Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theory in Early Modern Europe: From the Waldensians to the French Revolution

by Coward,Barry

• ISBN13: 9780754635642
• ISBN10: 0754635643
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-07-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Guy Fawkes and his gunpowder plot, the 'Man in the Iron Mask' and the 'Devils of Loudun' have offered some of the most compelling images of the early modern period. Conspiracies, real or imagined, were an essential feature of early modern life, offering a seemingly rational and convincing explanation for patterns of political and social behaviour. Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theory in Early Modern Europe examines conspiracies and conspiracy theories from an interdisciplinary perspective, by combining the theoretical approach of the history of ideas with specific examples from the period. Each contribution addresses a number of common themes through a series of original case studies, examining why certain groups were perceived in conspiratorial terms, and how far, if at all, these attitudes were challenged or redefined by the enlightenment.

Author Biography

Nigel Aston teaches at the University of Leicester Wolfgang Behringer is Professor of History at the Saarland University, Saarbrucken Dr Peter Campbell is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Sussex Stuart Carroll, Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of York Barry Coward is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London Colin Haydon is Reader in Early Modern History at King Alfred's College, Winchester Mark Knights teaches early modern history at the University of East Anglia Peter Lake is professor of history at Princeton University Marisa Linton is a senior lecturer at Kingston University Kate Lowe is Professor of Renaissance History at Goldsmiths College, University of London Dr Jason Peacey is Senior Research Fellow at the History of Parliament Trust, London Munro Price is Reader in Modern European History at Bradford University Penny Roberts is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Warwick Malina Stefanovska is professor of French and Francophone studies at U.C.L.A. Julian Swann is Lecturer in early modern European history at Birkbeck College, University of London

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	vii
List of Figures	x
Acknowledgements	xi
1 Introduction	1	(12)
Barry Coward and Julian Swann
2 Detecting the Ultimate Conspiracy, or how Waldensians became Witches	13	(22)
Wolfgang Behringer
3 Conspiracy and its Prosecution in Italy, 1500-1550: Violent Responses to Violent Solutions	35	(20)
Kate Lowe
4 Huguenot Conspiracies, Real and Imagined, in Sixteenth-Century France	55	(16)
Penny Roberts
5 Vengeance and Conspiracy during the French Wars of Religion	71	(16)
Stuart Carroll
6 The Monarchical Republic of Elizabeth I' Revisited (by its Victims) as a Conspiracy	87	(26)
Peter Lake
7 The Paranoid Prelate: Archbishop Laud and the Puritan Plot	113	(22)
Jason Peacey
8 The Closest Bond: Conspiracy in Seventeenth-Century French Tragedy	135	(18)
Malina Stefanovska
9 Faults on Both Sides: The Conspiracies of Party Politics under the Later Stuarts	153	(20)
Mark Knights
10 'Popery at St. James's': The Conspiracy Theses of William Payne, Thomas Hollis, and Lord George Gordon	173	(24)
Colin Haydon
11 Conspiracy and Political Practice from the ancien regime to the French Revolution	197	(16)
Peter Campbell
12 Burke and the Conspiratorial Origins of the French Revolution: Some Anglo-French Resemblances	213	(22)
Nigel Aston
13 'The Tartuffes of Patriotism': Fears of Conspiracy in the Political Language of Revolutionary Government, France 1793-1794	235	(20)
Marisa Linton
14 The 'Foreign Plot' and the French Revolution: A Reappraisal	255	(14)
Munro Price
Index	269