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139-467: This version is a revision of a translation that had long circulated among Spanish Jews. It is more formally entitled Biblia en Lengua Española Traducida Palabra por Palabra de la Verdad Hebrayca por Muy Excelentes Letrados, Vista y Examinada por el Oficio de la Inquisicion. Con Privilegio del Ylustrissimo Señor Duque de Ferrara. ("The Bible in the Spanish Language, Translated word for word from

278-412: A cross sewn on one's clothes or going on pilgrimage . When a suspect was convicted of major, wilful, unrepentant heresy, canon law required the inquisitorial tribunal to hand the person over to secular authorities for final sentencing. A secular magistrate, the "secular arm", would then determine the penalty based on local law. Those local laws included proscriptions against certain religious crimes, and

417-412: A forced baptism was not a valid sacrament, but confined this to cases where it was literally administered by physical force. A person who had consented to baptism under threat of death or serious injury was still regarded as a voluntary convert, and accordingly forbidden to revert to Judaism. After the public violence, many of the converted "felt it safer to remain in their new religion". Thus, after 1391,

556-813: A growing body of secular vernacular literature (including the chanson de geste , chivalric romance , troubadour and trouvère poetry, etc.) and medieval music (such as the flowering of the Notre Dame school of polyphony). From the Middle Ages onward, French rulers believed their kingdoms had natural borders: the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Rhine. This was used as a pretext for an aggressive policy and repeated invasions. The belief, however, had mere basis in reality for not all of these territories were part of

695-611: A malis committendis avocentur (translation: "... for punishment does not take place primarily and per se for the correction and good of the person punished, but for the public good in order that others may become terrified and weaned away from the evils they would commit"). Before the 12th century , the Catholic Church suppressed what they believed to be heresy , usually through a system of ecclesiastical proscription or imprisonment, but without using torture, and seldom resorting to executions. Such punishments were opposed by

834-440: A name for various State-organized tribunals whose aim was to combat heresy , apostasy , blasphemy , witchcraft , and other dangers, using this procedure. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances , but convictions of unrepentant heresy were handed over to the secular courts for the application of local law, which generally resulted in execution or life imprisonment . If

973-640: A necessary bulwark against the spread of reprehensible heresies. Since the beginning of the most serious heretic groups, like the Cathars or the Waldensians , they were soon accused of the most fantastic behavior, like having wild sexual orgies, eating babies, copulating with demons, worshipping the Devil. France in the middle ages The Kingdom of France in the Middle Ages (roughly, from

1112-406: A new social group appeared and were referred to as conversos or New Christians . Over the centuries that it lasted, several procedure manuals for inquisitors were produced for dealing with different types of heresy. The primordial text was Pope Innocent IV's bull, Ad Extirpanda , from 1252, which in its thirty-eight laws details in detail what must be done and authorizes the use of torture. Of

1251-532: A number of clergymen and theologians, although some countries punished heresy with the death penalty . Pope Siricius , Ambrose of Milan , and Martin of Tours protested against the execution of Priscillian , largely as an undue interference in ecclesiastical discipline by a civil tribunal. Though widely viewed as a heretic, Priscillian was executed as a sorcerer. Ambrose refused to give any recognition to Ithacius of Ossonuba, "not wishing to have anything to do with bishops who had sent heretics to their death". In

1390-512: A part of France. North of the Loire, the King of France at times fought or allied with one of the great principalities of Normandy, Anjou, Blois-Champagne, Flanders and Burgundy. The duke of Normandy was overlord of the duke of Brittany. South of the Loire were the principalities of Aquitaine, Toulouse and Barcelona. Normandy became the strongest power in the north, while Barcelona became the strongest in

1529-405: A practice which grew out of Late Antiquity. This practice would develop into the system of vassalage and feudalism in the Middle Ages. Originally, vassalage did not imply the giving or receiving of landholdings (which were granted only as a reward for loyalty), but by the eighth century the giving of a landholding was becoming standard. The granting of a landholding to a vassal did not relinquish

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1668-653: A putative governing institution, the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition was created. The papal institution survived as part of the Roman Curia , although it underwent a series of name and focus changes. The opening of Spanish and Roman archives over the last 50 years has caused historians to substantially revise their understanding of the Inquisition, some to

1807-679: A result of suspicions that they had secretly reverted to their previous religions, as well as the fear of possible rebellions and armed uprisings , as had occurred in previous times. Spain and Portugal also operated inquisitorial courts not only in Europe , but also throughout their empires: the Goa Inquisition , the Peruvian Inquisition , and the Mexican Inquisition , among others. Inquisitions conducted in

1946-665: A role that was roughly analogous to a jury or legal advisers), using the local authorities to establish a tribunal and to prosecute heretics. After 1200, a Grand Inquisitor headed but did not control each regional Inquisition. Grand Inquisitions persisted until the mid 19th century. Only fragmentary data is available for the period before the Roman Inquisition of 1542. In 1276, some 170 Cathars were captured in Sirmione , who were then imprisoned in Verona , and there, after

2085-463: A special socio-political basis as well as more fundamental religious motives. In some parts of Spain towards the end of the 14th century, there was a wave of violent anti-Judaism , encouraged by the preaching of Ferrand Martínez , Archdeacon of Écija . In the pogroms of June 1391 in Seville , hundreds of Jews were killed, and the synagogue was completely destroyed. The number of people killed

2224-413: A steady increase of aristocratic and monastic control of the land, at the expense of landowning peasants. At the same time, the traditional notion of "unfree" dependents and the distinction between "unfree" and "free" tenants was eroded as the concept of serfdom (see also History of serfdom ) came to dominate. From the mid-8th century on, particularly in the north, the relationship between peasants and

2363-471: A total of four people in various Baltic cities in 1402–1403. In the last decade of the 14th century, episcopal inquisitors carried out large-scale operations against heretics in eastern Germany, Pomerania, Austria, and Hungary. In Pomerania, of 443 sentenced in the years 1392–1394 by the inquisitor Peter Zwicker, the provincial of the Celestinians, none went to the stake, because they all submitted to

2502-449: A two-year trial, on February 13 from 1278, more than a hundred of them were burned. In Orvieto , at the end of 1268/1269, 85 heretics were sentenced, none of whom were executed, but in 18 cases the sentence concerned people who had already died. In Tuscany , the inquisitor Ruggiero burned at least 11 people in about a year (1244/1245). Excluding the executions of the heretics at Sirmione in 1278, 36 Inquisition executions are documented in

2641-695: Is at stake. Between 1237 and 1279, at least 507 convictions were passed in Toulouse (most in absentia or posthumously) resulting in the confiscation of property; in Albi between 1240 and 1252 there were 60 sentences of this type. The activities of Bernard Gui, inquisitor of Toulouse from 1307 to 1323, are better documented, as a complete record of his trials has been preserved. During the entire period of his inquisitorial activity, he handed down 633 sentences against 602 people (31 repeat offenders), including: In addition, Bernard Gui issued 274 more sentences involving

2780-584: Is not known how many of them were actually carried out, only six people captured in 1382 are confirmed to be executed. In the 15th and 16th centuries, major trials took place only sporadically, e.g. against the Waldensians in Delphinate in 1430–1432 (no numerical data) and 1532–1533 (7 executed out of about 150 tried) or the aforementioned trial in Arras 1459–1460 . In the 16th century, the jurisdiction of

2919-530: Is usually applied to ecclesiastical courts of the Catholic Church, in the Middle Ages it properly referred to a judicial process, not any organization. The term "Inquisition" comes from the Medieval Latin word inquisitio , which described a court process based on Roman law , which came back into use during the Late Middle Ages . It was a new, less arbitrary form of trial that replaced

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3058-487: The denunciatio and accussatio process which required a denouncer or used an adversarial process, the most unjust being trial by ordeal and the secular Germanic trial by combat . These inquisitions, as church courts, had no jurisdiction over Muslims and Jews as such, to try or to protect them. Inquisitors 'were called such because they applied a judicial technique known as inquisitio , which could be translated as "inquiry" or "inquest".' In this process, which

3197-760: The Alpine regions , while in Languedoc they ceased almost entirely. In northern France, the activity of the inquisitors was irregular throughout this period and, except for the first few years, it was not very intense. France's first Dominican inquisitor, Robert le Bougre , working in the years 1233–1244, earned a particularly grim reputation. In 1236, Robert burned about 50 people in the area of Champagne and Flanders, and on May 13, 1239, in Montwimer, he burned 183 Cathars. Following Robert's removal from office, Inquisition activity in northern France remained very low. One of

3336-734: The Comté of Champagne , the Duchy of Burgundy , the County of Flanders and other territories (for a map, see Provinces of France ). In principle, the lords of these lands owed homage to the French king for their possession, but in reality the king in Paris had little control over these lands, and this was to be confounded by the uniting of Normandy, Aquitaine and England under the Plantagenet dynasty in

3475-658: The English Channel , both for reasons of trade and of flight from the Anglo-Saxon invasions of England, and established themselves in Armorica in northwest France. Their dialect evolved into the Breton language in more recent centuries, and they gave their name to the peninsula they inhabited: Brittany . Attested since the time of Julius Caesar , a non-Celtic people who spoke a Basque -related language inhabited

3614-814: The Medieval Inquisition . Other banned groups investigated by medieval inquisitions, which primarily took place in France and Italy , include the Spiritual Franciscans , the Hussites , and the Beguines . Beginning in the 1250s, inquisitors were generally chosen from members of the Dominican Order , replacing the earlier practice of using local clergy as judges. Inquisitions also expanded to other European countries, resulting in

3753-669: The Novempopulania ( Aquitania Tertia ) in southwestern France, though the language gradually lost ground to the expanding Romance during a period spanning most of the Early Middle Ages. This Proto-Basque influenced the emerging Latin-based language spoken in the area between the Garonne and the Pyrenees , eventually resulting in the dialect of Occitan called Gascon . Scandinavian Vikings invaded France from

3892-938: The Papal States were known as the Roman Inquisition . With the exception of the Papal States, ecclessiastical inquisition courts were abolished in the early 19th century, after the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and the Spanish American wars of independence in the Americas. The scope of the inquisitions grew significantly in response to the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation . In 1542,

4031-571: The Roman Empire , southern Gaul was more heavily populated and because of this more episcopal sees were present there at first while in northern France they shrank greatly in size because of the barbarian invasions and became heavily fortified to resist the invaders. Discussion of the size of France in the Middle Ages is complicated by distinctions between lands personally held by the king (the " domaine royal ") and lands held in homage by another lord. The notion of res publica inherited from

4170-477: The Romance languages into three groups by their respective words for "yes": Nam alii oc, alii si, alii vero dicunt oil ("For some say oc , others say si , others say oïl "). The oïl languages – from Latin hoc ille , "that is it" – were spoken primarily in northern France, the oc languages – from Latin hoc , "that" – in southern France, and

4309-678: The Spanish Inquisition and the Portuguese Inquisition . The Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions often focused on the New Christians or Conversos (the former Jews who converted to Christianity to avoid antisemitic regulations and persecution), the Marranos (people who were forced to abandon Judaism against their will by violence and threats of expulsion) and on Muslim converts to Catholicism , as

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4448-570: The si languages – from Latin sic , "thus" – on the Italian and Iberian peninsulas . Modern linguists typically add a third group within France around Lyon , the "Arpitan" or " Franco-Provençal language ", whose modern word for "yes" is ouè . The Gallo-Romance group in the north of France, consisting of langues d'oïl such as Picard , Walloon , and Francien , were influenced by Germanic languages spoken by

4587-637: The 10th century to the middle of the 15th century) was marked by the fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire and West Francia (843–987); the expansion of royal control by the House of Capet (987–1328), including their struggles with the virtually independent principalities (duchies and counties, such as the Norman and Angevin regions), and the creation and extension of administrative/state control (notably under Philip II Augustus and Louis IX ) in

4726-483: The 10th to the 11th centuries, the urban development of the country expanded (particularly on the northern coasts): new ports appeared and dukes and counts encouraged and created new towns. In other areas, urban growth was slower and centered on the monastic houses. In many regions, market towns ( burgs ) with limited privileges were established by local lords. In the late 11th century, " communes ", governing assemblies, began to develop in towns. Starting sporadically in

4865-400: The 11th century. The traditional rights of "free" peasants—such as service in royal armies (they had been able to serve in the royal armies as late as Charlemagne's reign) and participation in public assemblies and law courts—were lost through the 9th to the 10th centuries, and they were increasingly made dependents of nobles, churches and large landholders. The mid-8th century to 1000 also saw

5004-458: The 12th century, the period saw the elaboration and extension of the seigneurial economic system (including the attachment of peasants to the land through serfdom ); the extension of the Feudal system of political rights and obligations between lords and vassals ; the so-called "feudal revolution" of the 11th century during which ever smaller lords took control of local lands in many regions; and

5143-656: The 12th century, to counter the spread of Catharism , and other heresies, prosecution of heretics became more frequent. The Church charged councils composed of bishops and archbishops with establishing inquisitions (the Episcopal Inquisition ). Pope Lucius III issued the bull Ad Abolendam (1184), which condemned heresy as contumacy toward ecclesiastical authority. The bull Vergentis in Senium in 1199 stipulated that heresy would be considered, in terms of punishment, equal to treason ( Lèse-majesté ) , and

5282-582: The 12th century. Philip II Augustus undertook a massive French expansion in the 13th century, but most of these acquisitions were lost both by the royal system of " apanage " (the giving of regions to members of the royal family to be administered) and through losses in the Hundred Years' War . Only in the 15th century would Charles VII and Louis XI gain control of most of modern-day France (except for Brittany , Navarre , and parts of eastern and northern France). The weather in France and Europe in

5421-403: The 12th century. The economic and demographic crises of the 14th–15th centuries ( agricultural expansion had lost many of the gains made in the 12th and 13th centuries ) reversed this trend: landlords offered serfs their freedom in exchange for working abandoned lands, ecclesiastical and royal authorities created new "free" cities ( villefranches ) or granted freedom to existing cities, etc. By

5560-481: The 13th century; and the rise of the House of Valois (1328–1589), including the protracted dynastic crisis against the House of Plantagenet and their Angevin Empire , culminating in the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) (compounded by the catastrophic Black Death in 1348), which laid the seeds for a more centralized and expanded state in the early modern period and the creation of a sense of French identity. Up to

5699-555: The 15th and early 16th centuries. Wolfgang Behringer estimates that there could have been as many as two thousand executions. This large number of witches executed was probably because some inquisitors took the view that the crime of witchcraft was exceptional, which meant that the usual rules for heresy trials did not apply to its perpetrators. Many alleged witches were executed even though they were first tried and pleaded guilty, which under normal rules would have meant only canonical sanctions, not death sentences. The episcopal inquisition

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5838-557: The 15th to 18th centuries. Portugal and Spain in the late Middle Ages consisted largely of multicultural territories of Muslim and Jewish influence, reconquered from Islamic control , and the new Christian authorities could not assume that all their subjects would suddenly become and remain orthodox Catholics. So the Inquisition in Iberia , in the lands of the Reconquista counties and kingdoms like León , Castile , and Aragon , had

5977-496: The 9th century onwards and established themselves mostly in what would come to be called Normandy . The Normans took up the langue d'oïl spoken there, although Norman French remained heavily influenced by Old Norse and its dialects. They also contributed many words to French related to sailing and farming. After the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the Normans' language developed into Anglo-Norman . Anglo-Norman served as

6116-700: The Carolingian period, by the 11th century and continuing into the 13th century, the lay (secular) public in France—both nobles and peasants—was largely illiterate , except for (at least to the end of the 12th century) members of the great courts and, in the south, smaller noble families. This situation began to change in the 13th century, where we find highly literate members of the French nobility like Guillaume de Lorris , Geoffrey of Villehardouin (sometimes referred to as Villehardouin), and Jean de Joinville (sometimes referred to as Joinville). Similarly, due to

6255-567: The Church. Bloodier were the trials of the Waldensians in Austria in 1397, where more than a hundred Waldensians were burned at the stake. However, it seems that in these trials the death sentences represented only a small percentage of all the sentences, because according to the account of one of the inquisitors involved in these repressions, the number of heretics reconciled with the Church from Thuringia to Hungary amounted to about 2,000. In 1414,

6394-680: The Dominican inquisitor Andrew reconciled many heretics with the Church in the town of Skradin, but precise figures are unknown. The border areas with Bohemia and Austria were under major inquisitorial action against the Waldensians in the early 15th century. In addition, in the years 1436–1440 in the Kingdom of Hungary, the Franciscan Jacobo de la Marcha acted as an inquisitor... his mission was mixed, preaching and inquisitorial. The correspondence preserved between James, his collaborators,

6533-449: The Empire. The inquisitorial tribunal in papal Avignon, established in 1541, passed 855 death sentences, almost all of them (818) in the years 1566–1574, but the vast majority of them were pronounced in absentia. The Rhineland and Thuringia in the years 1231–1233 were the field of activity of the notorious inquisitor Konrad of Marburg. Unfortunately, the documentation of his trials has not been preserved, making it impossible to determine

6672-446: The French system of peers. Peerage was attached to a specific territorial jurisdiction, either an episcopal see for episcopal peerages or a fief for secular. Peerages attached to fiefs were transmissible or inheritable with the fief, and these fiefs are often designated as pairie-duché (for duchies) and pairie-comté (for counties). By 1216 there were nine peers: A few years later and before 1228 three peers were added to make

6811-599: The Gallo-Roman urban network of cities survived (albeit much changed) into the Middle Ages as regional centers and capitals: certain cities had been chosen as centers of bishoprics by the church (for example, Paris , Reims , Aix , Tours , Carcassonne and Narbonne , Auch , Albi , Bourges , Lyon , etc.), others as seats of local (county, duchy) administrative power (such as Angers , Blois , Poitiers , Toulouse ). In many cases (such as with Poitiers ) cities were seats of both episcopal and administrative power. From

6950-467: The Gauls lived in villages organised in wider tribes. The Romans referred to the smallest of these groups as pagi and the widest ones as civitates . These pagi and civitates were often taken as a basis for the imperial administration and would survive up to the middle-ages when their capitals became centres of bishoprics . These religious provinces would survive until the French revolution. During

7089-524: The Hungarian bishops and Pope Eugene IV shows that he reconciled up to 25,000 people with the Church. This correspondence also shows that he punished recalcitrant heretics with death, and in 1437 numerous executions were carried out in the diocese of Sirmium, although the number of those executed is also unknown. In Bohemia and Poland, the inquisition was established permanently in 1318, although anti-heretical repressions were carried out as early as 1315 in

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7228-590: The Jesuits. "Shall I put you to the torture until you confess, my friends?" One of the Jesuits was Friedrich Spee , who thanked God he had been led to this insight by a friend, not an enemy. Very little is known about the activities of inquisitors in Hungary and the countries under its influence (Bosnia, Croatia), as there are few sources about this activity. Numerous conversions and executions of Bosnian Cathars are known to have taken place around 1239/40, and in 1268

7367-500: The Kingdom and the authority of the King within his kingdom would be quite fluctuant. The lands that composed the Kingdom of France showed great geographical diversity; the northern and central parts enjoyed a temperate climate while the southern part was closer to the Mediterranean climate. While there were great differences between the northern and southern parts of the kingdom there were equally important differences depending on

7506-659: The March of Treviso between 1260 and 1308. Ten people were executed in Bologna between 1291 and 1310. In Piedmont , 22 heretics (mainly Waldensians ) were burned in the years 1312–1395 out of 213 convicted. 22 Waldensians were burned in Cuneo around 1440 and another five in the Marquisate of Saluzzo in 1510. There are also fragmentary records of a good number of executions of people suspected of witchcraft in northern Italy in

7645-402: The Middle Ages was significantly milder than during the periods preceding or following it. Historians refer to this as the " Medieval Warm Period ", lasting from about the 10th century to about the 14th century. Part of the French population growth in this period (see below) is directly linked to this temperate weather and its effect on crops and livestock. At the end of the Middle Ages, France

7784-417: The Papal Bull Ad extirpanda , following another assassination by Cathars, charged the head of state with funding and selecting inquisitors from monastic orders; this caused friction by establishing a competitive court to the Bishop's courts. Historians use the term "Medieval Inquisition" to describe the various inquisitions that started around 1184, including the Episcopal Inquisitions (1184–1230s) and later

7923-477: The Papal Inquisitions (1230s). These inquisitions responded to large popular movements throughout Europe considered apostate or heretical to Christianity , in particular the Cathars in southern France and the Waldensians in both southern France and northern Italy. Other inquisitions followed after these first inquisition movements. The legal basis for some inquisitorial activity came from Pope Innocent IV 's papal bull Ad extirpanda of 1252, which authorized

8062-422: The Roman province of Gaul was not fully maintained by the Frankish kingdom and the Carolingian Empire , and by the early years of the Direct Capetians , the French kingdom was more or less a fiction. The "domaine royal" of the Capetians was limited to the regions around Paris , Bourges and Sens . The great majority of French territory was part of Aquitaine , the Duchy of Normandy , the Duchy of Brittany ,

8201-512: The Romans; one was "noble" if he or she possessed significant land holdings, had access to the king and royal court, could receive honores and benefices for service (such as being named count or duke ). Their access to political power in the Carolingian period might also necessitate a need for education. Their wealth and power was also evident in their lifestyle and purchase of luxury goods, and in their maintenance of an armed entourage of fideles (men who had sworn oaths to serve them). From

8340-419: The accused was known to be lying, a single short application of non-maiming torture was allowed, to corroborate evidence. Inquisitions with the aim of combating religious sedition (e.g. apostasy or heresy ) had their start in the 12th-century Kingdom of France , particularly among the Cathars and the Waldensians . The inquisitorial courts from this time until the mid-15th century are together known as

8479-457: The adult inhabitants (5,471 people) were questioned, of whom 207 were found guilty of heresy. Of these 207, no one was sentenced to death, 23 were sentenced to prison and 184 to penance. Between 1246 and 1248, the inquisitors Bernard de Caux and Jean de Saint-Pierre handed down 192 sentences in Toulouse, of which 43 were sentences in absentia and 149 were prison sentences. In Pamiers in 1246/1247 there were 7 prison sentences [201] and in Limoux in

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8618-408: The appropriation by regional/local seigneurs of various administrative, fiscal and judicial rights for themselves. From the 13th century on, the state slowly regained control of a number of these lost powers. The crises of the 13th and 14th centuries led to the convening of an advisory assembly, the Estates General , and also to an effective end to serfdom. From the 12th and 13th centuries on, France

8757-503: The area north of the Loire was dominated by six or seven of these virtually independent states. ) After 1000, these counties in turn began to break down into smaller lordships, as smaller lords wrest control of local lands in the so-called "feudal revolution" and seized control over many elements of comital powers (see vassal/feudal below). Secondly, from the 9th century on, military ability was increasingly seen as conferring special status, and professional soldiers or milites , generally in

8896-465: The armed assistance of local secular authorities (e.g. military expeditions in 1338–1339 and 1366). In the years 1375–1393 (with some breaks), the Dauphiné was the scene of the activities of the inquisitor Francois Borel, who gained an extremely gloomy reputation among the locals. It is known that on July 1, 1380, he pronounced death sentences in absentia against 169 people, including 108 from the Valpute valley, 32 from Argentiere and 29 from Freyssiniere. It

9035-550: The communal movement and growing trade. The 13th to 14th centuries were a period of significant urbanization. Paris was the largest city in the realm, and indeed one of the largest cities in Europe, with an estimated population of 200,000 or more at the end of the century. The second-largest city was Rouen ; the other major cities (with populations over 10,000) were Orléans , Tours , Bordeaux , Lyon , Dijon , and Reims . In addition to these, there also existed zones with an extended urban network of medium to small cities, as in

9174-411: The concession of the usufruct of lands (a beneficatium or " benefice " in the documents) for the lifetime of the vassal, or, sometimes extending to the second or third generation. By the middle of the 10th century, feudal land grants (fee, fiefs) had largely become hereditary. The eldest son of a deceased vassal would inherit, but first he had to do homage and fealty to the lord and pay a " relief " for

9313-423: The conditions under which the fief could be transmitted (e.g. only male heirs) for princes of the blood who held an apanage . By 1328 all apanagists would be peers. The number of lay peerages increased over time from 7 in 1297 to 26 in 1400, 21 in 1505, and 24 in 1588. France was a very decentralised state during the Middle Ages. At the time, Lorraine and Provence were states of the Holy Roman Empire and not

9452-420: The coronation in early periods, due to the fact that most lay peerages were forfeited to or merged in the crown, delegates were chosen by the king, mainly from the princes of the blood. In later periods peers also held up by poles a baldaquin or cloth of honour over the king during much of the ceremony. In 1204 the Duchy of Normandy was absorbed by the French crown, and later in the 13th century two more of

9591-462: The county of Foix 156 people were sentenced to carry crosses. Between 1249 and 1257, in Toulouse, the inquisitors handed down 306 sentences, without counting the penitential sentences imposed during "times of grace". 21 people were sentenced to death, 239 to prison, in addition, 30 people were sentenced in absentia and 11 posthumously; In another five cases the type of sanction is unknown, but since they all involve repeat offenders, only prison or burning

9730-421: The crusades, and French knights founded and ruled the Crusader states . An example of the legacy left in the Middle East by these nobles is the Krak des Chevaliers ' enlargement by the Counts of Tripoli and Toulouse . The history of the monarchy is how it overcame the powerful barons over ensuing centuries, and established absolute sovereignty over France in the 16th century. A number of factors contributed to

9869-416: The distance of mountains: mainly the Alps , the Pyrenees and the Massif Central . France had important rivers that were used as waterways: the Loire , the Rhône , the Seine as well as the Garonne . These rivers were settled earlier than the rest and important cities were founded on their banks but they were separated by large forests, marsh, and other rough terrains. Before the Romans conquered Gaul,

10008-575: The earliest Frankish invaders. From the time of Clovis I on, the Franks expanded their rule over northern Gaul. Over time, the French language developed from either the Oïl languages found around Paris and Île-de-France (the Francien theory) or from a standard administrative language based on common characteristics found in all Oïl languages (the lingua franca theory). The langue d'oc , consisting of

10147-528: The end of the 15th century, serfdom was largely extinct; henceforth "free" peasants paid rents for their own lands, and the lord's demesne was worked by hired labor. This liberated the peasantry to a certain degree, but also made their lives more precarious in times of economic uncertainty. For lords who rented out more and more of their holdings for fixed rents, the initial benefits were positive, but over time they found themselves increasingly cash-strapped as inflationary pressures reduced their incomes. Much of

10286-401: The end of the Middle Ages, England and Castile were the only large western nations without a papal inquisition. Most inquisitors were friars who taught theology and/or law in the universities. They used inquisitorial procedures , a common legal practice adapted from the earlier Ancient Roman court procedures. They judged heresy along with bishops and groups of "assessors" (clergy serving in

10425-446: The entourage of sworn lords, began to establish themselves in the ranks of the aristocracy (acquiring local lands, building private castles, seizing elements of justice), thereby transforming into the military noble class historians refer to as " knights ". The Merovingians and Carolingians maintained relations of power with their aristocracy through the use of clientele systems and the granting of honores and benefices, including land,

10564-466: The episcopal inquisition, when more than 50 Waldensians were burned in various Silesian cities. The fragmentary surviving protocols of the investigations carried out by the Prague inquisitor Gallus de Neuhaus in the years 1335 to around 1353 mention 14 heretics burned out of almost 300 interrogated, but it is estimated that the actual number executed could have been even more than 200, and the entire process

10703-463: The extent of viewing previous views as "a body of legends and myths". Many famous instruments of torture are now considered fakes and propaganda. Today, the English term "Inquisition" is popularly applied to any one of the regional tribunals or later national institutions that worked against heretics or other offenders against the canon law of the Catholic Church . Although the term "Inquisition"

10842-487: The fall of Montsegur and the seizure of power in Toulouse by Count Alfonso de Poitiers , the percentage of death sentences increased to around 7% and remained at this level until the end of the Languedoc Inquisition around from 1330. Between 1245 and 1246, the inquisitor Bernard de Caux carried out a large-scale investigation in the area of Lauragais and Lavaur . He covered 39 villages, and probably all

10981-793: The fall of the fortress of Montsegur (1244), probably accounted for no more than 1% of all sentences. In addition to the cremation of the remains of the dead, a large percentage were also sentences in absentia and penances imposed on heretics who voluntarily confessed their faults (for example, in the years 1241–1242 the inquisitor Pierre Ceila reconciled 724 heretics with the Church). Inquisitor Ferrier of Catalonia, investigating Montauban between 1242 and 1244, questioned about 800 people, of whom he sentenced 6 to death and 20 to prison. Between 1243 and 1245, Bernard de Caux handed down 25 sentences of imprisonment and confiscation of property in Agen and Cahors. After

11120-400: The identity of witnesses was protected, tainted witness were allowed, and once found guilty of heresy there was no right to a lawyer. However, many inquisitors did not followed these rules scrupulously, notably from the late 1300s: many inquisitors had theological not legal training. The overwhelming majority of guilty sentences with repentance seem to have consisted of penances like wearing

11259-578: The initiative of bishops. In the years 1311–1315, numerous trials were held against the Waldensians in Austria, resulting in the burning of at least 39 people, according to incomplete records. In 1336, in Angermünde , in the diocese of Brandenburg, another 14 heretics were burned. The number of those convicted by the papal inquisitors was smaller. Walter Kerlinger burned 10 begards in Erfurt and Nordhausen in 1368–1369. In turn, Eylard Schöneveld burned

11398-527: The inquisitor Heinrich von Schöneveld arrested 84 flagellants in Sangerhausen , of whom he burned 3 leaders, and imposed penitential sentences on the rest. However, since this sect was associated with the peasant revolts in Thuringia from 1412, after the departure of the inquisitor, the local authorities organized a mass hunt for flagellants and, regardless of their previous verdicts, sent at least 168 to

11537-492: The inquisitors in the kingdom of France was effectively limited to clergymen, while local parliaments took over the jurisdiction of the laity. Between 1500 and 1560, 62 people were burned for heresy in the Languedoc, all of whom were convicted by the Parliament of Toulouse. Between 1657 and 1659, twenty-two alleged witches were burned on the orders of the inquisitor Pierre Symard in the province of Franche-Comté, then part of

11676-532: The instructions of the office of the Holy Inquisitio n). Later additions would be made, based on experience, many by the canonist Francisco Peña. With the sharpening of debate and of conflict between the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation , Protestant societies came to see/use the Inquisition as a terrifying " other ", while staunch Catholics regarded the Holy Office as

11815-416: The judgement of all those that understand it) than the many others found to this day: and by this exceptional aid, of which the other translations have not taken advantage, we hope that ours will not be considered inferior to any of them. Inquisition The Inquisition was a medieval Catholic judicial procedure where the ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases, and later

11954-491: The land (a monetary recognition of the lord's continuing proprietary rights over the property). By the 11th century, the bonds of vassalage and the granting of fiefs had spread throughout much of French society, but it was in no ways universal in France: in the south, feudal grants of land or of rights were unknown. In its origin, the feudal grant had been seen in terms of a personal bond between lord and vassal, but with time and

12093-425: The land became increasingly characterized by the extension of the new "bipartite estate" system ( manorialism ), in which peasants (who were bound to the land) held tenant holdings from a lord or monastery (for which they paid rent), but were also required to work the lord's own " demesne "; in the north, some of these estates could be quite substantial. This system remained a standard part of lord-tenant relations into

12232-755: The language of the ruling classes and commerce in England from the time of the conquest until the Hundred Years' War , by which time the use of French-influenced English had spread throughout English society. Also around this time period, many words from the Arabic language entered French, mainly indirectly through Medieval Latin , Italian and Spanish. There are words for luxury goods ( élixir, orange ), spices ( camphre, safran ), trade goods ( alcool, bougie, coton ), sciences ( alchimie, hasard ), and mathematics ( algèbre, algorithme ). While education and literacy had been important components of aristocratic service in

12371-437: The languages which use oc or òc for "yes", was the language group spoken in the south of France and northeastern Spain . These languages, such as Gascon and Provençal , have relatively little Frankish influence. The Middle Ages also saw the influence of other linguistic groups on the dialects spoken in France. From the 4th to 7th centuries, Brythonic -speaking peoples from Cornwall , Devon , and Wales travelled across

12510-401: The largest city in western Europe; the lower count would put it behind Venice with 100,000 and Florence with 96,000. The Black Death killed an estimated one-third of the population from its appearance in 1348. The concurrent Hundred Years' War slowed recovery. It would be the mid-16th century before the population recovered to mid-fourteenth century levels. In the early Middle Ages, France

12649-490: The largest trials in the area took place in 1459–1460 at Arras ; 34 people were then accused of witchcraft and satanism, 12 of them were burned at the stake. The main center of the medieval inquisition was undoubtedly the Languedoc. The first inquisitors were appointed there in 1233, but due to strong resistance from local communities in the early years, most sentences concerned dead heretics, whose bodies were exhumed and burned. Actual executions occurred sporadically and, until

12788-469: The late 10th, and increasingly in the 12th century, many towns and villages were able to gain economic, social or judicial privileges and franchises from their lords (exemptions from tolls and dues, rights to clear land or hold fairs, some judicial or administrative independence, etc.). The seigneurial reaction to expanding urbanism and enfranchisement was mixed; some lords fought against the changes, but some lords gained financial and political advantages from

12927-402: The late 9th to the late 10th century, the nature of the noble class changed significantly. First off, the aristocracy increasingly focused on establishing strong regional bases of landholdings, on taking hereditary control of the counties and duchies, and eventually on erecting these into veritable independent principalities and privatizing various privileges and rights of the state. (By 1025,

13066-435: The later Inquisition. France has the best preserved archives of medieval inquisitions (13th–14th centuries), although they are still very incomplete. The activity of the inquisition in this country was very diverse, both in terms of time and territory. In the first period (1233 to c. 1330), the courts of Languedoc ( Toulouse , Carcassonne ) are the most active. After 1330 the center of the persecution of heretics shifted to

13205-660: The law courts, but Latin would remain an administrative and legal language until the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) prescribed the use of French in all judicial acts, notarized contracts, and official legislation. The vast majority of the population, however, spoke a variety of vernacular languages derived from vulgar Latin , the common spoken language of the Western Roman Empire. The medieval Italian poet Dante , in his Latin De vulgari eloquentia , classified

13344-405: The lay peerages were absorbed by the crown (Toulouse 1271, Champagne 1284), so in 1297 three new peerages were created, the County of Artois , the Duchy of Anjou and the Duchy of Brittany , to compensate for the three peerages that had disappeared. Thus, beginning in 1297 the practice started of creating new peerages by letters patent , specifying the fief to which the peerage was attached, and

13483-485: The lord's mill, etc. (what Georges Duby called collectively the " seigneurie banale " ). Power in this period became more personal and it would take centuries for the state to fully reimpose its control over local justice and fiscal administration (by the 15th century, much of the seigneur's legal purview had been given to the bailliages , leaving them only affairs concerning seigneurial dues and duties, and small affairs of local justice) This "fragmentation of powers"

13622-399: The lord's property rights, but only the use of the lands and their income; the granting lord retained ultimate ownership of the fee and could, technically, recover the lands in case of disloyalty or death. In the 8th-century Frankish empire , Charles Martel was the first to make large scale and systematic use (the practice had remained until then sporadic) of the remuneration of vassals by

13761-474: The mitigation of sentences already served to convicted heretics; in 139 cases he exchanged prison for carrying crosses, and in 135 cases, carrying crosses for pilgrimage. To the full statistics, there are 22 orders to demolish houses used by heretics as meeting places and one condemnation and burning of Jewish writings (including commentaries on the Torah). The episcopal inquisition was also active in Languedoc. In

13900-423: The more so as vassals could and frequently did pledge themselves to two or more lords. In response to this, the idea of a " liege lord " was developed (where the obligations to one lord are regarded as superior) in the 12th century. Medieval French kings conferred the dignity of peerage upon certain of his preëminent vassals , both clerical and lay. Some historians consider Louis VII (1137–1180) to have created

14039-650: The norm for "vulgar" translations of the Scriptures. It is written entirely in the Latin alphabet , albeit with various diacritics suitable for expressing Ladino phonetics. This distinguishes this translation from others from the same century, printed in Constantinople entirely in Hebrew script . Both were based on the previous Spanish oral tradition. The tetragrammaton is translated as A. (for Adonai ). It

14178-560: The number of his victims. The chronicles only mention "many" heretics that he burned. The only concrete information is about the burning of four people in Erfurt in May 1232. After the murder of Konrad of Marburg, burning at the stake in Germany was virtually unknown for the next 80 years. It was not until the early fourteenth century that stronger measures were taken against heretics, largely at

14317-537: The old Spanish translation of the Old Testament, published in Ferrara , we have availed ourselves hereof more than any other that we have seen thus far, not simply due to it always being accurate in such things, but rather because it gives us the natural and first meaning of Hebrew terms, and the differences between the tenses of the verbs as found in the same text; it is a work that is worthy of greater esteem (in

14456-564: The outpouring of French vernacular literature from the 12th century on ( chanson de geste , chivalric romance , troubadour and trouvère poetry, etc.), French eventually became the "international language of the aristocracy". In the Middle Ages in France, the vast majority of the population—between 80 and 90 percent—were peasants. Traditional categories inherited from the Roman and Merovingian period (distinctions between free and unfree peasants, between tenants and peasants who owned their own land, etc.) underwent significant changes up to

14595-596: The principle of male primogeniture, later popularized as the Salic law . The authority of the king was more religious than administrative. The 11th century in France marked the apogee of princely power at the expense of the king when states like Normandy , Flanders or Languedoc enjoyed a local authority comparable to kingdoms in all but name. The Capetians , as they were descended from the Robertians , were formerly powerful princes themselves who had successfully unseated

14734-709: The punishment would be imposed also on the descendants of the condemned. The first Inquisition was temporarily established in Languedoc (south of France) in 1184. The murder of Pope Innocent III's papal legate Pierre de Castelnau by Cathars in 1208 sparked the Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229). The Inquisition was permanently established in 1229 ( Council of Toulouse ), run largely by the Dominicans in Rome and later at Carcassonne in Languedoc. In 1252,

14873-424: The punishments included death by burning in regions where the secular law equated persistent heresy with sedition, although the penalty was more usually banishment or imprisonment for life, which was generally commuted after a few years. Thus the inquisitors generally knew the expected fate of anyone so remanded. The "secular arm" didn't have access to the trial record of the defendants, only declared and executed

15012-420: The rack and asked her, "You are a confessed witch. I suspect these two men of being warlocks. What do you say? Another turn of the rack, executioners." "No, no!" screamed the woman. "You are quite right. I have often seen .. . They can turn themselves into goats, wolves, and other animals. ... Several witches have had children by them. ... The children had heads like toads and legs like spiders." The Duke then asked

15151-408: The reign of Charlemagne, who was considered the model king and shining example for knighthood and nobility. The dozen pairs played a role in the royal sacre or consecration , during the liturgy of the coronation of the king, attested to as early as 1179, symbolically upholding his crown, and each original peer had a specific role, often with an attribute. Since the peers were never twelve during

15290-456: The rise of the French monarchy. The dynasty established by Hugh Capet continued uninterrupted until 1328, and the laws of primogeniture ensured orderly successions of power. Secondly, the successors of Capet came to be recognised as members of an illustrious and ancient royal house and therefore socially superior to their politically and economically superior rivals. Thirdly, the Capetians had

15429-426: The same period or later: counties and duchies began to break down into smaller holdings as castellans and lesser seigneurs took control of local lands, and (as comital families had done before them) lesser lords usurped/privatized a wide range of prerogatives and rights of the state, most importantly the highly profitable rights of justice, but also travel dues, market dues, fees for using woodlands, obligations to use

15568-570: The sentences and was obliged to do so on pain of heresy and excommunication. While the notational purpose of the trial itself was for the salvation of the individual by persuasion, according to the 1578 edition of the Directorium Inquisitorum (a standard manual for inquisitions) the penalties themselves were preventative not retributive: ... quoniam punitio non refertur primo & per se in correctionem & bonum eius qui punitur, sed in bonum publicum ut alij terreantur, &

15707-411: The south and the Mediterranean coast (from Toulouse to Marseille , including Narbonne and Montpellier ) and in the north ( Beauvais , Laon , Amiens , Arras , Bruges , etc.). Market towns increased in size and many were able to gain privileges and franchises including transformation into free cities ( villes franches ); rural populations from the countrysides moved to the cities and burgs. This

15846-426: The south. The rulers of both fiefs eventually became kings, the former by the conquest of England, and the latter by the succession to Aragon. French suzerainty over Barcelona was only formally relinquished by Saint Louis in 1258. Initially, West Frankish kings were elected by the secular and ecclesiastic magnates, but the regular coronation of the eldest son of the reigning king during his father's lifetime established

15985-590: The stake (possibly up to 300) people. Inquisitor Friedrich Müller (d. 1460) sentenced to death 12 of the 13 heretics he had tried in 1446 at Nordhausen. In 1453 the same inquisitor burned 2 heretics in Göttingen . Inquisitor Heinrich Kramer , author of the Malleus Maleficarum , in his own words, sentenced 48 people to the stake in five years (1481–1486). Jacob Hoogstraten, inquisitor of Cologne from 1508 to 1527, sentenced four people to be burned at

16124-503: The stake. A duke of Brunswick in German was so shocked by the methods used by Inquisitors in his realm that he asked two famous Jesuit scholars to supervise. After careful study, the two 'told the Duke, "The Inquisitors are doing their duty. They are arresting only people who have been implicated by the confession of other witches."' The Duke then led the Jesuits to a woman being stretched on

16263-522: The standard inquisition procedures: these included that the defendant must be informed of the charges, has a right to a lawyer, and a right of appeal (to the Pope.) The inquisitor could only start a heresy proceeding if there was some broad public opinion of the "infamy" of the defendant (rather than a formal denunciation or accusation) to prevent fishing, or charging for private opinions. However, such inquisitions could proceed with minimal distraction by lawyers,

16402-479: The title of King gave them a complicated status. Thus they were involved in the struggle for power within France as princes but they also had a religious authority over Roman Catholicism in France as King. However, and despite the fact that the Capetian kings often treated other princes more as enemies and allies than as subordinates, their royal title was often recognised yet not often respected. The royal authority

16541-549: The total of twelve peers: These twelve peerages are known as the ancient peerage or pairie ancienne , and the number twelve is sometimes said to have been chosen to mirror the 12 paladins of Charlemagne in the Chanson de geste (see below). Parallels may also be seen with mythical Knights of the Round Table under King Arthur . So popular was this notion, that for a long time people thought peerage had originated in

16680-402: The transformation of fiefs into hereditary holdings, the nature of the system came to be seen as a form of "politics of land" (an expression used by the historian Marc Bloch ). The 11th century in France saw what has been called by historians a "feudal revolution" or "mutation" and a "fragmentation of powers" (Bloch) that was unlike the development of feudalism in England or Italy or Germany in

16819-747: The true Hebrew by very excellent Literati, Viewed and Examined by the Office of the Inquisition [though the Inquisition would not have passed such a work]. With the Privilege of the most Illustrious Lord Duke of Ferrara.) Two editions were printed simultaneously, one dedicated to the duke, and one for the Jewish public dedicated to Gracia Mendes Nasi . Its language follows closely the Hebrew syntax rather than that of everyday Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino), as per

16958-409: The use of tortures in certain circumstances by inquisitors for eliciting confessions and denunciations from heretics. By 1256 Alexander IV's Ut negotium allowed the inquisitors to absolve each other if they used instruments of torture. In the 13th century, Pope Gregory IX (reigned 1227–1241) assigned the duty of carrying out inquisitions to the Dominican Order and Franciscan Order . By

17097-745: The use of the inquisitors, the first in 1552 at the behest of the inquisitor Cardinal D. Henrique and the last in 1774, this sponsored by the Marquis of Pombal . The Portuguese 1640 Regiment determined that each court of the Holy Office should have a Bible, a compendium of canon and civil law, Eymerich's Directorium Inquisitorum, and Diego de Simancas ' Catholicis institutionibus . In 1484, Spanish inquisitor Torquemada, based in Nicholas Eymerich's Directorium Inquisitorum , wrote his twenty eight articles code, Compilación de las instrucciones del oficio de la Santa Inquisición (i.e. Compilation of

17236-422: The various manuals produced later, some stand out: by Nicholas Eymerich, Directorium Inquisitorum, written in 1376; by Bernardo Gui, Practica inquisitionis heretice pravitatis, written between 1319 and 1323. Witches were not forgotten: the book Malleus Maleficarum ("the witches' hammer"), written in 1486, by Heinrich Kramer, deals with the subject. In Portugal, several "Regimentos" (four) were written for

17375-549: The weak and unfortunate Carolingian kings. The Carolingian kings had nothing more than a royal title when the Capetian kings added their principality to that title. The Capetians, in a way, held a dual status of King and Prince; as king they held the Crown of Charlemagne and as Count of Paris they held their personal fiefdom, best known as Île-de-France . The fact that the Capetians both held lands as Prince as well as in

17514-590: The years 1232–1234, the Bishop of Toulouse, Raymond, sentenced several dozen Cathars to death. In turn, Bishop Jacques Fournier of Pamiers (he was later Pope Benedict XII) in the years 1318–1325 conducted an investigation against 89 people, of whom 64 were found guilty and 5 were sentenced to death. After 1330, the center of activity of the French inquisitions moved east, to the Alpine regions, where there were numerous Waldensian communities. The repression against them

17653-879: Was a basis for the 1569 translation of Casiodoro de Reina as shown in the "Amonestacion al Lector" found before the biblical text written by the translator himself wherein he writes the following: De la vieja Translacion Española del Viejo Testamento, impressa en Ferrara, nos auemos ayudado en semejantes necessidades mas que de ninguan otra que hasta aora ayamos visto, no tanto por auer ella siempre acertado mas que las otras en casos semejantes, quanto por darnos la natural y primera significacion de los vocablos Hebreos, y las differencias de los tiempos de los verbos, como estan en el mismo texto, en lo qual es obra digna de mayor estima (à juyzio de todos los que la entienden) que quantas hasta aora ay: y por esta tan singular ayuda, de laqual las otras translaciones no há gozado, esperamos que la nuestra por lo menos no será inferior à ninguna deellas. Of

17792-623: Was a center of Jewish learning, but increasing persecution, and a series of expulsions in the 14th century, caused considerable suffering for French Jews; see History of the Jews in France . During the Middle Ages in France, Medieval Latin was the primary medium of scholarly exchange as well as the liturgical language of the Catholic Church ; it was also the language of science, literature, law, and administration. From 1200 on, vernacular languages began to be used in administrative work and

17931-494: Was already widely used by secular rulers ( Henry II used it extensively in England in the 12th century), an official inquirer called for information on a specific subject from anyone who felt he or she had something to offer." "The Inquisition" usually refers to specific regional tribunals authorized to concern themselves with the heretical behaviour of Catholic adherents or converts (including forced converts). As with sedition inquisitions, heresy inquisitions were supposed to use

18070-476: Was also a period of urban building: the extension of walls around the entirety of the urban space, the vast construction of Gothic cathedrals (starting in the 12th century), urban fortresses, castles (such as Philip II Augustus' Louvre around 1200) and bridges. In the Carolingian period, the "aristocracy" ( nobilis in the Latin documents) was by no means a legally defined category. With traditions going back to

18209-453: Was also active in suppressing alleged witches: in 1518, judges delegated by the Bishop of Brescia , Paolo Zane, sent some 70 witches from Val Camonica to the stake. The Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229) a crusade proclaimed by the Catholic Church against heresy, mainly Catharism , with many thousands of victims (men, women and children, some of them Catholics), had already paved the way for

18348-436: Was also high in other cities, such as Córdoba , Valencia , and Barcelona. One of the consequences of these pogroms was the mass conversion of thousands of surviving Jews. Forced baptism was contrary to the law of the Catholic Church, and theoretically anybody who had been forcibly baptized could legally return to Judaism. However, this was very narrowly interpreted. Legal definitions of the time theoretically acknowledged that

18487-413: Was at the center of a vibrant cultural production that extended across much of western Europe, including the transition from Romanesque architecture to Gothic architecture and Gothic art ; the foundation of medieval universities (such as the universities of Paris (recognized in 1150), Montpellier (1220), Toulouse (1229), and Orleans (1235)) and the so-called " Renaissance of the 12th century ";

18626-541: Was covered to varying degrees by some 4,400 people. In the lands belonging to the Kingdom of Poland little is known of the activities of the Inquisition until the appearance of the Hussite heresy in the 15th century. Polish courts of the inquisition in the fight against this heresy issued at least 8 death sentences for some 200 trials carried out. There are 558 court cases finished with conviction researched in Poland from

18765-532: Was not continuous and was very ineffective. Data on sentences issued by inquisitors are fragmentary. In 1348, 12 Waldensians were burned in Embrun , and in 1353/1354 as many as 168 received penances. In general, however, few Waldensians fell into the hands of the inquisitors, for they took refuge in hard-to-reach mountainous regions, where they formed close-knit communities. Inquisitors operating in this region, in order to be able to conduct trials, often had to resort to

18904-430: Was not however systematic throughout France, and in certain counties (such as Flanders, Normandy, Anjou, Toulouse), counts were able to maintain control of their lands into the 12th century or later. Thus, in some regions (like Normandy and Flanders), the vassal/feudal system was an effective tool for ducal and comital control, linking vassals to their lords; but in other regions, the system led to significant confusion, all

19043-670: Was so weak in some remote places that bandits were the effective power. Some of the king's vassals would grow sufficiently powerful that they would become some of the strongest rulers of western Europe. The Normans , the Plantagenets , the Lusignans , the Hautevilles , the Ramnulfids , and the House of Toulouse successfully carved lands outside France for themselves. The most important of these conquests for French history

19182-656: Was the Norman Conquest by William the Conqueror , following the Battle of Hastings and immortalised in the Bayeux Tapestry , because it linked England to France through Normandy. Although the Normans were now both vassals of the French kings and their equals as kings of England, their zone of political activity remained centered in France. An important part of the French aristocracy also involved itself in

19321-565: Was the most populous region in Europe—having overtaken Spain and Italy by 1340. In the 14th century, before the arrival of the Black Death, the total population of the area covered by modern-day France has been estimated at 16 million. The population of Paris is controversial. Josiah Russell argued for about 80,000 in the early 14th century, although he noted that some other scholars suggested 200,000. The higher count would make it by far

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