France Under Richelieu And Colbert - Softcover

John Henry Bridges

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0461438097 ISBN 13: 9780461438093

Publisher: HardPress, 2021

Synopsis

France Under Richelieu And Colbert by John Henry Bridges. This work presents a sequence of four Edinburgh lectures examining the rise of the French monarchy and its centralization from the late medieval era through Richelieu, Mazarin, Colbert, and Louis XIV. Bridges identifies two parallel Western-European movements: the destruction of the old Catholic-feudal order and the construction of a modern industrial and intellectual framework. The first lecture traces the formation of the French state, including demolition of feudal castles, the creation of intendants, and the subordination of aristocracy to a strong centralized power. The second lectures Mazarin and Colbert, detailing Mazarin’s diplomacy and the Fronde, Colbert’s fiscal and economic reforms, canal-building, and patronage of science and letters. The third covers France’s relations to Europe from Westphalia to Utrecht, highlighting a European balance of power and religious toleration as a means to peace. The fourth surveys seventeenth-century thought, from Kepler and Galileo to Descartes and Montesquieu, showing how science, philosophy, and poetry shaped politics. The volume also includes notes on French taxation by Boisguillebert and Vauban and a discussion of the German Empire.

Edition details

• Publisher: HardPress
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0461438097
• ISBN 13: 9780461438093
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 229