In recent generations, the study of dynastic politics and diplomatic history has undergone a revival. This field provides invaluable context for understanding international relations and focuses on aspects of cultural exchange and intellectual currents far more than previously. The “age of Louis XIV” has not been immune from this resurrection of interest in foreign policy and the conduct of diplomacy.
This book is the first serious full-length study of Louis XIV’s diplomatic relations with the small states of northern Italy, specifically the duchies of Parma, Modena, and Mantua-Monferrato. Louis’s desire to be seen as a peacemaker (despite his obvious bellicosity) extended to Italy, where he asserted the French crown’s potential as a broker of peace between rival dynasties. But his evident self-interest, and the need to preserve France’s perceived traditional alliance with the House of Savoy, undermined these efforts. He also failed to defend the interests of the dukes of Parma and Modena in their quarrels with the Holy See. After apparent successes in the Franco-Dutch War, Louis believed that he could undermine Spanish influence over the princes of Italy. But his attempts to do so antagonised both the Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs and the Lombardy dukes themselves, resulting in renewed war.
Louis XIV and the Peace of Europe analyses diplomatic culture at Versailles and at the small Italian courts, and assesses examples of artistic exchange. It will be valuable reading for undergraduates, graduate students, and historians of the field, as well as for those interested in Louis XIV and Italian culture more generally.
By:
John Condren
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9780367691875
ISBN 10: 0367691876
Series: Politics and Culture in Europe, 1650-1750
Pages: 244
Publication Date: 31 July 2024
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Part I: In the shadow of the cardinals (1659-1680) Chapter One “The king loves Italians”: cultural ties, dynastic exchanges, and private interests between the small Lombardy courts and France Chapter Two “For the public good of all Italy”: promoting a pax gallica in the north of the peninsula, 1659-1673 Chapter Three “Full of animosity against Rome”: Italy and the Corsican Guards Affair, 1662-1665 Part II: Tutela Italiae (1680-1695) Chapter Four “Bound to France with links of gold”: negotiating with the duke of Mantua for the occupation of Casale, 1679-1684 Chapter Five “His Majesty has enough enemies to contend with”: the path to war in Italy, 1685-1689 Chapter Six “In the claws of the imperial eagle”: the Italian princes abandoned by France, 1690-1695 Conclusion Bibliography Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Este family tree Farnese family tree Gonzaga di Guastalla family tree Gonzaga di Mantova and Gonzaga-Nevers family tree
John Condren received an MLitt and subsequently a PhD in History from the University of St Andrews, after completing an undergraduate degree in Law and European Studies at the University of Limerick. He has taught at the Universities of Limerick, St Andrews, and Oxford, and is currently an Assistant Professor in History at the University of Nottingham. His research focuses primarily on the diplomatic, political, military, intellectual, and cultural history of the Italian peninsula, the kingdom of France, the Republic of Geneva, and the Swiss Confederacy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This is his first book.
Reviews for Louis XIV and the Peace of Europe: French Diplomacy in Northern Italy, 1659 – 1701
‘Condren has written an excellent survey of the diplomatic and geostrategic developments in Northern Italy in the second half of the seventeenth century. He has filled a longstanding historiographical lacuna. As much as it presents a traditional reading of state relations, his inclusion and insistence on dynastic entanglements, the breath of his archival research and his lucid writing render his book a significant contribution not to be surpassed soon but merely complemented by research in its wake’ – The Seventeenth Century.
