Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T01:19:07.013Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

(b) - The Seigneuries

from 17 - The kingdom of the Franks from Louis VI to Philip II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

David Luscombe
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
Jonathan Riley-Smith
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Get access

Summary

seigneurie (lordship) was a system of government in which the seigneur or lord (dominus in Latin) exercised for his own profit powers that were regalian in origin, that is, powers of a public character. It was accompanied by the territorial fragmentation of the kingdom and a more-or-less pronounced crumbling of authority, which was none the less offset by a general and traditional sense of belonging to the regnum Francorum (kingdom of the Franks) and also, juridically, in a system of feudal relations that culminated in the king. Seen from this angle, the lord was not called dominus in Latin, but senior and his men vassi.

LORDSHIPS AND PRINCIPALITIES

The formation of lordships resulted in a parcelling-out of the kingdom which gave birth to great principalities, baronies or castellanies, those cells of local life generated by a castle. The chapter in Philip Augustus’s registers headed Scripta de feodis bears witness to this hierarchy: archbishops, bishops, abbots of great monasteries, dukes and counts are ranked among the princes; then come the barons, castellans, vavassours or sub-feudatories (arriŕre-vassaux) and, finally, the recently established category of the communes. These last have to be treated as a special case. Thirty or so communes had been set up in the north of the kingdom in the twelfth century. They had benefited from a transfer – often very incomplete – of seigneurial powers to the urban community represented by a mayor and jurès. Other towns, with no history of conspiracy or revolt, bought liberties from their lord that were sometimes more extensive than those of communes; and even villages, such as Beaumont-en-Argonne, assumed full responsibility for their own administration.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barthelémy, D. (1984), Les Deux Ages de la seigneurie banale: Coucy (XIe–XIIIe si`ecles), Paris
Bisson, T. (1984), ‘L’essor de la Catalogne: identité, pouvoir, et idéologie dans une sociétée du XIIe siècle’, Annales: Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations 3Google Scholar
Boutruche, R. (1970), Seigneurie et féodalité, ii: L’apogée (XIe–XIIIe siècles), Paris
Bur, M. (1977), La Formation du comté de Champagne (v.950–v.1150), Nancy
Bur, M. (1983), ‘L’image de la parenté chez les comtes de Champagne’, Annales: Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations 5Google Scholar
Bur, M. (1985), ‘Remarques sur la formation des principautés en France (IXe–XIIIe siécles)’, in Centralismno y descentralization: modelos y procesos historicos en Francia y en España (Comité Espanol de Ciencias Historicas), MadridGoogle Scholar
Chédeville, A. and Tonnerre, N. Y. (1987), La Bretagne féodale (XIe–XIIIe siècles), Rennes
Corbet, P. (1977), ‘Les collégiales comtales en Champagne’, Annales de l’Est 3Google Scholar
Debord, A. (1987), La Sociétée laïque dans les pays de la Charente (Xe–XIIe siècles), Paris
Desportes, P. (1979), Réims et les Rémois aux XIIIe et XIVe siècles, Paris
Desportes, P. (1989), ‘Les pairs de France et la couronne’, Revue Historique 282Google Scholar
Duby, G. (1973), Hommes et structures du moyen âge: recueil d’articles, Paris
Guyotjeannin, O. (1987), Episcopus et comes: affirmation et déclin de la seigneurie épiscopale au nord du royaume de France, Beauvais-Noyon, Xe–début du XIIIe siécle, Geneva and Paris
Lot, F. and Fawtier, R. (1957), Histoire des institutions Françaises au moyen âge, i: Institutions seigneuriales, Paris
Musset, L. (1985), Autour du pouvoir ducal normand (Cahier des Annales de Normandie 17), Caen
Richard, J. (1954), Les Ducs de Bourgogne et la formation du duché (XIe–XIVe siècles), Paris
Schneider, J. (1979), ‘Le problème des principautés en France et dans l’empire (Xe–XVe siècles)’, in Principautés et territoires: actes du 103e congrés national des sociétés savantes, Nancy-Metz 1978, ParisGoogle Scholar
Verhulst, A. (1967), ‘Initiative comtale et développement économique en Flandre au XIIe siècle: le rôle de Thierry et de Philippe d’Alsace’, in Miscellanea in memoriam J. F. Niermeyer, GroningenGoogle Scholar
Werner, K. F. (1978), ‘Kingdom and principalities in twelfth century France’, in Reuter, T. (ed.), The Medieval Nobility, AmsterdamGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×