Saint Louis, Frédéric II et les constructions institutionnelles du XIII siècle

Abstract

Saint Louis, Frederick II, and the Institutional Constructions of the 13th Century - When reflecting upon the two greatest sovereigns of the thirteenth century, we too easily tend to oppose the saint and the antichrist. But the abundance of hagiographie and exemplary sources in the case of Saint Louis should not overshadow the importance of the specifically institutional constructions which became effective under his rule. These have their roots in, and draw their means from, the Roman canon (whatever the upholders of the theory of the « relegation of Roman law » by the French monarchy may say), as is in part evidenced here. Jacques le Goff s work, because it focuses on the complex construction of the individual and institutional person of the king rather than, strictly speaking, on his « personality », is not really a biography, but a very novel essay indeed on political history which illuminates the genesis of the modern State, instead of merely proposing, as has so often been done before, « a history of political ideas » in the mid thirteenth century.