ABSTRACT

The stability and security of urban life were constantly being challenged by forces which emerged or seemed to emerge from outside the normal nexus of human relations in the city, naturals disasters, fire, disease, warfare or the assumed machinations of the community's secret enemies. Women were also active in many of the broader forms of social conflict which disrupted urban life: there is ample evidence of women organizing with each other or with men to promote the causes they regarded as urgent. An even more striking example of the mutability of alignments in an urban conflict is provided by the tumultuous cycle of events which unfolded in Bordeaux in the mid-seventeenth century. The Parlement of Bordeaux quickly followed suit, stirring up popular support for its opposition to the crown. The Fronde erupted in 1648 when the Parlement of Paris launched its attack on the unpopular policies of the royal government headed by Cardinal Jules Mazarin.