Syllabus

N.B.: Additional required readings (marked with an “**”) are available on 2-hour reserve at the library. Some readings are also available online. Links are provided in the schedule of readings. Readings marked “##” are available on-line at: http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/sd.htm

 

Tues. Jan. 24th: Introduction

I.) Renaissance France (c. 1475-1559)

Thurs. Jan. 26th: French Society After the Hundred Years’ War
Reading: Frederic J. Baumgartner, Sixteenth-Century France, 9-19 & 33-113.

Tues. Jan. 31st: The “Renaissance Monarchy”
Readings: J. Russell Major, From Renaissance Monarchy, 23-106.
Claude de Seyssel, The Monarchy of France, 31-106**

Thurs. Feb. 2nd: Society and Culture in Renaissance France
Reading: Baumgartner, Sixteenth-Century France, 117-207.

II.) The Wars of Religion (1562-98)

Tues. Feb 7th: From Crisis to Civil War(s)
Readings: Mack P. Holt, The French Wars of Religion, 7-75
Barbara Diefendorf, Beneath the Cross, 28-48 & 107-26**
“Documents on the Wars of Religion,” Set #1**

Thurs. Feb. 9th: Popular Piety & Religious Violence
Readings: Diefendorf, Beneath the Cross, 49-63 & 145-75**
Natalie Zemon Davis, “The Rites of Violence” in Society and Culture in Early Modern France** [on reserve for HUM 210] (Also on-line: click here) [password req.]

 

**** Fri. Feb. 10th: FIRST PAPER DUE @ 5pm ****

 

Tues. Feb. 14th: The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre & Huguenot Resistance Theory
Readings: Holt, French Wars of Religion, 76-122
François Hotman, “Francogallia” & Philippe Duplessis-Mornay, “Vindicae Contra Tyrannos” in Julian H. Franklin, ed., Constitutionalism & Resistance in the Sixteenth Century, 48-96 & 138-199**

Thurs. Feb. 16th: The Catholic League and the Three Henrys.
Readings: Holt, French Wars of Religion, 123-55.
“Documents on the Wars of Religion,” Set #2**
Pierre de l’Estoile, The Paris of Henry of Navarre, 145-85**

III.) (Re)-establishing Royal Sovereignty: Henri IV, Louis XIII & Cardinal Richelieu (1598-1643)

Tues. Feb. 21st: Bodin’s République
Reading: Jean Bodin, On Sovereignty, 1-126 (also read Franklin’s Introduction).

Thurs. Feb 23rd: Henry IV – A politique monarch?
Readings: Holt, French Wars of Religion, 156-77.
S. Annette Finley-Croswhite, Henry IV & the Towns, 47-62.**
Diane C. Margolf, “Adjudicating Memory: Law and Religious Difference in Early 17th-Century France.”**
(On-line: click here )

Tues. Feb. 28th: Rebuilding Royal Authority Under Henri le Grand
Readings: Major, From Renaissance Monarchy, 130-80
Finley-Croswhite, Henry IV & the Towns, 122-61**
Charles Loyseau, “A Treatise on Orders”**

Thurs. Mar. 2nd: Louis XIII, The Just
Reading: Major, From Renaissance Monarchy, 181-260
Holt, French Wars of Religion, 178-94

Tues. Mar. 7th: Richelieu & The Consolidation of Royal Power
Readings: Major, From Renaissance Monarchy, 261-294
Henry Bertram Hill (ed.) The Political Testament of Cardinal Richelieu, 3-93 & 103-28.
Guez de Balzac, “The Ideal Prince” & Mathieu de Morgues, “Appeal to the King”**

Thurs. Mar. 9th: Authority & Revolt in Urban Society
Reading: William Beik, Urban Protest in Seventeenth-Century France, 49-144.

Week of March 13th: Spring Break

 

**** Mon. Mar. 20th: SECOND PAPER DUE @ 10am ****

IV.) The Apogee of Bourbon “Absolutism”

Tues. Mar. 21st: A Return to Civil War?: The Fronde (1648-53)
Reading: Major, From Renaissance Monarchy 294-334
William Beik, Louis XIV & Absolutism, 19-40 & 44-49
Beik, Urban Protest, 219-49
Claude Joly, “True Maxims of Government”**

Thurs. Mar. 23rd: Louis XIV’s prise de pouvoir
Readings: Major, From Renaissance Monarchy, 335-66
Beik, Louis XIV & Absolutism, 82-107 & 121-65

Tues. Mar. 28th: An “Absolute” Monarch?
Readings: Beik, Urban Protest, 145-72
Colin Jones, The Great Nation, 1-18
Beik, Louis XIV & Absolutism, 50-81, 156-67 & 177-218
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, “Politics Derived From the Words of Holy Scripture”**

V.) Colonization à la française

Thurs. Mar. 30th: A Fragile “Empire”
Readings: W. J. Eccles, The Canadian Frontier, 1-11
Kenneth Banks, Chasing Empire Across the Sea, 3-42 & 65-100**

Tues. Apr. 4th: French & Natives in New France, Part I
Readings: Eccles, Canadian Frontier, 12-102
Allan Greer (ed.), The Jesuit Relations, 1-69, 81-118, 132-35 & 140-54.

Thurs. Apr. 6th: French & Natives New France, Part II
Readings: Eccles, Canadian Frontier, 103-31
Saliha Belmessous, “Assimilation & Racialism in 17th & 18th-Century French Colonial Policy”**
(On-line: click here )

Tues. Apr. 11th: Europeans, Caribs & Africans in France’s Caribbean Colonies
***Special Guest: Prof. Sue Peabody, Washington State Univ.-Vancouver***
Readings: Sue Peabody, “’A Dangerous Zeal’: Catholic Missions to Slaves in the French Antilles, 1635-1800”** (On-line: click here)
Joseph Roach, “Body of Law: The Sun King & the Code Noir” in Melzer & Norberg (eds.), From the Royal to the Republican Body, 113-30**
The “Code Noir” (1685)##
Jean-Baptiste Labat, Nouveau voyage aux îles de l’Amerique (1700), excerpts on Martinique & Saint-Domingue. ##

VI.) France and its Colonies in the Eighteenth Century

Thurs. Apr. 13th: John Law & the Louisiana Colony
Readings: Jones, Great Nation, 18-81.
“A Full and Impartial Account of the Company of the Mississippi”**

Tues. Apr. 18th: Louis XV, “The Well-Beloved”
Readings: Jones, Great Nation, 82-170 & 226-79.
Thomas E. Kaiser, “Louis le Bien-Aimé & the Rhetoric of the Royal Body,” in Melzer & Norberg, From the Royal to the Republican Body, 131-61.

Thurs.: Apr. 20th: The Challenges of Empire
Readings: Eccles, Canadian Frontier, 132-85
Banks, Chasing Empire, 153-216**

Tues. Apr. 25th: The Emergence of Colonial Societies
Readings: Banks, Chasing Empire, 101-52**
John D. Garrigus, “’Sons of the Same Father:’ Gender, Race & Citizenship in French Saint-Domingue, 1760-1792”**
“Petition from the Free Mulattos & Nègres in the Prisons of Fort Dauphin to the Superior Council of Cap Français (1765)”##

Thurs. Apr. 27th: Conclusion

**** Weds. May 10th: FINAL PAPER DUE @ 5pm****