757 Sixteenth Century Journal XLI/3 (2010) ISSN 0361-0160 Imagining Esther in Early Modern France Nicole Hochner Hebrew University of Jerusalem This study argues that the characterization of the biblical heroine Esther was instrumental in early modern France in challenging and renegotiating the monarchical institution. Literary and visual representations of Esther suggest that the queen ’ s involvement is critical in ensuring justice and peace in the realm as she successfully turns Ahasuerus into a genuine king able to listen, share, and free his people from oppression and tyranny. Despite her apparent humility and obedience, Esther provides a further argument in favor of a constitutional and moderate monarchy in which the queen ’ s duty is to intercede to prevent abuses of power. It is argued that this reading of Esther was supportive of the political ambition of Anne of Brittany. The emergence of the character of Esther explains the general political debate over limits of royal authority and the reformation of the female court, mostly undertaken by the influential Queen Anne of Brittany. THE QUESTION OF THE SUPERIORITY OF THE KING over the law was debated contin- uously throughout France ’ s monarchical regime, at least since the thirteenth cen- tury. 1 What makes the late fifteenth century pivotal in this respect is neither the novelty of the question nor the credence of its intellectuals, but rather the new social and political realities subsequent to the reign of Louis XI (1461–83). 2 After his death France faced what might be designated a “post-traumatic” dispute over the consequences of the Spider King’ s controversial policies, with a feeling of urgency to better define the limits of power and the procedures of legitimation in the French monarchy. These issues were central at the meeting of the Estates-Gen- eral in Tours in 1484, 3 and they were essential in the works of writers as different 1 Jacques Krynen, L ’Empire du roi: Idées et croyances politiques en France, XIII–XVe siècle (Paris: Gallimard, 1993), 339–458. Significantly, the last part of the book, entitled Absolutism, ends with a chapter on “Résistances” (415–55) dealing with the 1356–58 revolts and the General Estates of 1413 and 1484. 2 A broad study of the two generations active after Louis XI’ s death is still lacking, but see William Farr Church, Constitutional Thought in Sixteenth-Century France: A Study in the Evolution of Ideas (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1941); Jacques Poujol, “L ’Evolution et influence de l ’idée abso- lutiste en France de 1498 à 1559” (PhD diss., Sorbonne, 1955); Krynen, L ’Empire du roi; and J. Russell Major, From Renaissance Monarchy to Absolute Monarchy: French Kings, Nobles and Estates (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), 47–56. 3 Jean Masselin, Journal des Etats Généraux de France tenus à Tours en 1484 sous le règne de Charles VIII, ed. A. Bernier (Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1835). Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Israel Trust Fund for its generous support of research for this article