(a) - Crown and Government

Summary

from the death of Philip I in 1108 to that of Philip (II) Augustus in 1223 the Capetian monarchy made steady progress in asserting its authority over France. This secular rise levelled off in the second half of the twelfth century, but concluded with a dramatic upswing after the Third Crusade in 1190. Early accessions combined with congenital longevity produced lengthy reigns (Louis VI, 1108–37, Louis VII, 1137–80 and Philip Augustus, 1179–1223), but these regnal dates are of little import in charting the evolution of government. More significant is the punctuation introduced by military campaigns. By removing the monarchs from their realm, the Second (1147–9) and Third Crusades (1190–1) induced administrative innovations in the king’s absence. After Philip Augustus’s return in 1191 governmental tempo accelerated, marking the Norman invasion in 1202/3 and the victory at Bouvines in 1214 as the chief transitions.

FROM THE ACCESSION OF LOUIS VI TO THE SECOND CRUSADE (1108–1147)

History is little more than a function of its sources. As medieval governments began to generate their own documentation, these written sources subsisted in symbiosis both as products and evidence of the institutions that produced them. Louis VI inherited two genres of sources, charters and chronicles, from the first Capetians. Royal charters were written declarations of the king’s actions addressed to designated parties. Transcribed on parchment either by clerics working for the royal chancellor or by those employed by the recipients, they were authenticated by a wax seal. Since the royal household took few pains to copy these documents, their survival depended on their preservation or recopying by recipients, for the most part monasteries and churches.