5.3.6. ARCHAIC OPPONENTS OF GROWTH RESIST AND ARE DEFEATED

SPAIN RETAINS FIGHTING PRACTICES THAT LIMIT EFFICIENCY — LIKE PLAYING VIOLINS BEFORE AN ATTACK AND A COMMANDER WHO JOINS THE BATTLE IN AN ARMCHAIR

-- Violins, Le siècle de Louis XIV by Voltaire.

-- Armchair, illustration below : Leloir is known for his accuracy.

 

This and other colored illustrations by Maurice Leloir, in Le Roy-Soleil by Gustave Toudouze, 1931

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French nobles revolt five times (in 1626-1642) and engage in a civil war (in 1648-1652) to retain their independence, but lose.

Leloir in Richelieu by Théodore Cahu, 1903

The Count of Chalais on his way to execution (in 1626)

Leloir, reference above

Henri II de Montmorency's mother pleads unsuccessfully for his pardon (in 1632)

Une histoire populaire de la France by Henri Martin, 1888 / zoom

Marie-Louise de Montpensier, the king's first cousin, orders the cannoneers of the Bastille fortress to fire on the royal troops (in 1652).

Spanish and French nobles belong to societies of an earlier kind.  "Don Quixote" is a Spanish nobleman who fights for a bygone ideal, like the French lords and Senufo warriors who resist the profit-seeking forces and are finally subdued. 

The defeat of the archaic nobility in France

announces an ultra-powerful monarchy

that favors emergent capitalism,

 then brakes its extension.

End of this section.

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  Next section,
5.4.
 Super-spending returns