Jeux de rois. France et Angleterre à l’heure de l’absolutisme naissant (1610-1642)
Authors:   , Boyko Maxim 
Published: May 2024

Did the pre-absolutist monarchs of the first half of the 17th century have the diplomatic apparatus corresponding to their policy and aligned with their ambitions – in other words, did they have the means to their ends? Or did they rather determine their policy based on their diplomatic apparatus? The main objective of this thesis is to examine and deepen our knowledge of the relations between France and England from the death of Henry IV in 1610 until the year 1642, marked by the death of Richelieu and the outbreak of revolution and civil war in Britain. The study of this period – a period which may both seem familiar while also remaining little studied and generally perceived through the prism of the novels of Alexandre Dumas – is not intended to be a simple chronological and event-based account of French-English political-diplomatic interactions, but ambitions to analyze both the state of the administrative structures of the diplomatic apparatus of these two pre-absolutist states and the sociology of its diplomatic actors, aiming to understand how they influenced the course of political events between the two crowns. Thus, this study aims to highlight the major feature of diplomacy in early modernity as it emerges from the study of Franco-English relations: with diplomacy still poorly structured on the administrative level and therefore lagging behind in the “modernization” of the modern pre-absolutist State instruments, it is the tool of an already intense but protean foreign policy, which builds on several channels not yet exclusive of one another, but nevertheless follows codes and very precise protocols, for which every detail is invested with political undertones. From this perspective, diplomacy can thus be seen as a set of rituals, a political “choreography” but in which paradoxically, the gestures were imposed with great precision without however being entrusted to a structured administrative apparatus. In the absence of the latter, the role of the ambassador is even more central in Franco-English Baroque diplomacy, performing the acts like the artists in a ballet or a theatrical play. In this regard, this thesis also aims to propose a socio-professional study of leading official diplomatic personnel in order to identify the composition of the diplomatic pool from which the monarchies drew in order to find candidates, to understand how future ambassadors prepared for a possible exercise of functions abroad, and to shed light on the reasons for the recruitment and choice of a particular person. What is more, this study – comparative by its inherent nature – will allow us to raise the question of the professionalization of diplomatic activity, which was at unequal levels in France and England but unfinished everywhere. Furthermore – and corresponding to an additional feature that this work aims to highlight – ambassadors did not have a monopoly on diplomatic relations. We will rather show that these relations were also the work of a multitude of other actors – not very articulated – of all ranks and kind, who flourished on both sides of the Channel, carrying out both official and unofficial missions and playing, in increasing numbers, a game in the interactions between the two crowns. Finally, in line with the elements outlined above, we will propose a renewed understanding of certain major political and strategic movements of the years 1610-1642 in light of our study of the political-diplomatic apparatus structure, based in particular on the analysis of diplomatic correspondence and private writings of the actors. Drawing on these sources, from both English and French archives as well as from powerful outside actors such as Venice, allows us to go beyond national prisms in our analysis and understanding of events, prisms whose influence nevertheless remains significant throughout the period that interests us.