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- Title
Patronage and Seigneurial Authority in Early Modern Alsace.
- Authors
LAZER, STEPHEN
- Abstract
Historians have for decades studied how the French monarchy used patronage to increase its influence over newly conquered and distant provinces in the early modern period. However, provincial elites too had access to patronage that they could use to both resist French authority and cement their own. This article examines how the dukes of Pfalz-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld maintained the primacy of their seigneurial administrations and could thus also use patronage powers to check French authority. Case studies show that the dukes initially suffered from the intervention of French provincial patrons in their seigneurial appointments. After securing their position in Alsace, however, the dukes protected their autonomy by rejecting others' candidates. Having resisted French patronage, the dukes demonstrated their importance further by pushing their own candidates onto the provincial administration.
- Subjects
PATRONAGE; ALSACE (France) politics &; government; DUKES (Nobility); BAILIFFS; FRENCH monarchy; ALSATIANS; FRENCH politics &; government, 1643-1715; FRENCH politics &; government, 1715-1774
- Publication
French Historical Studies, 2018, Vol 41, Issue 3, p495
- ISSN
0016-1071
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1215/00161071-6682142