This book examines the character of the governing elite of sixteenth-century Paris--a group that included some of the most important jurists, administrators, and intellectuals of the early modern French state--and investigates the strategies employed by members of this group to promote and maintain their position in the city and in the monarchy. Originally published in 1983. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.