ABSTRACT
THE disinheritance of John Lackland marked a date of extreme importance in the history of the French monarchy the prestige and resources of which were suddenly doubled. The conquest of Normandy, in particular, had been of considerable importance. The royal demesne there was extensive and wealthy; the country was well administered, accustomed to obey, and furnished with a judicial and administrative bureaucracy, the traditions of which gradually penetrated Capetian methods of government. Henceforward, sheltered from the threat of an English invasion and adequately provided with money, the monarchy was able for seventy years to develop its machinery, regularly and without sudden changes, with the help of a personnel drawn from the ancient demesne not to speak of the traces of the influence of southern lawyers which can be found, at least, at the centre. The Capetian power was strengthening itself without emerging from its traditional setting, the feudal framework. It is a period which has a unity of its own, in which the essential traits can be distinguished which differentiate the medieval from the modern monarchy.
