Consisting of an introduction and ten contributions, this volume edited by Mathieu Caesar seeks to capture the phenomenon of the city and court factions in Western Europe from the fifteenth century to the middle of the eighteenth century. Analyses of social and anthropological nature have been extensively used to decrypt such conflicts, but political and ideological reasons appear to have been most often neglected. Are factions ideologies? Are the factions based on a specific political, religious, or social program? Are they fluid or heterogeneous groups? These are some of the understudied questions this collection of stimulating case studies seeks to answer.

The urban factions were the result of debates by the leading groups on geopolitical decisions, as astutely shown by Ramón Díaz de Durana and Arsenio Dacosta regarding the Basque provinces between the end of the fourteenth and the fifteenth century; by Andreas Würgler for Switzerland in the Middle Ages and early modern times; Mathieu Caesar for Geneva in the sixteenth century; and Nadir Weber concerning Neuchâtel in the eighteenth century. Conflicts were intense when the local situation became difficult and politically uncertain from an international point of view. The situation is analogous to the disagreements between the noble lineages in Rome between 1480 and 1530 (Orsini, Colonna), studied by Maria Antonietta Visceglia, and in sixteenth-century Vicenza (Thiene, Trissino, and da Porto factions), which Andrea Savio analyzes. The curial world experienced a similar phenomenon at the end of the Thirty Years’ War, with Spanish and Bavarian parties at the imperial court placed in a new light by Rubén González Cuervo and Luis Tercero Casado. Attention to the notions of trust and uncertainty explains the struggles of urban factions conducted on behalf of the public good: family strategies, social networks, and sponsorship are involved in the formation of a faction at the expense of the other, but sudden and unpredictable political changes can also be the cause of conflicts that opposing groups are trying to solve.

Nadir Weber shows that the princes in Neuchâtel were used to adopting a policy of division in order to consolidate their own authority. Andrea Savio indicates that the elites of Vicenza, based on factions, managed to strengthen their political networks. Mathieu Caesar and Andreas Würgler show that in Geneva and Switzerland princes and urban leaders accepted the existence of factions that fit within the terms of political competition. The decisions taken in the urban councils were reported, but discussions rarely so, as Andreas Würgler reveals. The language of the factions should be considered: the use of prophecy, studied by Frances Courtney Kneupper, testifies to the existence of many rifts and disputes within the different factions during and after the Council of Basel (1431–60). For his part, Dominique Adrien insists on the vocabulary used in Augsburg between 1450 and 1480, intended to discredit the actions of opponents as seditious. The rhetoric of the factions, which may be the result of fears of propaganda orchestrated by the political groups in competition, points out the claims of passion (Maria Antonietta Visceglia, Olivia Carpi) or seduction (Dominique Adrian) always attributed to the opposing camp. The sources themselves are oriented to this language. Rubén González Cuervo and Luis Tercero Casado reflect the difficulty of identifying the Spanish party in the Italian sources, for ambassadors and Italian observers belong to an ancient culture of the factions and see all the factions organized along the same lines as in Italy. Produced by opponents and intended to discredit rivals, the available sources are never neutral (as the use of the word faction proves) but must degrade the opponents in the eyes of the public.

The fine studies collected in this book show that factions are heterogeneous groups, loyalties and allegiances that can change according to situations, solidarity, and newly established friendships.