1st Edition

Power and Politics in Old Regime France, 1720-1745

By Peter Campbell Copyright 1996
    432 Pages
    by Routledge

    432 Pages
    by Routledge

    First Published in 2004. Power and Politics in Old Regime France is a major history of the politics of the first half of the reign of Louis XV. It is based on exhaustive archival research and offers the first comprehensive analysis of the neglected ministries of the duc de Bourbon and the cardinal de Fleury. Peter R. Campbell deals first with court, faction and policy. A second section offers new interpretations of the crises provoked by Jansenism and the Paris parlement. By contrasting the methods and practices of political management in this period of successful government with the crisis of the old regime in the 1780s, he illuminates the underlying character of politics in the old regime and raises new questions about its collapse. An unusually substantial bibliography represents an invaluable resource to the researcher.

    PREFACE The aims of this study; summary of the book. INTRODUCTION: APPROACHES TO POLITICS IN THEANCIEN REGIME Part 1 Politics in a court society 1 THE RISE TO POWER OF ANDRE-HERCULE DE FLEURY 2 THE ACQUISITION OF A MINISTERIAL POST, 1721–3 3 THE MINISTRY OF THE DUC DE BOURBON, 1723–6 4 THE DISGRACING OF BOURBON 5 THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE MINISTRY OF FLEURY 6 THE CONTROL OF PATRONAGE AND POLICY 7 THE POLITICS OF FACTION 8 CONCLUSION TO PART 1: THE POLITICAL CULTURE OF COURT SOCIETY Part 2 Jansenism, politics and the parlement of Paris INTRODUCTION 9 THE PARTI JANSENISTE IN THE 1720s AND 1730s 10 THE PARLEMENT OF PARIS 11 THE CRISIS OF 1730–2: THE GENESIS OF THE CRISIS 12 THE CRISIS OF 1730–2: RESOLVING THE CRISIS 13 MANAGING THE PARLEMENT: 1733–43 AND BEYOND 14 CONCLUSION

    Biography

    Dr. Peter R. Campbell is a Lecturer in History in the School of European Studies, University of Sussex. His other publications include The Ancien Régime in France (Oxford, 1988) and Louis XIV (London, 1993)Peter R. Campbell

    'Dr Peter Campbell is to be congratulated on a bold, important and learned work'Literary Review

    '[Peter Campbell] has given a valuable synthesis of recent work on seventeenth-century France' – Times Literary Supplement

    'Bulges with stimulating insights and bright ideas.' – French History

    'A rare snapshot of how high politics actually worked ... With this manual in hand the reader could survive at the court of Louis XV - and probably score.' – History Today