The French Royal State, 1460-1610

In this second volume of the History of France series, Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie provides an account of the early modern period. Readers will discover a compelling narrative combined with a broad analysis of events and wider comparisons with European history.After the traumas of the Black Death and the Hundred Years War, relative social and economic stability provided a backdrop for the splendors of France’s great Renaissance Prince, Francois I, and then for the tensions and bloodshed of later sixteenth-century France. The Wars of Religion were not simply a religious conflict between Catholics and Protestant Huguenots, but encapsulated other tensions - between, for example, decentralized, representative government and the much more autocratic monarchical government which ultimately prevailed. The period also saw the development of many features which became hallmarks of French government. Above all, the two poles of proto-absolutism and Huguenot theories of legitimate resistance carried with them the germs of much greater future conflict, which were eventually to culminate in the French Revolution. Extensively illustrated and containing helpful figures, this outstanding book will be of wide interest to specialists and general readers alike.