The Myth of Absolutism Change and Continuity in Early Modern European Monarchy

Nicholas Henshall, "The Myth of Absolutism: Change and Continuity in Early Modern European Monarchy"
English | 2013 | pages: 256 | ISBN: 0582056187, 1138180505 | PDF | 14,9 mb
Conventionally, ``absolutism'' in early-modern Europe has suggested unfettered autocracy and despotism - the erosion of rights, the centralisation of decision-making, the loss of liberty. Everything, in a word, that was un-British but characteristic of ancien-regime France. Recently historians have questioned such comfortably simplistic views. This lively investigation of ``absolutism'' in action - continent-wide but centred on a detailed comparison of France and England - dissolves the traditional picture to reveal a much more complex reality; and in so doing illuminates the varied ways in which early-modern Europe was governed.