The Uncertain World of Renaissance Geneva and Savoy : Political Life, Factional Conflicts and Religious Turmoil

Abstract

Uncertainty and instability affected Geneva and the Duchy of Savoy since the mid-fifteenth century. French and Swiss expansionism had turned Savoy into part of a long geopolitical fault line, running from the North Sea to the Mediterranean along the border between France and the Empire. In Geneva, and partially in other towns of Piedmont and the Pays de Vaud, this instability fuelled urban factionalism, confessional conflicts, but also wider discussions about the ways in which society could be reformed. Conflicts were, in the end, the consequence of a struggle about the best political and religious option to reduce uncertainty. The Uncertain World of Renaissance Geneva and Savoy looks at how political life worked in a time of great instability, seeking to answer a straightforward—but not easy—question: how did people face and react to political and religious uncertainty?