Research Catalog

Private ambition and political alliances : the Phélypeaux de Pontchartrain family and Louis XIV's government, 1650-1715

Title: Private ambition and political alliances : the Phélypeaux de Pontchartrain family and Louis XIV's government, 1650-1715 / Sara E. Chapman.
Author: Chapman, Sara E., 1967-
Publication: Rochester, NY : University of Rochester Press, 2004.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	DC130.P66 C48 2004	Off-site

Details

Description

xv, 292 pages : illustrations; 24 cm.

Summary

"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.

Series Statement

Changing perspectives in early modern Europe, 1542-3905

Uniform Title

Changing perspectives on early modern Europe

Subject

Genre/Form

Biography
Biographies.
History.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-269) and index.

Contents

The origins of the Pontchartrains' patron-client networks -- From Brittany to Versailles : building clienteles and cultivating clients -- Louis de Pontchartrain as controller general of finances and the institutions of royal finances -- The controller general and informal networks of political power -- The Pontchartrains as secretaries of state for the navy and colonies -- Louis de Pontchartrain as chancellor, 1699-1714.

ISBN

1580461530
9781580461535

LCCN

2003024569

OCLC

ocm53398055
53398055
SCSB-14625923

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library