Download or read book Renaissance Warrior and Patron written by R. J. Knecht and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 644 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A paperback of Knecht's comprehensive account of one of France's most important monarchs.
Download or read book Compte rendu de written by Elizabeth Bonner and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Francis I and Sixteenth Century France written by Robert J. Knecht and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-05-31 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The reputation of Francis I, king of France (1515-47 ) has fluctuated over the centuries. Acclaimed as ’noble’ and ’great’ in the sixteenth century, he came to be unfairly denigrated under the Bourbon kings and the republic. But, in the twentieth century, research based on archival material has restored his standing as one of the most important rulers of his age. The present volume brings together seventeen articles by Robert Knecht published over several decades on particular aspects of the reign, with three specially translated from French into English. They examine the period in more depth than was possible in the author's 1994 biography of Francis I, and include studies of the Concordat of 1516 with the papacy, the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520, the lit-de-justice of 1527, and the visit to France of the Emperor Charles V in 1540. Other articles consider the king’s attitude to the Reformation, his court, his relations with Paris and visits to Aquitaine, his patronage of architecture as demonstrated by his building of the château of Fontainebleau, and his relations with his mother, Louise of Savoy, and sister, Marguerite d’Angoulême. The king’s love of books and the political advice he received from scholars are also considered as well as the extent of his ’absolutism’. Two articles compare the English and French Reformations and the nobilities of the two countries. The volume is intended as a contribution to the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Francis I’s accession.
Download or read book Catherine de Medici written by R J Knecht and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-07-16 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Catherine de' Medici (1519-89) was the wife of one king of France and the mother of three more - the last, sorry representatives of the Valois, who had ruled France since 1328. She herself is of preeminent importance to French history, and one of the most controversial of all historical figures. Despised until she was powerful enough to be hated, she was, in her own lifetime and since, the subject of a "Black Legend" that has made her a favourite subject of historical novelists (most notably Alexandre Dumas, whose Reine Margot has recently had new currency on film). Yet there is no recent biography of her in English. This new study, by a leading scholar of Renaissance France, is a major event. Catherine, a neglected and insignificant member of the Florentine Medici, entered French history in 1533 when she married the son of Francis I for short-lived political reasons: her uncle was pope Clement VII, who died the following year. Now of no diplomatic value, Catherine was treated with contempt at the French court even after her husband's accession as Henry II in 1547. Even so, she gave him ten children before he was killed in a tournament in 1559. She was left with three young boys, who succeeded to the throne as Francis II (1559-60), Charles IX (1560-74) and Henry III (1574-89). As regent and queen-mother, a woman and with no natural power-base of her own, she faced impossible odds. France was accelerating into chaos, with political faction at court and religious conflict throughout the land. As the country disintegrated, Catherine's overriding concern was for the interests of her children. She was tireless in her efforts to protect her sons' inheritance, and to settle her daughters in advantageous marriages. But France needed more. Catherine herself was both peace-loving and, in an age of frenzied religious hatred, unbigoted. She tried to use the Huguenots to counterbalance the growing power of the ultra-Catholic Guises but extremism on all sides frustrated her. She was drawn into the violence. Her name is ineradicably associated with its culmination, the Massacre of St Bartholomew (24 August 1572), when thousands of Huguenots were slaughtered in Paris and elsewhere. To this day no-one knows for certain whether Catherine instigated the massacre or not, but here Robert Knecht explores the probabilities in a notably level-headed fashion. His book is a gripping narrative in its own right. It offers both a lucid exposition of immensely complex events (with their profound imact on the future of France), and also a convincing portrait of its enigmatic central character. In going behind the familiar Black Legend, Professor Knecht does not make the mistake of whitewashing Catherine; but he shows how intractable was her world, and how shifty or intransigent the people with whom she had to deal. For all her flaws, she emerges as a more sympathetic - and, in her pragmatism, more modern - figure than most of her leading contemporaries.
Download or read book The Valois written by Robert Knecht and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2007-04-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The house of Valois ruled France for 250 years, playing a crucial role in its establishment as a major European power. This extremely well-written and structured book will appeal to the general reader.
Download or read book French Renaissance Monarchy written by R. J. Knecht and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-07-30 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1984, Professor Knecht's study quickly established itself as the best short account of the period. The reigns of Francis I and Henry II, spanning the first half of the sixteenth century, are one of the most colourful and formative periods of French history. In addition to examining the nature and effectiveness of their reigns, Professor Knecht also examines their foreign policies which brought them into conflict with other major powers. For this new edition the author has added a new chapter on patronage and the arts.
Download or read book The Rise and Fall of Renaissance France written by Robert J. Knecht and published by Wiley-Blackwell. This book was released on 2002-01-21 with total page 608 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on more than 40 years of research and combining narrative with analysis, R. J. Knecht describes the rise and fall of France in the sixteenth century clearly and authoritatively.
Download or read book The Power and Patronage of Marguerite de Navarre written by Barbara Stephenson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although Marguerite de Navarre's unique position in sixteenth-century France has long been acknowledged and she is one of the most studied women of the time, until now no study has focused attention on Marguerite's political life. Barbara Stephenson here fills the gap, delineating Marguerite's formal political position and highlighting her actions as a figure with the opportunity to exercise power through both official and unofficial channels. Through Marguerite's surviving correspondence, Stephenson traces the various networks through which this French noblewoman exercised the power available to her to further the careers of political and religious clients, as well as her struggle to protect the interests of her brother the king and those of her own family and household. The analysis of Marguerite's activities sheds light on noble society as a whole.
Download or read book Francis I and Sixteenth Century France written by Robert J. Knecht and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twentieth-century research based on archival material has restored the standing of Francis I, king of France (1515-47), as one of the most important rulers of his age. Intended as a contribution to the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Francis's accession, the volume brings together seventeen articles by Robert Knecht published over several decades on particular aspects of Francis's reign, including three essays specially translated from French into English.
Download or read book Marguerite de Navarre written by Patricia Francis Cholakian and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sister to the king of France, queen of Navarre, gifted writer, religious reformer, and patron of the arts--in her many roles, Marguerite de Navarre (1492-1549) was one of the most important figures of the French Renaissance. In this, the first major biography in English, Patricia F. Cholakian and Rouben C. Cholakian draw on her writings to provide a vivid portrait of Marguerite's public and private life. Freeing her from the shadow of her brother François I, they recognize her immense influence on French politics and culture, and they challenge conventional views of her family relationships. The authors highlight Marguerite's considerable role in advancing the cause of religious reform in France-her support of vernacular translations of sacred works, her denunciation of ecclesiastical corruption, her founding of orphanages and hospitals, and her defense and protection of persecuted reformists. Had this plucky and spirited woman not been sister to the king, she would most likely have ended up at the stake. Though she remained a devout catholic, her theological poem Miroir de l'âme pécheresse, a mystical summa of evangelical doctrine that was viciously attacked by conservatives, remains to this day an important part of the Protestant corpus. Marguerite, along with her brother the king, was a key architect and animator of the refined entertainments that became the hallmark of the French court. Always eager to encourage new ideas, she supported many of the illustrious writers and thinkers of her time. Moreover, uniquely for a queen, she was herself a prolific poet, dramatist, and prose writer and published a two-volume anthology of her works. In reassessing Marguerite's enormous oeuvre, the authors reveal the range and quality of her work beyond her famous collection of tales, posthumously called the Heptaméron. The Cholakians' groundbreaking reading of the rich body of her work, which uncovers autobiographical elements previously unrecognized by most scholars, and their study of her surviving correspondence portray a life that fully justifies Marguerite's sobriquet, "Mother of the Renaissance."
Download or read book The Winter Warrior written by James Wilde and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-11-15 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 1067. Following the devastating destruction of the Battle of Hastings, William the Bastard and his men have descended on England. Villages are torched; men, women, and children are put to the sword as the Norman king attempts to impose his cruel will upon this unruly nation. But there is one who stands in the way of the invader's savagery. He is called Hereward. He is a warrior and master tactician and as adept at battle as the imposter who sits upon the throne. And he is England's last hope. In a Fenlands fortress of water and wild wood, Hereward's resistance is simmering. His army of outcasts grows by the day—a devil's army that emerges out of the mists and the night, leaving death in its wake. But William is not easily cowed. Under the command of his ruthless deputy, Ivo Taillebois—the man they call 'the Butcher'—the Norman forces will do whatever it takes to crush the rebels, even if it means razing England to the ground. Here then is the tale of the bloodiest rebellion England has ever known—the beginning of an epic struggle that will change England forever.
Download or read book Thomas Becket written by John Guy and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012-07-03 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revisionist new biography reintroducing readers to one of the most subversive figures in English history—the man who sought to reform a nation, dared to defy his king, and laid down his life to defend his sacred honor NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY KANSAS CITY STAR AND BLOOMBERG Becket’s life story has been often told but never so incisively reexamined and vividly rendered as it is in John Guy’s hands. The son of middle-class Norman parents, Becket rose against all odds to become the second most powerful man in England. As King Henry II’s chancellor, Becket charmed potentates and popes, tamed overmighty barons, and even personally led knights into battle. After his royal patron elevated him to archbishop of Canterbury in 1162, however, Becket clashed with the King. Forced to choose between fealty to the crown and the values of his faith, he repeatedly challenged Henry’s authority to bring the church to heel. Drawing on the full panoply of medieval sources, Guy sheds new light on the relationship between the two men, separates truth from centuries of mythmaking, and casts doubt on the long-held assumption that the headstrong rivals were once close friends. He also provides the fullest accounting yet for Becket’s seemingly radical transformation from worldly bureaucrat to devout man of God. Here is a Becket seldom glimpsed in any previous biography, a man of many facets and faces: the skilled warrior as comfortable unhorsing an opponent in single combat as he was negotiating terms of surrender; the canny diplomat “with the appetite of a wolf” who unexpectedly became the spiritual paragon of the English church; and the ascetic rebel who waged a high-stakes contest of wills with one of the most volcanic monarchs of the Middle Ages. Driven into exile, derided by his enemies as an ungrateful upstart, Becket returned to Canterbury in the unlikeliest guise of all: as an avenging angel of God, wielding his power of excommunication like a sword. It is this last apparition, the one for which history remembers him best, that will lead to his martyrdom at the hands of the king’s minions—a grisly episode that Guy recounts in chilling and dramatic detail. An uncommonly intimate portrait of one of the medieval world’s most magnetic figures, Thomas Becket breathes new life into its subject—cementing for all time his place as an enduring icon of resistance to the abuse of power.
Download or read book Hero or Tyrant Henry III King of France 1574 89 written by Professor Robert J Knecht and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2014-04-28 with total page 527 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: King Henry III of France has not suffered well at the hands of posterity. Generally depicted as at best a self-indulgent, ineffectual ruler, and at worst a debauched tyrant responsible for a series of catastrophic political blunders, his reputation has long been a poor one. Yet recent scholarship has begun to question the validity of this judgment and look for a more rounded assessment of the man and his reign. For, as this new biography of Henry demonstrates, there is far more to this fascinating monarch than the pantomime villain depicted by previous generations of historians and novelists. Based upon a rich and diverse range of primary sources, this book traces Henry’s life from his birth in 1551, the sixth child of Henri II and Catherine de’ Medici. It following his upbringing as the Wars of Religion began to tear France apart, his election as king of Poland in 1573, and his assumption of the French crown a year later following the death of his brother Charles IX. The first English-language biography of Henry for over 150 years, this study thoroughly and dispassionately reassesses his life in light of recent scholarship and in the context of broader European diplomatic, political and religious history. In so doing the book not only provides a more nuanced portrait of the monarch himself, but also helps us better understand the history of France during this traumatic time.
Download or read book Artists and Warfare in the Renaissance written by John Rigby Hale and published by . This book was released on 1990-01-01 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an exposition of the work of Renaissance war artists, reflecting the ways in which they responded, often independently of patrons, to the facts of war, its nature and causes and to the common soldier. There is an emphasis on German and Italian artists illustrating their divergent artistic focuses.
Download or read book Hero or Tyrant Henry III King of France 1574 89 written by Robert J. Knecht and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-22 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: King Henry III of France has not suffered well at the hands of posterity. Generally depicted as at best a self-indulgent, ineffectual ruler, and at worst a debauched tyrant responsible for a series of catastrophic political blunders, his reputation has long been a poor one. Yet recent scholarship has begun to question the validity of this judgment and look for a more rounded assessment of the man and his reign. For, as this new biography of Henry demonstrates, there is far more to this fascinating monarch than the pantomime villain depicted by previous generations of historians and novelists. Based upon a rich and diverse range of primary sources, this book traces Henry’s life from his birth in 1551, the sixth child of Henri II and Catherine de’ Medici. It following his upbringing as the Wars of Religion began to tear France apart, his election as king of Poland in 1573, and his assumption of the French crown a year later following the death of his brother Charles IX. The first English-language biography of Henry for over 150 years, this study thoroughly and dispassionately reassesses his life in light of recent scholarship and in the context of broader European diplomatic, political and religious history. In so doing the book not only provides a more nuanced portrait of the monarch himself, but also helps us better understand the history of France during this traumatic time.
Download or read book Luxury Arts of the Renaissance written by Marina Belozerskaya and published by Getty Publications. This book was released on 2005-10-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today we associate the Renaissance with painting, sculpture, and architecture—the “major” arts. Yet contemporaries often held the “minor” arts—gem-studded goldwork, richly embellished armor, splendid tapestries and embroideries, music, and ephemeral multi-media spectacles—in much higher esteem. Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, was typical of the Italian nobility: she bequeathed to her children precious stone vases mounted in gold, engraved gems, ivories, and antique bronzes and marbles; her favorite ladies-in-waiting, by contrast, received mere paintings. Renaissance patrons and observers extolled finely wrought luxury artifacts for their exquisite craftsmanship and the symbolic capital of their components; paintings and sculptures in modest materials, although discussed by some literati, were of lesser consequence. This book endeavors to return to the mainstream material long marginalized as a result of historical and ideological biases of the intervening centuries. The author analyzes how luxury arts went from being lofty markers of ascendancy and discernment in the Renaissance to being dismissed as “decorative” or “minor” arts—extravagant trinkets of the rich unworthy of the status of Art. Then, by re-examining the objects themselves and their uses in their day, she shows how sumptuous creations constructed the world and taste of Renaissance women and men.
Download or read book The Power and Patronage of Marguerite de Navarre written by Barbara Stephenson and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although Marguerite de Navarre's unique position in sixteenth-century France has long been acknowledged and she is one of the most studied women of the time, until now no study has focused attention on Marguerite's political life. Barbara Stephenson here fills the gap, delineating Marguerite's formal political position and highlighting her actions as a figure with the opportunity to exercise power through both official and unofficial channels. Through Marguerite's surviving correspondence, Stephenson traces the various networks through which this French noblewoman exercised the power available to her to further the careers of political and religious clients, as well as her struggle to protect the interests of her brother the king and those of her own family and household. The analysis of Marguerite's activities sheds light on noble society as a whole.
