Kingdom Of France Research Articles

Communicating the Turkish Military Strength and Organisation after the Crusader Defeat at Nicopolis: Comparing Philippe de Mézières’s Une Epistre lamentable, Honorat Bovet’s L’Apparicion Maistre Jehan de Meun and Bertrandon de la Broquière’s Le Voyage d’Outremer

The outcome of the Nicopolis crusade (1396)—a crushing victory for the Ottoman Turks over a crusader army led by Franco-Burgundian knights—had particularly deep resonances in the Kingdom of France. This was reflected in several contemporary works that lamented and/or criticised the crusaders’ defeat. Among these, Philippe de Mézières’s Une Epistre lamentable (1397) and Honorat Bovet’s L’Apparicion Maistre Jehan de Meun (1398) are of special note because they contain not only remarkable reflections on the campaign but also interesting observations on the successful Ottomans. Their praise of the Turks, especially regarding their military organisation and discipline, served both to criticise the crusaders’ own lack of discipline but also to present an example for them to follow in order to avenge the defeat. As Nicopolis marked the beginning of a Burgundian claim to champion the crusading movement, these works were primarily addressed to the Duke of Burgundy, among other European princes and nobility. In the mid-fifteenth century, Duke Philip the Good would carry this claim to its zenith by several undertakings that included sending envoys to the East to gather information about the enemy. One of these envoys, Bertrandon de la Broquière, visited the Ottoman lands in 1432–1433 and some twenty years later wrote his Le Voyage d’Outremer to communicate the observations and intelligence gathered during his journey. The fact that this work, written almost six decades after Nicopolis, contains multiple allusions to the defeat, in addition to similar portrayals and comments on the Turks within the two earlier works, can be taken to suggest a continuity in Western military portrayals of the Turks from Nicopolis onwards.

The Mission of Mazepa's Supporters Myrovych and Nakhymovskyi in Crimea in the 1750s in the Context of Implementing the Eastern Policy by the Kingdom of France

The Mission of Mazepa's Supporters Myrovych and Nakhymovskyi in Crimea in the 1750s in the Context of Implementing the Eastern Policy by the Kingdom of France

In This Land: Jewish Life and Legal Culture in Late Medieval Provence by Pinchas Roth

Reviewed by: In This Land: Jewish Life and Legal Culture in Late Medieval Provence by Pinchas Roth Erika E. Hess Roth, Pinchas. In This Land: Jewish Life and Legal Culture in Late Medieval Provence. Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 2021. ISBN 978-0-88844-223-9. Pp. 168. Drawing primarily from medieval Provençal legal responsa––texts written by rabbinic scholars to answer questions about Jewish law or Halakhah––Roth reveals a colorful portrait of Jewish life in Provence from the twelfth through fourteenth centuries. In contrast to other rabbinic documents such as Talmudic commentaries or legal codes that turn back to older texts, responsa tend to be grounded in the moment––“specific legal questions, asked at a particular point in time by one person (or more) to another person (or group of people),” often practical in nature (4). Roth notes that the “temporal nature” of responsa provides rare glimpses into the culture, conflicts, and identities of Jewish life in medieval Provence (4). Some questions posed to rabbinic scholars centered on marital relations, such as a case in which a man sought guidance in regard to his adulterous wife, asking: “Is my wife forbidden to me or permitted?” (37). In another case, a questioner asked whether a man who suffered from “the black madness” or melancholy could divorce his wife (40). Other questions revolved around Jewish dietary rules, such as the scientific thinking behind kosher meat. Still others questioned components of Jewish liturgy, such as whether it was correct to recite the Kol Nidre on the eve of Yom Kippur. Although a number of responsa consider fabricated questions that were asked to resolve philosophical or legal matters rather than true questions that were cause for concern, Roth notes that they nonetheless underscore the “presence” of Jewish law in their lives (39). Roth additionally compares the rulings of specific rabbinic scholars, for example the rulings of Mordechai Kimhi from Narbonne (later, near Carpentras), and those of Abraham ben Isaac of Montpellier. As Roth notes, although they had a similar “cultural profile” as “recognized rabbinic scholars” and their “attitude toward philosophical rationalism was similarly moderate,” their rulings often differed significantly: “They held very different beliefs about the law and its place in society” (36). Especially after 1306, when Jews were expelled from the Kingdom of France and many migrated to Provence, we also find responsa relating to conflicts resulting from differences between the culture and traditions of Provençal Jewish communities and those of the newly arrived French Jews. As Roth points out, the personality of the rabbi often played an important role in their attitudes toward immigration and multiculturalism. Mordechai Kimhi’s son, Isaac, for example, “advocated a path of compromise and tolerance” both between Provençal and French Jews, and between Jews and Gentiles (119), whereas Isaac of Manosque and Abba Mari of Lunel “staked out confrontational positions” as they strove to hold a firm line within their “deeply divided community” (119). In addition to the vivid and sometimes surprising stories that Roth includes, his own enthusiasm for the subject contributes to the book’s easy readability. This book will be of great interest, not only to scholars of medieval Jewish history and culture, but to anyone interested in the European Middle Ages and in Judaism more broadly. [End Page 194] Erika E. Hess Northern Arizona University Copyright © 2022 American Association of Teachers of French

‘The King's Other Islands of the Sea’: The Channel Islands in the Plantagenet Realm, 1254–1341

AbstractThis article examines the relationship between the Plantagenet kings of England and the Channel Islands from 1254–1341. Notwithstanding a rich volume of accessible record material to consult, the history of the Channel Islands has been omitted from studies of the Plantagenet kings of England and in comparative studies of their wider ‘dominions’ on account of the Islands complex political status and cultural differences. It is argued here that the Islands, rather than being dismissed as political anomalies, were viewed by the kings of England as an integral entity and make an important contribution to understanding the larger construct of the Plantagenet realm. The first half of this article explores the maintenance of Plantagenet control in the Islands following the loss of Normandy and the significance of their inclusion in Henry III’s 1254 appanage to his eldest son Edward. The second half of the article surveys the position of the Islands in the context of the Anglo‐French relations between the Treaty of Paris and the Hundred Years’ War. Paradoxically, strategic location was the key reason for the rights and privileges granted to the Islands which went well beyond what otherwise insignificant territories could have reasonably achieved but was also the cause of its long‐term militarisation and subjection to periodic attacks and counter attacks by the kingdom of France.

A Possible Pedigree and Other Notes on a 14th Century Blanc Tournois

In November 2016, a well known Parisian auction house offered an interesting billon blanc au châtel fleurdelisé, struck for Robert de Bar, a Scarponnois count and margrave and the first Duke of Bar (c. 1352/1355-1411). Placed between the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire, pays Barrois entered the Royal overlordship of Philippe IV in 1301, following a failed attempt by Henry III de Bar to gain practical independence and an effective emancipation for the whole of Barrois mouvant by joining Edward I Plantagenent’s side in his conflict against France in the late 1290s. At the eastern margins of a France caught up in the Capetian-Plantagenet Hundred Years War, pays Barrois was still important enough for King Jean II of France to bestow its contemporary ruler, Count and Margrave Robert, with the title of Duke and raise his importance possibly to the stature of Peer of the France, while the Margraviate of Pont-a-Mousson gave him a voice in the Imperial Diet (1354). The coinage of the Counts and Dukes of Bar was of interest to antiquarians, historians and numismatists at least as early as the 19th century and was explored at length by numismatist, historian, archaeologist and all-in-all polymath and Renaissance man Felicien de Saulcy in his monographic study of the monnoie de pays Barrois—Recherches sur les monnaies des comtes et ducs de Bar of 1843. Written almost 180 years ago, de Saulcy’s work influenced other mid 19th century researchers and antiquarians, like Poey d’Avant (who cites him extensively, although not on the issue of pays Barrois and not only to agree with him), and was relevant and comprehensive enough to influence M. L. Maxe-Werly and D. Flon in their respective studies.

Beyond diplomacy: making sense of foreign participation in the French wars of religion

Abstract The French Wars of Religion, generally conceived as a series of civil wars, saw the participation of a wide range of different actors from outside the kingdom of France. Using the language of international relations, historians who have touched on this subject have tended to draw clear lines between the motives and experiences of French and foreign participants in the conflict. By studying Protestant German princes who became embroiled in the wars in France this article will demonstrate that actors from beyond the borders of the kingdom did not see themselves as outsiders interfering in its domestic affairs. Though ideas about sovereignty and nationhood were beginning to take shape, the princes viewed their role in France through the lens of the older system of patronage. These networks were essentially transnational and caused the German princes to become entangled in the same structures that shaped the political process inside France.

Commercer sur la frontière de 1258. Norme et pratique des échanges entre le Roussillon et le Fenouillèdes (fin du XIIIe-milieu du XVe siècle)

The border established in 1258 between the kingdom of France and the Catalan-Aragonese crown did not hinder the ancient economic exchanges between the two border “countries” : Fenouillèdes and the county of Roussillon. By crossing notarial and normative sources, exclusively from Roussillon, this article focuses on the trade practiced between these two regions from the end of the thirteenth to the middle of the fifteenth century, both from the point of view of the norms and practices of this activity, as well as the identity of its actors. It begins by presenting the economic policies imposed by the kings of Majorca and Aragon, as well as the specific legal clauses of the contracts concluded between the inhabitants of both sides of the border. It then reveals the course and the modalities of the commercialization of the five characteristic goods of the cross-border trade (wool, wood, iron, animals and cereals). Finally, following a social approach of the economy, it presents the actors of the cross-border trade, their origins, their identity and their activities. The border is thus considered as a dynamic space with its own characteristics and as a territory shaped less by central powers than by those who lived on the border and those individuals who crossed it.

Autour de l’iconographie du “Triomphe d’Amour” dans deux mises en prose, entre manuscrit et imprimé

The French translations of Petrarch’s Triumphi attracted the attention of many scholars at various times. They repeatedly studied the considerable success that some of these adaptations in both verse and prose enjoyed in the kingdom of France between the 1470s and 1550s. The study of this corpus is not new, and all specialists agree that the turn of the 16th century corresponds to a unique moment. This article aims to contribute to further reflection on the influence of Italian models in the illustration of the Triumphi in France and, more particularly, of the Triumphus Cupidinis. Through a few examples drawn from manuscripts and prints, this study provides some original suggestions to better identify the possible origin of a small detail appearing in a woodcut included in the Verard edition of the ‘‘long’’ prose translation (1514). This article will show the common thread that seems to unite the print in question, not only to two manuscripts containing the anonymous translation of Ilicino’s commentary as has already been noted by critics, but also to a manuscript of the ‘‘short’’ prose version as well as to two Italian incunabula of the end of the 15th century.

Возникновение роялистского подполья в Англии в 1649–1650 годах

This article investigates the processes that took place among the English royalists after their defeat in the Civil War and the execution of King Charles I Stuart, as well as the emergence of their conspiracy movement for the restoration of the monarchy in England, namely, it examines the activities of such organizations of supporters of the monarchical form of government in England, as the “Western Association of Royalists”. In addition, the article studies the factors contributing to the failures of royalist organizations at the beginning of their activity against the regime of the Independent Republic, such as: passivity of supporters of King Charles II, their indecision, lack of a single control center, which entailed a low level of the participants’ actions coordination in the movement, lack of intelligence network, the refusal of France and the Netherlands to support the royalists, as well as the active opposition to their activities by the authorities of the Commonwealth of Eng-land. The role of the head of intelligence of the Independent Republic - Thomas Scott, who created the intelligence network, which carried out its activities against royalists not only in England, but also in royalist circles in exile in the kingdom of France, as well as in the Netherlands, stands out separately.

A Too Free Conduit? When the Flow of Men and Ideas Turned against Marie de Guise

The purpose of this essay is to describe the way in which the substantial circulation of men and ideas between France and Scotland ultimately turned against Marie de Guise and the kingdom of France in the years 1559 and 1560. In order to build a Franco-Scottish kingdom, an initial step towards a Franco-British Empire, the King of France, Henri II, helped increase this trans-Channel circulation of men and ideas. Henri II’s goal was to forge an alliance with both Scottish and English opponents of the Catholic Mary Tudor, particularly by supporting and employing notable Scottish Protestant figures. This policy failed after the Scots’ growing concerns about the “Frenchification” of their government encountered a new English political context in which a Protestant queen, Elizabeth Tudor, took the throne. The open conduit backfired against French ambitions and against the Regent of Scotland, Marie de Guise. The rebellion in Scotland that began in 1559 proved successful by 1560. It was a swift victory by the Protestant Lords that was partly due to the fact that they allied themselves with England after long benefiting from a highly tolerant French attitude. The English takeover of cross-Channel communications led to the isolation of the French army in Scotland and, with the Amboise conspiracy in 1560, to the opening of a second front in France. Significantly, a number of Protestant Scots officially serving the King of France were also double agents for the benefit of England.

Entre Gênes et Barcelone. Les ports français du Languedoc: Guerre, commerce et piraterie (1380-1450 environ)

Pendant les XIVe et XVe siècles, les attaques des pirates ont, dans toute la Méditerranée occidentale, gravement compromis la sécurité des transports maritimes. A cela s'est ajouté, au cours de longues années et particulièrement à partir de 1420 environ, la guerre entre Catalans et Ge­nois. La façade maritime "française", c'est-a-dire les ports du Languedoc, entre Narbonne et Aigues-Mortes, n'était pas à l'abri de toutes les attaques; mais elle a, tout de même, bénéficié d'une situation relativement privilégiée et d'une certaine sécurité. Ceci est encore favorisé par la politique royale qui cherchait à développer les activités maritimes de ce littoral. Les expor­tations de produits naturels, principalement les grains, tenaient, dans ces trafics, une place importante. Mais, de plus, la région offrait la possibilité d'importantes relations par voie de terre, grâce à la route relativement aisée qui mettait en relations Avignon d'une part et Barcelone de l'autre. Au temps de la papauté d'Avignon tout d'abord, et même plus tard, Montpe­llier devint ainsi une place de transit pour les affaires, commerce et finan­ce, entre Avignon et la Catalogne. D'importantes sociétés florentines é­taient intéressées dans ces échanges. Enfin, Nîmes, Montpellier et Narbon­ne étaient les débouchés très actifs des routes venant du Nord, soit de Bourgogne, soit du royaume de France. Aigues-Mortes devint alors, avec la muda de Venise, un des grands ports internationaux de la Méditerranée, mais toujours soumis aux mauvais hasards des conflits politiques et de l’insécurité des mers.

L'argent du renouveau: les revenus de la royauté française au XII siècle

Le XIIe siècle est à bien des égards, en Europe occidentale, en gé­néral, et dans le royaume de France en particulier, un période de renou­veau économique. L'intensification des échanges, l'essor du commerce et la renaissance d'une économie monétaire profitent naturellement aux villes, aux princes les plus puissants et aussi à la royauté. Si dans l'ensemble, les revenus du Capétien restent traditionnels, domaniaux, ils sont désormais mieux exploités, mieux gérés et mieux utili­sés par un entourage royal, lui aussi renouvelé, dans ses hommes comme daos ses mentalités.

Girolamo Savonarola nella testimonianza di Massimo il Greco1

Abstract: Girolamo Savonarola in the eyes of Maximus the GreekThe article concerns the first Slavonic document composed in the Muscovite State about the life of Girolamo Savonarola (1452‐1498). The document, a literary account belonging to the first half of the sixteenth century, was written by Maximus the Greek, a Byzantine émigré who spent his youth in Italy. It is included in the Povest’ strašna i dostopamjatna i o soveršennom inočeskom žitel’stve (Terrible and Memorable Story and about the Perfect Monastic Lifestyle), where it represents the second narrative, which concerns Florence (the first narrative being about the Kingdom of France). The present article describes the content of the document and compares it with Italian (Latin and vernacular) sources. In doing so, the author’s aim is to verify its reliability – trying to establish which contents are due to the direct memory of the author and which to indirect sources – so as to define better the period of Maximus the Greek’s stay in Florence.

Peter Sahlins. 1668: The Year of the Animal in France.

Peter Sahlins has reinvented himself once again with 1668: The Year of the Animal in France. Following investigations into poachers in French forests in the early nineteenth century, the Franco-Spanish border in a Pyrenean valley, and the status of foreigners in the Kingdom of France during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, he now invites us to revisit the “civilizing process,” as described by Norbert Elias in the eponymous 1939 book, through the prism of nonhuman animals at court. Provocatively, in the manner of Roberto Rossellini’s famous film on the rise to power of Louis XIV, The Taking of Power by Louis XIV (1966), Sahlins regards the year 1668 as crucial to the assertion of absolutism with regard to animals. His inquiry is located at the meeting point of three approaches that structure his book: a study of the creation of the royal menageries as an institution; investigation of the emergence of a visual culture of dead animals through the king’s interest in anatomy; and last, in the shadow of Descartes, an exploration of the role of animals in the emergence of a savant mechanistic naturalism.

Anne de Bretagne, un calcul politique

Anne de Bretagne, symbol of Brittany, was twice queen of France. She would have died of obstructive pyelonephritis at the age of 36 years old, allowing the definitive reunification of the Kingdom of France. We have a hypothesis of her death.

Medieval Liège at the Crossroads of Europe: Monastic Society and Culture, 1000–1300 ed. by Steven Vanderputten, Tjamke Snijders, and Jay Diehl

Reviewed by: Medieval Liège at the Crossroads of Europe: Monastic Society and Culture, 1000–1300 ed. by Steven Vanderputten, Tjamke Snijders, and Jay Diehl Rodney Thomson Vanderputten, Steven, Tjamke Snijders, and Jay Diehl, eds, Medieval Liège at the Crossroads of Europe: Monastic Society and Culture, 1000–1300 (Medieval Church Studies, 37), Turnhout, Brepols, 2017; hardback; pp. xxiv, 381; 13 b/w illustrations, 8 b/w tables, 3 maps; R.R.P. €100.00; ISBN 9782503545400. This volume consists of an introduction and eleven essays, many of which first appeared as papers in a conference held in Brussels in 2011, plus a conclusion. As the introduction indicates, medieval Liège and its environs have in the past been studied by a small group of Belgian scholars (Hubert Silvestre and Jacques Stiennon pre-eminent among them), and no attempt has been made to situate the region within the broader context of the Empire (it was within the archdiocese of Cologne) or Kingdom of France. This is what the present volume aims to do, not pretending to be the last, but rather the first word on the subject: a signal or 'taster' to entice others into the field. All essays are in English save Michel Margue's. The volume is not subdivided into subject-areas, but apparently proceeds, roughly, in order of date, although this has been hard to achieve, given that many of the papers cover a longish period of time, so that there is much chronological overlapping. In fact, a goodly bunch of them are situated in the eleventh and early twelfth centuries; only the eleventh of them, John Van Engen's, ventures far into the thirteenth century. The papers may be divided roughly into the following groups: monastic networking and power-structures (Helena Vanommeslaeghe, Tjamke Snijders, Nicolas Schroeder); texts and books (Klaus Krönert, Diane Reilly, Jay Diehl); investitures (Ortwin Huysmans, Brigitte Meijns, Michel Margue); and religious women (Sara Moens, John Van Engen). Central, literally and metaphorically, to the book and its message is Jay Diehl's chapter, convincingly demonstrating that the booklist in Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale MS 9668, represents the curriculum of a school created at St Laurent by Rupert of Deutz 'in an attempt to create a highly novel scholastic culture, one that had no precise parallels in either [France or the Empire] and that had none of the conservatism often associated with monastic intellectual life' (pp. 175–76). [End Page 264] There is much still to do: Alexis Wilkin's conclusion suggests two ways forward: one, to study the place of canons and canonical reform within the diocese; the other, to study monastic and canonical life beginning from the Carolingian era rather than the mid-tenth century. I would add that about 123 manuscripts survive from the Benedictine house of Saint James, and 139 manuscripts from the library of Saint Laurence, but only the small minority of decorated items have been studied. There is also no work on the Saint Laurence scriptorium in the twelfth century, when Rupert of Deutz was its scholasticus (c. 1109–19). Rodney Thomson University of Tasmania Copyright © 2019 Rodney Thomson

GASTON FÉBUS OU LA CONSTRUCTION D’UNE LÉGENDE BÉARNAISE

A região turística do Sul da França, o Béarn, é privilegiada por um rico passado histórico representado pela pessoa de Gaston Fébus (1331-1391). A reabilitação, em 2015, do castelo de Morlanne, propriedade do Département des Pyrénées-Atlantiques, representa uma ótima oportunidade para os arqueólogos pesquisar esta região rica em sítios de castelos e localizada na fronteira entre os reinos da França e da Inglaterra. A presente reflexão também tratará do porvir destes sítios como da implicação dos residentes.

Conquest and Incorporation: Merging French-Style Central Government Practices with Local Water Management in Seventeenth-Century Maritime Flanders

Abstract How does a new power impose new practices in water management and how does it deal with inherited customs and institutions? How, in practice, does the change of legal order, underpinned by territorial conquest, manifest itself? This article questions how the change of sovereignty affected water management in the border region of modern France and Belgium in the seventeenth century. In 1662 King Louis XIV of France bought the city and the territory of Dunkirk from the King of England. Maritime Flanders, as it was called from then on, became the northern border of the Kingdom of France. Water management was a major issue from the outset. The French administration restored the local water management institutions and integrated them into its own institutional framework. Doing so, the French deployed very harsh control under the authority of the intendant of Lille, the representative of the King in the whole of Flanders. By thus providing water to the port of Dunkirk and by planning large scale temporary defensive inundations, the French monarchy succeeded in militarising the regional water management.

Christina Normore, A Feast for the Eyes: Art, Performance and the Late Medieval Banquet. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015. Pp. viii, 261; 35 black-and-white figures and 4 color plates. $55. ISBN: 978-0-226-24220-0.

Christina Normore, <i>A Feast for the Eyes: Art, Performance and the Late Medieval Banquet</i>. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015. Pp. viii, 261; 35 black-and-white figures and 4 color plates. $55. ISBN: 978-0-226-24220-0.

Pierre Viret et la diffusion de la Réforme, ed. Karine Crousaz and Daniela Solfaroli Camillocci

The black walnut tree is well known for being toxic to everything that grows beneath its canopy. Jean Calvin had the same effect on other Protestant reformers within his orbit, overshadowed by his pervasive brilliance, which was in turn reinforced by Geneva’s institutional foundations and sustenance. One of those who suffered this unintentional suffocation was Pierre Viret, the reformer from the francophone Suisse Romande who launched the religious changes at Neuchâtel before being appointed pastor at Lausanne in 1536. He directed the reformation there for twenty-three years before being eventually ousted in 1559 by the authorities in Bern. Retiring briefly to Geneva, he spent the last decade of his life (from 1561 to 1571) in the kingdom of France and the principality of Béarn, in places where the hopes and disappointments of its Protestant reformation were at their strongest. Controversy dogged him wherever he went in that decade. His opponents recognised him for what he was—a Protestant theologian of ability, with a talent for polemic (who had taken up controversial positions on important practical issues), and experience in the institutionalisation of the Protestant reformation. Only in recent years has his substantial published output received the attention it deserves.