Historical background: the growth of the French state to 1627

Summary

On the cover we see Henry IV, the last French king regularly to lead his cavalry charges, at the scene of one of his greatest triumphs, the battle of Arques in 1589. Henry and his forces wear the “modern” attire of light cavalry; his defeated opponents, led by the grandee duke of Mayenne, are dressed as heavily armored medieval knights.

Here we have in a single visual image the traditional version of the evolution of the French state between the sixteenth century and the Revolution: the “modernizing” monarchy overcoming the “feudal,” backward nobility. As the painting suggests, some people (often in the pay of the king) promulgated this view as early as 1620 (the time of the painting). Generations of publicists and historians have worked very hard to maintain this image. They have often called this centralizing state the “absolute monarchy,” because, they argue, the king's ability to act had no legal barriers. The king did not have to give a reason for his decision; he had merely to state, in the final operative phrase of so many royal documents, “for such is our pleasure.”

To these historians, the “absolute monarchy” is an historical stage of statebuilding between the “feudal” monarchy of the Middle Ages and the constitutional governments of the past two centuries. They argue that the “absolute monarchy” attempted, unsuccessfully, to modernize the state. In this absolutist construct, the “bourgeoisie” provided the monarchy with its chief ally against their common main opponent, the nobility.