A Monarchy Transformed

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Monarchy Transformed

Author : Robert von Friedeburg
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108248799
Total Pages : 407 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (82 download)

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Book Synopsis Monarchy Transformed by : Robert von Friedeburg

Download or read book Monarchy Transformed written by Robert von Friedeburg and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-17 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This decisive contribution to the long-running debate about the dynamics of state formation and elite transformation in early modern Europe examines the new monarchies that emerged during the course of the 'long seventeenth century'. It argues that the players surviving the power struggles of this period were not 'states' in any modern sense, but primarily princely dynasties pursuing not only dynastic ambitions and princely prestige but the consequences of dynastic chance. At the same time, elites, far from insisting on confrontation with the government of princes for principled ideological reasons, had every reason to seek compromise and even advancement through new channels that the governing dynasty offered, if only they could profit from them. Monarchy Transformed ultimately challenges the inevitability of modern maps of Europe and shows how, instead of promoting state formation, the wars of the period witnessed the creation of several dynastic agglomerates and new kinds of aristocracy.

Monarchy Transformed

Author : Robert von Friedeburg
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1316510247
Total Pages : 407 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (165 download)

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Book Synopsis Monarchy Transformed by : Robert von Friedeburg

Download or read book Monarchy Transformed written by Robert von Friedeburg and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-17 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Until the 1960s, it was widely assumed that in Western Europe the 'New Monarchy' propelled kingdoms and principalities onto a modern nation-state trajectory. John I of Portugal (1358-1433), Charles VII (1403-1461) and Louis XI (1423-1483) of France, Henry VII and Henry VIII of England (1457-1509, 1509-1553), Isabella of Castile (1474-1504) and Ferdinand of Aragon (1479-1516) were, by improving royal administration, by bringing more continuity to communication with their estates and by introducing more regular taxation, all seen to have served that goal. In this view, princes were assigned to the role of developing and implementing the sinews of state as a sovereign entity characterized by the coherence of its territorial borders and its central administration and government. They shed medieval traditions of counsel and instead enforced relations of obedience toward the emerging 'state'."--Provided by publisher.

Democratic Royalism

Author : W. Kuhn
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 0230375669
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (33 download)

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Book Synopsis Democratic Royalism by : W. Kuhn

Download or read book Democratic Royalism written by W. Kuhn and published by Springer. This book was released on 1996-10-04 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the decades before the First World War no British institution epitomised national identity more forcefully than the monarchy, and no other institution inspired such a universal feeling of loyalty and attachment. The crown reached this position in the half-century after 1861 by giving up its residual political power to a more powerful and more representative House of Commons and transforming itself into a powerfully symbolic institution, by concentrating its efforts on ceremony. The politicians who transformed the monarchy in an era of mass politics, mass movements and massive ceremonial displays constituted a cross-section of the political world. What were these men doing? What was in their minds as they planned enormous royal spectacles in London? This book focuses on the action of five different individuals who created the modern monarchy: Walter Bagehot, W.E. Gladstone, Lord Esher, Randall Davidson and the Duke of Norfolk.

A Monarchy Transformed

Author : Mark Kishlansky
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0140148272
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (41 download)

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Book Synopsis A Monarchy Transformed by : Mark Kishlansky

Download or read book A Monarchy Transformed written by Mark Kishlansky and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1997-12-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The seventeenth century, writes Mark Kishlansky, was “a wheel of transformation in perpetual motion,” a period of political and religious upheaval that defined the nation for decades to come and remains critical for understanding the nation today. Beginning with the accession of James I and concluding with the death of Queen Anne, this compelling account describes the tempestuous events that took place during the Stuart dynasty and provides lively pen portraits of the many fascinating personalities involved. Conspiracies, rebellions, and revolutions jostle side by side with court intrigues, political infighting and the rise of parties. In 1603 Britain was an isolated archipelago; by 1714 it had emerged among the intellectual, commercial, and military centers of the world. “Kishlansky’s century saw one king executed, another exiled, the House of Lords abolished, and the Church of England reconstructed along Presbyterian lines . . . A masterly narrative, shot through with the shrewdness that comes from profound scholarship.”—Jonathan Clark, Spectator “A historian with a real love for the period, a real understanding of many different aspects of it, and an exhilarating style.”—Ronald Hutton, The Times Literary Supplement “This sweeping, dramatic chronicle of a century of Stuart rule will rivet even the general reader with no particular interest in British history.”—Publishers Weekly

Transforming Leadership

Author : James MacGregor Burns
Publisher : Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN 13 : 1555846165
Total Pages : 481 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (558 download)

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Book Synopsis Transforming Leadership by : James MacGregor Burns

Download or read book Transforming Leadership written by James MacGregor Burns and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times–bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner examines the history of leadership, and the crucial role of leaders in a healthy democracy. In Transforming Leadership, James MacGregor Burns illuminates the evolution of leadership structures—from the chieftains of tribal African societies, through Europe’s absolute monarchies, to the blossoming of the Enlightenment’s ideals of liberty and happiness during the American Revolution. Along the way, he looks at key breakthroughs in leadership and the towering leaders who attempted to transform their worlds—Elizabeth I, Washington, Jefferson, Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, Gorbachev, and others. Culminating in a bold and innovative plan to address the greatest global leadership challenge of the twenty-first century, the long-intractable problem of global poverty, Transforming Leadership will spark lively discussion in classrooms and boardrooms throughout the country.

Sources and Debates in English History, 1485 - 1714

Author : Newton Key
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1405162767
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (51 download)

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Book Synopsis Sources and Debates in English History, 1485 - 1714 by : Newton Key

Download or read book Sources and Debates in English History, 1485 - 1714 written by Newton Key and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-02-02 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Designed to accompany the survey text Early Modern England: 1485-1714, this updated and expanded Sourcebook brings together an impressive array of Tudor-Stuart documents and illustrations, as well as extensive bibliographies and research and discussion guides. New edition contains 50 new documents, more explanatory text, illustrations, biographical background, and study questions Wide range of documents, from both manuscript and print sources, and from transcripts of private and public life Editorial material introduces students to the critical context; chapter bibliographies and questions allow ready integration into classroom, and research and source analysis assignments. Bibliography of Historians’ Debates with the latest articles and essays Accompanies the survey text Early Modern England: 1485-1714 Click here for more discussion and debate on the authors’ blogspot: http://earlymodernengland.blogspot.com/ [Wiley disclaims all responsibility and liability for the content of any third-party websites that can be linked to from this website. Users assume sole responsibility for accessing third-party websites and the use of any content appearing on such websites. Any views expressed in such websites are the views of the authors of the content appearing on those websites and not the views of Wiley or its affiliates, nor do they in any way represent an endorsement by Wiley or its affiliates.]

A Reforming People

Author : David D. Hall
Publisher : UNC Press Books
ISBN 13 : 0807837113
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (78 download)

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Book Synopsis A Reforming People by : David D. Hall

Download or read book A Reforming People written by David D. Hall and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this revelatory account of the people who founded the New England colonies, historian David D. Hall compares the reforms they enacted with those attempted in England during the period of the English Revolution. Bringing with them a deep fear of arbitrary, unlimited authority, these settlers based their churches on the participation of laypeople and insisted on "consent" as a premise of all civil governance. Puritans also transformed civil and criminal law and the workings of courts with the intention of establishing equity. In this political and social history of the five New England colonies, Hall provides a masterful re-evaluation of the earliest moments of New England's history, revealing the colonists to be the most effective and daring reformers of their day.

Sacral Kingship Between Disenchantment and Re-enchantment

Author : Ronald G. Asch
Publisher : Berghahn Books
ISBN 13 : 1782383573
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (823 download)

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Book Synopsis Sacral Kingship Between Disenchantment and Re-enchantment by : Ronald G. Asch

Download or read book Sacral Kingship Between Disenchantment and Re-enchantment written by Ronald G. Asch and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: France and England are often seen as monarchies standing at opposite ends of the spectrum of seventeenth-century European political culture. On the one hand the Bourbon monarchy took the high road to absolutism, while on the other the Stuarts never quite recovered from the diminution of their royal authority following the regicide of Charles I in 1649. However, both monarchies shared a common medieval heritage of sacral kingship, and their histories remained deeply entangled throughout the century. This study focuses on the interaction between ideas of monarchy and images of power in the two countries between the execution of Mary Queen of Scots and the Glorious Revolution. It demonstrates that even in periods when politics were seemingly secularized, as in France at the end of the Wars of Religion, and in latter seventeenth- century England, the appeal to religious images and values still lent legitimacy to royal authority by emphasizing the sacral aura or providential role which church and religion conferred on monarchs.

Wallis in Love

Author : Andrew Morton
Publisher : Michael O'Mara Books
ISBN 13 : 1782437231
Total Pages : 392 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (824 download)

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Book Synopsis Wallis in Love by : Andrew Morton

Download or read book Wallis in Love written by Andrew Morton and published by Michael O'Mara Books. This book was released on 2018-02-13 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. Sunday Times bestselling author Andrew Morton reveals new information and sources that totally transform our perception of Wallis Simpson. Wallis in Love brings a fascinating new perspective on the 20th century's most controversial royal scandal. Andrew Morton's impeccable research and unerring skill for riveting storytelling combine to present a strong case for a new and startling reveal: that the woman who rocked the world with her uncompromising passion for the Prince of Wales may have fooled everyone by keeping the object of her true passion hidden away... From her relatively lowly beginnings in America - where young Wallis and her mother were dependent on her domineering and powerful Uncle Sol, to her rise through the social ranks and her determination to one day beat men at their own game - to the ultimate conquest of the Prince of Wales, Morton paints a vivid and multi-faceted picture of a compelling, ambitious and often hard-hearted woman, who may have won the jewel in the British crown but very possibly at the expense of her true happiness. Wallis in Love reveals the men Wallis truly loved, the men who broke her heart - and the hearts she broke in turn. In this vivid, fresh and frankly amazing portrait of the Duchess of Windsor, Morton draws on interviews, secret letters, diaries and never before seen or heard primary sources. From the day she was born in a ramshackle cottage in the hills to revealing what really happened the night her husband died, Morton paints a fresh and enticing portrait of the Duchess of Windsor.

Transformed: The Perils of the Frog Prince (Tyme #3)

Author : Megan Morrison
Publisher : Scholastic Inc.
ISBN 13 : 1338113941
Total Pages : 378 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (381 download)

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Book Synopsis Transformed: The Perils of the Frog Prince (Tyme #3) by : Megan Morrison

Download or read book Transformed: The Perils of the Frog Prince (Tyme #3) written by Megan Morrison and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2019-03-26 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Return to the enthralling and always surprising world of Tyme, this time with a roguish frog prince and a secret plot, as Megan Morrison continues her acclaimed fantasy series. Syrah Huanui is a frog. He wasn't always one--once he was a Prince of the Olive Isles, a champion launchball player, a beloved favorite of all.Or so he thought! After accidentally (OK, intentionally) letting a love letter from the cloying Deli Gourd get published for everyone to read, his fed-up family kicks him out. And an unfortunate encounter with a Wishing Well leaves him trapped in the body of a frog, with no hope of transforming back.A year later, Syrah finds himself in Yellow alongside who else: Deli. A sudden, deadly plague has started to run through the country, right before a crucial election for Governor. Syrah isn't sure he'll ever become himself again, or if anyone will ever realize that it's HIM in there, but he is sure he might be able to help stop whatever evil is going on...

The Transformation of the World

Author : Jürgen Osterhammel
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691169802
Total Pages : 1192 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis The Transformation of the World by : Jürgen Osterhammel

Download or read book The Transformation of the World written by Jürgen Osterhammel and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-09-15 with total page 1192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A panoramic global history of the nineteenth century A monumental history of the nineteenth century, The Transformation of the World offers a panoramic and multifaceted portrait of a world in transition. Jürgen Osterhammel, an eminent scholar who has been called the Braudel of the nineteenth century, moves beyond conventional Eurocentric and chronological accounts of the era, presenting instead a truly global history of breathtaking scope and towering erudition. He examines the powerful and complex forces that drove global change during the "long nineteenth century," taking readers from New York to New Delhi, from the Latin American revolutions to the Taiping Rebellion, from the perils and promise of Europe's transatlantic labor markets to the hardships endured by nomadic, tribal peoples across the planet. Osterhammel describes a world increasingly networked by the telegraph, the steamship, and the railways. He explores the changing relationship between human beings and nature, looks at the importance of cities, explains the role slavery and its abolition played in the emergence of new nations, challenges the widely held belief that the nineteenth century witnessed the triumph of the nation-state, and much more. This is the highly anticipated English edition of the spectacularly successful and critically acclaimed German book, which is also being translated into Chinese, Polish, Russian, and French. Indispensable for any historian, The Transformation of the World sheds important new light on this momentous epoch, showing how the nineteenth century paved the way for the global catastrophes of the twentieth century, yet how it also gave rise to pacifism, liberalism, the trade union, and a host of other crucial developments.

The Role of Monarchy in Modern Democracy

Author : Robert Hazell
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1509931023
Total Pages : 501 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (99 download)

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Book Synopsis The Role of Monarchy in Modern Democracy by : Robert Hazell

Download or read book The Role of Monarchy in Modern Democracy written by Robert Hazell and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-17 with total page 501 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How much power does a monarch really have? How much autonomy do they enjoy? Who regulates the size of the royal family, their finances, the rules of succession? These are some of the questions considered in this edited collection on the monarchies of Europe. The book is written by experts from Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK. It considers the constitutional and political role of monarchy, its powers and functions, how it is defined and regulated, the laws of succession and royal finances, relations with the media, the popularity of the monarchy and why it endures. No new political theory on this topic has been developed since Bagehot wrote about the monarchy in The English Constitution (1867). The same is true of the other European monarchies. 150 years on, with their formal powers greatly reduced, how has this ancient, hereditary institution managed to survive and what is a modern monarch's role? What theory can be derived about the role of monarchy in advanced democracies, and what lessons can the different European monarchies learn from each other? The public look to the monarchy to represent continuity, stability and tradition, but also want it to be modern, to reflect modern values and be a focus for national identity. The whole institution is shot through with contradictions, myths and misunderstandings. This book should lead to a more realistic debate about our expectations of the monarchy, its role and its future. The contributors are leading experts from all over Europe: Rudy Andeweg, Ian Bradley, Paul Bovend'Eert, Axel Calissendorff, Frank Cranmer, Robert Hazell, Olivia Hepsworth, Luc Heuschling, Helle Krunke, Bob Morris, Roger Mortimore, Lennart Nilsson, Philip Murphy, Quentin Pironnet, Bart van Poelgeest, Frank Prochaska, Charles Powell, Jean Seaton, Eivind Smith.

The Hawaiian Kingdom—Volume 2

Author : Ralph S. Kuykendall
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 9780870224324
Total Pages : 342 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (243 download)

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Book Synopsis The Hawaiian Kingdom—Volume 2 by : Ralph S. Kuykendall

Download or read book The Hawaiian Kingdom—Volume 2 written by Ralph S. Kuykendall and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 1953-01-01 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The colorful history of the Hawaiian Islands, since their discovery in 1778 by the great British navigator Captain James Cook, falls naturally into three periods. During the first, Hawaii was a monarchy ruled by native kings and queens. Then came the perilous transition period when new leaders, after failing to secure annexation to the United States, set up a miniature republic. The third period began in 1898 when Hawaii by annexation became American territory. The Hawaiian Kingdom, by Ralph S. Kuykendall, is the detailed story of the island monarchy. In the first volume, "Foundation and Transformation," the author gives a brief sketch of old Hawaii before the coming of the Europeans, based on the known and accepted accounts of this early period. He then shows how the arrival of sea rovers, traders, soldiers of forture, whalers, scoundrels, missionaries, and statesmen transformed the native kingdom, and how the foundations of modern Hawaii were laid. In the second volume, "Twenty Critical Years," the author deals with the middle period of the kingdom's history, when Hawaii was trying to insure her independence while world powers maneuvered for dominance in the Pacific. It was an important period with distinct and well-marked characteristics, but the noteworthy changes and advances which occurred have received less attention from students of history than they deserve. Much of the material is taken from manuscript sources and appears in print for the first time in the second volume. The third and final volume of this distinguished trilogy, "The Kalakaua Dynasty," covers the colorful reign of King Kalakaua, the Merry Monarch, and the brief and tragic rule of his successor, Queen Liliuokalani. This volume is enlivened by such controversial personages as Claus Spreckels, Walter Murray Gibson, and Celso Caesar Moreno. Through it runs the thread of the reciprocity treaty with the United States, its stimulating effect upon the island economy, and the far-reaching consequences of immigration from the Orient to supply plantation labor. The trilogy closes with the events leading to the downfall of the Hawaiian monarchy and the establishment of the Provisional Government in 1893.

The Right to be King

Author : Howard Nenner
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1349129526
Total Pages : 355 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (491 download)

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Book Synopsis The Right to be King by : Howard Nenner

Download or read book The Right to be King written by Howard Nenner and published by Springer. This book was released on 1995-08-04 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the theory and practice of the English monarchical succession from the end of Elizabeth's reign to the accession of George I. Tracing the transition from an uncertain rule to a crown in the disposal of parliament, Nenner focuses on the major routes to the throne over the long seventeenth century: hereditary right, conquest, and election. It is a study of the competing principles of parliamentary sovereignty and fundamental law, and the ways in which tension between dynastic expectations and national needs were addressed and resolved.

Building the Land of Dreams

Author : Eberhard L. Faber
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691180709
Total Pages : 455 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis Building the Land of Dreams by : Eberhard L. Faber

Download or read book Building the Land of Dreams written by Eberhard L. Faber and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-10 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of New Orleans at the turn of the nineteenth century In 1795, New Orleans was a sleepy outpost at the edge of Spain's American empire. By the 1820s, it was teeming with life, its levees packed with cotton and sugar. New Orleans had become the unquestioned urban capital of the antebellum South. Looking at this remarkable period filled with ideological struggle, class politics, and powerful personalities, Building the Land of Dreams is the narrative biography of a fascinating city at the most crucial turning point in its history. Eberhard Faber tells the vivid story of how American rule forced New Orleans through a vast transition: from the ordered colonial world of hierarchy and subordination to the fluid, unpredictable chaos of democratic capitalism. The change in authority, from imperial Spain to Jeffersonian America, transformed everything. As the city’s diverse people struggled over the terms of the transition, they built the foundations of a dynamic, contentious hybrid metropolis. Faber describes the vital individuals who played a role in New Orleans history: from the wealthy creole planters who dreaded the influx of revolutionary ideas, to the American arrivistes who combined idealistic visions of a new republican society with selfish dreams of quick plantation fortunes, to Thomas Jefferson himself, whose powerful democratic vision for Louisiana eventually conflicted with his equally strong sense of realpolitik and desire to strengthen the American union. Revealing how New Orleans was formed by America’s greatest impulses and ambitions, Building the Land of Dreams is an inspired exploration of one of the world’s most iconic cities.

The Hebrew Republic

Author : Eric Nelson
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780674050587
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (55 download)

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Book Synopsis The Hebrew Republic by : Eric Nelson

Download or read book The Hebrew Republic written by Eric Nelson and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2010-03-30 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to a commonplace narrative, the rise of modern political thought in the West resulted from secularization—the exclusion of religious arguments from political discourse. But in this pathbreaking work, Eric Nelson argues that this familiar story is wrong. Instead, he contends, political thought in early-modern Europe became less, not more, secular with time, and it was the Christian encounter with Hebrew sources that provoked this radical transformation. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Christian scholars began to regard the Hebrew Bible as a political constitution designed by God for the children of Israel. Newly available rabbinic materials became authoritative guides to the institutions and practices of the perfect republic. This thinking resulted in a sweeping reorientation of political commitments. In the book’s central chapters, Nelson identifies three transformative claims introduced into European political theory by the Hebrew revival: the argument that republics are the only legitimate regimes; the idea that the state should coercively maintain an egalitarian distribution of property; and the belief that a godly republic would tolerate religious diversity. One major consequence of Nelson’s work is that the revolutionary politics of John Milton, James Harrington, and Thomas Hobbes appear in a brand-new light. Nelson demonstrates that central features of modern political thought emerged from an attempt to emulate a constitution designed by God. This paradox, a reminder that while we may live in a secular age, we owe our politics to an age of religious fervor, in turn illuminates fault lines in contemporary political discourse.

The Comedians of the King

Author : Julia Doe
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022674339X
Total Pages : 327 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (267 download)

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Book Synopsis The Comedians of the King by : Julia Doe

Download or read book The Comedians of the King written by Julia Doe and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2021-03-21 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lyric theater in ancien régime France was an eminently political art, tied to the demands of court spectacle. This was true not only of tragic opera (tragédie lyrique) but also its comic counterpart, opéra comique, a form tracing its roots to the seasonal trade fairs of Paris. While historians have long privileged the genre’s popular origins, opéra comique was brought under the protection of the French crown in 1762, thus consolidating a new venue where national music might be debated and defined. In The Comedians of the King, Julia Doe traces the impact of Bourbon patronage on the development of opéra comique in the turbulent prerevolutionary years. Drawing on both musical and archival evidence, the book presents the history of this understudied genre and unpacks the material structures that supported its rapid evolution at the royally sponsored Comédie-Italienne. Doe demonstrates how comic theater was exploited in, and worked against, the monarchy’s carefully cultivated public image—a negotiation that became especially fraught after the accession of the music-loving queen, Marie Antoinette. The Comedians of the King examines the aesthetic and political tensions that arose when a genre with popular foundations was folded into the Bourbon propaganda machine, and when a group of actors trained at the Parisian fairs became official representatives of the sovereign, or comédiens ordinaires du roi.