| Abstrakt: |
In 1588, Henri III dismissed his secrétaires d'État , chancelier , surintendant des finances and intendants. This first ministerial revolution provoked much surprise in France as the men who occupied these offices had been in power for a long time, were very experienced and seemed, to many, to have the king's favour. This fall from grace raised many questions, the event being seen, for example, as an expression of the king's desire to retake control of his kingdom or as the result of political differences between the monarch and his ministers. This article reconsiders the causes of this loss of favour from the point of view of the secrétaires d'État in order to show how this event revealed the new position they had acquired within the monarchical government. As the secrétaires foiled the king's projects, examining their new role is, indeed, a way to put the impact of this fall from grace into perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
