William Chester Jordan

Louis IX and the Challenge of the Crusade: A Study in Rulership

Louis IX has long been known both as a saintly crusader and as the founder of effective royal administration in France. But, in spite of a vast amount of research, the details of what happened under his rule and why it happened have been little understood. Synthesizing this research from a thematic perspective, William Chester Jordan integrates the various facets of the kings reign from 1226 to 1270 to show how the monarchs reforms were inextricably connected with his crusades.Originally published in 1979.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Anti-corruption campaigns in thirteenth-century Europe

The thirteenth century in France saw the initiation of a series of reforms intended to define, identify and root out corruption in government. The principal architect of the campaign was King Louis IX (1226–70), ably supported by a coterie of special officials. Inspired in part by his desire to purify his kingdom in the long preparation for the crusade of 1270, he also drew on longstanding precedents in French administrative history. The campaign on the whole was quite successful. What is also remarkable is that, generated partly from the unique circumstances of individual polities and partly from circumstances, like crusading fervour, which were widely shared, other anti-corruption campaigns were mounted, also with some success. The slogans and practices of anti-corruption campaigns came to be identified intimately with good government, indeed, with the very right to exercise political authority and power. The thirteenth century thus appears to be a foundational moment in the constitution of the ideology and practices of the state.

Jews, Regalian Rights, And The Constitution In Medieval France

It is fashionable to imagine a great dichotomy between the feudal monarchies in the West and the brittle, particularistic entity of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. To Voltaires mean-spirited gibe that the latter was neither holy, Roman, nor an Empire might be added that it was also not really German, since millions of Netherlanders, Italians, and Slavs, as well as Provencals and Savoyards, lived within its territorial limits. France and England, the stereotype goes, had achieved a precocious unity, at least in the thirteenth century. Nothing could be clearer, one might conclude, than the contrast between the great kingdoms of the West and the so-called Empire. The fashionable cliche even affects our understanding of Jewish life in the Middle Ages. Fritz Backhaus put the commonplace this way: “The territorial division ( Zersplitterung ) of Germany prevented a comprehensive expulsion [of the Jews] as could be carried out in England, France, and Spain.” This neat dichotomy is inadequate. At best it makes sense in a comparison between England and Germany. Only in England, a few exceptions aside, were the claims of a paramount lord, the king, to the control and exploitation of the Jews more or less uncontested by other secular authorities or by ecclesiastics in the role of secular lords.

From England to France: Felony and Exile in the High Middle Ages

Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Abjuring the Realm 7 Chapter 2 The Abjurers, Their Crimes, and Their Property 33 Chapter 3 The Journey Begins 58 Chapter 4 Life among Strangers 81 Chapter 5 Returning Home 113 Chapter 6 Epilogue: Atrophy and Displacement 136 Notes 149 Bibliography 193 Index 219

Honouring Saint Louis in a small town

The cult of Saint Louis of France has traditionally been regarded as largely limited to royal shrines and aristocratic patronage, but two documents published here provide some tentative evidence that patronage may have been wider. Evidence of this sort may be rare not because non-aristocratic patronage was rare but because so few records of parish church endowments have survived.

Etiam reges, Even Kings

“He could not believe that the army had been brought so far, through so many dangers, only to fail at the last.” With these few words Joseph Strayer grasped the essence of Louis IXs feelings during the critical phase of the kings first crusade and the French defeat in Egypt in the spring of the year 1250. The kings captivity at the hands of his Muslim adversaries followed soon after the French disaster. My aim in this paper is to suggest and explore some consequences of Louiss experiences in this period, an undertaking that is, I think, historically significant inasmuch as many people over the centuries have idealized the kings rule as the purest form of Christian governance. In large part my story is a tale of what might have been if the king had accomplished the three central goals he set for himself after 1250: his own purification, his kingdoms purification, and the assurance that this purified realm would perdure beyond his lifetime. In an essay of the present length I cannot be comprehensive or even review the considerable recent scholarship on the kings reign and the periods immediately before and after that are relevant to my aims, a daunting task that Sean Field and Cecilia Gaposchkin have made an excellent, if, by their own acknowledgment, partial attempt at accomplishing, 2 but I do hope to show that there is much still to be learned from pursuing research on the effects of the defeat in Egypt; much to be learned, that is to say, both about the underlying motivations of the kings modes of governance and about his vision of the kingdoms future if these modes of governance were adopted and rigorously pursued by his successors.

Zefira Entin Rokéah, ed. and trans. Medieval English Jews and Royal Officials: Entries of Jewish Interest in the English Memoranda Rolls, 1266–1293 . Jerusalem: The Hebrew University Magnes Press, 2000. xxxvii, 514 pp.

The title Medieval English Jews and Royal Officials whets the appetite for a rich exploration of the general policies of the English crown towards the Jews. What were the contradictions in royal policies from the Conquest to the expulsion, the relation between policy and implementation, and the capacity of the Jews to parry injurious policies or to encourage more generous ones? Unfortunately, the book that addresses these issues in a sophisticated contemporary way still remains to be written. The subtitle of the book under review here, Entries of Jewish Interest in the English Memoranda Rolls, 1266–1293, more accurately defines its content.

England and the Crusades, 1095-1588.

A potent mix of salvation and adventure, the Crusades were one of the most prominent features of medieval Europe, reflecting and directing religious and secular movements in Western society for half a millennium. Christopher Tyerman offers this book-length study of the role of England in the Crusades which focuses on the courtroom and council chamber rather than the battlefield. Tyerman seeks to demonstrate the impact of the Crusades on the political and economic functions of English society. Drawing on a wide range of archival, chronicle, and literary evidence, the text illustrates royal personalities, foreign policy, political intrigue, taxation and fundraisingm, and the crusading ethos that gripped England for hundreds of years.