
The King's Bench
Bailiwick Magistrates and Local Governance in Normandy, 1670-1740
Zoe A. Schneider(Author)
University of Rochester Press
Published on 1. December 2008
Book
Hardback
340 pages
978-1-58046-292-1 (ISBN)
Description
An examination of kings' courts and lords' courts in Normandy that opens a new chapter in the debate over absolutism, sovereignty, and the nature of the state in early modern France.
Hidden deep in the countryside of France lay early modern Europe's largest bureaucracy: twenty- to thirty-thousand royal bailiwick and seigneurial courts that served more than eighty-five percent of the king's subjects. The crowncourts and lords' courts were far more than arenas of litigation, in the modern sense. They had become the nexus of local governance by the middle of the seventeenth century, a rich breeding ground for men who controlled the villages, towns, and bailiwicks of France. Yet even as the centralizing state was reaching its zenith under Louis XIV, the king's largest permanent bureaucracy became increasingly alienated and cut adrift from the crown, many decades before the French Revolution.
In The King's Bench, Zoe Schneider vividly brings to life the teeming world of the local courts, with their magistrates and jailers, townspeople and peasants. Together they contested that vital border where the private world of families and property collided with the public commonwealth. Schneider chronicles the transformation of local governance after the mid-seventeenth century, as judges and their courts became the face of public order in the countryside.
With this richly detailed local study of Normandy in the seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries, Zoe Schneider opens a new chapter in the debate over absolutism, sovereignty, and the nature of the state in early modern France.
Zoe A. Schneider has taught at Georgetown University and with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
Hidden deep in the countryside of France lay early modern Europe's largest bureaucracy: twenty- to thirty-thousand royal bailiwick and seigneurial courts that served more than eighty-five percent of the king's subjects. The crowncourts and lords' courts were far more than arenas of litigation, in the modern sense. They had become the nexus of local governance by the middle of the seventeenth century, a rich breeding ground for men who controlled the villages, towns, and bailiwicks of France. Yet even as the centralizing state was reaching its zenith under Louis XIV, the king's largest permanent bureaucracy became increasingly alienated and cut adrift from the crown, many decades before the French Revolution.
In The King's Bench, Zoe Schneider vividly brings to life the teeming world of the local courts, with their magistrates and jailers, townspeople and peasants. Together they contested that vital border where the private world of families and property collided with the public commonwealth. Schneider chronicles the transformation of local governance after the mid-seventeenth century, as judges and their courts became the face of public order in the countryside.
With this richly detailed local study of Normandy in the seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries, Zoe Schneider opens a new chapter in the debate over absolutism, sovereignty, and the nature of the state in early modern France.
Zoe A. Schneider has taught at Georgetown University and with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
Reviews / Votes
The King's Bench is an outstanding book. It is based on an impressive amount of research in archives that are unwieldy and difficult to use. It makes a major contribution to the debate concerning the functioning of the absolutist state. -- FRANCEMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Rochester
United States
Publishing group
Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
3 s/w Abbildungen
3 b/w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
710 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-58046-292-1 (9781580462921)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
12/2008
1st Edition
De Gruyter
€48.99
Available for download
Person
Zoƫ A. Schneider
Content
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. Rex and Lex: The Problem of Legislative Sovereignty
2. Howling with the Wolves: The Normans and Their Courts
3. Officers and Gentlemen: The Local Judiciary
4. Law and Lawyers in the "Empire of Custom"
5. The Red Robe and the Black: Common Courts and the State
6. Villagers and Townspeople: Civil Litigants
7. Uncivil Acts: Crime and Punishment
8. Unruly Governors: Functions and Dysfunctions of the Common Courts
Appendix A: Courts of the Generalite of Rouen
Appendix B: Jurisdictions of the Ordinary Courts
Appendix C: Criminal Trial Procedure
Notes
Glossary of Legal Terms
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
1. Rex and Lex: The Problem of Legislative Sovereignty
2. Howling with the Wolves: The Normans and Their Courts
3. Officers and Gentlemen: The Local Judiciary
4. Law and Lawyers in the "Empire of Custom"
5. The Red Robe and the Black: Common Courts and the State
6. Villagers and Townspeople: Civil Litigants
7. Uncivil Acts: Crime and Punishment
8. Unruly Governors: Functions and Dysfunctions of the Common Courts
Appendix A: Courts of the Generalite of Rouen
Appendix B: Jurisdictions of the Ordinary Courts
Appendix C: Criminal Trial Procedure
Notes
Glossary of Legal Terms
Bibliography
Index