Noble Power during the French Wars of Religion: The Guise Affinity and the Catholic Cause in Normandy (review)

Noble Power during the French Wars of Religion: The Guise Affinity and the Catholic Cause in Normandy. By Stuart Carroll (New York, Cambridge University Press, 1998) 298 pp. $59.95.

This book is one of a growing number of similar studies--for instance, by Bourquin, Cassan, and Beguin--to test existing assumptions about the nature and operation of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century noble clientage through the investigation of individual great noble clienteles (the author uses the term "affinity" for clientele). ¹ This one examines the development and political use of the Guise clientele in Normandy during the last half of the sixteenth century, arguing that it helped to determine the outcome of the Wars of Religion because the political center, the royal court, was fragmented and unstable.

Out of favor and excluded from court, the Guise by necessity developed their provincial power base to counterbalance the court's wavering influence. Although their traditional power base was in Champagne, they expanded into Normandy, a pivotally important province. The Guise steadily accumulated land and other forms of wealth, such as benefices and dowries; they made good marriages and expanded their ties with the local elite; they added control of royal and ecclesiastical patronage to their own resources to increase the size of their clientele dramatically; and they became the rallying point for the Catholic cause in the north. As a result, the provincial Catholic nobility and peasantry flocked to their support. They became the most powerful, wealthiest family in France, and their support of the Catholic cause helps to explain its victory.

The book's originality lies in its exploration of the interaction between court and provincial politics through the goals and maneuverings of this great noble family, demonstrating its influence on the religious wars. The argument is thoroughly researched and convincing, based on new archival evidence, and beautifully presented with excellent charts, diagrams, maps, drawings, and extensive appendixes.

Though it has much to recommend it, this work has stylistic problems. The author's desire to distinguish it from that of his colleagues has led him to overstate. He writes, for example, "This study has widened the horizon of traditional political history by elucidating the relationship between aristocrats, clients, and the wider population. . . . The current historiographical trend, which distinguishes between the study of aristocratic 'politics' and 'popular' religious mentalities, is misguided" (251). In fact, the book focuses mostly on aristocrats and their clients with considerably less to say about the wider population, and the author seems to enjoy cataloging the errors of his colleagues, including Robert Harding, N. M. Sutherland, Kristen Neuschel, Lucien Romier, Manfred Orlea, and Denis Crouzet. They are described as exhibiting "misconceptions" (14, 161), an "inaccurate reading" (93), an "uncritical reading" (121, n. 45), a "mistake" (138), a "failure to understand" (14, 126), "flawed methodology" (6), "lack of credence" (20), "insufficient attention" (207), etc. I was reminded of a gunslinger from the Old West holstering his pistols after filling Boot Hill (I hasten to add that I was not a target, probably because I am a considered a resident already). The author's unpleasant method of exposition is unnecessary and detracts from an otherwise excellent book. The author is to be praised, however, for expanding our knowledge of early modern French clientage.

Sharon Kettering
Montgomery College in Maryland

Note

1. Laurent Bourquin, Noblesse seconde et pouvoir en Champagne aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles (Paris, 1994); Michel Cassan, Le temps des guerres de religion. Le cas du Limousin (vers 1530-vers 1630) (Paris, 1996); Katia Beguin, Les princes de condé. Rebelles, courtisans et mécènes dans la France du Grand Siècle (Seyssel, 1999).

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