Jean Bérenger (2 October 1934 – 8 September 2024) was a French

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

, director of research at the

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

, professor at the Faculty of

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

of the

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. Founded in the 16th century by Johannes Sturm, it was a center of intellectual life during ...

and, starting from 1990, at the

University of Paris-Sorbonne Paris-Sorbonne University (also known as Paris IV; ) was a public university, public research university in Paris, France, active from 1971 to 2017. It was the main inheritor of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Paris. In 2018, it m ...

. Bérenger specializes in the history of the countries of Central and

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

and in

military history Military history is the study of War, armed conflict in the Human history, history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to Politics, local and international relationship ...

, mainly of the

modern era The modern era or the modern period is considered the current historical period of human history. It was originally applied to the history of Europe and Western history for events that came after the Middle Ages, often from around the year 1500 ...

, but has also published works on the contemporary era. His doctorate dealt with the history of

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

in the 17th century. Bérenger died on 8 September 2024, at the age of 90.https://www.cybille.fr/avis-de-deces/obseques-jean-berenger-CWI02

Work

In 1974, he suggested other historians of the 17th century to "see, and study, minister-favorites not only in a national context but as a 'European phenomenon.'" His seminal 1974 ''Annales'' article on "royal

favourite A favourite was the intimate companion of a ruler or other important person. In Post-classical Europe, post-classical and Early modern Europe, early-modern Europe, among other times and places, the term was used of individuals delegated signifi ...

s" has been credited as an important comparative study on the subject. He argued that the simultaneous success of several 17th-century minister-favorites in their respective countries was not coincidental, but reflected some change that took place in the period. J.H. Elliot and Lawrence Brockliss's work (that culminated in the collection of essays ''The World of the Favourite''), undertaken to explore the matter put forward by Bérenger, became the most important comparative treatment of this subject. In 1975, he published what in the 2020s was still the only modern survey of the financial relationship between Government and Estates in the period between the

Peace of Westphalia The Peace of Westphalia (, ) is the collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster. They ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and brought peace to the Holy Roman Empire ...

and the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.

Incomplete list of works

* ''Tolérance ou paix de religion en Europe centrale : 1415-1792'', Honoré Champion, 2000 :: - Prix Monseigneur-Marcel 2001 of the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

* ''L'Autriche-Hongrie, 1815-1918'',

Armand Colin Armand Colin is a French publishing house founded in 1870 by Auguste Armand Colin. It specializes in publishing works concerning human sciences, economics and education. Among its best-known publications are the "U" collection begun in 1968, and ...

, 1998 * ''La révolution militaire en Europe (XV^e-XVIII^e siècles)'',

Economica ''Economica'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal of generalist economics published on behalf of the London School of Economics by Wiley-Blackwell. Established in 1921, it is currently edited by Nava Ashraf, Oriana Bandiera, Tim Besley, Franc ...

, 1998 sous la direction de Jean Bérenger. * ''Guerre et paix dans l'Europe du XVII^e siècle'', Sedes, 1995, trois tomes. , * ''Histoire de l'Autriche'',

Presses universitaires de France Presses universitaires de France (PUF; ), founded in 1921 by Paul Angoulvent (1899–1976), is a French publishing house. Recent company history The financial and legal structure of the Presses Universitaires de France was completely restruc ...

, 1994 (collection Que sais-je ? n° 222) * ''Histoire de l'empire des Habsbourg, 1273-1918'',

Fayard Fayard (complete name: ''Librairie Arthème Fayard'') is a French Paris-based publishing house established in 1857. Fayard is controlled by Hachette Livre. In 1999, Éditions Pauvert became part of Fayard. Claude Durand was director of Fayar ...

, 1990 * ''Turenne'',

, 1987 - nombreuses rééditions - ''Une biographie de ce grand seigneur du XVII^e siècle qui s'inscrit dans le double registre de l'histoire militaire élargie à la géopolitique et de l'histoire sociale''. * ''La Tchécoslovaquie'',

, 1978 (collection Que sais-je ? n° 1726) * ''La République autrichienne'' de 1919 à nos jours, Klincksieck/ Didier, 1971 * '' Joseph d'Autriche : serviteur de l'État'',

, 2007 *'Pour une enquête européenne, l'histoire du ministeriat au XVIIe siècle', ''Annales Economies Sociétés Civilisations'', 29, 1, février 1974, p. 166-192.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berenger, Jean 20th-century French historians 21st-century French historians 21st-century French people Historians of Europe 1934 births 2024 deaths