Political Topos or Community Principle? Res Publica as a Source of Legitimacy in the French Peasants’ Revolts of the Late Middle Ages

doi:10.4324/9781315579375-21

Chapter

Political Topos or Community Principle? Res Publica as a Source of Legitimacy in the French Peasants’ Revolts of the Late Middle Ages

ABSTRACT

This emphasis on the res publica4 in political texts, especially those belonging to the ‘advice to princes’ genre, appears nowadays to be nothing more than a

1 Christine de Pizan, Le livre des faits et bonnes mœurs du sage roi Charles V, ed. by Eric Hicks and Thérèse Moreau (Paris, 1997), p. 84. I would like to express all my gratitude to John Watts, professor at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, not only for his careful and critical reading but also for his brilliant and useful remarks.