Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index
Home
What is Feminae?
What's Indexed?
Subjects
Broad Topics
Journals
Essays
All Image Records
Contact Feminae
SMFS
Other Resources
Admin (staff only)
There are 45,452 records currently in Feminae
Quick Search
Advanced Search
Article of the Month
Translation of the Month
Image of the Month
Special Features
Record Number:
2238
Author(s)/Creator(s):
Cosandey , Fanny.
Contributor(s):
Title:
De lance en quenouille. La place de la reine dans l'État moderne (14e- 17e siècles)
Source:
Annales : Histoire, Sciences Sociales 52, 4 (juillet-août 1997): Pages 799 - 820.
Description:
Article Type:
Journal Article
Subject
(See Also)
:
Inheritance
Kings
Law
Politics
Queens
Regents
Salic Law
Award Note:
Geographic Area:
France
Century:
14- 15- 16- 17
Primary Evidence:
Illustrations:
Table:
Abstract:
Although the role of the queen has always been acknowledged in French historiography, few studies have examined the specific judicial and historical circumstances that established the queen as an essential person in the institutional history of the Ancien Régime. Following a chronological perspective imposed by the successive threats to succession beginning in the fourteenth century, this article examines how these crises led to a redefinition of the legal statute for the queen. Jurists, wanting to stabilize the lines of succession, formed a specific law, known as the Salic law, that prohibited women from rule; however, the laws devised for governing the regency, specifically the ordinance of 1407, paradoxically integrated the queen into the center of power. The ordinance of 1407, often misunderstood by historians, emerges as one of the key documents because it established the role of the queen in the monarchical system by linking the Salic law to the Regency. The Salic law prohibited direct succession and thus assured that women could not usurp the throne; the ordinance of 1407 demonstrates that women could wield power and were therefore essential to the function of the monarchical system. Specifically, the queen assured passage of power from one king to another while simultaneously assuring the continuity of the dynasty. [Reproduced by permission of Annales Histoire Sciences Sociales].
Related Resources:
Author's Affiliation:
Centre de Recherches Historiques- Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
Conference Info:
- , -
Year of Publication:
1997.
Language:
French
ISSN/ISBN:
03952649