ARTICLE: Frederik DHONDT, "Outsider and Insider Views of Philip V's Monarchy: Réal de Curban and Abbé de Montgon" [Special issue "El acceso de Felipe V al trono español. Reacciones ante una reformulación en las relaciones de poder", eds. María LUZ GONZÁLEZ MEZQUITA & Christopher STORRS] (Magallánica : revista de historia moderna XII (2025), nr. 23, 256-286) [OPEN ACCESS]

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(image source: magallánica)

Abstract:

This article examines two French printed sources that reflect on the Spanish monarchy under Philip V (1700–1746): Gaspard Réal de Curban’s La Science du Gouvernement (1760–1764) and the Mémoires of the abbé de Montgon (1748–1753). The former seeks to label and classify Philip V’s realm through a broad comparative approach encompassing public law, the law of nations, and what would today be described as political science. The latter, by contrast, offers a detailed (subjective and lively) ex post narrative of court intrigues and secret diplomacy between Versailles and San Ildefonso. While the former situates well-known episodes -such as Ripperda’s extraction from William Stanhope’s residence- or institutions -such as the organisation of colonial trade- against the backdrop of the developing European law of nations, the latter reveals the lived reality of a transnational court society, in which female actors and confessors could weave together multiple strands of influence.

Read the article here in open access. 

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