This major new textbook addresses fundamental questions about the nature of the state in early modern Europe through an analysis of the most important continental state, France. Professor Collins abandons the traditional formulation of the absolute monarchy, and presents in its place a state that evolved to meet the needs of the French elites. Dealing both with the changes in the idea of the state and with the evolution of the state institutions themselves, Collins offers a fundamental reinterpretation of the state in early modern France which addresses issues relevant to historians and students of political thought.