title: A Tale of Two Murders: Passion and Power in Seventeenth-Century France
author: James R. Farr
description: <div>&ldquo;Dazzling beauty, spousal abuse, passionate love, wanton covetousness, lust, conspiracy, poison, murder, vengeance: what an engaging surprise to discover that one of America&rsquo;s foremost scholars of early modern European society, James R. Farr, is also a beguiling storyteller. A riveting drama, his book is at the same time a masterful analysis of emotion and affect, rites and rituals, elite formation and reproduction, family and lineage strategies, gender construction, the discourse and practice of the law, political culture, relations of domination and subordination, the tensions between center and periphery, and the myriad ways in which power worked in seventeenth-century France.&rdquo;&mdash;Steven Laurence Kaplan, author of <I>The Bakers of Paris and the Bread Question, 1700&ndash;1775</I></div><br /><br /><div>&ldquo;James R. Farr has produced a terrific work of historical research, a book that offers both compelling narrative and suggestive analyses. <I>A Tale of Two Murders </I>addresses basic questions about how early modern society functioned, and it should interest specialists and non-specialists alike.&rdquo;&mdash;Jonathan Dewald, author of <I>Aristocratic Experience and the Origins of Modern Culture: France, 1570&ndash;1715</I></div><br /><br /><div>&ldquo;Combining a gripping narrative with keen analysis, Farr uses this case to shed light on patronage and the pursuit of power among the seventeenth-century French nobility.&rdquo;</div> (Jeffrey R. Watt, Sixteenth Century Journal)<br /><br /><div>&ldquo;The best micro-histories manage to convey the texture of a vanished culture and to define and amplify the basic issues, concerns, and imperatives that infused the society in which the highlighted events unfolded. Farr&rsquo;s engrossing study, <i>A Tale of Two Murders</i>, delivers those insights in spades.&rdquo;</div> (Jay M. Smith <i>Journal of Interdisciplinary History</i>)
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  The Historical Nights Entertainment
  
  
  [Preface](The%20Historical%20Nights%20Entertain_split_001.html#filepos5399)
  
  [I. THE ABSOLUTION. Aftonso Henriques, first King of
  
  
  Portugal
  
  [II. THE FALSE DEMETRIUS. Boris Godunov and the
  
  
  Pretended Son of Ivan the Terrible
  
  [III. THE HERMOSA FEMBRA. An Eposode of the
  
  
  Inquisition in Seville
  
  [IV. THE PASTRY-COOK OF MADRIGAL. The Story of the
  
  
  False Sebastian of Portugal
  
  [V. THE END OF THE “VERT GALANT”. The Assassination
  
  
  of Henry IV
  
  [VI. THE BARREN WOOING. The Murder of Amy
  Robsart](The%20Historical%20Nights%20Entertain_split_002.html#filepos232533)
  
  
  [VII. SIR JUDAS. The Betrayal of Sir Walter
  Ralegh](The%20Historical%20Nights%20Entertain_split_002.html#filepos283337)
  
  
  [VIII. HIS INSOLENCE OF BUCKINGHAM. George
  
  
  Villier's Courtship of Ann of Austria
  
  [IX. THE PATH OF EXILE. The Fall of Lord
  Clarendon](The%20Historical%20Nights%20Entertain_split_003.html#filepos367138)
  
  
  [X. THE TRAGE