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Dissertation Information for Susan Amanda Eurich

NAME:
- Susan Amanda Eurich

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- Emory University (USA) (1988)

ADVISORS:
- J. Russell Major

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Inspected

Title: Anatomy of a fortune: The house of Foix-Navarre-Albret, 1517-1610

Abstract: In the sixteenth century, the members of the house of Foix-Navarre-Albret represented the very cream of the French aristocracy. Tied by birth and marriage to the royal house of France, they were often at the center of the most important political, religious and diplomatic controversies of the age. While their public and private activities have been the subject of numerous serious as well as popular biographies and scholarly monographs, the evolution of their financial fortunes, which sustained their dogged pursuit of power and prestige, has never been carefully or thoroughly examined. This study redresses that imbalance. Based on extensive household and estate accounts that are housed in the Archives Departementales des Pyrenees-Atlantiques, as well as on related documents that are scattered throughout departmental archives and major libraries in France, this work traces the ways in which the Albrets accumulated and increased their wealth and responded to the peculiar economic opportunities and challenges that the sixteenth century presented. While arguing that the Albrets demonstrated a keen understanding of certain basic economic principles, such as supply and demand, and took advantage of the economic and demographic pressures of the age to augment their treasure stores, the study also stresses that economic motivations and conditions alone cannot explain the structure and development of the Albret's fortunes over the course of the sixteenth century. The cultural expectations and social and political realities of life in Reformation France also shaped and constrained the ways in which the Albrets accumulated their fortune and the ways in which they chose to use it. The necessary generosity of patronage, the compelling calls to conspicuous display and expenditure, and the partisan politics of the Religious Wars, all posed a tremendous threat to the financial stability and solidarity of the house of Foix-Navarre-Albret. That the Albrets often succeeded in balancing the demands of cultural convention and religious politics against the limits of their fortunes calls into question the image of the aristocracy in crisis. Careful attention to the management of their resources over the course of the sixteenth century spared them from the worst effects of the Religious Wars, and favorable economic and demographic conditions further encouraged the restoration of their fortunes in the early seventeenth century.

MPACT Scores for Susan Amanda Eurich

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-06-01 16:09:16

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Students under Susan Amanda Eurich

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None