Historians of the ancien régime have long been interested in the relationship between religion and politics, and yet many issues remain contentious, including the question of sacral monarchy. Scholars are divided over how - and, indeed, if - it actually operated. With its nuanced analysis of the cult of Saint Louis, covering a vast swathe of French history from the Wars of Religion through the zenith of absolute monarchy under Louis XIV to the French Revolution and Restoration, Sacral Kingship in Bourbon France makes a major contribution to this debate and to our overall understanding of France in this fascinating period.
Saint Louis IX was the ancestor of the Bourbons and widely regarded as the epitome of good Christian kingship. As such, his cult and memory held a significant place in the political, religious, and artistic culture of Bourbon France. However, as this book reveals, likenesses to Saint Louis were not only employed by royal flatterers but also used by opponents of the monarchy to criticize reigning kings. What, then, does Saint Louis' cult reveal about how monarchies fostered a culture of loyalty, and how did sacral monarchy interact with the dramatic religious, political and intellectual developments of this era?
From manuscripts to paintings to music, Sean Heath skilfully engages with a vast array of primary source material and modern debates on sacral kingship to provide an enlightening and comprehensive analysis of the role of Saint Louis in early modern France.
Author(s): Sean Heath
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 297
City: London
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Figures
Acknowledgements
Note on proper names and translations
Abbreviations
Archives and libraries
Periodicals
Introduction
Sacral kingship
The politics of memory
Early modern sanctity
The historiography of the cult of Saint Louis
Chapter 1: Patron and protector of France: Saint Louis and his cult up to 1618
From Louis IX to Saint Louis
Henri IV and the establishment of Bourbon legitimacy
The restoration of the cult in 1618
Conclusion
2: The saint of kings and the king of saints: Perceptions of Saint Louis, 1618–1715
Saint Louis in seventeenth-century historiography
The panegyrics of Saint Louis
Saint Louis and the crusading ideal
Conclusion
Chapter 3: Ruling France under the shadow of Saint Louis, 1610–1715
Saint Louis and Louis the Just
Saint Louis during the Fronde
Saint Louis and the Sun King
Royal devotion to Saint Louis
Conclusion
Chapter 4: The spread of the cult, 1618–1789
The feast in Paris
The feast in the dioceses
The feast in the provinces
Dedications across France
Saint Louis in the French colonies
Saint Louis in foreign capitals
Conclusion
Chapter 5: Patterns of devotion
Relics and miracles
Liturgy
A saint for the grands
Conclusion
Chapter 6: Saint Louis in the age of Enlightenment and Revolution, 1715–92
Patron of the monarchy
The legislator king
Controversial crusades
The decline and fall of Saint Louis
Conclusion
Chapter 7: Saint Louis from exile to restoration, 1792–18301
A counter-revolutionary saint
Saint Louis and the Charte
The feast of Saint-Louis during the Restoration
Conclusion
Conclusion
Notes
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Conclusion
Bibliography
Manuscripts
Primary sources printed before 1830
Primary sources printed after 1830
Secondary sources
Theses
Index
