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Bertrand Augé
This is an article about the concepts of clientelism and loyalty in the context of relations between central and local power in France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The construction of the monarchical state could only be achieved by relying on the loyalty of the nobility networks or the development of local elites. If Versailles became the centre of royal audiences, how could these phenomena occur in the provinces? How could the local agents of the king combine loyalty to their sovereign and the management of their local clients? This study will bring some new elements to these issues. After a state of the art on the definitions of these concepts, our field of study will focus on Lower Navarre and relations conducted between the provincial states of this country with the king's representative, the Governor Duke de Gramont. Beloved of his provincial subjects, he enjoyed in Lower Navarre a very unique position that we will explore, at the intersection of spheres of interest, affection or purely political relations.
