Politics of the Frontier: Henri IV, the Marechal-Duc De Bouillon and the Sovereignty of Sedan

This article re-examines the Bouillon affair of 1602–1606,a dispute between the maréchal-duc de Bouillon and HenriIV which was finally resolved through a royal show of forceand Bouillon’s apparent capitulation. Portrayed in royalpropaganda as a resounding victory, this episode has traditionallybeen viewed as a decisive step in the reassertion of royal authority.More recently, the affair has been analysed in the light ofearly-modern codes of honour and masculinity. The present articleoffers a reinterpretation of these events which pays due attentionto the motivations and objectives of Bouillon himself, too oftencaricatured as a self-serving aristocrat, lacking in seriouspurpose. Thus, attention is drawn to the significance of Bouillon’sinternational dynastic and confessional concerns, and, in particular,to the role of his female relatives throughout the affair. Aboveall, however, it is argued that Bouillon’s relationshipwith the crown can only be properly understood if it is examinedin the context of the efforts made by Bouillon and his predecessorsto establish and gain recognition of their own sovereign authorityat Sedan. The Bouillon affair was not just about royal honourand authority, it was also a debate over the sovereignty ofa frontier territory. The manner in which the affair was concluded—througha treaty of protection which recognized Bouillon’s sovereigntyat Sedan—indicates that, far from being an unqualifiedroyal victory, the settlement was a compromise which satisfiedBouillon’s foremost objective.     

Sorcery at court and manor: Margery Jourdemayne, the witch of Eye next Westminster

Margery Jourdemayne, the ‘witch of Eye next Westminster’, Eleanor, duchess of Gloucester, and three scholars of the ducal household were foremost amongst those accused of treasonable witchcraft in 1441. The paper explores Margery's part in this episode, and then examines her background: her husband William came from a prosperous Middlesex yeoman family living at Acton, and he himself was a manorial official on Westminster Abbey's Ebury (Eye) estate.     

Regulating interpersonal debt in the bishop's court of Carpentras: litigation,litigators and the court, 1486 and 1487

Using notarial records, this article explains who sued whom at the bishop's court at Carpentras, why they did so and how the court managed people and their debt disputes. In 1486 and 1487, creditors pursued 240 suits over unpaid loans (about three-quarters of the court's business). Litigants spanned the social spectrum and included both Christians and Jews, suggesting that the court was well embedded in the local economy. This diversity, as well as the predominance of ‘horizontal lending’, matches regional trends. Drawing upon anecdotal evidence and quantitative work, the court's procedures, functions and appeal are explained. Since most loans were made orally, proving their existence was difficult. Cases rarely reached rulings and creditors could not expect from ecclesiastical judges the coercive innovations adopted by secular courts. Yet, this church court was a popular forum to authenticate debts, pressure debtors into confession and encourage peaceful, private concords.     

The Capitulare de Villis,the Brevium exempla,and the Carolingian court at Aachen

For all the scholarship done on the Capitulare de villis and the Brevium exempla, much about them remains unclear, and no new interpretations have been offered in the last few decades. This article reads the documents without some of the assumptions prevalent in previous scholarly interpretations, and alongside both the written and material record, especially the archaeological evidence from Charlemagne's properties at Aachen and throughout his realm. It argues that the Capitulare de villis and the Brevium exempla were most likely issued shortly after 794, as a result of the logistical issues introduced when Charlemagne's court became resident at Aachen.     

Household appointments and dismissals at the court of Louis XIII

This article looks at the impact on court office-holding ofone of the most celebrated royal favourites of the seventeenthcentury, Charles d'Albert, duc de Luynes, who was in favourfrom 1617 until 1622. During these five years, he was responsiblefor appointing forty-two noble men and women to high officein the households of Louis XIII, his queen Anne of Austria andhis brother Gaston d'Orléans. They were his dependentsappointed for their personal loyalty and political usefulnessto him, including influencing opinions, providing information,acting as messengers and go-betweens and helping him to getrid of rivals and enemies. Half of them left office within fiveyears of his death in December 1621, and three-quarters withinten years, a much higher departure rate than in the generalhousehold population. More than half of them were dismissedby Richelieu after he came to power in 1624 because he loathedLuynes and regarded his household appointees as untrustworthy.There is clearly a need for more studies of the political tiesand activities of royal household members during this period.     

Bodies, Sensations, Space and Time: The Contribution from Henri Lefebvre

Abstract: In geography as well as other human/social sciences, issues on the body and embodiment have increasingly come to the fore over recent decades. In the same period, and in particular following the English translation of The Production of Space , Henri Lefebvre has been a central figure in the geographical discourse. However, even though a range of writers on Lefebvre do acknowledge his emphasis on embodiment, it seems that he has only partially found his way into the core of the body literature. The aim of this paper is to explore Lefebvre's contribution to a geographical theory of the body, in particular when it comes to the conception of a generative and creative social body as an intrinsic part of social practice. I start by exploring the way in which Lefebvre's conception of the body is developed in creative dialoque with other philosophers, such as Marx, Heideggger and Nietzsche, and continue by way of an explication of his own contribution. This is done under the headings of 'spatial bodies' and 'temporal bodies', in this way also emphasizing creative, moving bodies. Instead of a conclusion the paper argues that Lefebvre's contribution could gainfully interact with later (not least feminist) approaches, and through such interactions add to current discussions on 'body politics' and 'performativity'.     

Multilingual literacy at the Lusignan court: the Cypriot royal chancery and its Byzantine heritage

Abstract

An important aspect of the social and administrative transformations resulting from the establishment of Western feudal lordships and colonial regimes in Byzantium and the Eastern Mediterranean was the emergence of a multilingual literacy in the contact zones between foreign elites and the native population. This article examines these phenomena with respect to the royal chancery of the Lusignan kingdom of Cyprus from the late twelfth until the beginning of the fourteenth century. It is argued that the Frankish ruling class of the island opted for a parallel use of Latin and Byzantine chancery practices without fusing them into hybrid mixtures. The Lusignan lords adopted Byzantine titles, symbols of authority and modes of expression for legal transactions with Greek subjects and the local tax system. Another area in which the heritage of the imperial chancery helped express new forms of hegemonial self-representation was the kingdom's diplomatic relations with non-Frankish rulers.     

Social Notes: Oscar Wilde,Francis Bacon,and the Medium of Aphorism

This paper reads Oscar Wilde's aphoristic style in terms of the note-taking practices he develops as an undergraduate at Oxford. It treats his use of small, mobile pieces of language as a strategy for dealing with methodological uncertainty in a time of curricular upheaval. His trademark style is perhaps best understood as a form of social notation, whereby pieces of information behave as actors seeking sociality and recombination, rather than placement in systematic arrangements. One significant unpublished source – the ‘Notebook on Philosophy’ – discloses Wilde's engagement with a surprising aphoristic precursor, Francis Bacon, who deploys the form for similar purposes. In modelling a form of non-teleological informational assembly, Wilde's notebooks also body forth the utopian social life he conceives in his later critical writings.