Provincial Power and Absolute Monarchy: The Estates General of Burgundy, 1661–1790

by Julian Swann

• ISBN13: 9780521036672
• ISBN10: 0521036674
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-12-03
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This is the first book in English to study the history of the Estates General of Burgundy during the classic period of absolute monarchy. Although not a representative institution in any modern sense, the Estates were constantly engaged in a process of bargaining with the French crown, and this book examines that relationship under the Ancien Règime. Julian Swann analyses the organization, membership and powers of the Estates and explores their administration, their struggles for power with rival institutions and their relationship with the crown and with the Burgundian people. The Estates proved remarkably resilient when confronted by the challenges posed by the Bourbon monarchy, and by the reign of Louis XVI they were seemingly more powerful than ever. However the desire to protect their privileges and to extend their authority had not been accompanied by an attempt to forge a meaningful relationship with the people they claimed to serve.

Author Biography

Julian Swann is Lecturer in Early Modern European History at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	p. ix
List of figures	p. x
List of appendices	p. xi
List of map	p. xii
Preface	p. xiii
List of abbreviations	p. xv
Map: The duchy of Burgundy in the eighteenth century	p. xvi
Historians, absolute monarchy and the provincial estates	p. 1
Ancien regime Burgundy	p. 26
The Estates General of Burgundy	p. 41
Nosseigneurs les elus and the officers of the Estates	p. 91
The provincial administration: authority and enforcement	p. 126
'It's raining taxes'. Paying for the Sun King, 1661-1715	p. 154
Provincial administration in an age of iron, 1661-1715	p. 194
The limits of absolutism: crown, governor and the Estates in the eighteenth century	p. 230
Provincial rivalries: the Estates and the Parlement of Dijon in the eighteenth century	p. 262
Tax, borrow and lend: crown, Estates and finance, 1715-1789	p. 295
An enlightened administration?	p. 330
The coming of the French revolution in Burgundy, 1787-1789	p. 365
Conclusion	p. 400
Appendices	p. 413
Bibliography	p. 430
Index	p. 447
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