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THE FRENCH MONARCHICAL – COMMONWEALTH, 1356 1560 How does authority become power? How does power justify itself to achieveitsends?Forovertwohundredyears,theValoiskingsreliedon a complex mixture of ideologies, ruling a monarchical commonwealth with a coherent theory of shared governance. Forged in the Hundred YearsWar,thiscommonwealthbuiltonthedefenseofthepublicgood (bienpublic)cameundonebothpracticallyandtheoreticallyduringthe Wars of Religion. Just as certain kings sought to expand the royal pre- rogative,so,too,elitesfoughttopreservetheircontroloverlocalgovern- ment.Usingtownarchivesfrommorethantwentycitiestocomplement traditional sources of political theory, The French Monarchical Commonwealth, 1356–1560 establishes the relationship between seem- inglytheoreticalconstructs,liketheSalicLaw,andtherealityofeveryday politics. jamesb.collinsisProfessorofHistoryatGeorgetownUniversity.His seven books include The State in Early Modern France (Cambridge University Press, 1995; 2nd ed. 2008) and La monarchie républicaine (2016), based on his lectures at the Collège de France. His work has beentranslatedintoFrench,Spanish,Polish,andChinese. THE FRENCH MONARCHICAL COMMONWEALTH, – 1356 1560 JAMES B. COLLINS GeorgetownUniversity,WashingtonDC UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,NY10006,USA 477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,VIC3207,Australia 314–321,3rdFloor,Plot3,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre, NewDelhi–110025,India 103PenangRoad,#05–06/07,VisioncrestCommercial,Singapore238467 CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108473309 DOI:10.1017/9781108593045 ©JamesB.Collins2022 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2022 AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Names:Collins,JamesB,author. Title:TheFrenchmonarchicalcommonwealth,1356–1560/JamesBCollins,Georgetown University,WashingtonDC. Description:Cambridge;NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,2022.|Includes bibliographicalreferencesandindex. Identifiers:LCCN2021045504(print)|LCCN2021045505(ebook)|ISBN9781108473309 (hardback)|ISBN9781108461283(paperback)|ISBN9781108593045(ebook) Subjects:LCSH:Monarchy–France–History.|Politicalscience–France–History.|France– History–HouseofValois,1328–1589.|France–Politicsandgovernment–History.|BISAC: HISTORY/Europe/General Classification:LCCJN2358.C652022(print)|LCCJN2358(ebook)|DDC320.444/0903– dc23/eng/20211128 LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021045504 LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021045505 ISBN978-1-108-47330-9Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. CONTENTS ListofIllustrations pagevi Preface vii Introduction 1 1 Lachosepubliquedenostreroyaume 29 2 PoliticalVocabularyinAction 73 3 Murder,Justice,andlachosepubliqueinanAgeof Madness 110 4 TheCommonwealthunderSiege:LouisXI 147 5 ThechosepubliqueandUrbanGovernment 189 6 TheOrléanistOffensive:Puissanceabsolueand Republicanism 228 Conclusion 265 Bibliography 277 Index 299 v ILLUSTRATIONS 0.1a–b Citizens(Gensd’armes;Gensdeconseil;Genssacerdotal)andnon-citizens (Cultivateursdeterre;Gensdemestier;marchans),BNF,MFr9106,fols. 243v–244r.PermissionBNF page8 1.1 ExecutionofNormannobles,1356:GrandesChroniquesdeFrance,MFr 2608,fol.454r.PermissionBNF 51 1.2 RobertLeCoqaddressestheEstatesGeneralofLanguedoïl,March3,1357,at thePalaisduParlement;theaccusedofficialslookoninfear:BNF,MFrançais 2813,GrandesChroniquesdeFrancefol.402v.PermissionBNF 61 2.1 NegotiationsatCalais,1360:BNF,MFr2608,GrandesChroniquesdeFrance, fol.483v.PermissionBNF 79 2.2 CharlesVbeingvestedwiththescepterofCharlemagneandthehandof justiceathiscoronation:CoronationBookofCharlesVofFrance,British Library,CottonMSTiberiusB.viii/2,fol.59v.permissionBL 97 2.3 SongeduVergier,1378,CharlesVbetweenthespiritual(hisright)andsecular powers,representedbytwoqueensandbytheclericandknightwhodebatein thetext:BL,RoyalManuscript19CIV,frontispiece.PermissionBL 99 2.4 TraictédesvertusofBlancheofNavarre,madeforPhilipIV:BLM54180,fol. 91v.PermissionBL 105 3.1 Bodypolitic:Avisausroys:MorganLibrary,ManuscriptM456,fol.5r. PermissionMorganLibrary 128 4.1 CharlesVIIreceivesthePragmaticSanction;BNF,MFrançais203,fol.2r. PermissionBNF 162 5.1 Jeanned’ArcandCharlesVII:LesVigilesdeCharlesVII,MartialdeParis,dit d’Auvergne,BNF,MFrançais5054,fol.61v.PermissionBNF 211 vi PREFACE This project began innocently enough: colleagues in France invited me to a conference in Vervins, for the 400th anniversary of the peace signed there in1598.Istillhavethewarmestmemoriesofthefabulousconcertprovidedby JordiSavallandHesperionintheÉgliseNotre-Dame,andofthepoormayor andgoodcitizensofVervinsdrenchedinadownpourduringthereenactment. My paper, on the “bien public” vocabulary of the 1590s, got me started on aprojectaboutpoliticalvocabularyinHenryIV’sFrance.Afewyearslater,at aconferenceonPhilippeDuplessisMornayorganizedbyHuguesDaussyand VéroniqueFerrer,IjoinedMackHoltandMarkGreengrassforasumptuous dinneratarestaurantinSaumur.They,too,wereworkingonrelatedsubjects, which turned into prize-winning books: Mack’s The Politics of Wine and Mark’sGoverningPassions.Sharingideaswiththem,Iwashooked. Whatbeganasabookonpoliticalvocabularyandpracticalpoliticsinlate sixteenth-andearlyseventeenth-centuryFranceledinunexpecteddirections. Ikeptwonderingwhencecamethisvocabularyofthe“bienpublic?”AndIkept moving backwards, finally landing in the 1350s. French political society had long had various phrases for the interests of the community as a whole, of course, but I found that the phrase “bien de la chose publique” took over mainstreampoliticaldiscourseinlandscontrolledbytheroyalfamily,andin Brittany, in the 1350s and 1360s. I set out to trace the evolution of this vocabulary down to the period of my initial interest. This book follows the trailIfound;asecondbookpicksupthestoryin1560–1561andexamineshow the vocabulary of the “bien public” turned into a discourse of the “bien de l’Estat,”withthewordEstatnowcapitalizedandwithaspecificnewmeaning. Myparentswereprofessionalpoliticians,soIlearnedtounderstandpolitics from the ground level. As friends and colleagues know, I learned a cold- blooded analysis of contemporary politics from my parents, and I have brought that characteristic to this consideration of late medieval and Renaissance France’s political life. I urge readers to remember that I offer hereadifferentperspectivefromtheonedevelopedbyhistorianslikeQuentin SkinnerorJacquesKrynen,oneIviewascomplementary,notcontradictory. Remember,too,thatmyexaminationofpoliticalpracticehasreliedthrough- outonthescholarshipofcolleaguesworkinginthehistoryofpoliticalthought vii viii preface and of law: with respect to the French monarchy, the remarkable work of scholars like Krynen, Jean Barbey, Jean Bart, Michel Hébert, and Éliane Viannotquiteliterallymadethisbookpossible.Anewgenerationofscholars have brought out in the last decade important works, both in French and English,coveringsomanyaspectsofthisproject,fromroyalentriestoreligious reform,togenderandpolitics,thelattermadepossiblebyoutstandingschol- arshiprecentlyproducedonmedievalFrenchwomen–JeannedePenthièvre, IsabeauofBavaria,YolandeofAragon,AnneofBrittany,etal.–involvedin politics.Considerationsofspacemadeitimpracticaltofollowupasdeeplyas Iwouldhavelikedonwomen,gender,andFrenchpolitics,butIhopetobeable todosoinabookthatisalreadyinprogress. My previous work as a historian undergirds this book. Yes, I have read major(andminor)worksofpoliticalphilosophy,law,andhistory,andmany Parisianrecords,butIhavespentmostofthelastfivedecadesinlocalarchives, reading tax rolls, municipal deliberations, local court records, notarial arch- ives,civilregisters,andahostofotherdocumentsgeneratedoutinthefield. Mygoalhereistorelatethepoliticalvocabularyfoundinintellectualtreatises and in royal actions to the vocabulary used in actual politics, from the local leveluptothekingdom-widestage.IfIstartbytryingtounderstandwhygiven politicalactorstookgivenactions,Ialsowanttounderstandwhytheyjustified those actions with the rhetoric they chose. Words matter; they have a life of theirownandbecomepoliticalcontextsintheirownright.Moreover,themost contentious political words, like ‘justice’ or even the broader concept of the politicalcommunityitself,defyeasydefinition. The works of people from Nicole Oresme to Christine de Pizan to Jean Bodinplaytheirpart,butmyprimaryfocuslieswiththeusetowhichothers puttheirterminology.Thisbook–likethesecondone(1560–1651)–interacts withthehistoriographyofpoliticalphilosophy,butIseekheretogetoutside thatfield’sboundaries,toshowwhatthehistoryofpoliticscanteachusabout political theory. The chosen vocabulary – what Pierre Bourdieu called the langage, or specialized vocabulary – often circumscribed later actions within the realm of politics. Political actors usually pursued specific practical ends, whichfundamentallyvariedlittle,buttheirchosenmethodofjustifyingthose actionsevolvedconsiderablyand,intheend,helpedchangethenatureofthe polity. Aprojectthathasgoneonaslongasthisonebuildsupalistofobligations impossible to be given in detail, but I do want to offer some specific thanks. Firstofall,mythankstoGeorgetownUniversityforfinancialsupportofmuch of the research done for the book. The Leverhulme Trust enabled me to be aResearchProfessorintheUKforasemester;manycolleaguesinEnglandand Scotlandofferedinsightsand,beginningwithPeterCampbell,sponsoredsome ofmytalksthere.ThroughthekindnessofÉlieBarnavi,FannyCosandey,and RobertDescimon,IwasaprofesseurinvitéattheirFridaymorningseminarat

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