The Frustrations of Being the Spare: Second Sons in the French Monarchy and their Increasingly Limited Roles in Politics and Society, 1560s-1780s

Spangler, Jonathan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6938-3607 (2023) The Frustrations of Being the Spare: Second Sons in the French Monarchy and their Increasingly Limited Roles in Politics and Society, 1560s-1780s. In: Dynasties and State Formation in Early Modern Europe. Amsterdam University Press, pp. 217-249. ISBN 9789463728751

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Abstract

This chapter examines the changing role of the younger brother of the king in the monarchy of France, from the Wars of Religion to the Revolution. It traces the evolution of the relationship between these princely siblings, from one of competition and a desire for independence to a tighter bond of loyalty and an understanding that the needs of the dynasty must always proceed individual desires. Like other major grandees in this period, they recognised that cooperation with the Crown as an embodiment of the state was usually more beneficial for their personal and dynastic success than competing with it. This was not always a smooth transition, and the first two princes examined here, François, duke of Alençon, and Gaston, duke of Orléans, spent much of their lives in rebellion against royal authority of their elder brothers. The second pair, Philippe, duke of Orléans, and Louis-Stanislas, count of Provence, learned to express independent authority in different, less threatening, ways, notably in the patronization of arts and architecture, the development of private properties, and the cultivation of clients and favourites separate from those of the monarch.