The Capetian Century, 1214–1314 ed. by William Chester Jordan and Jenna Rebecca Phillips (review)

This collection originates in a conference held at Princeton in 2014 to mark two anniversaries in French history: the famous Battle of Bouvines and the death, a century later, of King Philip IV. As William Chester Jordan explains, the intention of the volume’s four sections is ‘fleshing out’ the existing narrative alongside further ‘interrogation’ of what has been labelled by some the âge d’or capétien (pp. xi–xii).

The first section, ‘Royal Patronage and Expressions of Kingship’, begins with William Courtenay’s useful overview of royal relations with the University of Paris. M. Cecilia Gaposchkin subsequently offers a masterclass in the use of what can appear unpromising source material. Her analysis of moralized Bibles produced in royal circles provides convincing insights into Capetian conceptions of kingship in the 1220s–30s, a period lacking ‘mirrors for princes’ literature. Gaposchkin establishes these Bibles ‘promoted an ideal of Augustinian kingship, specific to the challenges of the early part of the thirteenth century, and informed by ecclesiastical priorities’ (p. 77). Her contribution sits alongside Anne Lester’s significant re-evaluation of the continuing importance of the Cistercian order to the Capetian dynasty, and Sean Field’s equally illuminating exploration of the parallel development of the office of king’s confessor and the role of inquisitor.

Xavier Hélary’s examination of the reasons why French nobles chose to participate in the military campaigns of the later Capetians, which opens ‘Power and its Representation’, is notable for being one of few essays in the volume that takes us beyond the royal court and its immediate Parisian environs. Hélary’s conclusions generally convince, although his view that the nobility lost its taste for holy war remains open to debate. Brigitte Bedos-Rezak’s analysis of William of Auvergne’s understanding of seals provides a valuable new perspective on the thought of an under-studied mid-century figure. It rewards perseverance by those otherwise put off by the trappings of postmodernism. By contrast, Hagar Barak’s potentially interesting examination of ‘The Managerial Revolution of the Thirteenth Century’ is marred by its handling of the sources, particularly the baronial complaint of 1246. The latter was directed at ecclesiastical interference specifically; it should not be read as an indication of baronial resentment of lawyers and bureaucrats in general (p. 146).

Julien Théry-Astruc’s analysis of William de Nogaret’s key role in the recasting of French kingship in religious terms forms a magisterial centrepiece to the book’s third section. In an expanded translation of his 2012 article, Théry-Astruc convincingly argues that the Bernard Saisset affair of 1301 was a ‘breakthrough’ moment (p. 242) that shaped both the attack on Boniface VIII and the trial of the Templars. Elizabeth Brown’s own assessment of Philip IV’s ministers similarly reflects a mastery of the sources. Like Élisabeth Lalou on Robert Fawtier’s contribution to the history of Philip’s reign, Brown’s reflections on the mid-twentieth-century giants of Capetian historiography underlines that ‘[t] hey wrote the works that shape the questions we investigate and that structure the dimensions and nature of the quest in which we are engaged’ (p. 185). This draws our attention to one of this volume’s lacunae: it does not take the opportunity to reflect more deeply on what Jordan labels the ‘grand narrative’ (p. xi) that is the legacy of historians such as Fawtier and Joseph Strayer.

In the final section, ‘Crusaders and Crusading Orders’, Jochen Burgtorf offers an intriguing reconstruction of the genealogy of a crusading family that originated in the Auvergne, providing a second perspective from beyond the court. However, like Helen Nicholson’s overview of the fate of the Templars post-trial, this essay seems, at best, tangential to the volume’s theme. Paul Crawford...