The French Medieval Courts in the Latest Historiography of France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland

Abstract

The article examines the most recent scholarly work on the history of French medieval courts. Not so long ago, scholars stated that this field was on the deep periphery of current research. The last two decades in French and French-language historiography, however, have been marked by an active increase in interest in the history of the courts, court life and aristocracy of the Middle Ages. The study of recent French-language historiography gives one a sense of catching up with lost time. Being out of the interests of advanced scientific trends for a long time, the court and the aristocracy are now being explored from all possible angles. The paper analyzes the main topics and problems of interest to researchers today: biographies of kings and nobles, ruling practices, gender studies, traditional “études bourguignonnes” and others; notes work on electronic projects and databases on court studies; outlines prospects for further research.