Condé in Context
Ideological Change in Seventeenth-Century France

Mark Bannister

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Legenda (General Series)

Legenda

1 November 2000  •  254pp

ISBN: 1-900755-42-4 (paperback)  •  RRP £75, $99, €85

EnlightenmentFrenchHistory

Louis II de Bourbon (1621-86), known as Le Grand Condé, stood alongside Richelieu and Mazarin as one of the key figures who shaped the reign of Louis XIV. In response to profound upheavals in their world, his contemporaries looked to him to satisfy their need for a hero. Originally the warrior-hero par excellence, Condé was redefined by successive generations as the ideal subject of the absolutist state, as the epitome of civilized behaviour and, finally, as the exemplar of the triumph of faith over reason. In this first detailed study in English of Le Grand Condé's significance for his contemporaries, Mark Bannister reveals the complexity of the ideological patterns forming and reforming in seventeenth-century France, and the perennial need to believe in the existence of an iconic figure, incarnating new values as they emerge.

Mark Bannister is Professor of French at Oxford Brookes University. He is the author of Privileged Mortals: The French Heroic Novel, 1630-1660 (1983) and has published widely on the evolution of ethical and ideological mentalités throughout the seventeenth century.

Reviews:

  • ‘Bannister does an excellent job of reminding us that changes in relationships of power are the product of more than political developments or individual actions... Anyone interested in the nature of the seventeenth-century state will appreciate how the approach to the subject has just been widened.’ — Alan James, French History 16.2, 2002, 233-4
  • Gerrit Walther, Historische Zeitschrift 275, 2002, 195-6
  • ‘Compelling... Bannister's account, full of scholarly enthusiasm and fascination with the subject, is exemplary in introducing readers to the crucial relation between political and cultural transformations in a society that both resisted and welcomed them.’ — Henry Phillips, French Studies LVII.1, 2003, 80-1

Bibliography entry:

Bannister, Mark, Condé in Context: Ideological Change in Seventeenth-Century France (Legenda, 2000)

First footnote reference: 35 Mark Bannister, Condé in Context: Ideological Change in Seventeenth-Century France (Legenda, 2000), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Bannister, p. 47.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

Bibliography entry:

Bannister, Mark. 2000. Condé in Context: Ideological Change in Seventeenth-Century France (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Bannister 2000: 21).

Example footnote reference: 35 Bannister 2000: 21.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

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