Schisme impérial, schisme pontifical

Abstract

During the thirteenth century, French chroniclers progressively lost sight of the Empire and blamed its constitutional subtleties (i.e. its elective kingship) for its most lamentable tendencies toward disorder and civil war. Surprisingly, their successors of the first half of the fourteenth century paid more attention to German history, and changed their mind when dealing with imperial splits : French monarchy had meanwhile experienced a quasi-electoral crisis and was eager to find support against Edward III in what was to become the Hundred Years War.