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Matthew Vester
In this article, Matthew Vester examines how Duke Emanuel Filibert of Savoy set about re-establishing the ducal revenues after he recovered control of his duchy in 1559. Ducal commissioners were sent into the provinces to gather data on their tax obligations, and the control of the ducal castles and manors, something that could only be done with the help of the local communities and their officers, who were generally cooperative about providing information. The process of investigation was mainly one of negotiation rather than coercion, though the use of quartering soldiers to encourage compliance where concealment or obstruction was suspected was occasionally practised. The article re-examines the standard textbook account of the re-establishment of ducal authority, which treats it as an early exercise in royal absolutism. It is usually represented that in 1560 the duke summoned the estates of Piedmont and having secured their consent to an increase in taxation, dismissed them. Thereafter there were no further meetings of representative bodies in Savoy-Piedmont. The article shows that in reality there never was a formal meeting of the estates in 1560. Instead the duke negotiated privately with representatives of the nobles and the communities. The final tax settlement that emerged was the result of ongoing discussion between the ducal officers and the communities. And contrary to the absolutist model, it continued to be the practice in Savoy-Piedmont to negotiate with a variety of representative gatherings over taxation and services. Finally the article suggests that this kind of informal discussion with the representatives of the communities, which was a realistic appreciation that revenue raising without consent and cooperation could be very difficult, may have been widespread in the absolute monarchies of early modern Europe.
