Mark Potter
Ashgate
Hardback
228
2003
Corps and Clienteles offers a unique approach to the history of absolutism in France by focusing on the intersection between institutions and personal relationships surrounding Louis XIV's final two wars. Arguing that Louis appealed to the elite for financial support to wage war it demonstrates how he stabilised many of the structures on which the elite stood entrenched elements of privilege throughout the political landscape and devolved power to provincial institutions. The politics of war finance in the last twenty five years of Louis's reign thus profoundly impacted the direction in which absolutism developed through the remainder of the Old Regime.
Ashgate
Hardback
228
2003
Corps and Clienteles offers a unique approach to the history of absolutism in France by focusing on the intersection between institutions and personal relationships surrounding Louis XIV's final two wars. Arguing that Louis appealed to the elite for financial support to wage war it demonstrates how he stabilised many of the structures on which the elite stood entrenched elements of privilege throughout the political landscape and devolved power to provincial institutions. The politics of war finance in the last twenty five years of Louis's reign thus profoundly impacted the direction in which absolutism developed through the remainder of the Old Regime.