About the Book
As scandalous as any modern-day celebrity murder trial, the “Giroux affair” was a maelstrom of intrigue, encompassing daggers, poison, adultery, archenemies, servants, royalty, and legal proceedings that reached the pinnacle of seventeenth-century French society. In 1638 Philippe Giroux, a judge in the highest royal court of Burgundy, allegedly murdered his equally powerful cousin, Pierre Baillet, and Baillet’s valet, Philibert Neugot. The murders were all the more shocking because they were surrounded by accusations (particularly that Giroux had been carrying on a passionate affair with Baillet’s wife), conspiracy theories (including allegations that Giroux tried to poison his mother-in-law), and unexplained deaths (Giroux’s wife and her physician died under suspicious circumstances). The trial lasted from 1639 until 1643 and came to involve many of the most distinguished and influential men in France, among them the prince of CondÉ, Henri II Bourbon; the prime minister, Cardinal Richelieu; and King Louis XIII.James R. Farr reveals the Giroux affair not only as a riveting murder mystery but also as an illuminating point of entry into the dynamics of power, justice, and law in seventeenth-century France. Drawing on the voluminous trial records, Farr uses Giroux’s experience in the court system to trace the mechanisms of power-both the formal power vested by law in judicial officials and the informal power exerted by the nobility through patron-client relationships. He does not take a position on Giroux’s guilt or innocence. Instead, he allows readers to draw their own conclusions about who did what to whom on that ill-fated evening in 1638.
Table of Contents:
Preface ix
List of Principal Characters xiii
Prologue: Looking Back 1
1. Tales of Two Murders 3
2. Passion and the Beautiful Cousin 14
3. The Trial Opens: Jean-Baptiste Lantin’s Investigation, 1639–1640 28
4. A Hat, a Rapier, a Knife, and a Dagger 40
5. The House of Giroux 54
6. Prison 69
7. Poison 86
8. Jailbreak 97
9. A “Minister of Vengeance” 109
10. Rape? 122
11. Attack, Counterattack 136
12. The King of Spades 150
13. Life or Death? The Day of Reckoning Draws Near 161
Epilogue 185
Analytical Essay: The Paradoxes of Power, Law, and Justice 191
Notes 205
A Note on Sources 209
Index 219
About the Author :
James R. Farr is Professor of History at Purdue University. He is the author of Artisans in Europe, 1300–1914; Authority and Sexuality in Early Modern Burgundy, 1550–1730; and Hands of Honor: Artisans and Their World in Dijon, 1550–1650.
Review :
"James R. Farr has produced a terrific work of historical research, a book that offers both compelling narrative and suggestive analyses. A Tale of Two Murders addresses basic questions about how early modern society functioned, and it should interest specialists and non-specialists alike."--Jonathan Dewald, author of Aristocratic Experience and the Origins of Modern Culture: France, 1570-1715 "Dazzling beauty, spousal abuse, passionate love, wanton covetousness, lust, conspiracy, poison, murder, vengeance: what an engaging surprise to discover that one of America'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."--Steven Laurence Kaplan, author of The Bakers of Paris and the Bread Question, 1700-1775 "This riveting read provides an interesting insight into the dynamics of power and how justice was done in 17th-century French society."--FRANCE MAGAZINE, February 2006 "A Tale of Two Murders is ... riveting and readable, equally appropriate for an audience of university students or general readers."--Brian Sandberg, Renaissance Quarterly
