The World of the Favourite

by Edited by J. H. Elliott and L.W.B. Brockliss

• ISBN13: 9780300076448
• ISBN10: 0300076444
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 1999-07-11
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

Observers in England, Spain, France, and many other European states in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries grew increasingly alarmed by the growing influence of favourites, or minister-favourites. These individuals appeared to be usurping powers and duties normally exercised by monarchs. In this pioneering book, a team of international scholars considers the emergence of favourites in Europe. Probing beyond the well-known life stories of such individual favourites and minister-favourites as the Duke of Buckingham, Cardinal Richelieu, and the Count-Duke of Olivares, the contributors inquire into the phenomenon of these powerful figures. Was their appearance on the European scene a matter of chance? How is it to be explained? How did favourites win, and retain, their hold on power? What was their relationship to their royal masters? And why did monarchs increasingly choose to rule without favourites as the seventeenth century drew to a close? This book provides many new insights into the intriguing role of the favourite in Early Modern Europe.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
List of Contributors	xiii
Acknowledgements	xvi
Introduction	1	(12)
J. H. Elliott
PART ONE: THE EMERGENCE OF THE MINISTER-FAVOURITE
The Institutional Background to the Rise of the Minister-Favourite	13	(13)
I. A. A. Thompson
`Fortune Has Stripped You of Your Splendour': Favourites and their Fates in Fifteenth-and Sixteenth-Century Spain	26	(12)
James M. Boyden
`Absolute and Sovereign Mistress of her Grace'? Queen Elizabeth I and her Favourites, 1581-1592	38	(16)
Paul E. J. Hammer
Monopolizing Favour: Structures of Power in the Early Seventeenth-Century English Court	54	(17)
Linda Levy Peck
Between Mignons and Principal Ministers: Concini, 1610-1617	71	(10)
J.-F. Dubost
PART TWO: FAVOURITES IN OFFICE
Can a Bureaucrat Be a Favourite? Robert Cecil and the Strategies of Power	81	(15)
Pauline Croft
Corruption and Punishment? The Rise and Fall of MatthaUus Enzlin (1556-1613), Lawyer and Favourite	96	(16)
Ronald G. Asch
Staying in Power: The Count-Duke of Olivares	112	(11)
J. H. Elliott
Words and Wealth in the France of Richelieu and Mazarin	123	(18)
Orest Ranum
Favourite, Minister, Magnate: Power Strategies in the Polish---Lithuanian Commonwealth	141	(18)
Antoni Maczak
PART THREE: REPRESENTATIONS OF THE FAVOURITE
Favourites on the English Stage	159	(25)
Blair Worden
Francis Bacon: Your Flexible Friend	184	(21)
David Wootton
Images of Evil, Images of Kings: The Contrasting Faces of the Royal Favourite and the Prime Minister in Early Modern European Political Literature, c. 1580--c. 1650	205	(18)
Antonio Feros
`Peut-on Assez Louer Cet Excellent Ministre?' Imagery of the Favourite in England, France and Spain	223	(16)
Jonathan Brown
PART FOUR: THE TWILIGHT OF THE FAVOURITE
Nicolas Fouquet, the Favourite	239	(17)
Manque M. Fumaroli
The Demise of the Minister-Favourite, or a Political Model at Dusk: The Austrian Case	256	(13)
Jean Berenger
The Last Favourite? The Case of Griffenfeld: A Danish Perspective	269	(10)
Knud J. V. Jespersen
Concluding Remarks: The Anatomy of the Minister--Favourite	279	(31)
L. W. B. Brockliss
Index	310