Rulership in France, 15th-17th Centuries

Summary of Essays on the Modern State in France

The common theme of these essays is the emergence of the modern state in late medieval and renaissance France. They examine, on the one hand, how the image of the king was enhanced in a variety of royal ceremonials as well as in the political writings of Jean Bodin and Cardin le Bret.

The limits of the sovereign's authority, on the other hand, were forcefully enunciated in the works of François Hotman and Théodore de Bèze.

The stability of the monarchy was maintained by the noblesse de robe, a new form of hereditary nobility that virtually owned the high judicial and administrative offices they held.

The last two articles are devoted, first to the author's view of the concept of the French king's "two bodies" and second to the life of his mentor, Ernst H. Kantorowicz, who wrote the seminal work, The King's Two Bodies.