the border of both Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Affected by economic jealousies and cultural perceptions of Jews, the treatment of these communities by local officials led to requests by Jews for royal intervention in these regions. Perceptions of Jews evolved through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as the French Enlightenment influenced the way Jewish characters were presented. This study then ties these perceptions of Jews to the political and economic reality of these communities in an attempt to create a unified history of France’s early modern Jewish population.