Medieval Administration

Serving the state. The regional officers of Holland and Zeeland in the Burgundian period (1425-1482).

This is a summary of my phd-thesis, a prosopographical study into the officers of the Council and Chambre des Comptes of Holland and Zeeland in the Burgundian period (1425-1482)

In de jaren 1425-1433 kreeg de Bourgondische hertog Filips de Goede via een diplomatiek en militair offensief de graafschappen Holland en Zeeland in handen. In dit boek beschrijf ik op welke manier de ambtenaren van de hoogste bestuurlijk-juridische en financiële instellingen van Holland en Zeeland, de Raad en de Rekenkamer, hebben bijgedragen aan de integratie van deze gewesten in de Bourgondische personele unie. In het eerste deel wordt onderzocht welke institutionele vernieuwingen het gewestelijk staatsapparaat onderging in de vijftiende eeuw en passeren alle ambtenaren de revue. In het tweede deel bekijk ik welke strategie de vorst volgde bij de recrutering van zijn ambtenaren en met welke middelen hij trachtte hun dienstbaarheid en loyaliteit te bevorderen. De intermediaire positie van de ambtenaren - ingeklemd tussen de belangen van de hertog en die van de onderdanen - is het onderwerp van het derde deel. In een bijlage zijn biografische notities van 170 ambtenaren opgenomen met gegevens over hun herkomst, familie, carrière en netwerk.

The ubiquitous presence of military slaves has been a distinguishing feature of the armies and the political systems of the Abbâsid Caliphs and the succeeding Sultanates in Islamdom. In the middle ages, the Seljuqid wazir Nizam al-Mulk Tusi and the scholar Ibn Khaldun had separately commented on the virtues of the system of 'recruiting' slaves to consolidate the political strength of a monarch. Ibn K_haldun had astutely noticed that military slaves (ghilminlmamiliklbandagdn; singular: ghulamlmamluklbandah) were valuable subordinates because they were natally alienated and socially dead.' The process of enslavement had carried slaves far from their natal homes, and their non-existent legal and social status in their new environment increased their dependence upon their masters. In the early thirteenth century the chronicler Fak_hr-i Mudabbir noted the value of such a deracinated military group to the ruler: the further [slaves] are taken from their hearth, their kin and their dwellings, har chand az khanah wa aqribâ wa wilâyat-i khlid di2rtar uftad, the more valued, precious and expensive they become, qadr wa qimat wa bahd'f-yi u ziyadat gardad ....2 2 Scholars familiar with the phenomenon of agrestic slavery in the southern United States, find the usage of slaves as military notables (bandagin) highly unusual in Islamdom. In particular, the commodification of the slave, * An earlier, abbreviated version of this paper was read at the fifty-second Indian History

Aubrey II de Vere, eldest surviving son and heir of Domesday lord Aubrey I, became a royal chamberlain, sheriff, and justiciar under King Henry I of England.  In 1133, the king made him hereditary master (later lord) chamberlain of England, an office held by his descendants until the early 18th century.  Under King Stephen he served as a justiciar as well as master chamberlain, and he delivered the king's response to a summons by the bishop of Winchester after the arrest of the bishops in 1139.  He was killed by a mob in London in 1141. His son and heir became the first earl of Oxford.  (Watch for his  installment of my "Brief History of the Veres in England", to be posted on this site in Feb. or March, 2016.)

in 735. Gorenjskem (Radovljica, Kamen in Waldenberg) in predvsem na Dolenjskem in Notranjskem (Lož, Ortnek, Ribnica, Kočevje, Čušperk, Kostel, Poljane, Kravjek in Stari grad), k temu pa so spadale še deželnoknežje zastave Višnja Gora, Novo mesto in Kostanjevica. 224 Leta 1423 se je nadvojvoda Ernest Železni odpovedal seniorstvu nad Celjskimi, ti pa so mu menda v zameno zastonj vrnili kar štirinajst zastavljenih gospostev ter mest in trgov, med katerimi so bili Kranj, Kamnik, Postojna, Novo mesto, Kostanjevica, Štatenberk na Dolenjskem, Višnja Gora in Goričane. 225 Oglejski patriarh Ludvik, ki je po letu 1420 bival v pregnanstvu na celjskem dvoru, je leta 1425 Celjskim podelil nekdanje ortenburške oglejske fevde (Lož, Ortnek, Ribnica, Kočevje, Poljane, Kostel, Čušperk in Sternek), potrdil pa jim je tudi stare celjske fevde (Gornji Grad, Stari grad, Mirna in razne desetine). 226 Celjski so na različne načine obvladovali še na primer Polhov Gradec, Smlednik in celotno nekdanjo goriško Grofijo v Marki in Metliki, ki so jo imeli že pred letom 1389 v zastavi od Habsburžanov. 227 Slednji so zaradi potreb po gotovini in večnih finančnih stisk zastavili velik del svojih posesti in mitnic grofom Celjskim, s čimer so se ti močno okrepili. 228 Leta 1435, ko je vladanje v notranjeavstrijskih deželah nastopil vojvoda Friderik V. (kot kralj in cesar III.), je bil njegov položaj na Kranjskem v precej nezavidljivi situaciji, saj so bili obsežni deli dežele v rokah Celjskih, ki so predstavljali vse bolj resno grožnjo deželnoknežji oblasti. Odsotnost mladega vojvode, ki se je poleti 1436 odpravil na večmesečno romanje v Sveto deželo, 229 je izkoristil cesar Sigismund Luksemburški in konec novembra tega leta povzdignil celjske grofe v državne kneze, s čimer je bila ustvarjena podlaga za izločitev njihovih teritorijev iz okvirjev habsburških dednih dežel in za oblikovanje posebne celjske dežele. 230 Ta privilegij je močno razburil Friderika V., 224 ŠTIH, Celjski grofje, str. 238-239; BIZJAK, Ratio facta est, str. 134; KOS, Vitez in grad, str. 72; KOSI, Potujoči srednji vek, str. 42 in 47. 225 KRONES, Die Freien von Saneck II, str. 156-157; ŠTIH, Celjski grofje, str. 241, glej op. 113. Kot kaže, so Celjski vrnili Kostanjevico, Višnjo Goro, Štatenberk in Novo mesto šele leta 1431. Ta gospostva so Habsburžani zastavili Ortenburžanom in zastava je nato kot dediščina prešla na celjske grofe. V zameno je grof Herman II. dobil Tomaj v postojnskem gospostvu in stolp v Kranju (AS

Between the mid-fourteenth- and the beginning of fifteenth century the Crown of Aragon definitely emerged as a thalassocracy, stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to Italy, and including the major islands of the Mediterranean. To rule such a union of territories, its monarchs relied on a various staff which operated in the localities of their behalf. They ranged from viceroys and governors who were at the top of royal bureaucracies to a number of higher and minor officers (clerks, notaries, accountants, etc.) in charge of managing political, financial, and judicial affairs, de facto keeping local administrations on track through their daily activities. Whereas some of those officers had gained their status of being accountable thanks to their direct and personal relationships with monarchs, others became accountable through their administrative service (such as the members of the emerging urban elites), or by materially ‘acquiring their accountability’. This is the case, for instance, of those merchants and bankers who copiously funded the Crown, obtaining positions in royal administrations. Through mostly focusing on the Kingdom of Sicily as a member of the Crown of Aragon – and comparatively on the other islands under the same rule control (Mallorca and Sardinia) – this talk analyses the problem of accountability as a phenomenon that differently adapted to the peculiar political, social, and financial conditions of each realm. Moreover, this paper aims to test the idea that accountable officers were not necessarily those who strictly followed administrative regulations or acted ethically, but those who better met the kings’ needs. Despite the strict activity of controlling organs, monarchs could always accept (or ignore) deviations from bureaucratic procedures or even pardon occasional, personal misconducts. Governing was not mere administrative rationality, but a complex and contradictory activity intersected by political and financial factors, which in turn influenced the Crown’s concept of accountability.

After having examined the historiography of the Norman administration and the framework for analysis of earlier scholars which greatly affected the studies of later scholars, I show my understanding of the Norman administration summarized as follows. The administrative organization of the kingdom was based on the existing administrative institutions of the former rulers, or was created to control the existing different offices. The boundaries of the former duchies and principalities were made use of as the largest of their administrative units by the Norman rulers. The core regional unit of administration was the former county of Calabria and Sicily. It had a more solid and cohesive administration, based on the surviving institutions and divisions of the Muslim rulers. This area was controlled by the king more closely than any other area. The peninsula north of Calabria had a different administration. The king tried to control this area through his local officials like chamberlains and justiciars, but to a large extent his vassals were the most important medium to control the inhabitants here. The time lag in absorbing different regions, each of which had its political and historical integrity, made it difficult to organize a homogeneous administrative system over the whole kingdom, and, as a result, led to the coexistence of different administrative systems. Although some scholars have seen in this kingdom an advanced centralization of government, and even the origin of modern states, our study suggests that its administrative system was still a mixture of different systems.

L e développement historique d'un espace comme la Gallia Gothica, entendons par là le territoire des Gaules demeuré rattaché au regnum wisigoth après Vouillé, rend complexe toute étude qui voudrait s'attacher à la formalisation juridique et administrative du contrôle de son espace. Le nom même de la province, Narbonnaise ou Gallia provincia pour les Wisigoths, Septimanie pour les Francs mais aussi Gothie sous les Carolingiens, montre que le théâtre des relations de pouvoir a été complexe. Au seuil du x e siècle, bien après la césure des conquêtes arabe et franque, subsiste d'ailleurs une certaine culture gothique qui témoigne encore de la spécificité de ce territoire des marges de la Francia occidentale 1 .

This PhD thesis is based on the specificity of the history of the second House of Anjou (1360-1481) characterized in each generation by moments of discontinuity in which women find themselves in state governing positions as regents, lieutenants or vice-regents. This princely French dynasty offers a unique opportunity to observe and analyze a phenomenon that was in the developing stages both judicially and practically at the end of the Middles Ages, namely the exercise of political power by sovereigns who were not supposed to govern. Due to the increasing variety of existing sources, this study will also assess the administrative progress or institutional developments in the principalities where the Duchesses were involved in governing. The Duchesses have also been instrumental in the territorial expansions of their states, enabling the articulation of a common history for areas traditionally studied independently: Anjou, Provence, Barrois, Lorena, and Naples. The study, spanning over a century, draws on the dialectic of individual existence and collective destiny in order to offer a new interpretation to issues concerning women’s identity and political actions. These issues are analyzed using multiple approaches (political, anthropologic, legal, judicial, and quantitative) and various themes (finances, entourages, governing of constitutional bodies, war, diplomatic affairs). As a result, the analysis sheds light on the mechanisms and dynamics by which, on one hand, these princesses exert their authority as men’s equal, as women « with a man’s heart », while on the other hand, forced by their gender’s moral, intellectual and judicial imposed constraints, they adopt a governing style specifically feminine, exalt particular virtues or even change the rules of ordinary politics.

This article discusses the problem of the secular clergy's use and opinion of cash at various hierarchical levels between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. The reading of a handful of diverse archival sources suggests the impression of a abitual operation necessary to the life of individuals and institutions, which created scandals only in the case of degeneration and exasperation.

In the 13th century, the Lusignan succeed in building a very important power in Western France, thanks to a very skillful strategy of marriages and an intelligent policy between the English and French kings. During the first half of the century, three cousins are eminent barons : the count of La Marche and Angouleme, the count of Eu and the viscount of Chatellerault. During the second half, while the two latter came to other lineages, the count of La Marche became the first baron of Brittany. The aim of this paper is to focus on the baronial government of the territories dominated by the family of Lusignan, taking on board their transregional dispersion and the transfers of skilled agents inside the family network. Despite the fact that the majority of the archives of the counties of La Marche and Angouleme were destroyed, the subsisting documents testify the existence of a hierarchized and centralised administration, imitating the Capetians' one and adopting very quickly administrative new methods developped by the monarchy.

Franck MAUGER, « Le dernier apanage, gouvernement et administration des comtés d’Alençon et du Perche (1290-1525) », thèse de doctorat en histoire médiévale soutenue le 19 mai 2017, à l’université de Caen-Normandie, deux volumes, 1053 pages.

Rapport d'une très belle soutenance de thèse, fruit d'un travail minutieux sur le duché d'Alençon, ses princes et son administration pendant la période médiévale. Thèse menée sous la direction de François Neveux, professeur émérite de l'Université de Caen-Normandie, et soutenue sous la présidence de Véronique Gazeau, professeur émérite de l'Université de Caen-Normandie. Les membres du jury, M. Philippe Charon, conservateur général du patrimoine, directeur des Archives départementales de Loire-Atlantique, titulaire d’une HDR, examinateur, Mme Anne Curry, professeur à l’Université de Southampton, Grande-Bretagne, rapporteure, Mme Véronique Gazeau, professeur émérite à l’Université de Caen-Normandie, examinatrice et présidente du jury, M. Olivier Mattéoni, professeur à l’Université de Paris I – Panthéon-Sorbonne, rapporteur, ont unanimement salué la qualité et le brio de ce travail.

The Saxons had a significant impact on the development of administrative arrangement in medieval Bosnian and Serbian mining towns. The council of burghers (purgari) in these towns was an example of such an influence. The existence of burghers was recorded in mining centers such as Srebrenica, Novo Brdo, Fojnica and Olovo, but also in the town of Zvornik, and possibly in Goražde. Their main competences concerned the judiciary. They represented the Trial chamber that adjudicated disputes among citizens who had the status of a Saxon. According to The law of Novo Brdo town from 1412, the burghers
together with the duke, count and “boni homines” and chief priest (protopopa) participated in trials concerning higher-values disputes. One document from 1457 confirms that similar trials took place in Srebrenica. The mentioned Law informed that they had revenues from certain penalties. The Ragusan documents testified that the burghers sometimes acted as an executive authority. To perform these duties, they could rely on the pristaldi (pristavi) and servants. When Veseoko Babičić sold his house in Srebrenica to Marin Gradić in 1423,
they appeared as guarantors of this act. It is assumed that the burghers were elected at the council (sabor) that was gathering members of the mining municipality. Their mandate lasted at least a year.
In the beginning, the burghers were probably ethnic Saxons, while later
they were people who had the status of Saxons. Some documents and their names indicate that many of them came from the ranks of the local population. It seems that also the Ragusans could have been elected to this position. The burghers had to be honorable and respectable people. During the performance of this function, they were considered as nobles. The members of this council were probably merchants, mining experts and owners of mining pits.

The National Archives in London holds many rolls produced by or for the Exchequer in the thirteenth century which have received little attention. These rolls were used in the process of compiling the pipe rolls, the great annual summaries of debts owing and paid.
The twelfth-century Dialogue of the Exchequer describes a mainly verbal system of auditing, carried out face-to-face between the officials of the Exchequer and the sheriffs. By the mid-thirteenth century, there was a complex system of interlocking records to track the flow of cash from the agencies of government throughout the country. These preliminary records survive in sufficient quantity to provide a better understanding of how the Exchequer worked.
Each type of record is different, in format and level of detail, but they can all be related to the summarized details entered in the pipe rolls. In many cases, the locally-produced rolls have been marked up and amended, to show the process of checking and calculation at the Exchequer. This talk gives examples of: manorial records, produced by escheators and by administrators of vacant dioceses; sheriffs’ particulars, showing the revenues which made up the county farm, and the expenditure by the sheriff on behalf of central government; estreat rolls, conveying details of amercements recorded in plea rolls; and records of the exchanges, such as the rolls of silver purchases, showing how silver was acquired for minting.
The Exchequer also tried to slim down the pipe rolls, by removing detail into separate rolls, the rotulus pullorum and the rotulus de corporibus. These too can help us to understand the procedures of the Exchequer as it tried to establish a reasonably efficient and honest system of collecting and checking the government’s revenues.

in: Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins 166 (2018), S. 139‒167 (mit Sven Eck, Michael Franz, Sabrina Hennig, Manuel Kamenzin, Christina Lang, Céline Petitjean, Leonie Ries, Verena Schenk zu Schweinsberg, Florian Schmidgall, Hanna Strehlau, Martha Süß, Helen Wiedmaier).

The study describes the process of transition of the regional administration and selfgovernment in the Kingdom of Hungary at the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century. Based on the references in written sources, the author identifies the changes within the administration of the Bratislava royal county that led into its
transformation to the noble county. The paper summarizes the historical events that took place in the studied area from the end of the 13th century until 1330.

Východočeský sborník historický 32 2017 BENEDIKTINSKÉ EXPOZITURY VE VÝCHODNÍCH ČECHÁCH DOBY PŘEDHUSITSKÉ Příspěvek k otázce geneze a významu klášterních dependencií* Josef ŠRÁMEK Přes veškeré úspěchy, kterých dosáhlo za uplynulé čtvrtstoletí obnovené bádání o dějinách středověkých klášterů a církevních institucí obecně, 1) tu zůstává jedno bílé místo, které nepatří v rámci medievistiky mezi příliš frekventovaná témata. Je jím problematika klášterních expozitur, tj. menších venkovských klášterů, podřízených mateřskému opatství. Přitom na potenciál tohoto tématu upozornili již v průběhu 90. let 20. století Petr Sommer a Zdeňka Hledíková. 2) Směr úvah o roli a charakteru klášterních dependencií přitom předznamenal již František Vacek, jenž ve svých Sociálních dějinách českých doby starší konstatoval, že "v místech zvlášť příhodných zřizovali opati příbytky pro mnichy svého kláštera, kteří chtěli živi býti po poustev-

In the 15th century there were several dozen officials in charge of administering the Duchies of Este, and their numbers were destined to increase significantly over time. It has already been noted, in as much as the available studies reveal, that the officials were preferably citizens of Ferrara, often had a background in legal studies, and retained the positions within their families, passing them from father to son or from one brother to the next. However, a study of the extensive administrative documentation, and extant correspondence in particular, which might shine light on the dynamics between the Este family and their collaborators has yet to be attempted. Among the elements that might help in providing a less superficial understanding of the Duchies in the late medieval period are: the necessary time for and the methods of paying the officials, the concessions of or removals from these positions, outrageous requests for undue retribution or, conversely, the inability to obtain legitimate payment of taxes. Analyzing these dynamics may help to understand the Duchies’ strategies regarding management and loyalty, but also the dimensions and characteristics of their patronage networks. This paper, which analyzes several letters written between Borso, Ercole, and their officials, hopes to inspire new research on the topic.

The paper analyses two conclusions of the Fourth Lateran Council that had a significant impact on the operation of medieval ecclesiastical and secular courts: Constitution 8, which sets out the basic rules for an inquisitorial procedure, and Constitution 38, which establishes the obligation of ecclesiastical courts to keep written records of all trials. Based on the available original sources, the author also follows the changes in the judiciary practice of Eastern Adriatic cities during the 13th century, which resulted from these conciliar conclusions.

In this article, I propose a new framework for understanding the administrative structure of France under Philip IV. I focus on baillis and seneschals, who were two types of major officials governing local districts (bailliages or sénéchaussées) in France by the late thirteenth century. Baillis were usually located in the northern part of France, while seneschals were found in the south. It has been generally assumed that, despite their different titles, baillis and seneschals had almost identical functions in royal administration. I call this overly simplified understanding into question, and suggest that baillis and seneschals had completely different administrative functions, reflecting the different characteristics of bailliages and sénéchaussées. In the bailliages, under the direct control of the king, baillis and their subordinate officials were delegated a small portion of the king's power ("a qualitative division of royal power" was made). In the sénéchaussées outside the direct protection of the king's military power, seneschals were entrusted with full royal powers, including that of military force ("a quantitative division of royal power" was made).

The chapter Tradition, manors and property of Eastern Bohemian nobility within the county authorities establishment is included in the section describing property and administrative nobility pursuits in the region. It attempts to explore the connection of the land authorities development and power circumstances in Eastern Bohemian lands, the role of dominant territorial-administrative units and the tradition, which strengthened the position of particular families and manors. The contemporary approach to the history of administration clearly advocates dependency on the social history of the state. Apart from that, in the early history private elements and vested interests came into play as regards the lower ranks of the public administration.
Therefore, the topic in question can be presented as a product of specifi c historical conditions, dynamic development, alternative social groups and key personalities rather than mere depersonalized history of anonymous structures. The time frame of the chapter encompasses the beginnings of the land administration in the pre-Hussite period and reaches up to the accession of the Habsburk dynasty to the throne (1400–1526).

This article shows how groups that acquired the highest concentration of social and political power in the Po Valley in the High and late Middle Ages, firstly rural seigniorial lords and latterly urban governments, tried to subordinate rural communities to their policies of land clearance and water management. The development of forms of collective organisation among the rural population implied the ready availability of local structures that could mobilise manpower and provide knowledge of environmental conditions in the locality. Rural communities developed these functions through negotiation between their population and the socio-political forces that framed the government of the countryside, first the lords and then urban governments.

Surviving records of Zadar’s High court for civil actions (Curia maior civilium) from the second half of the fourteenth century provide insight into various aspects of judicial activities and its officials. This paper illustrates the structure of that court in the second half of the fourteenth century and the scope of work of its offi cials as mediators in resolving disputes. Surviving records of this court show that two groups of court officials can
be distinguished.
Judges of the High court for civil actions were exclusively elected as officers of this court. The court had three judges rotating every six months. During the second half of the
fourteenth century judges of this court were members of Zadar’s patriciate who most often did not have any formal legal education. However, during this period there were four
foreigners, educated on Italian universities, who acted as judges of Zadar’s High court for civil actions for a certain period of time. They were Anthonius from Marostica, Paulus de Blanchardis fromParma, Galeazzo de Surdis from Piacenza and Anthonius de Ghisis fromFermo.
Other officials – examinators, tribunes and heralds – were acting under the general composition of the local government system administering their duties within all town courts at the same time. Examinators had various responsibilities and those related to the High court for civil actions included substitution of ordinary judges due to the conflict of interest, managing disputes over boundaries between various real estates and disputes over improper construction work. Tribunes were responsible for the execution of sentences brought by various town courts. Both examinators and tribunes were elected from the members of Zadar’s patriciate. Activity of town’s heralds consisted in announcing various notices and orders of the court without which the implementation of certain legal actions could not be carried out or could not produce legal effect. Heralds were chosen from the lower strata of urban population.

In a collection concerning patrons and professionals, this paper may seem not to be directly about either. The bishops whose chanceries are considered below certainly were patrons, but the exercise of this patronage, although revealed in their chanceries is not the focus of this study, nor is it possible to claim that the men who worked in English episcopal writing offices, or chanceries, in the thirteenth century were professionals in any accepted sense of the word. 1 This article will, however, explore the development, in the second half of that century, of what we might call the first steps towards bureaucracy, although not in a strictly Weberian sense: 2 perhaps evidence of proto-bureaucratic behaviour. The influence of royal government on the development of ecclesiastical administration has long been recognised, in the unique Winchester pipe rolls and also in the rolls of Hugh of Wells at Lincoln and Walter de Gray at York, 3 and the connections between the two administrations, royal and ecclesiastical, are not straightforward and would merit further study. This article, however, concentrates not on the external influences on episcopal chanceries but upon the practical, internal administrative developments there.

Le comté de Champagne, qui relève depuis le début du XIe siècle du patrimoine de la maison de Blois, s’érige en principauté indépendante en 1152 et devient pour plus d’un siècle l’un des fiefs les plus puissants du royaume de France. Carrefour économique à la rencontre des marchands flamands et italiens, la Champagne a su profiter de cette situation géographique privilégiée pour prendre une part active au commerce médiéval, tandis que la dynastie thibaudienne, influente dans les événements politiques et culturels de son temps, multiplie les alliances matrimoniales judicieuses et réalise son rêve royal en 1234 avec l’accession de Thibaud IV au trône de Navarre.

Adopté par Hugues Ier dans les dernières années du XIe siècle, diffusé progressivement à l’entourage comtal, le sceau participe de la construction de cette principauté et de l’histoire de sa dynastie. Appendu à la charte qu’il valide, réceptacle privilégié des armoiries, il témoigne des stratégies de la représentation mises en place et porte l’image médiatique du prince en Occident et jusqu’à l’Orient des croisades. Plus qu’une simple signalétique, le répertoire héraldique, reproduit sur les sceaux de l’administration, manifeste la puissance comtale et fait naître, dans la conscience collective, le sentiment d’appartenance à la principauté. Un répertoire qui, après l’union de la comtesse Jeanne avec Philippe le Bel en 1284 et le rattachement programmé de son héritage à la France, s’agrégera bientôt à la symbolique capétienne.

À travers un corpus de 273 sceaux, ce travail novateur, le premier consacré à l’étude emblématique d’une grande principauté féodale, redonne vie à la cour de Champagne des XIIe et XIIIe siècles dans une approche globale, tout à la fois sociale, culturelle, juridique et iconographique.

Cette thèse a été soutenue en 2009 à l'Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne sous la direction du Professeur Michel Parisse (Jury : Mme Béatrice Leroy, MM. Patrick Demouy, Michel Pastoureau et Jean-Luc Chassel).

Disponible sur commande, au prix de 34 €, auprès des Archives départementales de l'Aube (www.archives-aube.fr/r/52/boutique/).

Le règne de Louis IX est à la fois une période d'exaltation du héros chrétien, incarné par le roi, et de persécution des juifs. Il faut bien sûr penser aux ordonnances royales mais aussi au contexte général largement hostile. Car Louis IX n'est pas le seul à s'en prendre aux juifs, même s'il est sûrement le plus actif et le plus inventif. Alphonse de Poitiers, comte de Poitiers et de Toulouse, frère du roi, peut être considéré comme l'un des auxiliaires de la politique royale dans ce domaine, ou du moins comme participant à la persécution. Le rôle du prince est loin d'être passif et les archives de son administration témoignent même d'une organisation assez minutieuse des spoliations. Si la volonté de s'en prendre aux juifs en tant que tels est assez claire, elle se couple néanmoins d'intentions beaucoup plus prosaïques. À côté du prince et de « ses » juifs, oeuvre un autre protagoniste important de la persécution, le marchand, ou plus largement le groupe des élites économiques urbaines. Ces élites sont impliquées à double titre, de manière active pour servir ses intérêts propres, et passive en tentant d'échapper aux taxations du prince, obligeant ce dernier à trouver des moyens détournés de capter l'argent de la bourgeoisie marchande. La spoliation des juifs fait partie de ces moyens qui nous paraissent peu scrupuleux, mais qui se rangent alors parmi les plus acceptables socialement. C'est donc sous l'angle fiscal que je propose d'aborder ici la politique d'Alphonse de Poitiers, c'est-à-dire comme l'un des éléments d'une évolution séculaire qui contribue à marginaliser les ressources domaniales du prince au profit d'impositions directes.

The paper examines the procedures of immovable property transfer in a medieval Dalmatian town by using Zadar as a case study. First of all, the paper deals with immovable property transfer through purchase contracts and the fact that they often do not reveal the reality that lies behind the surviving legal act. Next mechanism of immovable property transfer analysed in the paper was conducted through the institution of inheritance. Two models are distinguishable here. The first is testament based inheritance, and the other one is ab intestato inheritance. The procedure of the latter is reconstructed using the surviving court records. And finally two mechanisms closely related to judicial practice are examined as well. These took place on the basis of sentences issued by civil courts, regardless of whether those were regular decisions or the ones that resulted from the defendant’s contumacy, and regardless of whether the process was about a piece of immovable property or about a money debt.

«Στρατιωτικοποιώντας το Κράτος της Θάλασσας: Ο προνοητής και καπιτάνος της Μεθώνης (15ος αι.)»,  De Veneciis ad Mothonam. Έλληνες και Βενετοί στη Μεθώνη τα χρόνια της βενετοκρατίας, Διεθνής Επιστημονική Συνάντηση,  Μεθώνη 19-21 Μαρτίου 2010,  Αθήνα-Βενετία 2012, σσ. 95-120.

Τον Σεπτέμβριο του 1461, ενόψει της επικείμενης αναχώρησης του νεοεκλεγμένου προνοητή και καπιτάνου της Μεθώνης Antonio Loredan από την πόλη των τεναγών για την ανάληψη των νέων του καθηκόντων, η  Σύγκλητος  συνεδρίασε, προκειμένου να εγκρίνει το περιεχόμενο της Εντολής του, όπως το είχε διαμορφώσει η αρμόδια επιτροπή Σοφών. Στο πλαίσιο της έκδοσης και του σχολιασμού του κειμένου της Εντολής του πρώτου προνοητή και καπιτάνου της Μεθώνης, που εντοπίστηκε στην αρχειακή σειρά των αποφάσεων της βενετικής Συγκλήτου (Senato Mar, Deliberazioni), μελετώνται και αναλύονται η θεσμοθέτηση του αξιώματος στις μεσσηνιακές κτήσεις της Βενετίας καθώς και οι αρμοδιότητες του νέου αξιωματούχου σε συνάφεια με την τάση στρατιωτικοποίησης της διοικήσης του Κράτους της Θάλασσας και τις στρατιωτικές εξελίξεις στην ευρύτερη περιοχή στα μέσα του 15ου αιώνα.

The expansion of the jury system in twelfth- and thirteenth-century England radically altered the nature of English politics. The use of juries stretched the tentacles of a rapacious administration into the localities. In doing so, the jury became a powerful instrument of government: transforming local men of substance into crown informants who monitored their neighbors’ activities for the good of the kingdom. This process has commanded a great deal of attention from historians over the last twenty years; yet, the lens has focused almost exclusively on the secular courts and its juries. What has been missing, and what Ian Forrest’s exceptional study hopes to bring to our attention, is how this development was mirrored also in the English church, with its ever increasing dependence upon inquests of “trustworthy men,” often the very same individuals who supplied the crown with information. These individuals are the subject of Forrest’s study, in which he explains what it meant to be trustworthy in the medieval context; who these men actually were; the role they played within the diocese; how the bishop came to rely on them more and more; and finally, how trustworthy men also benefited from this relationship. While I’m not entirely convinced that Forrest delivers on his ambitious promise of a “complete reconceptualization of the medieval church” (2), he succeeded in convincing me that the church was far more deeply integrated into communities than I had previously recognized.

Bien connue des familiers de l’histoire de la Maison de Savoie depuis la monographie publiée par Johann Ludwig von Wurstenberger en 1856-1858, la figure de Pierre II de Savoie († 1268) – le «Petit Charlemagne» –méritait d’être reconsidérée à la lumière des recherches récentes.
Les études rassemblées ici insèrent le destin de Pierre et des autres fils du comte Thomas Ier de Savoie († 1233) dans un contexte large, qui est d’abord celui de la construction de l’Etat savoyard au XIIIe siècle. Les successions mouvementées à l’intérieur de la Maison de Savoie, dont le mécanisme est étudié en détail, éclairent les interactions complexes qui se nouent entre individu, famille et comté de Savoie, ce dernier revêtant alors une physionomie de plus en plus étatique. La mise en place des structures administratives et financières et la promulgation d’une norme statutaire s’accompagnent de mesures concernant les juifs, liés à Pierre par un hommage spécifique.
Ces recherches présentent aussi divers réalités régionales, comme la Maurienne, Genève, le Pays de Vaud ou encore les relations avec les voisins alémaniques.
Le rayonnement international des Savoie est aussi évoqué par le biais de l’aventure anglaise et des relations de la dynastie avec la papauté ou les principautés belges. Plusieurs études permettent des perspectives comparatistes, particulièrement éclairantes dans le cas du Dauphiné ou de la Franche-Comté qui formaient avec la Savoie les principautés romanes de l’Empire.

Am Beispiel der Kurpfalz untersucht Ellen Widder das spätmittelalterliche Kanzleiwesen. Hierbei widerlegt sie zahlreiche ältere Ansichten. Stellte man sich früher die spätmittelalterlichen Kanzleien in Deutschland als institutionalisierte, fest gefügte und hierarchisch strukturierte, ortsfeste Behörden vor, so zeigt Widder mit ihrem neuen, multiperspektivischen Ansatz, dass dies nicht zutrifft. Über lange Zeit hinweg bediente man sich der vor Ort verfügbaren und daher vielfach wechselnden öffentlichen Notare. Erst allmählich wurden die Kanzleiaufgaben an universitär ausgebildete Juristen übertragen. Starke Impulse für eine Entwicklung des Kanzleiwesens in der Pfalzgrafschaft waren der Aufstieg der Pfalzgrafen zur Kurwürde (1356), das Königtum Ruprechts (1400-1410) und die Herrschaft Friedrichs des Siegreichen (1451-1476).