Table Of ContentTHE PAST & PRESENT BOOK SERIES
GeneralEditor
PETER COSS
’
Pierre de L Estoile and his World
in the Wars of Religion
’
Pierre de L Estoile and his
World in the Wars of
Religion
TOM HAMILTON
1
3
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For Lucy
Preface
Likemanyreaderscuriousaboutsixteenth-centuryFrance,IfirstdiscoveredPierre
deL’Estoileinthefootnotes.Ididnotrealizeatthetimejusthowfundamentalhe
hasbeen forhistoriesofthe WarsofReligion.IfIhaddone,perhapsItoowould
have filed him away in my notes, saved as a useful source for anecdotes and
references. Instead, I was struck by his vivid evocation of life in sixteenth-century
Paris,andhisinsightsintoalllevelsofthesocialhierarchy,aswellasbothCatholic
and Protestant perspectives. For these reasons, I was especially drawn to his
extraordinary collection of printed ephemera, the ‘Drolleries of the League’, a
scrapbook history that denounced the populist zeal of the Catholic League with
the evidence of its own publications. L’Estoile’s activities made more sense when
Ireadthecontentsofhisafter-deathhouseholdinventoryandcabinetofcuriosities.
I discovered that L’Estoile was more than a diarist; he was a collector who
assembled a museum of the civil wars. Here was someone with whom I could
discoverawholeworldintheworldtheWarsofReligion.Severalyearslater,Iam
gladIpersistedwithhim.
Manypeopleandinstitutionshelpedmetowritethisbookanditisapleasureto
thankthemhere.MostoftheresearchtookplacewhileIwasagraduatestudentat
NewCollege,UniversityofOxford,fundedbytheArtsandHumanitiesResearch
Council, with further support from the Reynolds Fund of New College and the
SocietyfortheStudyofFrenchHistory.DavidParrottwasanidealsupervisorand
critic, overseeing my research with expert guidance and ever-generous support.
Lyndal Roper gave great advice and encouragement, especially in the energizing
research environment of informal early modern workshops. Robin Briggs offered
counsel at crucial stages and guided my first attempts at early modern French
palaeography.MarkGreengrasssharedwithmehisvastknowledgeofthisperiod,
not least in reading and commenting on versions of the text, and I have greatly
benefitted from his expertise and generosity. I have also drawn on the intellectual
stimulation, encouragement, and advice of many more friends, colleagues, and
students in the History Faculty and Hertford College, where I enjoyed a year of
teaching and redrafting this work, during which the John Fell Oxford University
PressResearchFundsupportedfurtherresearchinParis.ThestaffoftheBodleian
History Faculty Library, Upper Reading Room, and Taylor Institution Library
providedidealconditionsforresearch.
Archival research took place in Paris. During my visits there, meetings with
AlfredSomanhadaformativeinfluenceonthisproject.Iamgratefultohimforhis
suggestions and comments on drafts, and for permission to consult and cite from
hispapersattheJacobBurnsLawLibrary,GeorgeWashingtonUniversity,aswell
astoJennyMeadeandKarenWahlwhokindlyfacilitatedmyresearchthere.Denis
Crouzet and Robert Descimon also gave invaluable advice and welcomed me to
theirseminars;theirworkhasbeenaconstantsourceofinspiration.Archivistsand
viii Preface
librariansintheArchivesnationales,theArchivesdelaPréfecturedePolice,andthe
BibliothèquenationaledeFranceopeneduptomethewondersoftheircollections.
Severalfriendsreadandcommentedonpartsofthisbook,sharingideasinsome
casesfromtheearlieststagesofresearch.Theircollaborationhasbeenbothcrucial
to this project and great fun. Thanks to Martin Christ, Emma Claussen, Clare
Copeland,LiesbethCorens,StephenCummins,BenjaminDarnell,SietskeFransen,
AlexFreer,JohnGallagher,NickHardy,KatHill,MichaLazarus,JanMachielsen,
ErinMaglaque,SimoneMaghenzani,HannahMurphy,SamPollack,CarlaRoth,
WillPooley,DavidvanderLinden,FelixWaldmann,andEdmundWareham,and
special thanks to Tom Johnson and Jonathan Patterson, both of whom read and
commentedondraftsofthewholething.
Manymoreconversationsatseminars,conferences,workshops,andelsewhere
equallyshapedmyresearchandmadeitworthpursuing.GraemeKemp,Andrew
Pettegree, and Sandy Wilkinson gave me access to data gathered for the USTC
project.WarrenBoutchersharedhisworkonL’EstoileandMontaigne.Caterina
Franchi,GregoryKlyve,andIdaTothhelpedwithlanguages.Myundergraduate
teachers at Gonville and Caius College and the University of Cambridge
encouragedmetopursuemyinterestinearlymodernFrenchhistory—especially
Melissa Calaresu, Mary Laven, and Ulinka Rublack—and, following my return
to Cambridge as a research fellow at Trinity College, Alex Walsham has helped
me to bring this book together. The Fellows’ Research Fund at Trinity covered
the cost of the illustrations. I am grateful to the anonymous readers for the Past
and Present Book Series and Oxford University Press for their close reading of
the manuscript, to Mandi Gomez for her copy-editing, and to Peter Coss and
Stephanie Ireland for overseeing the publication. All of these readers made so
many helpfulsuggestionsandIhaveincorporatedmostofthem.Theerrorsthat
remain are of course my own.
Finally, thanks tomy family—my parents Clare andMike, my sister Cora, my
grandparentsRitaandMalcolm,aswellasPrue,Gary,andIsobel—fortheirlove,
support,andcuriosity.AndthankstoLucy,whohaslistenedtofartoomanystories
about L’Estoile and his world, yet read and discussed seemingly endless drafts of
every part of this book and encouraged me to think about the importance of the
visual.Icouldnothavewrittenthiswithouthercollaboration.
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,3/3/2017,SPi
Contents
ListofIllustrations xi
ListofTables xv
ListofAbbreviationsandConventions xvii
Introduction 1
1. TheMaterialWorldofaHouseholdandCollection 17
2. TheSocialWorldofthePalaisdeJustice 47
3. FamilyLifeandtheEarlyCivilWars,1546‒1580 69
4. TheReignofHenriIII,1574‒1589 97
5. DrolleriesoftheLeague,1589‒1598 124
6. BookCollectingattheEndoftheCivilWars,1598‒1611 166
Conclusion 195
Bibliography 207
Index 231
