This PhD dissertation focuses on the links between death and monarchic succession in Seventeenth Century French tragedies, tragi-comedies and heroic comedies. Since political philosophers and legal scholars of the Early Modern Era always present the monarch's death as natural and serene, succession did not seem to be of particular interest for tragic playwrights. One can therefore wonder why and how they staged succession crises. This is the question this dissertation answers in an interdisciplinary perspective. First, this dissertation shows that their plays did not present the mystical doctrine of the King's two bodies as valid. That is why playwrights could elaborate on all sorts of succession crises. This does not mean howewer that death always occurs in Seventeenth Century French Tragic Drama, even though it is often the case. Depending on the situations, similar patterns (ambition, love, blood ties) can lead to completely opposite endings. That is why playwrights sometimes aroused pity, horror, but also admiration in the spectator, which means they had great liberty when they staged succession. That can appear odd, as it is well-known that the Seventeenth Century saw the rising of absolutism in France. Why would the authorities allow such a fundamental issue to be questioned publicly? This is why this dissertation finally studies to what extent the French Tragic Drama of this period was subversive, and how playwrights could manage to stage such a delicate question as monarchic succession.