The Rivalry of Forgiveness. Political Geography of Mercy in the Kingdom of France and the Burgundian Netherlands, from Charles VI to François I.
Type de matériel :
33
The study of the jurisdiction of the letters of remission allows for an analysis of the impact of the King of France’s justice in his kingdom. Thus, this helps to quantify the practice of sovereignty and to measure its geographical scope. The King gives pardon throughout the whole kingdom with the exception of three principalities (Brittany, Barrois, British Guyenne). There are not so many remissions issued by the princely chancelleries. Besides, they are not so well preserved (Barrois). The King’s pardon largely predominates in the kingdom, including the inner principalities (Bourbonnais). The Burgundian Netherlands stand as exception, between Empire and Kingdom. A quantitative study of remissions granted by two royal and ducal chancelleries is possible in the same territory, Artois and Flanders from 1498 to 1502. Seventy-one letters existed, produced by the Royal chancellery and still preserved about Artois (50), Gallic Flanders (6), Flemish Flanders (1) and other cases in the border (14). For the same years, there are 165 letters produced by the ducal chancellery on Flemish Flanders (133), Gallic Flanders (27) and Artois (3). The study shows the competition between the chancelleries as well as a customary division of the Burgundian Netherlands’ territory. The appeal to the Chancellery of Paris prevails in Artois whereas the appeal to the Archduke is dominant in the Flemish part of the county of Flanders, Gallic Flanders being divided. These practices suggest that the royal sovereignty survived in Artois until the reign of Emperor Charles V, kept by a popular custom for King’s justice against the Archduke’s justice. The sovereignty which stands here as a last-resort justice that creates a link between the capital and the Archduke’s subjects will not endure the war in the 1520s, which will impose a border based on military domination.
Réseaux sociaux