A generation ago a new view of French absolutism became the accepted orthodoxy. According to this view, the king ruled by collaborating with socially powerful elites — at court, in Paris and in the provinces. Government was characterized by compromise, negotiation, and sharing of resources in a manner which maintained and supported hierarchical differences. This approach replaced an older formulation dating all the way back to Alexis de Tocqueville, according to which the Bourbon monarchs had laid the foundations for the modern state by reducing the nobility to obedience and beginning a process of national uniWcation. The dominant paradigm thus shifted from a centralizing, modernizing monarch to a king maintaining and defending a traditional society. While the social, collaborative model still prevails, cracks are appearing in this ediWce. Most recent studies are questioning aspects of the interpretation, and one recent author, John Hurt, even calls for a more drastic shift of focus: ‘Few historians today believe that there was anything very “absolute” about what was once reXexively called the absolute monarchy’, he complains, and goes on to state, ‘I do think that we have pushed the revisionist thesis beyond its appropriate limits, possibly because we have given up looking for evidence that contradicts it’.1 Clearly the time has come for a reassessment of the evidence, and a number of important new studies provide the occasion. The traditional view was grounded in the authoritative French works of Georges Pagès and Roland Mousnier, and in a

The Absolutism of Louis XIV as Social Collaboration

This is the first book in English to study the history of the Estates General of Burgundy during the classic period of absolute monarchy. Although not a representative institution in any modern sense, the Estates were constantly engaged in a process of bargaining with the French crown, and this book examines that relationship under the Ancien Regime. Julian Swann analyses the organization, membership and powers of the Estates and explores their administration, their struggles for power with rival institutions and their relationship with the crown and with the Burgundian people. The Estates proved remarkably resilient when confronted by the challenges posed by the Bourbon monarchy, and by the reign of Louis XVI they were seemingly more powerful than ever. However the desire to protect their privileges and to extend their authority had not been accompanied by an attempt to forge a meaningful relationship with the people they claimed to serve.
(Description taken from publisher's website: http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521827676)

Provincial Power and Absolute Monarchy: The Estates General of Burgundy, 1661–1790

According to the sixteenth-century antiquarian, Pierre de Saint-Julien, the Estates General of Burgundy had originated with the Gauls as a meeting of druids, soldiers and plebeians. The three estates of his own time were allegedly descended from these distant ancestors, but, however fanciful his theories, it is true that the precise origins of the institution are obscure. The first authenticated meetings of an assembly of clergy, nobility and third estate took place during the reign of Philippe le Hardi in the mid-fourteenth century. Thereafter they gradually settled into a pattern of regular meetings called to vote the taxes required to fund the ambitious political and cultural policies of the Valois dukes. When catastrophe struck at the battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477, with the death of Charles le Temeraire, the last of the line, Louis XI seized the duchy of Burgundy. In an effort to win the affection of his reluctant new subjects, the French king recognised their rights and privileges, including the principle that no tax could be levied in the province without the consent of the Estates. Here was the basis of what would become known as the Burgundian constitution, and the Estates would remain central to the relationship between the crown and the province until 1789. It is true that during the troubled years of the Wars of Religion the province followed its governor, Charles de Lorraine, duc de Mayenne, and was a bastion of the Catholic league.

Provincial Power and Absolute Monarchy: The Estates General of Burgundy

Adamowicz, E. “Etat Present: The Livre d’Artiste in TwentiethCentury France.” French Studies 63 (2009): 189–98. Alexandre, Alain. “Sur les rives du Cailly, la filature de coton Levavasseur.” Etudes normandes, 2009, no. 2: 5–10. Aprile, Sylvie. “Faire l’histoire de l’immigration en region Centre: Un debut.” Hommes et migrations, no. 1278 (2009): 128–41. Armatte, Michel. “A History of Econometrics in France.” European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 16 (2009): 384–89. Arnold, A. James. “Cesaire Is Dead: Long Live Cesaire! Recuperations and Reparations.” French Politics, Culture and Society 27, no. 3 (2009): 9–18. Baglione, Gabrielle. “CharlesAlexandre Lesueur, dessins du proche et du lointain: La collection graphique du Museum d’Histoire Naturelle du Havre.” Etudes normandes, 2009, no. 2: 51–62. Barby, Francois. “Des noms de famille aux noms de quartiers.” Marseille, no. 224 (2009): 86–90. Barou, Jacques. “Histoire de l’immigration en Auvergne: Histoires des immigrations panorama regional.” Hommes et migrations, no. 1278 (2009): 166–73. BasilienGainche, MarieLaure. “Le juge communautaire et la loi nationale: Reflexions sur l’affaire Burbaud.” Parlement(s): Revue d’histoire politique, no. 11 (2009): 67–79. Becchia, Alain. “Les teinturiers d’Elbeuf aux XVIIIe–XIXe siecles: Soustraitants ou patrons independants?” Etudes normandes, 2009, no. 2: 35–50. Becker, JeanJacques. “Les consequences des traites de paix.” Revue historique des armees, no. 254 (2009): 3–8. Beland, Daniel. “Back to Bourgeois? French Social Policy and the Idea of Solidarity.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 29 (2009): 445–56. Belhoste, JeanFrancois. “La filature Levavasseur a FontaineGuerard: Un monument du patrimoine industriel en quete d’avenir.” Etudes normandes, 2009, no. 2: 11–18. Bellow, J. “Fashioning Cleopatre: Sonia Delaunay’s New Woman.” Art Journal 68, no. 2 (2009): 6–25. Berenson, Edward. “Les historiens americains et l’histoire culturelle francaise.” Romantisme, no. 143 (2009): 31–39. Bezes, Philippe. “Les rationalites politiques dans la reforme de l’Etat: Le cas de la Ve Republique.” Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine 56, suppl. (2009): 54–74. Billion, Pierre. “PoitouCharentes: Histoire et memoires des immigrations.” Hommes et migrations, no. 1278 (2009): 142–53. Bokobza, S. “Liberty versus Equality: The Marquis de La Fayette and France.” French Review 83 (2009): 114–31.

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Absentee Government and Provincial Governors in Early Modern France: The Princes of Conde and Burgundy, 1660-1720