Estates and Demons

A brief account of Bodin’s presence at Henri III’s discussion group, the ‘Académie du Palais’, prefaces a review of the Angevin’s activities as a deputy at the Blois Estates-general (1576), an assembly convened amid confrontation, in France between the newly formed Catholic League and the Huguenot confederacy, and in Europe at large between Spain’s regime in the Netherlands and rebels against that regime. Based primarily on Bodin’s own journal of the Estates, the review highlights the debates at the assembly over religious and fiscal policy, in both of which the Angevin made significant interventions. The chapter then notes his association with the Duke of Anjou and the so-called politiques, before embarking on a substantial account followed by a critical evaluation of his notorious work on witchcraft, the Démonomanie.