This is a story of brilliance, order and sophistication, of supreme confidence and great achievement - that begins in uncertainty and ends in iconoclasm.
List of Illustrations. List of Tables and Graphs.
1. Temperate Monarchy in its Last Incarnation.
Part I: Absolutism in its True Grandeur:.
2. Reason of State and its Irrationalities.
3. France and the Fronde: the Age of Anne of Austria and Mazarin.
4. The Snake and the Sun.
5. Gallican Extremism.
6. Spain in the Heart.
Part II: Flexible and Adaptable: The New Absolutism:.
7. The Overture.
8. A Debonnaire Hercules.
9. Reaction and Retraction.
10. Public Opinion's First Successes.
11. Order, Authority, Realm.
Conclusion.
Appendix 1: Chronological Table.
Appendix 2: Statistical Tables.
Glossary.
Bibliography.
Index.
