Histoire de France 1661-1690 (Volume 15/19)

The volume surveys French political and religious life from 1661 to 1690 under a dominant monarch, arguing that religion shaped politics as much as diplomacy or administration. It traces the papacy's renewed influence, the trajectory toward the revocation of Protestant toleration and large-scale emigration, and the social and moral consequences of persecution. It examines centralization efforts, ministerial projects, and moments when the sovereign's personal will overrode bureaucratic schemes, alongside vivid cultural production—literature, rhetoric, and ceremonial—that both disguised and manifested state authority. The narrative balances recognition of administrative elegance and artistic achievement with critique of coercive state power and its human costs.