Henri, Comte de Boulainvilliers (1658, St. Saire, Normandy - January 23rd1722, Paris) was a French political writer and historian. He was educated at the college of Juilly, and served in the army until 1697. Events January 13 - Edward Sexby, who had plotted against Oliver Cromwell, dies in Tower of London February 6 - Swedish troops of Charles X Gustav of Sweden cross The Great Belt (Storebælt) in Denmark over frozen sea May 1 - Publication of Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial and The Garden of Cyrus by... Mont Saint Michel is a historic pilgrimage site and a symbol of Normandy Normandy is a geographical region in northern France. ... January 23 is the 23rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events Abraham De Moivre states De Moivres theorem connecting trigonometric functions and complex numbers Publication of the first book of Bachs Well-Tempered Clavier Fall of Persias Safavid dynasty during a bloody revolt of the Afghani people. ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... Events September 20 - The Treaty of Ryswick December 2 – St Pauls Cathedral opened in London Peter the Great travels in Europe officially incognito as artilleryman Pjotr Mikhailov Use of palanquins increases in Europe Christopher Polhem starts Swedens first technical school. ...
He wrote a number of historical works (published after his death), of which the most important were the following:
Histoire de l'ancien gouvernement de la France (La Haye, 1727)
Etat de la France, avec des memoires sur l'ancien gouvernement (London, 1727)
Histoire de la pairie de France (London, 1753)
Histoire des Arabes (1731).
His writings are characterized by an extravagant admiration of the feudal system. He was an aristocrat of the most pronounced type, attacking absolute monarchy on the one hand and popular government on the other. He was at great pains to prove the pretensions of his own family to ancient nobility, and maintained that the government should be entrusted solely to men of his class. He died in Defining feudalism is difficult because there is no generally accepted agreement on what it means. ...
This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain. Supporters contend that the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) represents, in many ways, the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...
Indeed, Boulainvilliers' writings are characterized by an extravagant admiration of the feudal system and bitter opposition to absolute monarchy, which he deemed a decadence that had started with the Crusades and the Capetian Kings, whom had allowed the original aristocracy to be diluted through miscegenation with the Third Estate.
Boulainvilliers was thus an aristocrat of the most pronounced type, attacking absolute monarchy on the one hand and popular government on the other.
Boulainvilliers thus opposed the Nordic race to the Latin race, but his concept of "race" had nothing to do with the biologized concept used by 19th century's "scientific racism".
Like Saint-Simon, Boulainvilliers was saturated with ultra-aristocratic notions and was also an ardent adherent of the old feudal system, his books being a long, violent tirade against the French monarchy which, according to him, was responsible for the gradual ruin of the privileges of the nobility and the annihilation of feudalism.
The ignorance and negligence of the lords rendering them generally incompetent to discharge the functions that rightfully belonged to them, the principal of which was to dispense justice in their fees, they soon transferred all their judicial authority to clerks or jurists.
It is only within the last twenty-five years that Boulainvilliers' works have been duly appreciated and their conclusions taken up by the historic school of which Fustel de Coulanges was the chief representative.
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