Julian Swann
Biographic Data
| ID | 3911035 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Julian Swann |
| GIVEN NAMES | Julian |
| FAMILY NAME | Swann |
| SIGNATURE | SWANN J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Birkbeck, University of London |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Custom, Law, and Monarchy. A Legal History of Early Modern France
Journal Article Custom, Law, and Monarchy. A Legal History of Early Modern France Get access Custom, Law, and Monarchy. A Legal History of Early Modern France By Marie Seong-Hak KimOxford: Oxford University Press. 2021. 289 pp. £75. ISBN: 978 0 19 284549 8. Julian Swann Julian Swann Birkbeck College, University of London, London, UK [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar French History, crad021,…
Feudalism, Venality, and Revolution
Throughout much of the eighteenth century, French ministers and political thinkers grappled with the thorny question of how to decentralise and broaden participation in the royal administration. The kingdom was divided, with approximately one third of the national territory classed as pays d’états with functioning provincial estates, and the remainder, known as pays d’élections, largely under the tutelage of the intendants. Critics of Louis XIV a…
S tephen A. L azer . State Formation in Early Modern Alsace, 1648–1789
The study of state formation in early modern France has a long and distinguished history. Much of that research, and the often-heated debate it has provoked, has been focused upon the relationship between the central institutions of the monarchy, in Paris or Versailles, and the periphery. Traditionally, attention was focused on the role of the intendants and the pays d’élection with the assumption that they represented a more modern and unified a…
Roi de guerre ou Roi de paix? Louis XV and the French monarchy, 1740–1748
This article examines debate about the nature of the French monarchy during the early years of Louis XV’s personal rule. It argues that the king, his ministers and advisers as well as the wider French public were torn between traditional models of monarchy based upon the concept of a ‘roi de guerre’ and the diplomatic and human consequences of military conflict that had caused many to urge a more restrained, pacific projection of French power. In…
Robert Darnton, A Literary Tour de France
The Life of Louis XVI
In 1993, John Hardman published an acclaimed biography of Louis XVI in which he challenged prevailing popular and academic caricatures of the king as a dim-witted, indolent ruler. Some twenty-five years later, he has returned to his subject offering a much-expanded volume that draws upon a range of new archival sources, most notably the extensive correspondence between the king and his secretary of state of foreign affairs, the comte de Vergennes…
Correspondance du president de Brosses et de l’abbé marquis Niccolini
The name of Charles de Brosses, président à mortier and briefly first president of the Parlement of Dijon, will be a familiar one to many historians of eighteenth-century France. Although not a major political figure, he was emblematic of the cultured elite of the provincial robe nobility that included among its ranks such luminaries as Louis-René de Caradeuc de La Chalotais, Montesquieu and Joseph Michel Antoine Servan. De Brosses enjoyed profes…
La guerre de Succession d’Autriche (1741–1748)
The history of the War of the Austrian Succession has tended to be overshadowed by the later Seven Years War and that of American Independence, which were, in very different ways, globally significant for the development of colonial empires and state formation. Part of the explanation for the partial eclipse of the War of the Austrian Succession lies in the fact that it is viewed as inconclusive, with the great conflicts between Austria and Pruss…
Exile, Imprisonment, or Death
Between the assassination of Henri IV in 1610 and the French Revolution of 1789, thousands of French nobles, including members of the royal family, courtiers, bishops, generals, and judges suffered internal exile, imprisonment, or even death for having displeased their sovereign. For most that punishment was independent of the legal system and was the result of a simple royal command or a written order, known as a lettre de cachet . Yet rather th…
‘The secret of knowing how to be bored’
This chapter explores the daily realities of life in disgrace. Starting with the example of prisoners of state, it considers the experience of life in the Bastille or other state prisons before turning to the fate of those sent into internal exile. Life in exile was for some an ordeal, for others an adventure and the chapter examines the range of unwritten conventions governing the conduct of a disgracié . Amongst the obstacles to be faced were t…
Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theory in Early Modern Europe
Antoine Lilti, The World of the Salons
Stéphane Durand, Arlette Jouanna, and Élie Pélaquier. Des États dans l’État
Dazzled by the brilliance of Alexis de Tocqueville’s L’ancien régime et la Révolution, scholars have been reluctant to challenge the traditional political and administrative history of France, which has long been dominated by the thesis of centralization, with the monarchy gradually tightening its grip over the provinces. Central to that interpretation was the role of the intendants, who acted as modernizing agents confronting the parochial and f…
The Financial Decline of a Great Power
The reign of Louis XIV was, to borrow a contemporary cliché, a game of two halves. The first two decades of his personal rule were marked by apparent successes on the battlefield and in diplomatic policy, alongside a firm restoration of the royal authority in the domestic sphere. Thereafter, storm clouds gathered, and, during the decade of the 1680s in particular, the king’s seemingly arrogant, overly aggressive policy of réunions and his cruel p…
From Servant of the King to ‘Idol of the Nation’
The absolute monarchy was a personal monarchy and during the reign of Louis XIV, the king established a tradition that the king should act as his ‘own first minister’, coordinating the work of his ministerial servants. In the course of the eighteenth century that tradition was undermined by a series of social, administrative, and cultural changes to such an extent that by the 1780s ministers were increasingly behaving as independent political fig…
The Crisis of the Absolute Monarchy
For generations of historians, 1789 was a defining moment in world history and it has been said to mark, amongst other things, the triumph of the bourgeoisie, the birth of modernity, the rise of nationalism, or even the invention of ideology. To explain an event of such magnitude, it was understandable that historians should seek no less portentous origins with factors such as the rise of capitalism, class struggle or the impact of the Enlightenm…
The French Revolution
Repenser les parlements au XVIIIe siècle
Book synopsis: Cet ouvrage analyse dans la France du XVIIIe siècle l’évolution du vocabulaire politique du monde parlementaire, parallèle aux revendications des cours. Des glissements sémantiques sur des notions tels que constitution, lois, nation, tyrannie, droit, patriotisme, liberté(s), sujet et citoyen permettent de suivre les fragments d’un discours républicain qui émerge. L’histoire mais aussi le droit, l’art et la philosophie sont mobilisé…
Cultures of Power in Europe During the Long Eighteenth Century
Les États généraux de Bourgogne
Les historiens considèrent traditionnellement les États provinciaux de Bourgogne au XVIIIe siècle comme un simple héritage médiéval, ou bien les décrivent parfois comme les sujets d'une monarchie absolue, soumis à un intendant tout-puissant. Cet article entend proposer une nouvelle interprétation, et montrer que les États provinciaux constituaient une institution toujours vivace, jouissant d'un pouvoir grandissant et engagée dans une relation de …
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 a…
Power and Provincial Politics in Eighteenth-Century France
Shorter Notices
Journal Article SHORTER NOTICES Get access JULIAN SWANN JULIAN SWANN Birkbeck College, University of London Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume CXII, Issue 447, June 1997, Pages 754–755, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/CXII.447.754 Published: 01 June 1997
How (and How Not) to Write Histoire Evenementielle
David A. Bell, How (and How Not) to Write Histoire Evénementielle: Recent Books on Eighteenth-Century French Politics, French Historical Studies, Vol. 19, No. 4, Special Issue: Biography (Autumn, 1996), pp. 1169-1189
Politics and the Parlement of Paris under Louis XV, 1754–1774
Politics in eighteenth-century France was dominated by the relationship between the crown and the magistrates of the Parlement of Paris. The Parlement provided a traditional check upon the King's authority, but after 1750 it entered a period of prolonged confrontation with the government of Louis XV. The religious, financial and administrative policies of the monarchy were subject to sustained opposition, and the magistrates employed arguments wh…
Power and Provincial Politics in Eighteenth-Century France
How (and How Not) to Write Histoire Evenementielle
David A. Bell, How (and How Not) to Write Histoire Evénementielle: Recent Books on Eighteenth-Century French Politics, French Historical Studies, Vol. 19, No. 4, Special Issue: Biography (Autumn, 1996), pp. 1169-1189
Parlement , Politics and the Parti Janséniste
Between October 1755 and April 1756, the Parlement of Paris became involved in a serious jurisdictional dispute with a rival legal institution, the Grand Conseil.' The quarrel was caused by the Grand Conseil's claim to the privilege of judging cases involving its own members.2 The subsequent opposition of the Parlement forced the king, Louis XV, to exercise his traditional role as arbiter. However, when he sided with the Grand Conseil, the Parlem…
Parlements and political crisis in France under Louis XV
The causes and consequences of the quarrels between Louis XV and the parlements in the third quarter of the eighteenth century continue to provoke a lively debate amongst historians. In France, the traditional thesis of a reforming monarchy confronted by the selfish obstructionism of the judiciary has many adherents. However, few Anglo-American scholars favour such an interpretation and some have gone as far as to reject the existence of a crisis…
Politics and the Parlement of Paris under Louis XV, 1754–1774
Politics in eighteenth-century France was dominated by the relationship between the crown and the magistrates of the Parlement of Paris. The Parlement provided a traditional check upon the King's authority, but after 1750 it entered a period of prolonged confrontation with the government of Louis XV. The religious, financial and administrative policies of the monarchy were subject to sustained opposition, and the magistrates employed arguments wh…
How (and How Not) to Write Histoire Evenementielle
David A. Bell, How (and How Not) to Write Histoire Evénementielle: Recent Books on Eighteenth-Century French Politics, French Historical Studies, Vol. 19, No. 4, Special Issue: Biography (Autumn, 1996), pp. 1169-1189
Shorter Notices
Journal Article SHORTER NOTICES Get access JULIAN SWANN JULIAN SWANN Birkbeck College, University of London Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume CXII, Issue 447, June 1997, Pages 754–755, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/CXII.447.754 Published: 01 June 1997
Power and Provincial Politics in Eighteenth-Century France
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 a…
Les États généraux de Bourgogne
Les historiens considèrent traditionnellement les États provinciaux de Bourgogne au XVIIIe siècle comme un simple héritage médiéval, ou bien les décrivent parfois comme les sujets d'une monarchie absolue, soumis à un intendant tout-puissant. Cet article entend proposer une nouvelle interprétation, et montrer que les États provinciaux constituaient une institution toujours vivace, jouissant d'un pouvoir grandissant et engagée dans une relation de …
Cultures of Power in Europe During the Long Eighteenth Century
The French Revolution
Repenser les parlements au XVIIIe siècle
Book synopsis: Cet ouvrage analyse dans la France du XVIIIe siècle l’évolution du vocabulaire politique du monde parlementaire, parallèle aux revendications des cours. Des glissements sémantiques sur des notions tels que constitution, lois, nation, tyrannie, droit, patriotisme, liberté(s), sujet et citoyen permettent de suivre les fragments d’un discours républicain qui émerge. L’histoire mais aussi le droit, l’art et la philosophie sont mobilisé…
From Servant of the King to ‘Idol of the Nation’
The absolute monarchy was a personal monarchy and during the reign of Louis XIV, the king established a tradition that the king should act as his ‘own first minister’, coordinating the work of his ministerial servants. In the course of the eighteenth century that tradition was undermined by a series of social, administrative, and cultural changes to such an extent that by the 1780s ministers were increasingly behaving as independent political fig…
The Crisis of the Absolute Monarchy
For generations of historians, 1789 was a defining moment in world history and it has been said to mark, amongst other things, the triumph of the bourgeoisie, the birth of modernity, the rise of nationalism, or even the invention of ideology. To explain an event of such magnitude, it was understandable that historians should seek no less portentous origins with factors such as the rise of capitalism, class struggle or the impact of the Enlightenm…
The Financial Decline of a Great Power
The reign of Louis XIV was, to borrow a contemporary cliché, a game of two halves. The first two decades of his personal rule were marked by apparent successes on the battlefield and in diplomatic policy, alongside a firm restoration of the royal authority in the domestic sphere. Thereafter, storm clouds gathered, and, during the decade of the 1680s in particular, the king’s seemingly arrogant, overly aggressive policy of réunions and his cruel p…
Exile, Imprisonment, or Death
Between the assassination of Henri IV in 1610 and the French Revolution of 1789, thousands of French nobles, including members of the royal family, courtiers, bishops, generals, and judges suffered internal exile, imprisonment, or even death for having displeased their sovereign. For most that punishment was independent of the legal system and was the result of a simple royal command or a written order, known as a lettre de cachet . Yet rather th…
‘The secret of knowing how to be bored’
This chapter explores the daily realities of life in disgrace. Starting with the example of prisoners of state, it considers the experience of life in the Bastille or other state prisons before turning to the fate of those sent into internal exile. Life in exile was for some an ordeal, for others an adventure and the chapter examines the range of unwritten conventions governing the conduct of a disgracié . Amongst the obstacles to be faced were t…
Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theory in Early Modern Europe
Antoine Lilti, The World of the Salons
Stéphane Durand, Arlette Jouanna, and Élie Pélaquier. Des États dans l’État
Dazzled by the brilliance of Alexis de Tocqueville’s L’ancien régime et la Révolution, scholars have been reluctant to challenge the traditional political and administrative history of France, which has long been dominated by the thesis of centralization, with the monarchy gradually tightening its grip over the provinces. Central to that interpretation was the role of the intendants, who acted as modernizing agents confronting the parochial and f…
Correspondance du president de Brosses et de l’abbé marquis Niccolini
The name of Charles de Brosses, président à mortier and briefly first president of the Parlement of Dijon, will be a familiar one to many historians of eighteenth-century France. Although not a major political figure, he was emblematic of the cultured elite of the provincial robe nobility that included among its ranks such luminaries as Louis-René de Caradeuc de La Chalotais, Montesquieu and Joseph Michel Antoine Servan. De Brosses enjoyed profes…
La guerre de Succession d’Autriche (1741–1748)
The history of the War of the Austrian Succession has tended to be overshadowed by the later Seven Years War and that of American Independence, which were, in very different ways, globally significant for the development of colonial empires and state formation. Part of the explanation for the partial eclipse of the War of the Austrian Succession lies in the fact that it is viewed as inconclusive, with the great conflicts between Austria and Pruss…
The Life of Louis XVI
In 1993, John Hardman published an acclaimed biography of Louis XVI in which he challenged prevailing popular and academic caricatures of the king as a dim-witted, indolent ruler. Some twenty-five years later, he has returned to his subject offering a much-expanded volume that draws upon a range of new archival sources, most notably the extensive correspondence between the king and his secretary of state of foreign affairs, the comte de Vergennes…
Roi de guerre ou Roi de paix? Louis XV and the French monarchy, 1740–1748
This article examines debate about the nature of the French monarchy during the early years of Louis XV’s personal rule. It argues that the king, his ministers and advisers as well as the wider French public were torn between traditional models of monarchy based upon the concept of a ‘roi de guerre’ and the diplomatic and human consequences of military conflict that had caused many to urge a more restrained, pacific projection of French power. In…
Robert Darnton, A Literary Tour de France
S tephen A. L azer . State Formation in Early Modern Alsace, 1648–1789
The study of state formation in early modern France has a long and distinguished history. Much of that research, and the often-heated debate it has provoked, has been focused upon the relationship between the central institutions of the monarchy, in Paris or Versailles, and the periphery. Traditionally, attention was focused on the role of the intendants and the pays d’élection with the assumption that they represented a more modern and unified a…
European Political History Analysis (21 works) · History (21 works) · Political science (20 works) · Law (18 works) · Politics (16 works) · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis (15 works) · Economic history (12 works) · Art (11 works) · Historical Art and Culture Studies (11 works) · Humanities (9 works)