• Learning to Forget
• Clemency, Pardon, and Oubliance
• History without Passion: National Historiography in the Age of Oubliance
• Tragedy as History: From the Guisiade to Garnier
• From Emotion to Affect.

This book examines the impact of the royal politics of amnesia on tragedy and national historiography in France, 1560-1630. This study argues that the political and legislative process of forgetting internal differences, undertaken in France after the civil wars of the 16th century, leads to subtle yet fundamental shifts in the broader conception of the relationship between readers or spectators on the one hand, and the matter of history, on the other. These shifts, occasioned by the desire for communal reconciliation and generally associated with an increasingly modern sensibility, will nonetheless prove useful to the ideologies of cultural and political absolutism. By juxtaposing representations of the French civil war past as they appear (and frequently overlap) in historiography and tragedy from 1550 1630, Adrea Frisch tracks changes in the ways in which history and tragedy sought to 'move' readers throughout the period of the wars and in their wake. The book shows that a shift from a politically (and martially) active reading of the past to a primarily affective one follows the imperative, so clear and urgent at the turn of the seventeenth century, to put an end to violent conflict. The emotions that neoclassical tragedy and absolutist historiography sought to elicit were intended above all to be shared, and thus a medium via which political differences could be downplayed or forgotten. The book aims to illuminate some of the ways in which the experience of the wars of religion, as registered in tragedy and historiography, contributed to a restructuring of the ever vital relationship between emotion and politics, and thereby to historicize the very concept of 'esmouvoir'. Confronts historiography and tragedy in the era of the French Wars of Religion; it provides both close readings and a broad argument about the impact of the monarchical politics of reconciliation on conceptions of how history and tragedy should 'move' their audiences and offers a broad coverage of French authors and texts including 5 theatrical tragedies: Francois de Chantelouve's Tragedie de Coligny; Pierre Matthieu's Guisiade; Simon Belyard's Guysien; Claude Billard de Courgenai's La mort de Henri IV; and the anonymous Tragedie des rebelles, ou les noms sont feints.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1. Introduction. Authority and society in sixteenth-century Nantes
• 2. Setting the scene: the city and its people in the mid-sixteenth century
• 3. Challenges to authority: the development of Protestantism in Nantes 1558-1572
• 4. City governance in crisis: crown, Conseil and municipality in the early religious wars 1559-1574
• 5. Taxation, war and rebellion. Nantes and Henry III 1574-1589
• 6. The authority of tradition. Catholicism in Nantes 1560-1589
• 7. Nantes and the Catholic League rebellion 1589-1598
• 8. Conclusions. Authority and society in Nantes during the religious wars Bibliography
• .
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This study explores the theory and practice of authority during the later sixteenth century, in the religious culture and political institutions of the city of Nantes, where the religious wars traditionally came to an end with the great Edict of 1598. The Wars of Religion witnessed serious challenges to the authority of the last Valois kings of France. Through detailed examination of the municipal and ecclesiastical records of Nantes, the author considers challenges to authority, its renegotiation and reconstruction in the city during the civil war period. The book surveys the socio-economic structures of the city, details the growth of the Protestant church, assesses the impact of sectarian conflict and the early counter reform movement on the Catholic Church, and evaluates the changing political relations of the city council with the population and with the French crown. Finally, Tingle focuses on the Catholic League rebellion against the king and the question of why Nantes held out against Henry IV longer than any other French city. -- .
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1. Introduction. Authority and society in sixteenth-century Nantes
• 2. Setting the scene: the city and its people in the mid-sixteenth century
• 3. Challenges to authority: the development of Protestantism in Nantes 1558-1572
• 4. City governance in crisis: crown, Conseil and municipality in the early religious wars 1559-1574
• 5. Taxation, war and rebellion. Nantes and Henry III 1574-1589
• 6. The authority of tradition. Catholicism in Nantes 1560-1589
• 7. Nantes and the Catholic League rebellion 1589-1598
• 8. Conclusions. Authority and society in Nantes during the religious wars Bibliography
• .
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This study explores the theory and practice of authority during the later sixteenth century, in the religious culture and political institutions of the city of Nantes, where the religious wars traditionally came to an end with the great Edict of 1598. The Wars of Religion witnessed serious challenges to the authority of the last Valois kings of France. Through detailed examination of the municipal and ecclesiastical records of Nantes, the author considers challenges to authority, its renegotiation and reconstruction in the city during the civil war period. The book surveys the socio-economic structures of the city, details the growth of the Protestant church, assesses the impact of sectarian conflict and the early counter reform movement on the Catholic Church, and evaluates the changing political relations of the city council with the population and with the French crown. Finally, Tingle focuses on the Catholic League rebellion against the king and the question of why Nantes held out against Henry IV longer than any other French city. -- .
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• The Golden Age turns to iron : the small producers' revolt
• Bougeois Calvinism and aristocratic reaction
• The Huguenot Republic
• The commoners' revolt
• The Democratic League
• The Croquants' revolt
• Society of orders in crisis.

Heller refutes Roland Mousnier's thesis that early modern France was a society of orders in which most people knew and accepted their status in society. This concept of order certainly had meaning for the sixteenth-century elite because of aristocratic domination over land and people, but it is not clear that this was also the view of the commoners. Heller maintains that for peasants, craftsmen, and merchants the decline of the French economy started at the beginning rather than the middle of the sixteenth century. This resulted in unrest which spread from town to countryside, culminating in the three great popular movements of the civil wars: the Calvinist Revolt of the 1560s, the Catholic League's challenge to the power of the Monarchy, and the revolts of the 1590s. Heller stresses that the history of sixteenth-century France is one of both resistance and domination. It was often the upper class which took the initiative, directing much of the violence toward the commoners, and many of those involved in the civil wars were fighting for their own economic positions. Iron and Blood helps to clarify the significance of the French Civil Wars by showing them to be rooted in an aristocratic reaction against the earlier social unrest which began among the common people.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Hailed as "entertaining" and "nuanced" by The Economist, Martyrs and Murderers tells the story of three generations of treacherous, bloodthirsty power-brokers. One of the richest and most powerful families in sixteenth-century France, the House of Guise played a pivotal role in the history of Europe. Among the staunchest opponents of the Reformation, they whipped up religious bigotry throughout France. They overthrew the king, ruled Scotland for nearly 20 years through Mary Queen of Scots, plotted to invade England and overthrow Elizabeth I, and ended the century by unleashing the bloody Wars of Religion, before succumbing in a counter-revolution that made them martyrs for the Catholic cause. The history of the Guise family is sensational but true. Though parts of the story are familiar--such as their crucial role in the murder of 4,000 Protestants in the infamous Massacre of Saint Bartholomew--the full scope of their influence has never before been told. Stuart Carroll unravels the legends about this cultivated, charismatic, and violent dynasty, and challenges traditional assumptions about one of Europe's most turbulent eras.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction: Rumors of war--
• 1. The campaigns of the army, 1562-76--
• 2. The camp and the army of the King--
• 3. The army in the field--
• 4. 'The footmen of the King'--
• 5. The gendarmes--
• 6. The artillery train--
• 7. In search of a battle: Dreux, 1562--
• 8. The defence of Chartres, 1567-68--
• 9. A host of strangers: the army's presence--
• 10. The destruction of the army: the siege of La Rochelle, 1573--
• 11. Paying for war-- Conclusion: the limits to action.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Historians have long ignored the military aspect of the wars of religion which raged in France during the late sixteenth century, dismissing the conflicts as aimless or hopelessly confused. In contrast, this meticulously researched analysis of the royal army and its operations during the early civil wars brings warfare back to the centre of the picture. James B. Wood explains the reasons for the initial failure of the monarchy to defeat the Huguenots, and examines how that failure prolonged the conflict. He argues that the nature and outcome of the civil wars can only be explained by the fusion of religious rebellion and incomplete military revolution. This study makes an important contribution to the history of military forces, warfare and society, and will be of great interest to those engaged in the debate over the 'Military Revolution' in early modern Europe.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)