Sonenscher, Michael (1977) Royalists and patriots : Nîmes and its hinterland in the late eighteenth century. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This is a study of an event: an abortive royalist insurrection
in the city of Nîmes in June 1790 and its aftermath - a series of
royalist revolts centred upon the commune of Berrias in the
department of the Ardèche in 1790, 1791 and 1792. The thesis
is divided into four parts, each designed to contribute to an
explanation of what made these events possible. Part I is a discussion
of the composition and ideological assumptions of royalism in the
South-East of France. Part II consists of an examination of the
social and economic structure of Nimes in the eighteenth century.
Part III is a study of the relationship between Nimes and its
hinterland as it was organised through the production of silk.
Part IV deals with the manner in which the form of this town-country
relationship intersected with tensions and conflicts within the
city itself in the later eighteenth century. It is argued from
this analysis that it is impossible to explain royalism in unilateral
terms. Royalism was the product of a developing social process;
it cannot therefore be deduced from the divisions which it contributed
to produce after 1790. Royalists became royalists because of the
particular form of their relationship to those who became "patriots"
in the decades preceeding 1790. Secondly, royalism cannot be
explained exclusively in terms of local and regional tensions.
Royalists occupied a particular place within the hierarchy of
functions which articulated the relationship between Nimes and its
hinterland. Rather, therefore, than deducing royalism from tensions
at one particular level - whether of the village, small town, region
or city - this study has sought to explain royalism in terms of
the relationship between these different levels, and of the manner
in which contemporaries sought to understand this relationship.
The argument pursued throughout this study is that royalism
in the South-East can be seen as one possible "solution" to
the "problem" of social mobility in eighteenth century France.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DC France
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Nîmes (France) -- History -- 18th century, Ardèche (France) -- History -- 18th century, Royalists -- France -- History -- 18th century, Social mobility -- France -- History -- 18th century
Official Date:	1977
Dates:	Date Event 1977 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of History
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Extent:	554 p.
Language:	eng

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