| Boulainvilliers |
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Information AboutBoulainvilliers |
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He wrote a number of historical works (published after his death), of which the most important were the following:
His writings are characterized by an extravagant admiration of the Feudal system. He was an aristocrat of the most pronounced type, attacking Absolute Monarchy on the one hand and popular government on the other. He was at great pains to prove the pretensions of his own family to ancient nobility, and maintained that the government should be entrusted solely to men of his class. According to Boulainvilliers the only truly "French" people were descendents of the Franks , who constituted the legitimate aristocracy of the nation and were its rightful rulers. The earlier Gaul ish and Roman population had been subordinated by the Franks and had no legitimate role in government. True Frankish polity demanded unconditional acceptance of the rights of aristocracy to rule over their feudal domains and to participate in the councils of the nation. The Absolutist rule of Louis XIV had undermined these traditions by concentrating power in the state and encouraging the rise of meritocrats from the lower classes to serve the monarchical state. Such people had been granted the status of nobles (the Noblesse De La Robe ) but could not lay proper claim to it because they were not of true Frankish ancestry. REFERENCES |
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