The kingdom's two bodies? : corporeal rhetoric and royal authority during the religious wars

The conventional discourse of the body politic assumed a peculiar resonance during the French religious wars due to the unique identification of the king with the well-being of his kingdom. The duality of this relationship was echoed in the language and imagery of corporeal rhetoric which infused the declarations of all sides during the conflict. The combined threat of heresy and civil war, and the shared imperative to defend the unity and integrity of the kingdom, lent a renewed relevance, but also a profound discord, to this rhetoric. While opinions differed about the best means to cure France's ills—the royal policy of pacification being the most controversial of them—monarchical authority was bolstered by the king's undisputed role as head of the body politic and protector of, and physician to, his realm

Urban conflict and royal authority : popular revolts in sixteenth-century Troyes

This paper explores the relative balance between socio-economic grievance and confessional and political division in urban revolts during the period of the French religious wars. More particularly, it focuses on two such incidents in the town of Troyes in Champagne in the summer of 1586 and what they can tell us about the influence of popular discontent on municipal politics and town–crown relations, as well as the impact of civil war, subsistence crisis and increasing taxation on urban communities. The continuity of the traditions of popular revolt are explored alongside the implications for royal authority of the official response to such unrest. Social tensions and economic concerns dominated events in the town, whilst the crown’s right and ability to enforce its will continued to be accepted and upheld. Thus, despite the disruption of civil strife, the competing interests of the municipal authorities, the urban populace and the monarchy were able to maintain a delicate equilibrium through the traditional mechanism of negotiation and compromise

French historians and collective violence

French historians and French history have dominated the study of early modern violence. This essay addresses why this is so and what has characterized French historians’ approaches to collective violence in particular, whether in the form of popular revolt, confessional division or revolutionary violence. It posits that historians are essentially uncomfortable in defending and explaining popular violence in the past, that they ought to address this issue more directly and not to establish too much cultural distance from their subjects in doing so. It concludes with some reflections on approaches to violence in the past and the present, how historians and others talk about and engage with violence, and how its treatment today should inform how historians address the challenges of writing the history of violence in the future

Interdisciplinary Aspects of Cultural Engagement in Older Adults: Who/What/Why/When/How

The population of the United States is aging. Caring for older adults requires a variety of approaches and collaboration among professionals. One approach, cultural engagement, involves experiences rooted in cultural activities, such as choir singing, group music, art- and craft-making, drama involvement, etc. Cultural engagement provides opportunities to address aging-associated issues that will not interfere with medication or other treatments. The concept of cultural engagement has been successfully applied to a number of fields including chronic disease management, addictive behaviors, and pain control

Acceptable truths' during the French Religious Wars

This paper seeks to provide some historical perspective on contemporary preoccupations with competing versions of the truth. Truth has always been contested and subject to scrutiny, particularly during troubled times. It can take many forms – judicial truth, religious truth, personal truth – and is bound up with the context of time and place. This paper sets out the multidisciplinary approaches to truth and examines its role in a specific context, that of early modern Europe and, in particular, the French religious wars of the sixteenth century. Truth was a subject of intense debate among both Renaissance and Reformation scholars, it was upheld as an absolute by judges, theologians and rulers. Yet, it also needed to be concealed by those who maintained a different truth to that of the authorities. In the case of France, in order to advance their cause, the Huguenots used subterfuge of various kinds, including the illicit carrying of messages. In this instance, truth was dependent on the integrity of its carrier, whether the messenger could be trusted and, therefore, their truth accepted. Both sides also sought to defend the truth by countering what they presented as the deceit of their opponents. Then, as now, acceptance of what is true depends on which side we are on and who we are prepared to believe

Violence by royal command : a judicial 'moment' (1574-1575)

On 26 June 1574, Gabriel de Lorges, comte de Montgomery and Huguenot commander, was executed in Paris. Propaganda condoning his fate quickly appeared. Printed discourses claimed that not only was Montgomery a ‘true monster … born to subvert and ruin this kingdom’ and leader of conspirators and rebels, but that he had shown ‘sacrilegious disloyalty’. Over a period of thirteen to fourteen years, he had taken up arms against the king no less than five times (suggesting that the Crown had been more than patient with him), and that in the end he had been ‘salarié’, that is had received his just desserts as a non-repentant rebel.2 By contrast, other sources report that on the scaffold he refused to confess or repent, declaring that ‘he would die for his religion, that he had not committed treason, nor anything else against his prince’, and prayed ‘as those of his religion’ did.3 Montgomery’s execution thus divided contemporary opinion. His gratuitous cruelty and repeated sedition were cited as justification for his sentence, whereas his piety and restraint contradicted this same verdict. This event might seem disconnected from the better-known St Bartholomew’s Day massacres which preceded it, but, when seen in its wider context, it forms part of an apparent shift in the French monarchy’s attitude which was embodied in its enforcement of judicial violence. In turn, this change in approach can best be seen as a royal response both to the radicalization of the Huguenot movement and to the fears of subsequent plots, involving both Protestants and Catholics, in the wake of the massacres

Epilogue : violence and order present and past

Through war, coercion and conquest, violence has always been central to the establishment of political and social order. Thus, the relationship between violence and order is interdependent and, yet, we remain squeamish in admitting that fact. Violence is more readily associated with disorder, but that depends on who is wielding it and to what ends. As the editors of this volume assert in their introduction, what constitutes an acceptable use of violence is historically and culturally, and even individually, contingent and changes over time

‘This beautiful appearance … has gradually transformed and become altogether monstrous’ : the massacre at Troyes as a foreseeable tragedy

The massacres that took place in several provincial towns during August, September and October 1572 have attracted far less attention than the intense historical scrutiny given to events in Paris. This relative neglect gives the impression that there is nothing more to say about these episodes of violence except as aftershocks of the main event. Focusing on the case of Troyes in Champagne, this article demonstrates that the provincial massacres are worthy of re-examination. It reconsiders the context of the killing on the streets and in the prison of the town and, in particular, those who were supposedly responsible for ordering the bloodshed. Although it remains impossible to reconstruct a complete picture, the unusual richness of the surviving local sources allows for a more nuanced analysis than provided hitherto and a better-informed understanding of the events as they unfolded