La regence et la majorite des rois au moyen age : (histoire de la continuite monarchique et etatique sous les capetiens et les valois directs.)
Institution:
Université Marc Bloch (Strasbourg) (1971-2008)Disciplines:
Directors:
Abstract EN:
The middle ages represent the time it took for the regency to be divised and clarified. As a temporary substitute for royalty, it coped with its failures and was the guarantor of the continuity of the dynasty and state control. The founding and growing strength of capetian royalty, which was at this time the unique expression of the state, was only made possible by the fortunate combination of genealogical continuity and this additional institution. Due to spontaneous, followed by anticipated legislation, first on a temporary and then on a permanent basis, the gradually institutionalized power faced up to the natural, accidental and inherent inabilities in terms of exercising power, so that the under-aged, indisposed or absent kings were effectively replaced. The regency also uncovered the intimate workings of royalty and was at the root of speeding up institutional development. Like turning back the wings of an enormous polyptich, the analysis of the regencies therefore retraces the gradual ripening of royal power, the increasing degree of its own conceptualization and that of the state which it embodied.
Abstract FR:
Le moyen age represente le temps mis pour concevoir et preciser la regence. Substitut temporaire de la royaute, elle traita ses carences et fut garante de la continuite dynastique et etatique. L'installation et l'enracinement de la royaute capetienne, unique expression que l'on concut alors de l'etat, ne purent s'accomplir qu'a la faveur d'une heureuse conjugaison entre une continuite genealogique et cette institution supletive. Par des legislations spontanees puis anticipees, a vocation d'abord temporaire, enfin perpetuelle, le pouvoir progressivement institutionnalise repondit aux incapacites naturelles, accidentelles ou inherentes a l'exercice du pouvoir, afin que le roi mineur, souffrant ou absent, fut efficacement supplee. La regence devoilait aussi les rouages intimes de la royaute et etait source d'evolution institutionnelle acceleree. L'analyse des regences retrace donc, comme les volets d'un immense polyptique, la lente maturation du pouvoir royal, le degre croissant de sa conceptualisation et de celle de l'etat qu'il incarnait.