Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon: religion, power and politics - a study in circles of influence during the later reign of Louis XIV, 1684-1715.
Publisher
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The thesis examines the career of the marquise de Maintenon at the court of
Louis XIV, to whom she was secretly married in 1684. Maintenon has traditionally been
depicted either as a scheming religious bigot, or as a powerless and dutiful wife whose
only concerns were her finishing school at Saint-Cyr and the king's salvation. This study
demonstrates that Maintenon was a collaborator rather than a conspirator. It contends
that Louis was compelled to share the burdens of monarchy with his discreet and astute
consort, who became the king's chief confidante and counsellor as his age increased, his
troubles mounted and his confidence diminished.
The thesis charts the erratic and unpremeditated evolution of the marquise's
métier primarily using the vast, largely unpublished, correspondence she transacted with
French and foreign dignitaries, including popes and sovereigns. It investigates her
private and public works, preoccupations and relationships, illuminating her clandestine
clientage and patronage networks, exposing the mechanisms and balance of power at
court, and unveiling the complexity of her unofficial position entrenched next to
Europe's most powerful monarch. It concludes that she made a dramatic impact on the
religious, political, social, cultural and ritual life of the court, the royal family and the
king, and that she profoundly affected the increasingly personal and informal
monarchical system that Louis adopted in his later rule.
An investigation of Maintenon's initial activities reveals that she was principally
concerned with charitable and pious projects. She reformed the king's religion and
forcibly converted her Protestant relatives, but subsequently attended ministerial
meetings,interfered in ecclesiastical appointments and became embroiled in doctrinal
controversies. From 1700 Maintenon assumed a more influential political position,
participating in conciliar discussions,receiving and naming ambassadors, mediating
between courts, intervening in crises, levelling factions, monopolizing nominations to
benefices, selecting ministers and modifying government policies.
Authors
Bryant, MarkCollections
- Theses [3834]