Ideology and Royal Power in Medieval France Kingship, Crusades and the Jews

Ideology and Royal Power is a collection of essays describing and assessing the ways in which royal publicists in medieval France conceived the authority of the crown, especially with regard to protecting and defending its Christian subjects from their alleged enemies at home and abroad--corrupt officials, Jews (particularly moneylenders), heretics, and Muslims. A number of the essays also describe the execution of royal policies with respect to these groups and evaluate their impact, both in terms of the groups affected and their influence on further developments in royal ideology. A key figure is that of Louis IX, Saint Louis (r. 1226-1270).

Contents: Images of Rulership: Quando fuit natus: interpreting the birth of Philip Augustus; The Psalter of Saint-Louis (BN MS. Lat. 10525): the program of the 78 full-page illustrations; Communal administration in France, 1257-1270: problems discovered and solutions imposed; The case of Saint Louis; Liturgical and ceremonial cloths: neglected evidence of medieval political theology; Saint Louis in French epic and drama; Aspects of the Crusades: Cutting the budget: the impact of the crusades on appropriations for public works in France; Supplying Aigues-Mortes for the Crusade of 1248: the problem of restructuring trade; The representation of the Crusades in the songs attributed to Thibaud, Count Palatine of Champagne; ’Amen!’ Cinq fois ’Amen!’. Les chansons de la croisade égyptienne de Saint Louis, une source négligée d’opinion royaliste; The Crown and the Jews: Marian devotion and the Talmud trial of 1240; Problems of the meat market of Béziers 1240-1247: a question of anti-Semitism; Princely identity and the Jews in medieval France; Home again: the Jews in the kingdom of France, 1315-1322; Jews, regalian rights and the constitution in medieval France; The Jews and the transition to papal rule in the Comtat-Venaissin; Index.