France in the Age of Henri IV: The Struggle for Stability

"Mark Greengrass is a scholar of rare distinction. This book originally came out in 1985, and the fully revised edition ten years later. Like Babelon, Greengrass has a remarkable grasp of primary sources originating in many different regions of France. What’s particularly impressive is his mastery of a great deal of the pamphlet and broadside literature of the time. There were no public opinion polls or elections back then, so if you as a historian want to get at what ordinary people were thinking, where do you go? There are a few famous chronicles from that time to cite (for example, that of Pierre de L’Estoile), but then you’re stuck with assuming that the chronicler’s opinion is representative, something that can’t be verified. Greengrass’s solution is to examine broadsides and pamphlets that originated and were widely circulated in different parts of the country, identifying themes and ideas being repeated. Using these materials, Greengrass tries to establish the mindset of ordinary people. He shows, for example, how the foot soldiers in these vast movements were moved by the theological arguments of the time. They saw themselves threatened by contrary beliefs that undermined their group identity. Unlike the first two books, this is not so much a narrative as an analytic study of Henri’s success in restabilizing France. Greengrass argues that Henri didn’t eliminate the sources of instability, because you find them in later generations, too: religious fanatics, ambitious nobility, dissidents of one kind or another, Spanish meddling. But the ability of the established institutions to resist and contain these threats to the social order and the body politic is there by the time Henri leaves the scene, because he had done so much to reinvigorate these structures. These establishments—law courts, universities, the treasury, the financiers, the Church—all had new confidence in their ability to manage disruptions and discords, thanks to the efforts of Henri and his close associates. He also covers Henri’s conversion, which is terribly important. The majority of the country was still strongly Catholic, but the Huguenot minority was willing—somewhat begrudgingly—to accept the olive branch that Henri held out to them. The restoration of the state’s finances is essential in Greengrass’s account, as are various measures taken to stimulate commerce. The simple restoration of normalcy brought commerce and the commercial sector back to life. At the same time, by re-establishing royal “law and order” in the countryside, peasants and local artisans, who had suffered bitterly during the decades of civil strife, had less reason to reason to worry about being strongarmed by the local nobility. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . To win over the nobility, the muscle in early modern societies, Henri made use of the purse, handing out offices and cash grants to bail the nobility out of the financial morass in which many found themselves in the aftermath of the civil wars. To win over the equally important judicial and administrative elites, Henri reinstated the paulette —the right, by virtue of paying an annual fee, to pass on an office to an heir. And so we come back to the idea that Henri makes it self-evident to the French people of that time that without a strong central power, everything falls apart. Thus, the monarchy regained its legitimacy, as did his own dynasty. In Henri’s actions, one can see the line to Richelieu, Louis XIV and the strong, highly centralized Bourbon monarchy of ancien régime France."