Cardinal de Retz, French Noble Exile, and Political Mobility in Seventeenth-Century Europe
type: CreativeWork
description: During the seventeenth century, it was commonplace for rebellious French elites who opposed the ministerial monopoly of power held by Richelieu and Mazarin to flee abroad in defiance of the monarchy. In recent years, there has been renewed historical interest in the exile of some of these figures, including Louis XIII’s mother and brother, Marie de Médicis and Gaston d’Orléans, or the prince of the blood known as the Grand Condé. But such studies have tended to focus on individual figures or families, rather than drawing conclusions about the wider phenomenon of French noble exile. Surveys of disgrace in early modern France have primarily examined top-down formal banishment and viewed the years that aristocrats spent in foreign exile as little more than footnotes to their careers. By contrast, this thesis presents the first in-depth study of the political culture of French noble exile in seventeenth-century Europe. It argues that the mobility and foreign exile of nobles played a central role in challenging and constructing royal and ministerial authority in the years prior to Louis XIV’s personal reign. French exiles became thoroughly entangled in European power politics as they sought support from rulers hostile to France such as the Pamphili and Chigi popes and the Habsburgs. The thesis takes a micro-historical approach centred around Cardinal de Retz, one of the leading frondeurs who rebelled against the French government during the 1650s. Although Retz has long been known for the literary quality of his memoirs, his near-decade in European exile (1654 to 1662) after the civil upheaval of the Frondes has been neglected by historians. But the information war that Retz led against the French government from abroad and his alliances with other exiles like Condé placed him at the heart of French and European ecclesiastical and political conflicts during the 1650s. Putting Retz’s struggle for supremacy with Louis XIV and Mazarin in a longer context illuminates signifi…
abstract: During the seventeenth century, it was commonplace for rebellious French elites who opposed the ministerial monopoly of power held by Richelieu and Mazarin to flee abroad in defiance of the monarchy. In recent years, there has been renewed historical interest in the exile of some of these figures, including Louis XIII’s mother and brother, Marie de Médicis and Gaston d’Orléans, or the prince of the blood known as the Grand Condé. But such studies have tended to focus on individual figures or families, rather than drawing conclusions about the wider phenomenon of French noble exile. Surveys of disgrace in early modern France have primarily examined top-down formal banishment and viewed the years that aristocrats spent in foreign exile as little more than footnotes to their careers. By contrast, this thesis presents the first in-depth study of the political culture of French noble exile in seventeenth-century Europe. It argues that the mobility and foreign exile of nobles played a central role in challenging and constructing royal and ministerial authority in the years prior to Louis XIV’s personal reign. French exiles became thoroughly entangled in European power politics as they sought support from rulers hostile to France such as the Pamphili and Chigi popes and the Habsburgs. The thesis takes a micro-historical approach centred around Cardinal de Retz, one of the leading frondeurs who rebelled against the French government during the 1650s. Although Retz has long been known for the literary quality of his memoirs, his near-decade in European exile (1654 to 1662) after the civil upheaval of the Frondes has been neglected by historians. But the information war that Retz led against the French government from abroad and his alliances with other exiles like Condé placed him at the heart of French and European ecclesiastical and political conflicts during the 1650s. Putting Retz’s struggle for supremacy with Louis XIV and Mazarin in a longer context illuminates signifi…
author: Gillain, Christophe
language: eng
keywords: Absolutism, Asylum, Cardinal de Retz, Diplomacy, Emotions, Exile, French Nobility, History, Mobility, Pamphlets, Seventeenth-Century France, Sovereignty
license: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/ea11a2d9-e65b-42da-88c6-e8acde7913b2/download
license: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
date published: 2022-12-02
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:23:54Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.100038