ABSTRACT
As the twelfth century progressed, the kingdom of France also developed royal mechanisms for regulating violence, if somewhat more slowly and in a different context than in England or Germany. As elsewhere, the way that they developed depended on how France itself developed, and on the particular circumstances in which individual kings operated. By the end of the thirteenth century, the landscape of power had been dramatically rearranged in favor of the French kings, and their influence was felt throughout their kingdom, north as well as south. They were also beginning to claim a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence. Among the symptoms of this claim were not only royal efforts to regulate and even ban violent self-help, but also a conceptual distinction that has so far been only sporadically visible, namely between royal and therefore legitimate war and the personal and therefore illegitimate use of force in private disputes.
