Bourbon and Stuart: Kings and Kingship in France and England in the Seventeenth Century

Rating:
Summary: Maybe the best thing around on the French monarchy
Review: In 17th century Europe monarchy was the norm, from the western kings of England and France to the tsars of all the Russias. They were the natural order of things -- and yet the English executed Charles I and abolished the monarchy and the Valois-Bourbon civil war threatened to overturn the monarchy in France. Miller examines and compares the monarchical institutions in both countries, concluding that their governmental crises led to ephemeral superficiality under France's Louis XIV but strengthened the government of William and Mary in England. A scholarly but not difficult work and quite rewarding to the student of monarchical history.