ABSTRACT
THANKS to energetic monarchs and their reliable ministers the Capetian monarchy during the first two-thirds of the thirteenth century had brought off a difficult coup. To the benefit of French unity and civilization throughout its widely extended demesnes and even beyond, it had won acceptance for the principles of peace and order. Their bailiffs and seneschals had, on occasion, committed abuses which it had been necessary to stamp out but many of them had been excellent administrators. Good or bad they had won respect for the name of the king and worked, in co-operation with the lawyers of the Curia Regis, to draw from the feudal position of the king as overlord all the advantages which custom and its interpretation allowed. Saint Louis, inspired by a religious appreciation of his duties and a certainty of his rights as a consecrated king, had gone even farther. Full of horror and disgust at the internal wars in which he had taken part during his mother’s regency he was not satisfied with a vigorous check on feudal rebellions. He dared to publish and put into effect an ordinance forbidding personal revenge and the wearing of arms. He was the-first to strike a blow at the communal separatism which was one of the roots of disorder and his equitable administration was successful in bringing about the assimilation of the newly annexed territories. He said that war between Christians was a sin and put his theory into practice. He was chosen as arbitrator by the nobles who quarrelled among themselves, by foreign magnates, and by the English at war with their king. He gave his dynasty a glory which was to last for many centuries. The present chapter will be devoted to a study of these facts.
