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Reviewed by:
  • Les Louenges du roy Louys XII (1508)
  • Katherine MacDonald
Claude de Seyssel: Les Louenges du roy Louys XII (1508). Edited by Patricia Eichel-Lojkine and Laurent Vissière. (Les Classiques de la pensée politique, 21). Geneva: Droz, 2009. 282 pp., ill. Pb €39.47.

Claude de Seyssel, bishop of Marseille, archbishop of Turin, and councillor to Louis XII, is perhaps best known as the author of La Grande Monarchie de France (published 1519). Patricia Eichel-Lojkine and Laurent Vissière's useful critical edition of another work by Seyssel, Les Louenges du roy Louys XIIe de ce nom (Paris: Antoine Vérard, 1508), attempts to show the continuity in his political thought, which, they argue, deserves to be compared with that of Erasmus, More, or Machiavelli for its sophistication. In this apparently simple work of panegyric, Seyssel articulates a moderate and contractual conception of monarchy that opposes the emerging trend towards absolutism with François I. In addition to panegyric, Les Louenges is a work of history that sheds original light on the reigns of Louis XI, Charles VIII, and Louis XII. In three parts, the introduction to this valuable edition discusses Seyssel's sources and methods, his rewriting of French history to serve his encomiastic purposes, and finally his conception of kingship illustrated by his portrait of Louis XII. Seyssel, who between 1505 and 1510 made several French translations of ancient historians, was a pioneer in seeking models for his political thought among the Greeks, although he also relied on the medieval chronicle tradition (Gaguin, Nicole Gilles) as well as oral memory in his historiography. Eichel-Lojkine and Vissière note the importance of Plutarchan comparisons in Les Louenges. Thus, for Seyssel, Louis XI is the inferior predecessor of Louis XII. Despite his cruelty and the rejoicing at his death, nostalgia for Louis XI had set in by Seyssel's time. Louis XI did not go to Italy, so he was used as a point of reference by those critical of Louis XII's costly military expeditions. Les Louenges combats this attitude. In terms of Seyssel's conception of kingship, Eichel-Lojkine and Vissière summarize his critique of previous kings as follows: they are weak, they are debauched, they are in conflict with the Church, they make their people miserable, generally because of warfare. By contrast, Seyssel presents Louis XII as a good king rather than as a sovereign with an imperial destiny. The France of Louis XII marks the coincidence of a good king and a peaceful kingdom. Seyssel thus develops the theme of Louis XII as 'father of the people.' Seyssel emphasizes Louis's reduction of taxes to show his care for the people; he also points to his administration of justice and his care with money in contrast to typical royal extravagance. The growth of the population, the rise in construction, the increase in agricultural productivity all indicate happiness and prosperity in France, which in turn confirm the objective goodness of Louis XII; thus Seyssel claims he cannot be accused of adulation. Eichel-Lojkine and Vissière's edition is complemented by full explanatory notes with details of historical [End Page 234] personages and events. It will be of use to students of the history of French political thought in the neglected years that span the ending of the Middle Ages and the beginnings of the Renaissance.

Katherine MacDonald
University College London
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