French Monarchy Research Articles

The Phenomenon of Psychological Warfare in the Era of the Sun King

The article examines the main aspects of the design of the psychofield (psychological landscape) of the French monarchy in the Early Modern era in the context of the formation of absolutism (as a geopolitical doctrine) in the context of the «military revolution» in Europe. The author examines the transformations of mass consciousness within the framework of the phenomenon of the «mental revolution», which determined the emergence of new forms of legitimization of social ties in the context of the formation of innovative systems of constructing loyalties that replace, absorb or conflict with alternative identities within the framework of a new state-building, in an imperial situation. The author touches upon the problem of the formation of a new «psychoparadigma», which determines the course of a number of social and political processes that determined the formation of court society as an element of the state mechanism. A direct reflection of this process was a complex of political, psychological and socio-cultural transformations, which, following N. Henschel, we interpret as the «myth of absolutism», which gave rise to a whole complex of innovations in the development of mass consciousness, which was most manifested, first of all, in the development of military affairs. A direct reflection of this phenomenon was, among other things, the active use of the practice of «psychological warfare» in the campaigns of the «Sun King», which is associated with a rethinking of the degat principle characteristic of the Middle Ages – waging a devastating war.

The сoncept of the national culture in German romanticism: Sourсes and historical background

In Novalis’s works, the reaction of German Romanticism to the Enlightenment was civilizational: By the German world, both the French monarchy and Republic were viewed in a negative light. Thus, the Novalis’s philosophy developed the concept of national culture, which the movement “Storm and Onslaught”, led by J. G. Herder, opposed to French classicism of the 17th–18th centuries. According to Herder, the folk’s culture is formed through the psychological exploration of nature in myths and folklore, fixed in language. The “organic nature” of culture links folklore with the Middle Age and Modern poetry as the new forms of the dialogue with nature. This idea was consolidated by the figure of Faust, chosen by the Sturmers and Goethe as the hero of the “masterpiece” summarizing the national poetic path. Novalis elevated Catholicism to the cult of the earth, and the collective mind was connected with it by magic. He saw the institution of this union as an “ideal” Prussia where self-knowledge unites citizens, and the monarch unites the people and nature as an esoteric master. The French monarchy divided the people by cultivating selfishness. The prerequisites of this opinion were indicated by J. Le Goff and L. Karsavin who stated the existence of two types of cultures, which emerged as a result of the Roman conquest of Europe. For the national ones, who retained their languages and with them the connection with pre–Roman mythology and folklore, the introduced ancient norm and Christianity became forms of self-development. For the newly emerged unities west of the Rhine, they became the foundation of the cultural convention.

Defining the Aristocrat: From Geneva to Revolutionary France

In the political and social language of the early modern period, aristocracy did not denote a social class, but a form of state or government. At the dawn of the revolutionary age, however, the concept of aristocracy suddenly moved to the centre of disputes over the new political and social order in European states—and with it the previously unknown figure of the aristocrat. This article traces the conceptual history of aristocracy and aristocrats between about 1760 and 1789. It argues that the rise of these revolutionary battle terms was largely rooted in the constitutional struggles of the small Geneva Republic, which were widely observed and commented throughout Europe. Protagonists such as the Geneva opposition leaders and writers François d’Ivernois and Étienne Clavière, and the French philosophers and politicians Jacques-Pierre Brissot and Honoré Gabriel de Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau, were involved in translating these concepts from the political language of republicanism into the context of the French monarchy, where members of the nobility were now denounced as aristocrats in the run-up to the Estates General. The outbreak of the French Revolution and its perception throughout Europe ultimately shaped the meanings of the concepts of aristocracy and aristocrat in the modern world.

Intervention at Home: Representing Migrants in German Romanticism

ABSTRACT This article explores how German Romantic writing reflected on migration and thereby intervened in contemporary discourses about émigrés seeking refuge in German-speaking territories after the French Revolution in 1789. Discussing different representations of French exiles in both fiction and translation, I argue that some Romantics were participating in an “intervention at home:” staying put, observing both the unprecedented overthrow of the French monarchy and, later on, the aggression of French expansionism, Romantic writers contributed to contemporary debates about migration with stories and characters meant to reflect on, evoke empathy with, or create aversion to French migrants. German Romantic writing thus encouraged both emotional responses to and specific ideas about the intricate relationship between migration and nation-building in early nineteenth-century German-speaking countries.

John France, Medieval France at war. A military history of the French monarchy

John France, Medieval France at war. A military history of the French monarchy

Diderot and the ideal of paternalistic monarchy. An enlightenment struggle against moral decay and for political harmony

ABSTRACT Since the 1990s, there has been a growing tendency to interpret Diderot as a radical who first put into question absolutism in the Encyclopédie and then became a fierce opponent of any kind of ‘despotism’, even the ‘enlightened’ one, and a fervent partisan of democratic revolutions in the 1770s. It is argued here that the narrative that cuts Diderot’s life into different phases obscures continuities in his political thought, and misrepresents partly the political vision he had in the 1770s. Diderot’s political thought may have been more coherent than usually acknowledged, and this coherence is to be found in his ideal of a paternalistic monarchy taking advice from its subjects and respecting their rights, that is the constitution of the realm. This idea is not to be mixed up with a democratic programme of government by the people, nor with the endorsement of political change via a revolution. Rather, when towards the end of his life Diderot lost hope that the constitutional order of the French monarchy would be respected, he both feared civil war and hoped that these tumults might bring about the regeneration of the French monarchy. This vision derived from a classical cyclic view of history.

Gouverneur Morris, France, and Republicanism in the Atlantic Space

Abstract: Exemplifying par excellence the American and exotic figure Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson had epitomized before him, Gouverneur Morris worked in France as the herald of enlightened republican principles. In 1789, when he arrived in Paris, Morris was thrilled to see that the French had begun their own revolution in the name of liberty. Moreover, as he lived among the nobility, the New Yorker criticized what represented to him the decaying monarchy's corrupt values and frivolity, which he contrasted with the morals and the aesthetics of simplicity of the United States. He thus appeared as the standard-bearer of an idyllic and idealized American identity and tried to translate these virtuous republican principles to the French. However, Morris is now remembered as an enemy of the French Revolution, a traitor to the republican cause, and an ally of the French monarchy. Unraveling why this former Patriot became the foe of the Revolution that claimed to be the heir of the American War for Independence could help us to see the variety of republican sentiments making the revolutionary Atlantic world.

Mazarin, l’art de gouvernerMazarin: Rome et Italie. I: Histoire

Cardinal Mazarin has attracted comparatively modest numbers of biographers over the last century. Initiative in the political transformation of France has been conceded to Richelieu, and Mazarin’s ministry can seem like a weak sequel whose main actions had been prefigured by his illustrious predecessor. This is compounded by the ambiguities of Mazarin’s rule: the disastrous collapse into the civil war of the Frondes; the stark contrast between Mazarin as servant of the absolute monarchy and the grotesquely self-enriching parvenu. It has proved difficult to cast the Italian adventurer as an adamantine, visionary stateman, and historians have preferred to focus on other personalities of the grand siècle. Yet if historians have placed Mazarin in Richelieu’s shadow, Mazarin himself had no doubt by 1647–48 that his services to the French monarchy considerably outweighed those of his predecessor and patron. Were the Frondes, which certainly dampened this mood of self-congratulation, a temporary glitch in the triumphalist emergence of absolute monarchy? Or did the compromises and concessions required to maintain Mazarin’s party during the years of civil war continue to determine policy, constrain political choices, and shape political culture down to 1661?

Iran and a French Empire of Trade, 1700–1808: The Other Persian Letters by Junko Thérèse Takeda

Reviewed by: Iran and a French Empire of Trade, 1700–1808: The Other Persian Letters by Junko Thérèse Takeda Susan Mokhberi Iran and a French Empire of Trade, 1700–1808: The Other Persian Letters. By junko thérèse takeda. Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2020. Recently scholars have turned their attention to the impact Asia, and especially Persia and the Ottoman Empire, made in France prior to Montesquieu's Persian Letters.1 Junko Takeda's timely book takes off from this point in the early eighteenth century arguing that Persia continued to make a strong impact in France, shaping economics, military technology, and politics from the pre-Revolutionary era to Napoleon. Takeda unearths a truly global Enlightenment era in which Frenchmen watched events in Persia and responded, revealing the commercial and intellectual intertwining of Asian and European Empires. Takeda's method advances the field of global history by taking a microhistorical approach. She relates accounts of unexpected characters including merchant-diplomats, former gambling-house Madams, Armenian envoys, and Enlightenment figures. The book uncovers how Persian and French relations advanced through the contributions of these various marginalized people from across the Mediterranean world, far from the halls of Versailles and revolutionary chambers. The diverse cast of figures negotiated treaties, dealt in arms and commercial exchange, and spread Enlightenment and Revolutionary ideas from Asia to France. Chapter one draws on Takeda's extensive knowledge of the commercial politics of Marseille, the subject of her first book. Here, she explores the rise of the Fabre family, a powerful merchant family in Marseille who had ties to Versailles. She explains how the French monarchy selected one of the Fabre family members, despite inadequate experience and more qualified candidates, to become the official envoy to the Safavid Shah in 1705. The French court "rewarded [End Page 149] loyalty over ingenuity, talent or even wealth," thereby leading to chaotic results. Chapter two traces the 1705 embassy of Jean-Baptiste Fabre to Persia and the woman who accompanied him, Marie Petit, a former Madam and woman of questionable repute. Her role in French-Persian relations was most famously laid out in the 1950s by historian Laurence Lockhart.2 The French sources, written by Petit's male opponents discredited her as a hindrance to politics and marked her as a symbol of disorder. Takeda teases out Marie Petit's voice and salvages her side of the story thereby raising Petit from a marginal, tarnished figure to a role of importance in international politics. Chapter three traces continued attempts to forge a treaty between France and Persia in the early eighteenth century. Individuals, including a rich Armenian merchant, spearheaded efforts to supply Persia with arms against the opponents that encircled the Safavid empire. Takeda highlights the personal tragedy and struggles such individuals underwent to shape international relations. For instance, the Armenian merchant was one of the wealthiest merchants in Yerevan when he embarked on his commercial and diplomatic quest to Europe. He became Persia's first consul to France but after surviving the plague in Marseille and thirteen years of difficulties, he died in Marseille in ruins. Chapter four connects Enlightenment ideas of Revolution to events in Asia. Montesquieu, Voltaire, and others wrote about the turbulent transformations in government across Asia. Takeda carefully unpacks this vast Enlightenment literature on the political convulsions that shook Persia. In tune with the recent translation of Jürgen Osterhammel's essay on the impact of Nadir Shah, the Persian eighteenth-century conqueror who took over the weakened Safavid dynasty and established a vast but short-lived Asian empire, Takeda shows how discussions of Nadir Shah's rise and fall shaped the French conversation about revolution and notions of violence and human rights.3 Taking into account the vast literature on Persian revolutions, [End Page 150] Takeda convincingly shows that the causes of the French Revolution included discussions stretching from Persia and beyond, and therefore more global than previously imagined. Chapter five spotlights the oft-forgotten personality, dubbed the "other" Rousseau, Jean-François Rousseau, the cousin of Jean Baptiste. Raised in Persia, Jean-François was an advocate of the French Revolution and one of...

Dangerous or Goodly Passions: The Role of Emotion in Parliament and Politics

Dangerous or Goodly Passions: The Role of Emotion in Parliament and Politics

The Problem of Elected Representation in France at the End of the Old Regime

The article deals with the interaction between the authorities and the society in France at the end of the Old Regime guided by two principles, authoritarian and representative. For a long time, the authorities assumed that the king should be represented before his subjects, but not vice versa. In practice, contrary trends were traced in the history of the French monarchy: the reinforcement of administrative methods of government and the professionalization of the state service, on the one hand, and attempts to rely on representative bodies, on the other. French “parlements” insistently claimed the role of institutions representing the nation before the king. In the 1770s — 1780s, after the Maupeou reform, the idea of the need for elected representation, like the Estates General and the provincial estates, spread in society. At the local level, reforms in this direction have been undertaken repeatedly. The convocation of an elected representative body at the national level seemed too dangerous, and the king was forced to agree to it only in conditions of an acute crisis, not being ready for a dialogue with his subjects.

Entre justice et administration: la cour des aides de Montauban contre l'intendant lors des crises de l'Ancien Régime français

The relations between the sovereign courts and the intendants contain a tormented and unsuccessful history, marked since the Grand Siècle by the difficult passage from the traditional jurisdictional management of the kingdom, considered inefficient, to an organisation that supports the triumph of the absolute and administrative monarchy. In these southern lands of the kingdom of France, torn apart by the Protestant reformation and the wars, the institutional upheaval which prepared the modern state and the Napoleonic granite masses, was carried out through strong embarrassments which opposed the intendant of the generality to the court of aids in Montauban. As soon as they were created, the magistrates of the jurisdictional company multiplied the manoeuvres against the intendant to safeguard their contentious attributions and the control of the municipal funds. Their particularistic actions were denounced by the intendant, who was there to make the king present everywhere in the kingdom and was zealous in his service. Since then, all the elements were in place for the outbreak of a noisy quarrel – the lawsuit against the intendant Gaspard Lescalopier – which worried the government at the turn of the reign of Louis XV, in the middle of the tax war in 1749, when King Louis XV, whom the subjects looked upon as a charming prince, became „Louis the Unloved”. These tumults prevented the modernisation of the French monarchy and led to the troubles of the Revolution.

The Invention of the Maghreb: Between Africa and the Middle East

The Invention of the Maghreb: Between Africa and the Middle East

Bir Fransız Elçisinin Çıraklık Dönemi: İstanbul Elçiliği Öncesinde Charles Gravier de Vergennes

Charles Gravier de Vergennes 18. yüzyılın en önemli Fransız diplomatlarından biridir. Diplomatik hayatının ilk basamaklarını, amcası Chavigny’nin yanında, conseiller d’ambassade (elçilik danışmanı) olarak yer aldığı Fransa’nın Lizbon ve Frankfurt elçilikleri oluşturmuştur. Vergennes, daha sonrasında Koblenz, Hannover ve Stockholm’e Fransa adına elçi olarak görevlendirilmiştir. Fransız monarşisinin savunucusu olması, yürüttüğü başarılı diplomasi faaliyetleri ve etrafında nüfuzlu dostlar barındırması gibi kazanımlar sonucu Fransa Kralı 16. Louis (1774-1792) tarafından Dışişleri Bakanı olarak görevlendirilmiştir. Vergennes, 1774 yılında atandığı bu görevi öldüğü 1787 yılına kadar sürdürmüştür. Ancien Régime’in son büyük bakanlarından olan Vergennes, mevcut İstanbul Elçisi Roland des Alleurs’ün ani ölümü üzerine de 1755 yılında İstanbul’a gönderilmiştir. On üç sene süren ve 3. Osman ve 3. Mustafa’nın hükümdarlığına denk gelen İstanbul elçiliğindeki görevi diplomatik hayatının önemli bir kısmını oluşturmaktadır. Öncesinde Avrupa’nın önemli merkezlerinde yürüttüğü diplomasi faaliyetlerinin ve edindiği tecrübelerin onun İstanbul elçiliğine seçilmesinde belirleyici olduğu açıktır. Bu çalışmada Vergennes’in amcası Chavigny’ye eşlik ettiği Lizbon ve Frankfurt görevleri sırasında Avrupa diplomasisine ve diplomatlık mesleğine dair öğrendikleri, dönemin siyasi olayları çerçevesinde değerlendirilmiştir. Ayrıca Vergennes’in çıraklık dönemi diyebileceğimiz süreci kapsayan bu görevleri esnasında üstlendiği mali konulardaki sorumluluklar, arabuluculuk faaliyetleri, Alman prenslerini Fransa lehinde etkilemek için yapılan maddi yardımların yürütücülüğü ve gizli fonların idaresi ve zaman zaman elçilik yazışmalarını yürütmesi onun danışmanlık görevinin ötesinde bir rolü olduğunu göstermektedir.

The Controversial Hispanic-French Alliance of 1627: Reasons and Objetives of the Relief Campaign

Even though in the second half of the 1620’s the relationship between the Hispanic Monarchy and France were damaged and the confrontation between them both threatened with the outbreak of war, in 1627 they put aside their differences and signed an agreement to help the French Monarchy against the English attack. This paper analyzes that controversial agreement, aiming to explain the reasons behind it, how it was developed and the consequences that it had between the two powers.

La política exterior de la Francia revolucionaria: una aproximación geopolítica desde el realismo neoclásico

The foreign policy of revolutionary France stands out due to its aggressiveness and expansionism. To explain France’s international behavior during the revolution, this article puts forward a geopolitical perspective rooted in neoclassical realism. It discusses the main contributions of this theory and clarifies factors of the second and first images that constitute the analytical framework for this study. Geopolitics provides the spatial perspective to analyze how external pressures shaped France’s domestic sphere in the organization of its internal space and the way they influenced its foreign policy. First, the article presents how the absolute French monarchy organized space and identifies the historical background of the revolution. Next, it deals with the role of the State elites’ perceptions of the international stage based on their experience and how they became aware of the need for critical changes in the domestic realm to successfully compete in the international realm. Finally, it approaches the most notable changes in the space organization implemented by the revolution and how they contributed to strengthening State’s national capabilities to develop an expansionist foreign policy.

Regency Possessed

During the French Fronde of 1648-52, the absolute monarchy of France came under attack both by weapons and by words. A relaxation in censorship laws during the four-year period of unrest led to the production of thousands of pamphlets, known as Mazarinades, which discussed the nature of the French monarchy and of power. Although most focussed on the Prime Minister, Cardinal Mazarin, a subset also considered the role of the Queen Dowager and Regent, Anne of Austria. Factions both for and against the monarchy expressed a fear of her public role in government: as a female ruler, they worried that Anne would be too passionate and gullible to be able to govern fairly. Pamphleteers presented her as a disordering figure, one who turned the natural social hierarchies of the early modern era upside down. To some, she was a puppet for Mazarin, who they believed seduced her; to others, by acting as regent she neglected her quintessentially feminine maternal roles. All agreed that Anne was unsuitable as regent. Using a variety of literary techniques, Mazarinade authors ultimately demanded that she resign, pleading with Anne to return to the private, domestic world of women.

«Рубин Бургундии» или «Сапфир Франции»: камень на утерянном портрете герцога Филиппа Смелого

In the late Middle Ages, particular precious stones (e.g. sapphires, rubies, emeralds, etc.) were endowed with a special symbolic meaning. For the political elite, the possession of large colored gemstones was considered a mark of status and sometimes an expression of political ambitions. In 1397, Duke of Burgundy Philip the Bold purchased a red gemstone and named it the “Ruby of Burgundy”. Researchers O. Pächt and J.-B. de Vaivre claim that this gemstone set into a pendant is depicted in the copies of the lost portrait of the Duke. However, the copies, including those closest to the lost original, depict the stone differently, either as a ruby or a sapphire. The pendant of Philip the Bold and the stone that adorned it are the subject of research in this work. The purpose of the study is to determine the political significance of the stone depicted in the original portrait, which requires establishing the color of the stone in the lost original portrait and revealing its symbolic meaning. The author concludes that it was the blue gemstone that the pendant in the original portrait was adorned with, presumably a sapphire, but not a “Ruby of Burgundy” and puts forward a hypothesis about the symbolic and political significance of this stone in the image of Philip the Bold. The author conditionally calls this stone the “Sapphire of France”, since in this case, it is considered a symbol of the French monarchy. Demonstrating this stone, the Duke appears in the portrait as a son of the king and the holder of royal power. In addition, there is a connection between the pendant of Philip the Bold and a similar sapphire pendant depicted in the portrait of his brother, Jean of Berry, and the sapphire pendant of King Richard II of England. Presumably, these pendants served as signs of a special political union. The illustrations accompanying this article include a drawing depicting Philip the Bold from the collection of the State Hermitage Museum, which is published for the first time.

Emma Claussen. Politics and ‘Politiques’ in Sixteenth-Century France: A Conceptual History.

In Politics and ‘Politiques’ in Sixteenth-Century France: A Conceptual History, Emma Claussen provides a detailed analysis of the shifting definitions of the term “politique,” as it was deployed as both an adjective and a noun in a range of published texts from the early sixteenth century to the conclusion of the Catholic League. Her stated ­­methodology is to examine published works that employ the term extensively and to treat it as a “keyword” that ­­underwent ­­continuous elaboration, ideological applications, and borrowing over the course of the century and ­­especially during the French Wars of Religion. This treatment of the term as a discursive construct rather than a description of a specific political stance in regard to the French monarchy and civil order is abetted by the claim that there was in fact no politique party in ­­sixteenth-century France nor any individuals who would have actively used the designation in...

Елементи інформаційно-психологічної війни у протистоянні короля Філіпа ІV і папи Боніфація VІІІ

The article is devoted to the conflict between King Philip IV of France and Pope Boniface VIII. We found out that the conflict between the French monarchy and the papal throne arose against the sociocultural background of the transition from the High to the Late Middle Ages and the evolution of the early feudal monarchy into a representative estate in France. It is noted that during this period the papacy significantly lowered its status as a pan-European spiritual and political center, and the theocratic tendencies of the pontiff’s power contradicted the process of forming national states. It is proved that social changes in the system of monarchical power had affected the strengthening of rational and pragmatic aspects of governance. The article emphasizes that the Legionnaires as the closest advisers to Philip IV enriched the arsenal of means of combating the Pope with information and psychological operations. It is shown that the Pope’s criticism and intimidation of the monarch caused the government of Philip IV to use falsifications, forgery of documents in order to permit the king to influence the consciousness of the masses in a nececessary way.