Élites en armes, élites en jeux

Under the Ancien Régime, the urban elite aspired to nobility. In many towns across the kingdom, companies offered residents the chance to become knights in a "noble game" of shooting. This bourgeois knighthood involved practising with bows, crossbows or arquebuses, and was a lasting blend of military practices, fraternal customs, courtly traditions and esoteric rituals. Privileged in their cities, these marksmen jealously defended their rights against the powers that be and distinguished themselves in major shooting competitions, urban Olympic events where they competed in skill and pageantry.
By following these companies during the modern era, this book reveals a little-known form of urban sociability, distinct from the bourgeois militia and close to Freemasonry. Drawing on a vast body of archives, it combines urban history, the history of games and military history. Beyond the warrior myth that these companies cultivated, this work questions the reality of their role in the city.