In Louis XIV’s New France, colonial authorities attempted to reproduce French regal authority in novel ways, often by performing typical metropolitan political rituals. When these practices were transposed into the St Lawrence Valley settlements, where a small French population lived alongside a substantial Indigenous presence, they took on new meanings.
The colony of Canada replicated many features of the developing French absolutist state. Yet while the king likely knew more about his colony than he did about most parts of metropolitan France, this transatlantic setting imposed new constraints on absolutist authority, from the challenges of distance to an Indigenous population that largely lived outside European norms. Political Culture in Louis XIV’s Canada examines royal power as it was represented in ritual (ceremonial entrances, Te Deums, processions), in rhetoric (political disputes over cabals and factions), and in objects (portraits, royal busts, currency, buildings, maps, and censuses). Colin Coates describes the successes and failures the French authorities experienced in exporting their political practices. He reveals how those authorities’ understandings of Indigenous political culture shaped ideas of the proper relation between rulers and the ruled.
This book traces the establishment of a colonial political culture that continued to shape the lives of the French in Canada long after the Sun King’s death in 1715.
Authors
- Published in
- Montreal, CA
Table of Contents
- Cover 1
- Political Culture in Louis XIV’s Canada 2
- Title 4
- Copyright 5
- Dedication 6
- Contents 8
- Tables and Figures 10
- Preface and Acknowledgments 14
- Introduction: Political Culture in Louis XIV’s Canada 22
- 1 Political Spectacle 43
- 2 Precedents and Precedence 76
- 3 Louis XIV’s Canada 112
- 4 Canada’s Louis XIV 146
- 5 Political Space and Rhetoric 186
- 6 The Indigenous Challenge 211
- Conclusion: Crusoe’s Dream 241
- Appendix: Te Deums in Louis XIV’s Canada 250
- Notes 252
- Bibliography 302
- Index 328
