Private ambition and political alliances
Subtitle: the Phélypeaux de Pontchartrain family and Louis XIV's government, 1650-1715
By: Sara E. Chapman.
Series: Changing perspectives in early modern Europe
Publisher: University of Rochester Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Rochester, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 292
Subjects: Pontchartrain, Louis Phélypeaux, -- comte de, -- 1643-1727; Pontchartrain, Jérôme Phélypeaux, -- comte de, -- 1674-1747; Statesmen -- France -- Biography; Patron and client -- France -- History -- 16th century; Patron and client -- France -- History -- 17th century; Patronage, Political -- France -- History -- 16th century; Patronage, Political -- France -- History -- 17th century; France -- Court and courtiers -- Biography; France -- Politics and government -- 1643-1715
Genres: Biography.
Other titles: Phélypeaux de Pontchartrain family and Louis XIV's government, 1650-1715
Description: "This book explores the processes of state-building and the nature of political power in France during the reign of Louis XIV (1643-1715) through a study of a prominent ministerial family, the Phelypeaux de Pontchartrain. During the initial development of French governmental institutions in early modern France, patron-client ties provided networks for the transmission of political power that often paralleled or underpinned formal state institutions. In the absence of an efficient state bureaucracy, these informal patron-client ties tended to be grounded in personal connections between patrons and clients: marriage, kinship, or friendship. During the second half of the reign of Louis XIV, however, earlier state-building and centralizing initiatives began to take root." "Although this study focuses primarily on one family, the Phelypeaux de Pontchartrain, it provides a broad study of institutions and political authority in the early modern French state from 1670 to 1715. Louis Phelypeaux de Pontchartrain and his son Jerome became members of the small circle of Louis XIV's most important advisors and, as royal councillors, they headed virtually every administrative division in the royal government over the course of their careers: finances, the navy, the colonies, the king's household, and the justice system." "This study maps the evolution and development of the family's personal networks of power that included political partons and clients in the "parlements" (law courts) in France, the royal court, among the clergy, in the outlying provinces, in the navy, and in the French colonies. The Pontchartrain family's complex political networks also show the important role of noblewomen in political networks and state-building. Marriage alliances proved to be an importance factor in the family's ability to weather political crisis and scandals that beset the clan in the early seventeenth century."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-269) and index.
Table of contents: title: The origins of the Pontchartrains' patron-client; title: From Brittany to Versailles; title: Louis de Pontchartrain as controller general of finances and the institutions of royal finances; title: The controller general and informal networks of political power; title: The Pontchartrains as secretaries of state for the navy and colonies; title: Louis de Pontchartrain as chancellor, 1699-1714.