The New Cambridge Modern History Vol. 05 - The Ascendancy of France 1648-88

Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd

The New Cambridge Modern History. Vol. V: The Ascendancy of France, 1648-88 by F. L. Carsten Review by: R. B. McDowell Irish Historical Studies, Vol. 15, No. 59 (Mar., 1967), pp. 345-347 Published by: Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30004988 . Accessed: 18/06/2014 01:34 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

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Christianity may reflect the impoverishment of a class rather than the extermination of a people, and more religion may have survived among the rural population than we can learn from Bede. In a detailed topographical analysis of Withington in Gloucestershire, as well as a brief survey of another village, Blockley, he Convincingly demonstrates continuity of site between Roman and Saxon times and effectively exposes the dangers of plausible deductions from English place-names. Personal names too are fallacious indices to racial origin. Professor Finberg is at pains to point out that similar researches elsewhere may produce quite different results, but we may be forgiven for suspecting him of ironical self-depreciation in his statement that 'it is not the business of the local historian to re-write the history of England' (p. 204). Two studies, 'The churls of Hurstbourne' and 'Charltons and Carltons' mercilessly degrade the Anglo-Saxon ceorl to at best a semiservile status, and incidentally a pertinent distinction is made on p. 139 between medieval forgery and innocent modernisation of vernacular texts by later scribes. Irish historians will notice that the present book strengthens the impression that Anglo-Saxon society from an early date exhibited strong tendencies towards feudalism. The differences to early Irish society are illustrated, not only by the position of the ceorls (and we must remember that the status of freemen in the Irish laws may have been very theoretical), but more notably by the importance of the king's role in ecclesiastical affairs. Finberg points out that they were influenced by late Roman law, and we may note in particular the creation of bishoprics by the king (p. 1 I3). It was not until the twelfth century that Irish kings had become sufficiently feudal to play a significant role in the organisation of a diocesan system - itself symptomatic of a changed society. But even if it should come to be generally accepted that the transition from Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England was primarily a social rather than a racial phenomenon, and one which left the basic structure of the rural economy unaltered, a question still remains: does not a change in the ruling class, especially when accompanied by the introduction and eventual imposition of a new language, constitute a cataclysm?

JoHNBYRNE FRANCIS THE NEW CAMBRIDGE MODERN HISTORY.

Vol.

V:

THE ASCENDANCY OF

FRANCE,1648-88. Edited by F. L. Carsten. Pp. xxv, 631. Cambridge:

University Press. I96I. 40s.

phrase 'de l'audace, encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace' might well be taken as a motto by anyone attempting to review a volume of the Cambridge Modern History. In volume V over twenty contributors survey with scholarly skill and awareness the second half of the seventeenth century. The peace of Westphalia certainly marks the beginning of a new era. It might be argued, that in spite of the significance both for the British Isles and western Europe of the Glorious Revolution, DANTON'S

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either the end of the century or the death of Louis XIV would be a better terminal date than I688. However, when so many different countries and differing activities are concerned, it is hard to find common starting and finishing points, and in this instance the contributors do not allow themselves to be severely restrictedby chronological boundaries. The work falls into two main sections. There are eight chapters on general themes, economic problems, art and architecture, church and state, science, philosophy, political ideals, and 'the social foundations of states' (a vigorous and original essay by Sir George Clark). These are followed by seventeen chapters dealing with the European states and their overseas possessions. The preface divides this section of seventeen chapters into two groups, nine chapters describing the states of western Europe with the colonies and trading contacts and eight relating to the states of northern, central and eastern Europe. The volume is entitled 'The ascendancy of France' and three chapters are on aspects of French life. This emphasis is justified by the range and value of the French achievement, which comprehended the plays of Racine and Molikre, Vauban's fortifications, Le Notre's gardens, Poussin's paintings, the sermons of Bossuet, the Gobelins tapestry works, the court of Versailles and the Cartesian philosophy. But if France was outstanding in creative vigour and remarkably successful in diplomacy and war, it was part of a western Europe which was entering on an era of momentous change and taking over the control of wide expanses of the earth's surface. The other maritime powers, Holland and England, offer a striking contrast to France in their forms of government, social structure and the tone of their public and intellectual life. Of course, there were resemblances between these countries and France-all over Europe, the volume shows, aristocracies or oligarchies based on land or business enjoyed immense prestige and considerable power, but the differences were significant enough for England, after what Professor Ogg calls 'Britain's brief experience of a "continental" political regime', to start on a process of peaceful political and social evolution which has not yet halted while France was to break abruptly with the old regime. In western Europe, as a whole, science and technology were beginning a steady advance, and technical knowledge along with a sheer pioneering drive were enabling western Europeans to build up empires overseas and develop world trade. It is fitting that the central chapters of this volume are devoted to the Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch empires and to French and English explorations and colonization. The foundations of European world power were being laid and this half century inaugurates the great age of European domination and leadership. Already the intersection of western Europe and Africa, Asia and the Americas was becoming a potent factor in European life. For instance, the decline in the influx of precious metals from America had for some years a deflationary effect on western Europe's economy and stimulated the employment of other forms of credit; and the spread of coffeedrinking checked drunkenness and encouraged the development of that important social and intellectual centre, the coffee house.

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The arrangement of chapters which has been mentioned emphasises significant differences in development between eastern and western Europe. In the east the Ottoman empire and Poland were in decline, and in Russia administrative and economic advance was planned, pushed forward and controlled by ambitious autocracy. There are only a few passing references to Ireland, but one Irishman, William Petty 'doctor, inventor, economist and much else besides', receives honourable mention as a pioneer in the field of social statistics. R. B. MCDOWELL 1750-1-I880. By J. D. Chambers and E. London: Batsford. 1966. 45s. 222. vii, Mingay. Pp. G.

THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION

volume is a timely one in a subject in which research in recent decades has resulted in much reinterpretation, including important contributions made individually by both authors. Old generalisations and discarded interpretations are, however, hard to kill off at the level of popularisation and teaching. The story of agricultural changes in these islands in recent centuries-the so-called Agricultural Revolution -has especially suffered in the telling and retelling, and is still often presented in unrealistic terms. A book such as this, lucid, drawing on recent research, and well-documented, is therefore welcome. The authors emphasise that English agriculture was never characterised by large-scale farming to the extent often assumed. Instead of a large number of landless labourers and a relatively small number of farmers, the proportion of labourers to occupiers was in fact quite low, less than two to one about I69o and still no more than two and a half to one in 183i. In such circumstances change was inevitably complex, diversity of practice and patterns widespread, and the degree of continuity pronounced. From the Irish point of view, the significance of this reminder is that it points to the unreality of the traditional contrast in which the size of farming unit, the character of the institutional features and the ease of access to capital in England were greatly exaggerated with a view to highlighting the alleged handicaps of agriculture in Ireland. Far from Irish and English conditions being totally dissimilar, there are many parallels, study of which should be of use to historians on both sides of the Irish Sea. The growing poverty of the labouring classes in the south of England in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, witnessed for instance in the wide disparity in rural earnings between south and north and in the growing numbers in receipt of poor relief, is a close parallel to the deteriorating rural situation at the same time in Ireland. Prof. Chambers and Dr Mingay rightly emphasise that population growth in combination with a lack of employment outlets off the land was responsible for this, and that far from the enclosure movement having a hand in the matter, many of the depressed counties were centres of old enclosure. Population growth was of course the factor at work in Ireland also. Irish historians have however failed THIS

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