Government and Political Life in England and France, c.1300–c.1500

Christopher Fletcher, Jean-Philippe Genet, John Watts

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781107089907
• eBook ISBN:
  9781316310236
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

How did the kings of England and France govern their kingdoms? This volume, the product of a ten-year international project, brings together specialists in late medieval England and France to explore the multiple mechanisms by which monarchs exercised their power in the final centuries of the Middle Ages. Collaborative chapters, mostly co-written by experts on each kingdom, cover topics ranging from courts, military networks and public finance; office, justice and the men of the church; to political representation, petitioning, cultural conceptions of political society; and the role of those excluded from formal involvement in politics. The result is a richly detailed and innovative comparison of the nature of government and political life, seen from the point of view of how the king ruled his kingdom, but bringing to bear the methods of social, cultural and economic history to understand the underlying armature of royal power.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of contributors
• Preface
• 1 The government of later medieval France and England: a plea for comparative history
• 2 Courts
• 3 Kings, nobles and military networks
• 4 Offices and officers
• 5 Royal public finance (c.1290–1523)
• 6 Justice, law and lawyers
• 7 Church and state, clerks and graduates
• 8 Political representation
• 9 Grace and favour: the petition and its mechanisms
• 10 The masses
• 11 In the mirror of mutual representation: political society as seen by its members
• 12 Conclusion
• Index