Revolt in Prerevolutionary France: The Prince de Conti's Conspiracy against Louis XV, 1755-1757 by John D. Woodbridge

Abstract

254 BOOK REVIEWS intention to provide a richer and more detailed guide to the feelings of early modern English people about the afterlife, he merely reproduces the rarified thought world already admirably presented byWalker. Susan Rosa University ofChicago Revolt in Prerevolutionary France: The Prince de Conti's Conspiracy against Louis XV, 1755-1757. ByJohn D. Woodbridge. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1995. Pp. xx, 242. $39-95.) A conspiracy by the Prince de Conti offers fertile ground for historical imagination , involving a charismatic personality, tantalizing links to centers of great power, and profound social forces. Since, by definition, conspiracy cloaks itself in secrecy, the historian needs more than the usual caution. In this felicitous study the author strives for a just balance between literary drama and scientific rigor. The Prince de Conti was Louis XV's cousin and for several years one of his most trusted confidants, especially in foreign affairs. In the 1750's the two men had a falling out, the prince resenting Madame de Pompadour's influence over the king which threatened to overshadow his own. He also approved the Parlement of Paris asserting the rights of the princes and peers as well as its own constitutional prerogatives against the despotism of the king's ministers. Failing to bring the king to his own mind, Conti retired from the court. What he did next is shrouded in murk, penetrated chiefly by a couple of spies working for Pompadour and the police. The spies claimed Conti was trying to organize a plot to ascend the throne in the place of Louis XV with the blessing of Jansenists and other opponents of absolute royal power, as well as armed support from Huguenot insurgents and English soldiers on the western coast of the country. The alleged plot also may have involved Joseph Damiens' failed attempt to assassinate the king. From this materialWoodbridge teases an intriguing argument for Conti's conspiracy . It is only as strong, however, as its weakest link: the credibility of the spies' reports. In the tense atmosphere ofthe SevenYears'War, the government found them plausible enough to keep the spies at their task. On the other hand, the prince's "conspiracy" might have been merely an eccentric fishing expedition for opportunities to assuage his rancor and satisfy his ambition rather than a serious threat to Louis XV's authority. The author convincingly places the prince's machinations in the large picture of divine-right monarchy's decline in eighteenth-century France, in particular , the erosion of its sacramental foundation. He duly acknowledges the contribution of the philosophes' general undermining of belief in the mystery of religion. He emphasizes, however, the significance of the mid-century con- BOOK REVIEWS 255 flict that raged in Paris over the Roman Catholic Church's denial of the Eucharist and Extreme Unction to Jansenists. Urged on by Conti's advisor, Adrien Le Paige, and other Jansenist jurists, the religious issue meshed with the Parlement of Paris' constitutional challenge to Louis XV, and toleration of dissent within the Church advanced a step. As the sacraments ceased symbolizing the unity of France in faith, law, and king, there was less reason to exclude loyal Huguenots from citizenship. A coalition of enlightened royal ministers, Jansenists, and Huguenots brought about the royal edict oftoleration of 1787. With the Revolution came a new definition of citizenship free from sacramental association. The book's impeccable scholarly apparatus includes an up-to-date bibliography and careful endnotes. Charles H. O'Brien Williamstown, Massachusetts Cardinal Giuseppe Garampi (1725-1792): An Enlightened Ultramontane. By Dries Vanysacker. [Institut Historique Belge de Rome, Bibliothèque, XXXIII.] (Brussels and Rome: Institut Historique Belge de Rome. Distributed by Brepols Publishers,Turnhout, Belgium. 1995. Pp. 336.) The true flavor ofcurial policy is often best gleaned through the biography of influential prelates. This work by DriesVanysacker is a good example of this approach . While there has been no shortage of works and articles on the Riminiborn Garampi, the author claims that "we are still lacking an adequate full-length portrait of this figure." Therefore he set out on a five-year research project, which took him from archives in Copenhagen through Utrecht, Mechelen , Verona, Pesaro, Rimini...