Civic Pride and Royal Incorporation: Henri IV in Limoges

Abstract

This article examines an account of Henri IV’s entry ceremony into Limoges in 1605 that was written by Simon Descoustures, a local official and avocat du roi. I argue that this account opens up theoretical terrain on which to rethink narratives of royal power in early modern France. Henri IV’s royal entries have previously been understood as part of a broader effort to shore up his authority in the wake of the religious wars. In Descoustures’s text, however, while the people of Limoges welcome Henri IV into their city, they do so on their own terms, extending the spatial and temporal framework through which their encounter with the king takes place. By attending to the materiality of Limoges’s ancient origins and its enduring civic pride, I demonstrate how the city incorporates Henri IV into its civic body, rather than allowing itself fully to be subsumed into the king’s body politic.