The Most Christian King's Crown during the French Wars of Religion: Traditions, Debates, and Discrepancies (original) (raw)
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The Wars of Religion in France, 1559-1598: A History in Documents
2021
This book is designed as an addition to my earlier book, published in 1997, The French wars of Religion: Selected Documents. It provides contextual and explanatory material and seeks to allow students to study the Wars of Religion in greater depth. There is an introduction in the nature of the sources for the period. It was written in 2004.
Reason of state, religious passions, and the French Wars of Religion
2009
Review article of: Governing passions: peace and reform in the French kingdom, 1576–1585. By Mark Greengrass. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Pp. xiv+423. ISBN 978-0-19-921490. £65.00. Le haut cœur de Catherine de Médicis: une raison politique aux temps de la Saint-Barthémy. By Denis Crouzet. Paris: Albin Michel, 2005. Pp. 637. ISBN 2-226-15882-0. €29.00. Le Parlement de Paris ou la voix de la raison (1559–1589). By Sylvie Daubresse. Geneva: Droz, 2005. Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance, 398. Pp. xv+558. ISBN 2-600-00988-4. €115.37. Les ducs de Nevers et l'état royal: genèse d'un compromise (ca 1550–ca 1600). By Ariane Boltanski. Geneva: Droz, 2006. Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance, 419. Pp. 580. ISBN 2-600-01022-X. €94.88. Thuanus: the making of Jacques-Auguste de Thou (1553–1617). By Ingrid de Smet. Geneva: Droz, 2006. Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance, 418. Pp. 344. ISBN 2-600-01071-8. €88.04. Authority and society in Nantes during the French Wars of Religion, 1559–1598. By Elizabeth Tingle. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006. Pp. x+230. ISBN 0-7190-6726-X. £55.00. Local politics in the French Wars of Religion: the towns of Champagne, the Duc de Guise and the Catholic League, 1560–1595. By Mark Konnert. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006. Pp. ix+300. ISBN 0-7546-5593-8. £60.00. Histoire de Sébastien Le Pelletier (1579–1592). By Xavier Le Person. Geneva: Droz, 2006. Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance, 407. Pp. 336. ISBN 2-600-01064-5. €110.19.
French History, 2014
The purpose of this article is to analyse works connected to the death of Charles IX Valois. In particular, we will focus on the image of the blood of the dead king. Analysis of Charles’ autopsy, as well as the account of the court intrigue characterizing the last months of his life, provides the context in which this flow of propaganda took place. Catholic sources, especially funeral sermons by court preacher Arnaud Sorbin, cast light on the image of the blood of Charles IX as the blood of a ‘saint’ and a ‘martyr’ king. We will also show how Sorbin’s sermons related to Henri III’s succession to the throne given the tense situation at court. Finally, analysis of Reformed sources, both contemporary to Charles’ death and later, outline how Calvinists tried to dishonour the ‘tyrant’ through references to his blood and by characterizing his death as divine justice.
2006
Historians regard Louis IX of France, canonized by the papacy in 1297, as a religious king. Some historians present this religiosity as constant throughout his life, despite the fact that the source materials indicate changes after certain traumatic events: his near death from illness at Pontoise in 1244, the devastation during and after the Battle of Mansurah in 1250, and several incidents that almost sank his ship during the return journey to France in 1254. By mapping his expressions of religiosity before and after these traumatic events, we can see changes in the king’s behaviors. Because the king turned to his faith after each incident and adopted new mannerisms to show his love for his God, we can determine that he used his religious faith to determine how he interacted with the world. The changes he made were often extreme. In 1244, he decided he needed to show more religiosity, and became a crusader. When he failed as a crusader in 1250, believing that it was because of his sins and those of the other crusaders, he determined that his level of religiosity was insufficient, and became penitent. With the return journey in 1254, he faced death three more times, and resolved to increase his level of penitence. From this, we can deduce that Louis enacted various reforms after his return to France as part of this enhanced atonement. With these reforms, the king attempted to end administrative abuses; to render justice by making parlement more available, and by evening the scales between rich and poor, as well as between native and foreigner; to stamp out vices, such as prostitution, gambling, blasphemy and usury, throughout the kingdom; and to abolish the use of Moslem coinage in the French realm by issuing a new gold coin, the gros. These changes were not popular among all of his subjects, something that is occasionally acknowledged by his hagiographers. Louis’ objective, though, was to ensure his eternal salvation through that of his subjects’.
The Uses of Heterodoxy: The French Monarchy and Unbelief in the Thirteenth Century
French Historical Studies, 1965
To the modem reader, schooled in the civil libertarian principles of John Stuart Mill, one of the most repugnant passages in the otherwise delightful History of Saint Louis by the Sire de Joinville is the passage in which Saint Louis discourses upon the defence of the faith. According to the King of France, it was hopeless to argue with nonbelievers. Only one recourse lay open to the God-fearing layman, and that was to defend his religion, not with words, but with a good cutting sword, until the opponent was able to argue no longer.' This passage has been considered typical of the policy of thirteenth-century French rulers. The French kings have been seen fighting the Albigensians, defending the faith in the Holy Land, and finally, executing the disasterous Crusade to Aragon in close league with the Papacy. A frequently quoted fact is that three successive French kings died on crusades in the thirteenth century. But this is only one side of the coin. Little noted by historians is the fact that the French monarchy in several cases actually posed as a defender of unbelief. This circumstance at first sight seems paradoxical, but on closer inspection it appears that the curious role of the French monarch as protector of heretics casts an interesting light on the methods of the Capetians in the development of royal hegemony. An interesting example is the case of the Amaurians of Paris.2 The members of the Amaurian heresy, unearthed in 1Jean,
The Power of Kings: Monarchy and Religion in Europe, 1589-1715
The American Historical Review, 2000
The series in which these two volumes appear is concerned with the liturgical traditions of Judaism and Christianity, as sister (or mother and daughter) religions. Within the two religions, Passover and Easter constitute the most important festivals of the year, and are inextricably linked. The scope which this provides accounts for two volumes-the first concerned with origins and history, and the second with symbolic structuring. In the first volume, the two series editors both provide introductions. Paul Bradshaw stresses the importance of distinguishing between the unitive, rememorative and representational aspects of the development of Holy Week. Lawrence Hoffman provides an introduction which is concerned with Passover and the place of the Haggadah. The early literature has plenty on meals, but little about public prayer. It has been assumed that the Seder was a symposium meal for which the Haggadah as a liturgical script was developed. In fact, Hoffman notes, the Haggadah was oral in origin, and originally came after the meal as a post-prandial discussion. In the course of time it came to be a canonised text placed before the meal. The cultural setting of Passover (and for that matter, the Lord's Supper) is set by Blake Leyerle, with an essay on the meal customs of the Greco-Roman world, since meals had encoded social messages about different degrees of hierarchy, inclusion and exclusion, boundaries and transactions across boundaries. The evidence reveals (as might be expected) a variety of customs between east and west, public and private, and social class. Joseph Tabory investigates the history of the Passover Seder from the Mishnah to the medieval period. It reveals a change from a sacrificial meal, in which the food was the main event of the evening, into a meal with discussion of the symbolism of the meal, to the food being purely symbolic and eaten in symbolic quantities. Paul Bradshaw turns to the origin of Easter, suggesting that the Quartodeciman custom, far from being an aberration, is earlier than the Sunday celebration of the feast. Given his own warnings elsewhere against positing a single origin, the safer ground might be to posit dual origins in different geographical locations from very early days. This essay is an instructive overview, noting the development of a Pascha to Paschein, ' Hitler, Adolf, and Catholic Church ' ; ' Holocaust and the papacy ' ; ' Nazi Germany and the Vatican ' ; ' Nazi racialism and the Vatican ' ; and ' World War II and the papacy '. Not surprisingly, Italy is particularly well served, but the material is scattered, and there is no heading on Italy (or France or Portugal for that matter) either in the main work or in the index. Without guidance, I wonder if readers will find such articles as those on the ' Miguelite War and papacy ', ' Ralliement ', or ' Vichy France and the Vatican ', or look for information about the Law of Guarantees under ' Papal guarantees, the Law of, '. Apart from entries on every pope, antipope and council regarded by Roman Catholics as oecumenical, the criteria for the selection of articles is unclear. There is nearly two pages on the ' Sword and Hat, Blessed ', but nothing on the papal tiara, for instance, and among religious orders only the Congregation of the Mission, the Franciscans, and the Society of Jesus have articles, the last with another entry on its abolition in . Something has gone wrong under Anastasius ; it was Clement (not Clement ) who canonised Rose of Lima ; the Noble and Palatine Guards (described in the present tense under ' Vatican City ') were disbanded in ; and it seems more likely that Martin 's life was spared