State-Building in Early Modern France: The Role of Royal Officialdom

1983 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph E. Giesey
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
State Building ◽  
Early Modern France ◽  
Modern France

Human intentionality in the functionalist theory of social change: the role of French provincial intendants in state-society differentiation

2005 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Clark
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Historical Evolution ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Early Modern France ◽  
Human Intentionality ◽  
Modern France ◽  
State And Society ◽  
Functionalist Theory

This paper seeks to assess the validity, in a particular historical case, of two ways of thinking in functionalist literature about the role of human intentionality in social change. It does so by means of an analysis of the contribution of French provincial intendants of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to the differentiation of state and society. It is argued that if functionalists are to build a theory of social change it is necessary that they deal more directly with the question of human intentionality. Four historical views, each positing a different relationship between intentionality and the evolution of the state in Early Modern France, are outlined as different approaches to understanding the establishment of the institution of intendants and the part they played in state-society differentiation. The historical evolution of French intendants is traced and 1066 actions by intendants and the French crown during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are analysed to determine the extent to which intendants contributed to state-society differentiation and whether they and the crown did so intentionally.

Response to Henry Heller’s ‘The Longue Durée of the French Bourgeoisie’

2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Beik
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Class Conflict ◽  
Early Modern France ◽  
Modern France ◽  
Longue Duree ◽  
Longue Durée

Beik criticises Heller’s mechanical view of the dynamic role of the bourgeoisie in the rise of capitalism in early-modern France. While they agree that the primary class-conflict was between the nobility and the peasantry, Beik stresses the slow emergence of genuine capitalist social relations and the cooptation of the bourgeoisie by a monarchical state which was still propping up the feudal regime, whereas Heller views mercantile activity and production increases as evidence of rising capitalism.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Marie Seong-Hak Kim
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Social Life ◽  
The State ◽  
Early Modern France ◽  
Modern France ◽  
History Of ◽  
Proper Subject ◽  
Cultural Turn

Historiography of early modern France has of late taken a definite social and cultural turn as scholars shied away from political and intellectual history. While the value of illuminating social life and practices is undisputable, examination of the sources of law, including legal texts and juristic writings, and of the role of the political authorities in creating the state legal hierarchy is indispensable before a theorization of interaction between law and society can be envisaged. How the legal system comprising various sources of law in early modern France functioned to meet the changing needs of society and also the growing institutional demands of the state presents an important question to historians and jurists alike. History of custom as law articulates the concept of custom and its relationship to royal sovereignty and provides a clear path to our understanding of the absolute monarchy. Literature on custom is now large enough that the literature itself is a proper subject of research.

The Music Room in Early Modern France and Italy

2012 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Major Theme ◽  
Early Modern France ◽  
Music Printing ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Social Scale ◽  
The Social ◽  
Modern France ◽  
Family Recreation

This book investigates the use of secular space for music-making in Early Modern France and Italy. This era is remarkable for the growing importance of music in domestic life, ranging from elaborate court festivities to family recreation. In parallel with the emergence of the theatre as a separate building type, music-making in elite circles became more specialised through the employment of paid musicians, as opposed to amateur participation by the inhabitants and their guests. Meanwhile, however, music printing and the mass-production of instruments, especially lutes, allowed music-making to diffuse down the social scale. The book shows how spaces specifically designed for music began to appear in private dwellings, while existing rooms became adapted for the purpose. At first, the number of rooms specifically identifiable as ‘music rooms’ was very small, but gradually, over the following 150 years, specialised music rooms began to appear in larger residences in both France and Italy. A major theme of the book is the relationship between the size and purpose of the room and the kinds of music performed – depending on the size, portability and loudness of different instruments; the types of music suited to spaces of different dimensions; the role of music in dancing and banqueting; and the positions of players and listeners. Musical instruments were often elaborately decorated to become works of art in their own right.

Hearing King David in Early Modern France: Politics, Prayer, and Louis XIII's Musique de la Chambre

2016 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-109
Author(s):  
Peter Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Louis Xiv ◽  
Early Modern France ◽  
Musical Settings ◽  
King David ◽  
The Public ◽  
Modern France ◽  
The Voice

Scholars of Louis XIV have long recognized the “representational” strategy employed by the composers of the Chapelle Royale (and those who designed its liturgy), in which the words of the psalms (the work of poet-musician King David) allied to an elaborate musical setting (the grand motet) attested to the king's strength and power in both spiritual and temporal domains. By contrast, in the absence of a comparable repertory inspired by the psalms from an earlier period, the role of King David at the court of Louis XIII has received almost no attention. Yet, as this article shows, the biblical king did indeed play a central role at the court of Louis XIII, albeit in unexpected ways. The “public” voice of David—the voice of a warrior who defeated his enemies—spoke outside the confines of the court in orations, pamphlets, and psalm paraphrases (with simple musical settings), celebrating, in particular, the king's victory over the Huguenots at La Rochelle in 1628. On the other hand, study of the psalm-texted works composed for Louis XIII's Musique de la Chambre (recently identified in Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS Vma rés. 571) reveals a “private” voice, a voice that reflected Louis's anxiety and penitence in the years around 1620 and that was heard only by the king's closest allies at court. By contextualizing this “private” voice it is also possible to account for the rise of the Domine salvum fac regem, a musical genre that originated in the same circumstances, and to suggest that Louis XIII and Louis XIV in fact had a common interest in David as supplicant.

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