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  • (b) - The Recovery of France, 1450– 1520

  • from 19 - France
  • Edited by Christopher Allmand, University of Liverpool
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 June 1998, pp 408-430

  • Summary

    France witnessed both the recovery of lost territory and a crucial advance towards territorial cohesion and monarchical absolutism. The position of the great nobility is now better understood, while the recovery of France after the war against England is no longer seen as an inevitable royal victory but rather the story of how a fragile monarchy overcame the power of the princely polyarchy. Charles VII had managed to maintain the precarious balance between royal sovereignty and princely polyarchy which had been struck after the defeat of the Praguerie in 1440. The bedrock of the state, however, was not military might but the upholding of justice by which 'kings rule, while kingdoms, principalities and monarchies are maintained'. The royal fiscal system had been reconstructed after the recapture of Paris in 1436. The rural lordship, 'the unique legal and stable framework of the recovery', took full advantage of the favourable economic situation.