{"title":"Insubordination and the rise of absolutism: the Mercure françois under Richelieu","authors":"Caspar Paton","doi":"10.1093/fh/crae014","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n It is often argued that Cardinal Richelieu appropriated the Mercure françois, France’s first printed newspaper, immediately upon entering the king’s council in 1624. This consensus originates in a questionable nineteenth-century work by Louis Dedouvres yet has not been seriously challenged, seemingly because it tallies neatly with traditional étatiste understandings of Richelieu as a great state-builder. By refuting Richelieu’s control over the Mercure during the 1620s, this article buttresses revisionist re-evaluations of his influence over the French state during that period. It extends such revisionism to Richelieu’s regulation of the mainstream press and public sphere, and suggests the Mercure represents a valuable alternative source through which the earliest years of his second ministry might be better apprehended.","PeriodicalId":43617,"journal":{"name":"French History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"French History","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/fh/crae014","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"HISTORY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
It is often argued that Cardinal Richelieu appropriated the Mercure françois, France’s first printed newspaper, immediately upon entering the king’s council in 1624. This consensus originates in a questionable nineteenth-century work by Louis Dedouvres yet has not been seriously challenged, seemingly because it tallies neatly with traditional étatiste understandings of Richelieu as a great state-builder. By refuting Richelieu’s control over the Mercure during the 1620s, this article buttresses revisionist re-evaluations of his influence over the French state during that period. It extends such revisionism to Richelieu’s regulation of the mainstream press and public sphere, and suggests the Mercure represents a valuable alternative source through which the earliest years of his second ministry might be better apprehended.
期刊介绍:
French History offers an important international forum for everyone interested in the latest research in the subject. It provides a broad perspective on contemporary debates from an international range of scholars, and covers the entire chronological range of French history from the early Middle Ages to the twentieth century. French History includes articles covering a wide range of enquiry across the arts and social sciences, as well as across historical periods, and a book reviews section that is essential reference for any serious student of French history.