A French Oligarch: The Prince of Conti, Interplaying Court Politics and the Public Sphere (1717–1776)
This upcoming book reassesses the political role of the princes of the blood in eighteenth-century France through a comprehensive study of the Prince of Conti. It explores both aristocratic participation in political decision-making at court and aristocratic involvement in the public sphere, particularly through the protection of writers and the circulation of print. By examining Conti’s patronage networks and his relations with major writers and intellectual figures such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais and the abbé Prévost, as well as lesser-known writers such as Louis-Adrien Le Paige and Étienne-Gabriel Morelly, the book highlights the importance of the support of members of the French curial elite in enabling the publication and dissemination of controversial texts.
Challenging interpretations that reduce Conti’s political actions to personal ambition, the study argues that his career reflects the structural position of the princes of the blood within the French monarchy. From the mid-1740s until his death in 1776, Conti played a central role in political life, serving as royal counsellor, head of a parallel diplomatic service, and leader of the opposition to the King.Indeed, his activities ranged from his candidacy for the Polish crown and leading the diplomatic network known as the Secret du Roi, before leading the parliamentary opposition and being one of the most virulent adversary of the Maupeou and then Turgot. These interventions reveal a coherent political orientation, notably his consistent support for intermediary institutions and for forms of religious pluralism.
More broadly, the book revisits the political history of the princes of the blood after the Fronde, questioning the traditional narrative of their decline. It shows that, beyond their official offices, these princes exercised significant influence through patronage networks and through their engagement in public debate and print culture. In doing so, it also contributes to debates on the emergence of the public sphere by demonstrating that aristocratic protection remained crucial especially for authors wishing to publish politically sensitive works.
Methodologically, the study combines newly exploited sources, including diplomatic correspondence from Prussian and Saxon ambassadors at Versailles, with a reinterpretation of well-known manuscript and printed materials, such as the papers of the Jansenist lawyer Louis-Adrien Le Paige, as well as pamphlet literature. Despite the scarcity of sources produced directly by Conti, these materials make it possible to reconstruct his political networks and strategies.
By analysing Conti’s career across seven chronological and thematic chapters, the book offers a renewed understanding of aristocratic political agency in eighteenth-century France. It demonstrates that the princes of the blood remained powerful actors whose influence, transformed after the Fronde, extended from court politics to the shaping of public opinion. The case of the Prince of Conti thus invites a reconsideration of the relationship between aristocratic power and the development of the public sphere in the decades preceding the French Revolution.
Side project:
French Courtiers and other Key Players of the French Monarchy (database)
The project aims to better understand the relationship between print culture and political power in the final decades of the French Old Regime by integrating new datasets on courtiers, ministers, and systems of patronage into Simon Burrows’ existing MPCE (Mapping Print Charting Enlightenment) database centered on book trade. This collaborative approach extended the scope of this already rich database. The Pamphlets and Patrons databases combines large scale prosopographical data collection with the systematic integration of diverse historical sources, ranging from archival records and printed registers to modern scholarly datasets. Particular attention is given to recording social and family ties, as well as instances of courtly intervention, in order to map networks of influence linking authors, printers, and political elites. These relationships can be explored through built-in network visualisation tools or exported for further analysis, enabling both qualitative and quantitative investigations into the dynamics of power and communication on the eve of the French Revolution.
