Provincial Power and Absolute Monarchy

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 Régime. 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.

List of illustrations; List of figures; List of appendices; List of map; Preface; List of abbreviations; Map: the duchy of Burgundy in the eighteenth century; 1. Historians, absolute monarchy and the provincial estates; 2. Ancien régime Burgundy; 3. The Estates General of Burgundy; 4. Nosseigneurs les élus and the officers of the Estates; 5. The provincial administration: authority and enforcement; 6. 'It's raining taxes': paying for the Sun King, 1661-1715; 7. Provincial administration in an age of iron, 1661-1715; 8. The limits of absolutism: crown, governor and the Estates in the eighteenth century; 9. Provincial rivalries: the Estates and the Parlement of Dijon in the eighteenth century; 10. Tax, borrow and lend: crown, Estates and finance, 1715-89; 11. An enlightened administration?; 12. The coming of the French revolution in Burgundy, 1787-9; Conclusion; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.