Disorderly Families

The first English translation of letters of arrest from eighteenth century France held in the archives of the Bastille Drunken and debauched husbands; libertine wives; vagabonding children. These and many more are the subjects of requests for confinement written to the king of France in the eighteenth century. These letters of arrest ( lettres de cachet ) from France’s Ancien Régime were often associated with excessive royal power and seen as a way for the king to imprison political opponents. I