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Abstract
The nature of Mazarin’s communication during the Fronde (1648–1653) raises the fundamental question of the relationship between power and society in the early modern period. Thus, we are forced to redefine the concept of the ‘public sphere’ beyond the Habermasian model of the rationality of public opinion. Given the strength of the plebeian public sphere as demonstrated by ‘Mazarinades’ and the protests of the Parisians, Mazarin was forced to try to regain control of public opinion. He had to adapt his communication to a hierarchical society and the fact that the way information circulated was largely based on differences in social class. His correspondence reveals a strategy based on the perception of different functional public spheres, differing in content, means of transmission, and combining tracts, handwritten and printed materials.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Habermas, Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit.
2. Voltaire, Lettres philosophiques, 56.
3. Porchnev, Les soulèvements populaires.
4. Ranum, The Fronde: A French Revolution.
5. Carrier, Les Mazarinades.
6. Carrier, Le Labyrinthe de l'État, 8.
7. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 10879, f. 101.
8. Carrier, Les Mazarinades.
9. Jouhaud, Mazarinades.
10. Duccini, Faire voire, faire croire.
11. Goubert, Mazarin.
12. Cavendish, “Cardinal Mazarin Goes into Exile.”
13. Mazarin, Lettres du cardinal Mazarin.
14. Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, La Courneuve, Mémoires et documents (France), vol. 262–267; 860–892.
15. Haffemayer, L'information dans la France du XVIIe siècle.
16. Luhmann, “What Is Communication?”
17. Luhmann, “L'opinion Publique.” For the potential of Luhmann’s theory for historians of the public sphere, see Gestrich, “The Public Sphere and the Habermas-Debate.”
18. Shaftesbury et al., Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times.
19. Luhmann, Theories of Distinction; Luhmann, Systèmes sociaux.
20. Haffemayer, L'information dans la France du XVIIe siècle.
21. Carrier, Les Mazarinades, 83.
22. Feyel, L'annonce et la nouvelle, 212.
23. Déclaration du Roy, par laquelle les princes, ducs, seigneurs et leurs adhérans.
24. Haffemayer, “Information et Espace Public.”
25. Letter to Le Tellier, 17 June 1650, Bibliothèque nationale, ms. fr. n 4208, fol. 31, in Chéruel, Lettres du cardinal, tome III, p. 553.
26. Hartlib Papers, 58/3A-4B (available online at http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/hartlib/).
27. Letter to Servien, Balahan, 8 January 1653, Archives Etrangères, France, tome 891, fol. 14, in Chéruel, Lettres du cardinal, tome V, p. 528–9.
28. Letter to Le Tellier, Vaux-sous-Laon, 21 January 1653, Bibliothèque nationale, ms. fr. n 6892, fol.46.
29. Luhmann, “L'opinion Publique,” 34.
30. Wolfe and Wolfe, Considérations politiques sur la Fronde.
31. Pintard, Le libertinage érudit; Queyroux, Recherches sur Gabriel Naudé.
32. Naudé, Le Marfore, ou discours contre les libelles.
33. Letter from Naudé to Mazarin, end of October 1651, Wolfe and Wolfe, Considérations politiques sur la Fronde, 93.
34. Letter to Le Tellier, from Sedan, 4 September 1652, Bibliothèque nationale, mss. fr., tome 6891, fol. 37; Bibliothèque mazarine, ms. n 1719, tome II, fol. 461, in Chéruel, Lettres du cardinal, tome V, p. 206–7.
35. Retz, Mémoires, 114.
36. La Valette, Lis et fais.
37. Letter to M. de Lionne, 11 April 1650, Archives Etrangères, France, tome 131, pièce 104, in Chéruel, Lettres du cardinal, tome III, p. 526.
38. Lettre sur la Détention des Princes de Condé et de Conti et Duc de Longueville.
39. Letters from Naudé to Mazarin, June 1651, Wolfe and Wolfe, Considérations politiques sur la Fronde, 14.
40. Letter from Naudé to Mazarin, 19 August 1651; ibid., 62.
41. Baker, “Politics and Public Opinion under the Old Regime: Some Reflections.”
42. Haffemayer, L'information dans la France du XVIIe siècle, 674–7.
43. Wolfe and Wolfe, Considérations politiques sur la Fronde, 143.
44. Luhmann, “L'opinion Publique,” 27.
45. Chéruel, “Les carnets de Mazarin pendant la Fronde,” 108.
46. Letter to the Duke of Epernon, 4 October 1649, Bibliothèque mazarine, ms. n 1719, tome 2, fol. 323, in Chéruel, Lettres du cardinal, tome III, p. 412.
47. Wolfe and Wolfe, Considérations politiques sur la Fronde, 51.
48. Letter to Le Tellier, from Reims, 22 Décember 1650, Bibliothèque nationale, ms. fr. n 4208, fol. 489, in Chéruel, Lettres du cardinal, tome III, p. 962.
49. Mazarin, Lettre du cardinal Mazarin envoyée à la Reyne touchant sa sortie hors du royaume.
50. Naudé, Jugement de tout ce qui a été imprimé contre le cardinal Mazarin.
51. Silhon, Esclaircissement de quelques difficultés touchant l'administration du cardinal Mazarin.
52. Letter of 19 August 1651, Wolfe and Wolfe, Considérations politiques sur la Fronde, 64.
53. Ibid., 158.
54. Letter to Le Tellier, from Amboise, 28 October 1650, Bibliothèque nationale, ms. fr. n 4208, fol. 419, in Chéruel, Lettres du cardinal, tome III, p. 907.
55. Letter of Naudé to Mazarin, 17 June 1651, Archives Etrangères, France, vol. 875, f 210.
56. Letter of 8 July 1651, Wolfe and Wolfe, Considérations politiques sur la Fronde, 32
57. Letter to Naudé, from Brühl, 25 July 1651, Archives Etrangères, France, tome 268, fol. 162, in Chéruel, Lettres du cardinal, tome IV, p. 742.
58. Letter of 23 October 1651, Archives Etrangères, France, vol. 880, fol 249 v.
59. Letter of 8 July 1651, Wolfe and Wolfe, Considérations politiques sur la Fronde, 32.
60. Ibid., 92.
61. In his letter of 23 October 1651.
62. Letter of 23 September 1651, Wolfe and Wolfe, Considérations politiques sur la Fronde, 85.
63. Archives Etrangères, France, Mémoires et documents, ms. 877, f 515–40.
64. Letter to Colbert, from Brühl, 13 June 1651, Bibliothèque nationale de France, mss. Baluze, tome 332, fol. 119–20, in Chéruel, Lettres du cardinal, tome IV, p. 268–9.
65. Letter To M. de Lionne, from Brühl, 26 May 1651, Archives Etrangères, France, tome 267, pièce fol. 420, in Chéruel, Lettres du cardinal, tome IV, p. 220–1.
66. Laurain-Portemer, Études mazarines, 2.
67. In a letter, he evoked this shame in front of his servants.
68. Jouhaud, Mazarinades.
69. Letter to King, from Bouillon, 23 Décember 1651, Archives Etrangères, France, tome 268, fol. 406, in Chéruel, Lettres du cardinal, tome IV, p. 558.
70. Mazarin, Lettre de Monsieur le Cardinal Mazarin, escrite au Roy, sur son Retour en France.
71. Arrêt du Parlement du 29 décembre 1651.
72. Wolfe and Wolfe, Considérations politiques sur la Fronde, 93.
73. Bibliothèque Mazarine, ms. 4415, p. 1087.
74. Letter to Abbot Fouquet, from Epernay, 3 January, Bibliothèque nationale, mss. fr. n 23, 202, fol. 79, in Chéruel, Lettres du cardinal, tome V, p. 2–3.
75. According to Le Bon François au véritable Mazarin, bloody broadsheets had been published against Condé in 1650.
76. According to La pierre de touche aux Mazarins.
77. The ‘Mazarinade’ of 12 March 1652 shows the fabrication of false news items by Sainctost, Bautru (Bibliothèque Mazarine, M 13573); in November 1651, Nicolas Sainctot exaggerated the loss of the Princes’ Party in order to make a strong impression on the Parlement (letter of Gaudin to Mazarin, 23 November 1651, Archives Etrangères, France, 877, fol 302).
78. Letter to Abbot Fouquet, from Melun, 21 June 1652, Affaires Etrangères, France, tome 269, fol. 134 (tome 30 du recueil des Lettres de Mazarin), in Chéruel, Lettres du cardinal, tome V, p. 131.
79. Letter from Naudé to Mazarin, 15 July 1651, Wolfe and Wolfe, Considérations politiques sur la Fronde, 41.
80. Kettering, “Patronage and Politics During the Fronde.”
81. Letter to Condé, 4 June 1649, Archives Etrangères, France, tome 123, fol. 165, in Chéruel, Lettres du cardinal, tome III, p. 345.
82. Letter to Le Tellier, from Bordeaux, 13 October 1650, Bibliothèque nationale, ms. fr. n 4208, fol. 383–8, in Chéruel, Lettres du cardinal, tome III, p. 864–5.
83. Bibliothèque Mazarine, ms. 4414, p. 313.
84. Letter to Abbot Fouquet, from Saumur, 15 February 1652, Affaires Etrangères, France, tome 887, fol. 37, in Chéruel, Lettres du cardinal, tome V, p. 49.
85. Letter to Le Tellier, from Sedan, 12 November 1652, Bibliothèque nationale, ms. fr. n 6891, fol. 301; Bibliothèque Mazarine, ms. N 1719, tome III, fol. 187, in Chéruel, Lettres du cardinal, tome V, p. 457.
86. Letter of 8 April 1652, Wolfe and Wolfe, Considérations politiques sur la Fronde, 128.
87. Moreau, Bibliographie des Mazarinades, LII (tome 1).
88. Wolfe and Wolfe, Considérations politiques sur la Fronde, 74.
89. Loskoutoff, Rome des Césars, Rome des papes.
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Stéphane Haffemayer
Stéphane Haffemayer, Centre de Recherche d'Histoire Quantitative, Université de Caen, Campus n 1, Bât. N, Porte SB 104, Esplanade de la Paix, CS 14032, 14032 Caen Cedex 5, Normandy, France.