Violence and the State in Languedoc, 1250–1400 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series, Series Number 95)

List of illustrations ix Acknowledgements x Abbreviations xii Map xiv Introduction. History, historians, and seigneurial war 1 Approaches to seigneurial war 5 Prosecutions and pardons: the sources for seigneurial warfare 12 The definition and quantification of warfare 17 The plan of the book 20 1. War and peace in post-albigensian Languedoc, 1250–1270 24 God’s peace: the ideology of Capetian peace-keeping to 1270 26 An on-going battle: seigneurial wars after the Albigensian Crusade 35 Peace-keeping and the new order: the administration of justice 44 Conclusion 55 2. Philip the Fair’s mission from God, 1270–1314 57 A mission from God: ideological and normative developments 58 A more localized phenomenon: seigneurial war under Philip the Fair 66 Policy, protection, and privilege: the judicial prosecution of warfare 72 Conclusion 81 3. The last Capetians and the Hundred Years War, 1315–1350 83 Legislation: seigneurial reaction and royal retrenchment 85 The fall and rise of seigneurial warfare in the South 91 Justice: a new role for legislation 98 Administration: the evolution of authority in difficulty 104 Conclusion 113 4. The changing experience of violence, 1350–1364 115 Legislation: the valorization of order 118 A rising tide of violence: seigneurial war before and after Poitiers 125 Justice, corruption, and self-help 133 Legitimate violence: the redefinition of authority 142 Conclusion 148 5. Violence and the state, 1365–1400 150 The 'laws of war': social and ideological developments 153 A darkening mirror: seigneurial war, 1365–1400 159 The memory of justice 169 '...ala hobediensa del Rey de Franssa': legitimacy and licence 172 Conclusion 178 Conclusion 180 Appendix A: Royal ordonnances regarding seigneurial war 185 Appendix B: Seigneurial wars in southern France 191 Bibliography 196 Index 216 "Although it is often assumed that resurgent royal government eliminated so-called private warfare, the French judicial archives reveal nearly one hundred such wars waged in Languedoc and the Auvergne between the mid-thirteenth and the end of the fourteenth century. Royal administrators often intervened in these wars, but not always in order to suppress 'private violence' in favour of 'public justice.' They frequently recognised elites' own power and legitimate prerogatives, and elites were often fully complicit with royal intervention. Much of the engagement between royal officers and local elites came through informal processes of negotiation and settlement, rather than through the imposition of official justice. The expansion of royal authority was due as much to local cooperation as to conflict, a fact that ensured its survival during the fourteenth-century's crises. This book thus provides a new narrative of the rise of the French state and a fresh perspective on aristocratic violence"-- Provided by publisher This book provides a narrative of the rise of the French state, showing that the crown's centralising judicial administration co-existed with large-scale aristocratic violence. Royal power grew as much through efforts to negotiate and settle these conflicts as it did through efforts to suppress them. A reconsideration of aristocratic violence and the rise of the royalist French state from the Albigensian Crusade to Agincourt