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Different critical approaches to La Rochefoucauld are summed up. The context in which the Maximes emerged is described: the failure of the aristocratic revolt known as the Fronde, La Rochefoucauld’s involvement in which blighted his relations with Louis XIV; his family connections with supporters of Jansenism; and his collaboration in writing maxims with Mme de Sablé and Jacques Esprit. Sablé’s own maxims are discussed. Readers’ responses to an early version of the Maximes are examined: some see it as an attack on virtue itself, others as an Augustinian attack on pagan and in general human virtue. The presentation of the first edition of the work tends to endorse the latter reading: the prefatory ‘Discours’ by La Chapelle-Bessé is analysed in detail, as Augustinian in spirit but not specifically Jansenist.

The first section of the chapter offers an overview of the historiography of the Fronde, looking at the evolution of different interpretations and emphases from the eighteenth century to the present day. The contribution of 1652 to this debate is summarized: the study looks as much at the consequences of the 1652 crisis as at its origins, above all its impact on the ensuing decade of Mazarin’s ministry; it emphasizes the role of contingency in what has frequently been seen as a pre-determined triumph of monarchical authority; it explores the collision of civil war waged across much of France with a dramatic worsening of climatic conditions and the impact of both on a vulnerable subsistence economy. The second half of the chapter examines the nature of ministerial government in France through Richelieu’s ministry, as well as Mazarin’s emergence as first minister during the regency which followed the death of Louis XIII in 1643, and looks at the unfolding of the Fronde down to the end of 1649. It explores in particular the close links between the burdens of foreign and military policy and the development of a ministerial ‘extraordinary regime’ which bypassed or overruled much of the existing government to give extensive, and in the eyes of many illegitimate, authority to the cardinal ministers. The chapter culminates in the miscalculations made by Mazarin which precipitated the opening rebellion of the Fronde. In order to bring the frondeurs back into obedience, Mazarin was forced to rely on the prince de Condé, who blockaded Paris with the royal army on behalf of the crown.

This chapter explores the early barricades through the great Parisian insurrection of 1648 that clearly established their recurrent character. It explains that the “Second Day of the Barricades” climaxed the period of intense civil conflict known as the Fronde parlementaire, but it also proved to be a turning point in the history of French contention, for as the central state's control over French territory began to be consolidated during the long reign of Louis XIV, the barricade went into eclipse.

Marguerite Durand was best known as the editor-in-chief of La Fronde, the women's daily paper of the fin de siècle, in founding which she set out to create a “feminist aesthetics.” Durand openly spoke out against the vote for women. Like her republican contemporaries, she was afraid that female suffrage would ensure the power of the priest against the Republic. Historians have explored Durand's biography, her paper, and her role in fin-de-siècle feminist debate. In this chapter, the author uses the life of Durand in order to answer a set of questions about how change in women's lives occurred during this period. The author also investigates the nature of Durand's politics.