La correspondance de la duchesse de Châtillon (1627-1695) : diplomatie au féminin au Grand Siècle

This thesis examines the rhetorical and opportunistic strategies used by the Duchess of Châtillon, a seventeenth-century female aristocrat, to negotiate both the political and the diplomatic spheres of Louis XIV’s court. This work is based on her correspondence, most of which still remains unpublished. The analysis of these strategies reveals that it was possible for some women, through the use of informal means, to have influence in the male-dominated political arena.