The Myth Of Absolutism: Change & Continuity In Early Modern European Monarchy

Conventionally, ``absolutism'' in early-modern Europe has suggested unfettered autocracy and despotism -- the erosion of rights, the centralisation of decision-making, the loss of liberty. Everything, in a word, that was un-British but characteristic of ancien-regime France. Recently historians have questioned such comfortably simplistic views. This lively investigation of ``absolutism'' in action -- continent-wide but centred on a detailed comparison of France and England -- dissolves the traditional picture to reveal a much more complex reality; and in so doing illuminates the varied ways in which early-modern Europe was governed.

• • Author: Nicholas Henshall
• • Publisher: Routledge
• • Publication Date: Mar 06, 2017
• • Number of Pages: 256 pages
• • Language: English
• • Binding: Hardcover
• • ISBN-10: 1138180505
• • ISBN-13: 9781138180505