Download or read book The Bourbon Kings of France written by Desmond Seward and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2022-12-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Licentious or bigoted, noble or ignoble, ' wrote Nancy Mitford, 'there has seldom been a dull Bourbon.' The story of the Bourbon kings encompasses the two most glorious and turbulent centuries in French history, yet surprisingly, this is still the only narrative account of the dynasty for the general reader. They emerge from a shadowy line of medieval princes in 1589 to rule France for over 200 years, dominating Europe, launching an endless series of wars, creators of the dazzling splendour of Versailles, survivors from the French Revolution. The Bourbons begin with the dashing figure of Henri IV, with his courage, gaiety and 64 mistresses. They include figures such as the Sun King Louis XIV and Louis XVI who ended under the guillotine, and close with the little-known 'Henri V' - expected to return and rule France in 1873 but whose refusal to abandon the Lily banner of the Bourbons for the Tricolore finally lost him the throne. The Bourbon Kings of France is an accessible yet thorough history, written for the general reader and of particular interest to anyone who enjoys history or wishes to learn more about the Bourbons. Praise for The Bourbon Kings of France: 'A blending of wide historical knowledge and vigorous independent judgement to make a lively, exciting but dependable account for the general reader' - Sunday Times 'Enormously entertaining ... an excellent read ... a cross between a package tour of the Bourbon dynasty and a Guide Michelin to the favourites, mistresses and ministers of the French monarchy' - Spectator Paris-born Desmond Seward is a British popular historian who has written many books but is perhaps best known for The Hundred Years War, The Monks of War, The Wars of the Roses and Richard III. He lives in England's West Country.
Download or read book The Bourbons written by J H Shennan and published by Bloomsbury Continuum. This book was released on 2007-04-28 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presenting the history of the Bourbons, this title provides a comprehensive look through the rise, fall, and semi-rise again of the great French dynasty.
Download or read book The First Bourbon written by Desmond Seward and published by Thistle Publishing. This book was released on 2013-06-20 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The founder of the Bourbon dynasty, Henry IV, who ruled France from 1589 to 1610, is the most romantic of French kings. Very different from his grandson Louis XIV, he was a hard-fighting, hard swearing Southerner, who fought over 200 battles and had 60 (recorded) mistresses* After surviving his predecessor's murderous court, he rebuilt a France ruined by thirty years of war between Catholics and Protestants, enabling her to become the most powerful country in Europe. A man of enormous charm and humanity, he was famous for promising that every French peasant was going to have a chicken in the pot in Sundays. Even Napoleon admired him, always keeping a statue of him nearby.
Download or read book The Indian Kings of France written by Carlos Mundy and published by . This book was released on 2019-09-29 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the reign of Akbar, between the years 1557 and 1559, a European called Jean Philippe du Bourbon arrived at the Court of Delhi. He was French and claimed to belong to one of the noblest families of that Kingdom. He recounted that he had been made prisoner by Turkish pirates during a voyage, and was taken as a slave to Egypt. This had occurred in 1541 when he was only fifteen years old. Once in Egypt, due to his charm and qualities he gained the favour of the sovereign and joined the army being this start of the adventure that took him to India.The emperor Akbar, to whom the youth told his story, became captivated by his refined manners and his intelligent appearance and he offered him a position in his army after which he was appointed Master of Artillery. Full of honours and riches, Prince Jean Philippe du Bourbon died in Agra leaving two sons from the sister of the Emperor's Christian wife. The eldest, Alexander became a favourite of Emperor Jahangir who made him Hereditary Governor of the Palace of the Begums.The Bourbons retained their position in the Imperial Court until the invasion of India by Nadir Shah, when the exiled themselves to their feud of Shergar.The Indian King of France is a historical novel that narrates the lives of some of the most prominent members of the dynasty. It is written in the first person as if the joint conscious of all of them is recounting their story. It starts with the amazing account of the first Indian Bourbon, Prince Jean Philippe and then travels through time until our present days with a very interesting first hand account of his life by the current head of the family, Prince Balthazar IV of Bourbon-Bhopal and an essay by the heir apparent, Prince Frederick who is studying in California to become a film-maker. The novel is a fascinating account of this family who is the eldest branch of the Bourbons and thus would have the right to claim the throne of France
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 The Capetians written by Jim Bradbury and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2007-02-27 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the demise of the Carolingian dynasty in 987 the French lords chose Hugh Capet as their king. He was the founder of a dynasty that lasted until 1328. Although for much of this time, the French kings were weak, and the kingdom of France was much smaller than it later became, the Capetians nevertheless had considerable achievements and also produced outstanding rulers, including Philip Augustus and St Louis. This wide-ranging book throws fascinating light on the history of Medieval France and the development of European monarchy.
Download or read book Sacral Kingship Between Disenchantment and Re enchantment written by Ronald G. Asch and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: France and England are often seen as monarchies standing at opposite ends of the spectrum of seventeenth-century European political culture. On the one hand the Bourbon monarchy took the high road to absolutism, while on the other the Stuarts never quite recovered from the diminution of their royal authority following the regicide of Charles I in 1649. However, both monarchies shared a common medieval heritage of sacral kingship, and their histories remained deeply entangled throughout the century. This study focuses on the interaction between ideas of monarchy and images of power in the two countries between the execution of Mary Queen of Scots and the Glorious Revolution. It demonstrates that even in periods when politics were seemingly secularized, as in France at the end of the Wars of Religion, and in latter seventeenth- century England, the appeal to religious images and values still lent legitimacy to royal authority by emphasizing the sacral aura or providential role which church and religion conferred on monarchs.
Download or read book The Comedians of the King written by Julia Doe and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2021-03-21 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lyric theater in ancien régime France was an eminently political art, tied to the demands of court spectacle. This was true not only of tragic opera (tragédie lyrique) but also its comic counterpart, opéra comique, a form tracing its roots to the seasonal trade fairs of Paris. While historians have long privileged the genre’s popular origins, opéra comique was brought under the protection of the French crown in 1762, thus consolidating a new venue where national music might be debated and defined. In The Comedians of the King, Julia Doe traces the impact of Bourbon patronage on the development of opéra comique in the turbulent prerevolutionary years. Drawing on both musical and archival evidence, the book presents the history of this understudied genre and unpacks the material structures that supported its rapid evolution at the royally sponsored Comédie-Italienne. Doe demonstrates how comic theater was exploited in, and worked against, the monarchy’s carefully cultivated public image—a negotiation that became especially fraught after the accession of the music-loving queen, Marie Antoinette. The Comedians of the King examines the aesthetic and political tensions that arose when a genre with popular foundations was folded into the Bourbon propaganda machine, and when a group of actors trained at the Parisian fairs became official representatives of the sovereign, or comédiens ordinaires du roi.
Download or read book Henri IV of France written by Vincent J. Pitts and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2009-01-05 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vincent J. Pitts chronicles the life and times of one of France’s most remarkable kings in the first English-language biography of Henri IV to be published in twenty-five years. An unwelcome heir to the throne, Henri ruled over a kingdom plagued by religious civil war and political and economic instability. By the end of his reign in 1610 he had pacified his warring country, restored its prosperity, and reclaimed France’s place as a leading power in Europe. Pitts draws upon the rich scholarship of recent decades to tell the captivating story of this pivotal French king. From boyhood, Henri was destined to be leader and protector of the Huguenot movement in France. He served as chief of the Calvinist party and fought for the Huguenot forces in the bloody Wars of Religion before an extraordinary sequence of dynastic mishaps left the Protestant warlord next in line for the French crown. Henri was forced to renounce his faith in support of his claim to the Catholic throne and to unite his deeply divided country. A master of political maneuvering, Henri restored order to a country in the throes of great religious, political, and economic upheaval. He was assassinated in 1610 by a Catholic zealot. Vincent Pitts expertly recounts this history and skillfully untangles its complex set of personalities and events. Pitts engages the vast amount of literature relating to the king himself as well as the large body of recent scholarship on France during this time. The result is a fascinating biography of a French king and a comprehensive history of sixteenth-century France.
Download or read book The Story of Modern France written by Hélène Adeline Guerber and published by . This book was released on 1910 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Constable de Bourbon written by William Harrison Ainsworth and published by . This book was released on 1866 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Passion for Paris written by David Downie and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2015-04-28 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A top-notch walking tour of Paris. . . . The author's encyclopedic knowledge of the city and its artists grants him a mystical gift of access: doors left ajar and carriage gates left open foster his search for the city's magical story. Anyone who loves Paris will adore this joyful book. Readers visiting the city are advised to take it with them to discover countless new experiences." —Kirkus Reviews (starred) A unique combination of memoir, history, and travelogue, this is author David Downie's irreverent quest to uncover why Paris is the world's most romantic city—and has been for over 150 years. Abounding in secluded, atmospheric parks, artists' studios, cafes, restaurants and streets little changed since the 1800s, Paris exudes romance. The art and architecture, the cityscape, riverbanks, and the unparalleled quality of daily life are part of the equation. But the city's allure derives equally from hidden sources: querulous inhabitants, a bizarre culture of heroic negativity, and a rich historical past supplying enigmas, pleasures and challenges. Rarely do visitors suspect the glamor and chic and the carefree atmosphere of the City of Light grew from and still feed off the dark fountainheads of riot, rebellion, mayhem and melancholy—and the subversive literature, art and music of the Romantic Age. Weaving together his own with the lives and loves of Victor Hugo, Georges Sand, Charles Baudelaire, Balzac, Nadar and other great Romantics Downie delights in the city's secular romantic pilgrimage sites asking , Why Paris, not Venice or Rome—the tap root of "romance"—or Berlin, Vienna and London—where the earliest Romantics built castles-in-the-air and sang odes to nightingales? Read A Passion for Paris: Romanticism and Romance in the City of Light and find out.
Download or read book A Short History of France written by D. J. Peters and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2014-05-16 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Short History of France comprises brief accounts of significant events in the history of France. Some of the topics discussed in this book include the origins of France; Capetians to St. Louis; Joan of Arc and the restoration of France at the end of the Middle Ages; France from Charles VIII to the rise of Catherine de' Medici; end of the Valois line and the reign of Henry IV; and Mazarin and the years of the Fronde. Louis XIV and the establishment of absolutism; Waterloo to the revolution of 1848; The Second Empire and its collapse; and events in the last 50 years in France are also described in this text. This publication is valuable to French language and literature students who wish to gain general knowledge on French history.
Download or read book French Society written by Sharon Kettering and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-08-21 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a "birds eye" view of social change in France during the "long seventeenth century" from 1589-1715. One of the most dynamic phases of French history, it covers the reigns of the first three Bourbon kings, Henri IV, Louis XIII, and Louis XIV. The author explores the upheavals in French society during this period through an examination of the bonds which tied various classes and groupings together: including rank, honour, and reputation; family, household and kinship; faith and the Church; and state and obedience to the King. Acting as a social glue against instability and fragmentation, in periods of great transformation some of these social solidarities are eroded whilst new ones emerge. Sharon Kettering shows how nuclear family ties emerged at the expense of extended kinship ties, while traditional rural ties were eroded by a combination of demographic crisis and agricultural stagnation. Urban ties of neighbourhood, sociability and work increased with rapid urbanisation. By 1715, France had become a more peaceful and civilised place, and this book discusses some of the reasons why.
Download or read book The Story of Old France written by Hélène Adeline Guerber and published by . This book was released on 1910 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Louis XVI and the French Revolution 1789 1792 written by Ambrogio A. Caiani and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-20 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The experience, and failure, of Louis XVI's short-lived constitutional monarchy of 1789–92 deeply influenced the politics and course of the French Revolution. The dramatic breakdown of the political settlement of 1789 steered the French state into the decidedly stormy waters of political terror and warfare on an almost global scale. This book explores how the symbolic and political practices which underpinned traditional Bourbon kingship ultimately succumbed to the radical challenge posed by the Revolution's new 'proto-republican' culture. While most previous studies have focused on Louis XVI's real and imagined foreign counterrevolutionary plots, Ambrogio A. Caiani examines the king's hitherto neglected domestic activities in Paris. Drawing on previously unexplored archival source material, Caiani provides an alternative reading of Louis XVI in this period, arguing that the monarch's symbolic behaviour and the organisation of his daily activities and personal household were essential factors in the people's increasing alienation from the newly established constitutional monarchy.
Download or read book King of the World written by Philip Mansel and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 669 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Louis XIV was a man in pursuit of glory. Not content to be the ruler of a world power, he wanted the power to rule the world. And, for a time, he came tantalizingly close. Philip Mansel’s King of the World is the most comprehensive and up-to-date biography in English of this hypnotic, flawed figure who continues to captivate our attention. This lively work takes Louis outside Versailles and shows the true extent of his global ambitions, with stops in London, Madrid, Constantinople, Bangkok, and beyond. We witness the importance of his alliance with the Spanish crown and his success in securing Spain for his descendants, his enmity with England, and his relations with the rest of Europe, as well as Asia, Africa, and the Americas. We also see the king’s effect on the two great global diasporas of Huguenots and Jacobites, and their influence on him as he failed in his brutal attempts to stop Protestants from leaving France. Along the way, we are enveloped in the splendor of Louis’s court and the fascinating cast of characters who prostrated and plotted within it. King of the World is exceptionally researched, drawing on international archives and incorporating sources who knew the king intimately, including the newly released correspondence of Louis’s second wife, Madame de Maintenon. Mansel’s narrative flair is a perfect match for this grand figure, and he brings the Sun King’s world to vivid life. This is a global biography of a global king, whose power was extensive but also limited by laws and circumstances, and whose interests and ambitions stretched far beyond his homeland. Through it all, we watch Louis XIV progressively turn from a dazzling, attractive young king to a belligerent reactionary who sets France on the path to 1789. It is a convincing and compelling portrait of a man who, three hundred years after his death, still epitomizes the idea of le grand monarque.
