Society in Crisis: France in the Sixteenth Century PDF
Preview Society in Crisis: France in the Sixteenth Century
Society in Crisis France in the Sixteenth Century Society in Crisis France in the Sixteenth Century J. H. M. SALMON ERNEST BENN LIMITED LONDON AND TONBRIDGE First published 1975 fy Ernest Benn Limited 25 New Street Square, Fleet Street, London, EC4A 3JA & Sovereign Way, Tonbridge, Kent, TNg iRW Distributed in Canada by The General Publishing Company Limited, Toronto © J. H. M. Salmon 1975 Printed in Great Britain ISBN o 510-26351-8 TO MY MOTHER ELIZABETH MCARTHUR SALMON THIS book has been a long time in the writing and, oddly enough, it has grown shorter rather than longer as it has neared completion. In my endeavour to prepare a reasonably comprehensive social and in stitutional history of sixteenth-century France, I have often had to pause to undertake further research in areas where it seemed understanding was lacking. I was not alone in discerning these gaps. In many instances specialized monographs appeared, and I was able to replace the sometimes long-winded and tentative results of my own investigations with the more succinct and accurate conclusions others had reached. There has remained, however, a need to draw together a wide variety of particular studies. The disparate nature of modem French historical scholarship has not made this an easy task. Those who have been concerned with grain prices and population figures, with provincial folklore and the material conditions of life in the pre-industrial age, have occupied little common ground with those whose primary interests have been in constitutional reforms, political upheavals, and ideas about government and religion. The different priorities and time-scales used on the one hand by Fernand Braudel and some of the contributors to the journal Annales and, on the other, by con stitutional and social historians such as Roland Mousnier, have contributed to this variation in perspective. My conviction that it is possible to estab lish a working relationship between these various levels of historical under standing may have led me to oversimplify at times and to press theoretical interpretations too far. If I have done so, I can only plead in extenuation another conviction - that the importance of what happened to French society during the wars of religion has never been properly recognized. While saying this I would disclaim any pretension to writing ‘total history’. Dynastic diplomacy and political events occupy a minor place, and I have relied upon the chronology among the appendices to compensate for any lack of sequential coherence. Moreover, there is little or nothing in the pages that follow about music, art, and letters. This is not to deny the importance of these subjects; but, if I have been willing to attempt general izations that juxtapose economic, social, and political changes, I have drawn the line at encompassing aesthetic judgements under the same kind of rubric. 7 8 SOCIETY IN CRISIS Among my American colleagues I am particularly indebted to William Church, Natalie Davis, Julian Franklin, Ralph Giesey, Donald Kelley, Robert Kingdon, Russell Major, Orest Ranum, and Nancy Roelker. I have differed from their separate opinions on some issues, but they will recognize the extent to which I have learnt from them. I am grateful to my wife and others who helped to prepare the typescript, and to the students at Bryn Mawr College who have acted as a sounding-board for many of the ideas incorporated in this book. Finally, I should like to thank the American Philosophical Society and the American Council of Learned Societies for grants that enabled me to work in France. Bryn Mawr College j.h.m.s. Contents Preface y List of Maps and Graphs io List of Plates u Acknowledgements 12 i Introduction 13 PART ONE BEFORE THE RELIGIOUS WARS 2 The End of Feudalism 19 3 The Economy 27 I. Land and Population. 11. Inflation and the Seigneurie, in. Towns and Trade 4 Government in Church and State 59 I. Crown, Estates, and Council. 11. Judicature and Finance, in. The Church and Dissent 5 Sword and Gown 92 I. Old Traditions. 11. Newcomers PART TWO THE RELIGIOUS WARS 6 Calvinism and Society 1559-62 117 I. The Nobility. 11. The Urban Classes and the Peasantry 7 War and Reform 1562-67 146 I. The Campaign and the Peace. 11. L’Hôpital and the Administration 8 Crisis and Change in the Huguenot Movement 1567-74 168 I. Before the Massacre. 11. Saint Bartholomew and its Consequences 9 The Drift to Anarchy 1574-84 196 I. Politics, il. Economic and Social Problems. in. Institutional Reforms 9 10 SOCIETY IN CRISIS 10 The League 1584-94 234 I. The Aristocracy. 11. The Towns to 1589. in. The Towns to 1594 11 Peasant Revolts and Politique Solutions 276 I. The Croquants. 11. The Settlement 12 Conclusion: The New Society 3°9 Genealogical Charts 329 Valois-Angoulême. Bourbon-Vendôme. Montmorency. Guise-Lorraine Chronological Table 333 Glossary of Terms 343 Bibliography 353 Index 369 List of Maps and Graphs France before the Religious Wars 28 French Administration in the Later Sixteenth Century 69 The Huguenot Wars, 1562-76 I7I Price of Grains Sold in the Paris Markets, 1520-1620 224-5 The Wars with the League and Spain, 1577-98 256 The Area of the Croquants 283 Authorized Places of Reformed Worship and Surety under the Edict of Nantes 298 State Income, 1600-10 3*5
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