Introduction

Summary

The centralizing monarchical discourse has long dominated our perception of the kingdom of France. Jacques Krynen, Jean Barbey, Arlette Jouanna, and many others have traced the evolution of this discourse between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, when, in their view, it led to a Bourbon “absolute monarchy,” but one whose relationship to the concept “absolute” differed substantially in their presentations. Jouanna has added important correctives to the earlier narrative, both in her insistence on the importance of a noble ideology of resistance and in her careful presentation of “puissance absolue” as an “extraordinary weapon” [arme extraordinaire] in the sixteenth century. Kings did not issue legislation on the basis of “puissance absolue,” but relied on their “certain science” and “pleine puissance,” terms used by other rulers, such as the Pope. The king used his “puissance absolue” to force registration of acts to which sovereign courts had objected – above all tax edicts.