Readership: Scholars and students of late medieval and early modern French history; social and cultural historians of Europe; social anthropologists.
Stuart Carroll, Professor of History, University of York
"...fascinating...a work of staggering detail and complexity...Carroll's work is both engaging and thought-provoking...Its research and findings will no doubt serve to promote further research, and set a high benchmark for those who follow." - The Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland
"...impeccably well researched, rich and illustrative" - Andrew Hopper, European History Quarterly
"...this book will force early modern French historians to rethink the categories that we have been using concerning both violence and the nobility, and it will force some of us also to stop relying on prescriptive sources as a substitute for the lived experiences and social reality of the lives of the aristocracy...This is a very significant book." - Mack Holt, English Historical Review
"Blood and Violence in Early Modern France deserves to be recognised as a major contribution to our understanding of social change and political transformation in early modern Europe as a whole. Its findings question conventional assumptions about the division between the medieval and early modern eras and undermine another of the settled but distorting polarities upon which twentieth-century historical interpretation has instinctively rested." - Alex Walsham, Journal of Ecclesiastical History
"This is a book rich in research and extraordinarily provocative in its conclusions." - Julius R. Ruff, American Historical Review
"This ambitious and eagerly awaited study...culminates a sustained body of accomplished scholarship." - Paul Solon, Renaissance Quarterly
"excellent and thought-provoking book" - Robin Briggs, TLS
Introduction Part I: The Structure of Vindicatory Violence 1: The Origins of Dispute - Blood and Earth 2: The Origins of Dispute - Status and Honour 3: Honours and Prerogatives 4: Escalation: From Verbal Duel to Vindicatory Exchange 5: Conspiracy 6: Combat 7: The Rage of the Gods Part II: Violence and Society 8: Justice and the Law 9: Peace 10: Women, Sex, and Vindicatory Violence Part III: Violence and the Polity 11: The Crisis of the Religious Wars 12: Violence and Royal Authority in the Seventeenth Century 13: Solutions Conclusion Bibliography Index
