Instituer la toute-puissance ? Les rapports d’autorité dans la France d’Ancien Régime
This paper proposes to explore power mechanisms in the early modern French monarchy, through the relations induced by the disputes for precedence. Tensions were manifold between subjects who considered ranks as inheritances and were intent on preserving their pre-eminences, and a monarchy which was...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | fra |
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ENS Éditions
2009-10-01
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| Series: | Tracés |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/traces/4188 |
| Summary: | This paper proposes to explore power mechanisms in the early modern French monarchy, through the relations induced by the disputes for precedence. Tensions were manifold between subjects who considered ranks as inheritances and were intent on preserving their pre-eminences, and a monarchy which was careful to keep control of the political order (which rested on the allotment of places during ceremonies). These tensions simultaneously favoured and restrained the expression of a monarchical all-mightiness. This ostensible contradiction actually created spaces of negotiation and conflict, which the monarchy knew perfectly well how to use in order to impose its authority, while at the same time respecting the rules governing the hierarchical organisation of society. The necessity to appeal to the king to arbitrate quarrels put him in a position where he could intervene with his sovereign power and thereby impose his all-mightiness. The constant interplay between the constraints imposed by a balance of powers and the acknowledgment of its legitimacy on the one hand and, on the other hand, the requirement of a higher authority to maintain order, enabled the king to establish his all-mightiness. This notion of a monarchical all-mightiness became a powerful political instrument, even when it was not exercised. |
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| ISSN: | 1763-0061 1963-1812 |