Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie is the author of numerous books - including the immensely successful Montaillouand Carnival - and many articles. He is a researcher with a high international reputation, and the diversity of his work and range of his publications have made him one of the foremost specialists on France's monarchical period.

"This volume, which includes a helpful chronological table and glossary, will be the standard history of France for years to come. The Ancien Regime is definitely the richest and most satisfying account of the political history of Bourbon France available in English." Reviews in History

• List of Illustrations. List of Tables and Graphs.1. Temperate Monarchy in its Last Incarnation.Part I: Absolutism in its True Grandeur:.2. Reason of State and its Irrationalities.3. France and the Fronde: the Age of Anne of Austria and Mazarin.4. The Snake and the Sun.5. Gallican Extremism.6. Spain in the Heart.Part II: Flexible and Adaptable: The New Absolutism:.7. The Overture.8. A Debonnaire Hercules.9. Reaction and Retraction.10. Public Opinion's First Successes.11. Order, Authority, Realm.Conclusion.Appendix 1: Chronological Table.Appendix 2: Statistical Tables.Glossary.Bibliography.Index.