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Ideas of monarchical reform: Jacobitism, Fénelon and the political works of the Chevalier Ramsay

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posted on 2023-06-08, 12:19 authored by Andrew Mansfield
Andrew Michael Ramsay (1686-1743) was a Scottish Jacobite émigré who spent most of his adult life in France. His political works predominantly relied on a mixture of British and French doctrines to stimulate a Jacobite restoration to the British throne. Ambitious and controversial, Ramsay believed that key reforms and a growing empire would make Britain the ‘capital of the universe.’ His position as an intellectual conduit between the two kingdoms enables an extensive assessment of the political thought in Britain and France. Examining a number of important thinkers from the 1660s to the 1730s, this work stresses the significance of seventeenth century ideology on the following century. Crucially, the monograph explores the exchange of ideas between the two countries in the early Enlightenment. A time when Britain had rejected the absolutist pretensions of James II in the Glorious Revolution (1688) to protect mixed sovereignty and a key role for Parliament. This enshrinement of liberty and mixed government struck a chord in France with theorists opposed to Louis XIV’s form of centralised sovereignty. Following Louis XIV’s death in 1715, greater support for monarchical reform became evident in French political theory. Aided by the viewpoints and methodology of intellectual conduits such as Ramsay, shared perspectives emerged in the two countries on the future of monarchy.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Publisher

Manchester University Press

Place of publication

Manchester

ISBN

9780719088377 0719088372

Series

Studies in early modern European history

Department affiliated with

  • History Publications

Institution

University of Sussex

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2013-04-29

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