Both the golden age of the Renaissance state and the catastrophic era of the Wars of Religion, this fascinating period in French history has been oddly neglected by English-language historians. Professor Baumgartner's book fills a major gap in the textbook market: an accessible, fully current account which covers the principal political, economic and cultural themes from Francois I's successful centralization of the state, through France's near prostration under the Catholic-Huguenot civil war, and ending with the accession of Henri IV.

Must a gift be given freely? How can we tell a gift from a bribe? Are gifts always a part of human relations--or do they lose their power and importance once the market takes hold and puts a price on every exchange? These questions are central to our sense of social relations past and present, and they are at the heart of this book by one of our most intersting and renowned historians.

Storytelling in Sixteenth-Century France is an innovative, interdisciplinary examination of parallels between the early modern era and the world in which we live today. Readers are invited to look to the past to see how then, as now, people turned to storytelling to integrate and adapt to rapid social change, to reinforce or restructure community, to sell new ideas, and to refashion the past. This collection explores different modalities of storytelling in sixteenth-century France and emphasizes shared techniques and themes rather than attempting to define narrow kinds of narrative categories. Through studies of storytelling in tapestries, stone, and music as well as distinct genres of historical, professional, and literary writing (addressing both erudite and more common readers), the contributors to this collection evoke a society in transition, wherein traditional techniques and materials were manipulated to express new realities. Published by the University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

A masterful new survey of sixteenth-century France which examines the vicissitudes of the French monarchy during the Italian Wars and the Wars of Religion. It explores how the advances made under a succession of strong kings from Charles VIII to Henri II created tensions in traditional society which combined with economic problems and emerging religious divisions to bring the kingdom close to disintegration under a series of weak kings from Francois II to Henri III. The political crisis culminated in France's first succession conflict for centuries, but was resolved through Henri IV's timely reconnection of dynastic legitimism with religious orthodoxy.

Explores conceptions of politics in early modern France, and the controversies the word 'politique' attracted during the Wars of Religion.