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The Burgundy Circle’s plans to undermine Louis XIV’s absolute state through polysynody and the high nobility.pdf (271.28 kB)

The Burgundy Circle's plans to undermine Louis XIV's 'absolute' state through polysynody and the high nobility

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 05:34 authored by Andrew Mansfield
Louis the duc de Bourgogne (1686 – 1712), grandson of Louis XIV, was briefly Dauphin of France before his premature death from measles. Advised by a group of noted former tutors and members of the court, Bourgogne’s Circle devised a range of plans to reform the French state under his future rule. Opposing the centralising model of sovereignty pursued by Louis XIV, the Circle intended to expand government, decentralise power into the provinces, reform an ailing economy, and resurrect the fortunes of a high-aristocracy believed to have been excluded from meaningful government. The Circle’s conviction that Louis XIV had circumvented the ancient nobility by tyrannical (‘absolutist’) means challenges revisionist interpretations of absolutism in ancien régime France. This article will therefore test revisionist claims that ‘absolutism’ did not exist in France, by assessing the contemporary opinion of the Circle’s key members. In so doing, it will reveal the divergent reform agendas of its members and contest previous historiographical notions that depict the group as possessing a cohesive ideology.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Intellectual History Review

ISSN

1749-6977

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Issue

2

Volume

27

Page range

223-245

Department affiliated with

  • History Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2017-03-28

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2018-02-06

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2017-04-05

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