The Uncertain World of Renaissance Geneva and Savoy

Political Life, Factional Conflicts and Religious Turmoil

Mathieu Caesar

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040773970
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Early Modern History
• Index: History

Uncertainty and instability affected Geneva and the Duchy of Savoy since the mid-fifteenth century. French and Swiss expansionism had turned Savoy into part of a long geopolitical fault line, running from the North Sea to the Mediterranean along the border between France and the Empire. In Geneva, and partially in other towns of Piedmont and the Pays de Vaud, this instability fuelled urban factionalism, confessional conflicts, but also wider discussions about the ways in which society could be reformed. Conflicts were, in the end, the consequence of a struggle about the best political and religious option to reduce uncertainty. The Uncertain World of Renaissance Geneva and Savoy looks at how political life worked in a time of great instability, seeking to answer a straightforward—but not easy—question: how did people face and react to political and religious uncertainty?

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Charts, Maps and Tables
• Abbreviations
• A Preliminary Note on Terms, Names and Maps
• Prologue
• 1. An Uncertain World: From Prosperity to Instability
• 2. Regional Alliances and Urban Factionalism
• 3. Princely Policies amidst Rising Uncertainty
• 4. Genevan Confessional Struggles: Factions and Criminal Trials
• 5. Competing Reforms
• Epilogue
• Maps
• Tables
• Bibliography
• Index