Chrétiens et Sociétés (Dec 2015)
Les Provinces-Unies, une nouvelle Rome ? Henri II de Rohan (1579-1638), République et Calvinisme
Abstract
The great French Calvinist nobleman, traveller and polygraph Henri II de Rohan (1579-1638) left numerous writings reflecting his geopolitical conception of the world. His long journey (1599-1600) taking him to all parts of the ‘Christianity’ at the age of twenty turns out to be a fundamental experience. It shapes his political and religious vision of Europe at the beginning of the Seventeenth Century. The travel account (Voyage du duc de Rohan), rewritten at a later age and published posthumously, irrigates together with his seemingly chaotic life experience, the political thought of this Huguenot leader. The later works of Rohan rely on the “effective reality” examined during his initiatory journey and on his tumultuous life experience.‘The United Provinces, a new Rome?’ analyses the assimilation by Rohan of the Republican regime of the United Provinces, newly founded State in the Machiavellian sense, and of the political thought of his time. The young Republic, bearing a Calvinist and aristocratic character, embodies according to Rohan an ideal amongst Republican regimes, and as a strategic ally. The United Provinces are perceived as a new Rome in the religious domain, and bear politically comparison with the Roman Republic. A comparison with Venice and the Swiss Republic, and references to early-modern authors, including Machiavelli, structure the various works of Rohan. From the travel writings, and the political and military texts emerges a coherent vision of an idealized European equilibrium, where the optimal regime of the monarchy of Henri IV sides with Republics to struggle against the Spanish ‘tyranny’.
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