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‘His Special Friend’ ? The Settlement of Disputes and Political Power in the Kingdom of the French (Tenth to Mid-Twelfth Century)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Jane Martindale
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Extract

‘Failing help from God and Saint Martin, the canons found it necessary to renew their complaint before the lord Hugh, their abbot and count’.

‘For almost six years’, the canons of Saint-Martin de Tours had been trying to regain possession of land in the neighbouring diocese of Poitiers. They complained that through ‘the cupidity of Frankish men’ they had been deprived of two estates; and, because ‘they could never get justice for their claim’, they were asking their lay-abbot, Hugh, for his advice. Hugh counselled them ‘to go again and put their claim to the lord Count Ebles, his special friend’ and to Ebles' own faithful men (iterum ad domnum Ebolum comitem, suum specialem amicum, et praescriptos suos fideles). Where God and his saint had not come to the canons' aid, cooperation between the two most powerful laymen of these regions broke this judicial deadlock: after intervention by Counts Hugh and Ebles, the viscounts of Thouars recognised that they had unjustly deprived Saint Martin of his property, and the two estates could be returned to the community of Saint-Martin once diey had renounced their possession of the villae of Curçay and Antogné.

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Research Article
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Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 5 , December 1995 , pp. 21 - 57
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Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1995

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References

1 ‘Tunc necesse fuit canonicis S. Martini ut excepto Dei & S. Martini adiutorio exinde ad domnum Hugonem abbatem suum & comitem reclamarent …’, cited from Notitia de evinduatis in Thoarcinsi, Ex pancharta Nigra Turon., ed. Besly, J., Histoire des Comtes de Poictou et Ducs de Guyenne (Paris, 1647) [hereafter Poictou], preuves 218–20Google Scholar. See Mabille, E., ‘La pancarte noire de Saint-Martin de Tours brûlee en 1793’, s2Memoires de la Société Archéohgique de la Touraine, XVII (1865), no. cxviGoogle Scholar; Gasnault, P., ‘Les actes privés de l'abbaye de Saint-Martin de Tours du Vllle au XIIe sièle’, Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Chartes, CXII (1954) [hereafter BEC], 24–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar (and 36–7 for this community's ‘notices judiciares’); Tessier, G., ‘Les diplômes carolingiens du chartrier de Saint-Martin de Tours’ in Mélanges d'histoire du Moyen Age dédiés à la mémoire de Louis Halphen (Paris, 1951), [hereafter, Mélanges Halphen], 683–91Google Scholar. A more recent edition of this document merely goes back (with some errors) to Besly's publication, Garaud, M., Essex sur les institutions judidaires du Poitou sous le gouvernement des comtes indépendents (902–1137) (Poitiers, 1910) [hereafter Garaud, Institutions judiciaires], 169–70Google Scholar.

2 For their return to the canons' possession, see the confirmation issued by King Odo at Orléans on 2 June 896, Recueil des actes d'Eudes roi de France (888–898), ed. Bautier, R-H., Chartes et diplômes publiés par les soins de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (Paris, 1967) [hereafter Ch. et dipl.], no. 41 (included in a list of lands previously subtractas)Google Scholar. A diploma of Charles ‘the Simple’ issued at Compiègne, 14 June 910/11 included ‘Antoniacus, quin etiam ad eorum vestimenta et Curciacus cum omnibus rebus perntinentibus …’. Recueil des actes de Charles III le Simple roi de France (893–23), ed. Lauer, P., Ch. et dipl., 2 vols. (1949), I, no. lxiiGoogle Scholar; but cf. no. ci (dated 27 June 921, Herstal) for an elaborate privilege issued for Saint-Martin de Tours in which these villae are not named among the Saint's lands. By 24 March 931 they were once more confirmed as belonging to the Saint by Raoul, King, Recueil des actes de Robert Ier et de Raoul, rois de France (922–936), ed. Dufour, J., Ch. et dipl., (1978), no. 15Google Scholar. There is some difficulty over the identification of these two villae, ‘since (i) the canons’ possessions included two places called ‘Curciacus’, Actes de Charles III, 99, but this is likely to be Curçay, (con. Trois-Moutiers, dép. Vienne): and the second eidier (ii) Antogne (canton Châtellerault, Vienne), or Antoigné (now in dép. Maine-et-Loire, near Montreuil-Bellay), see Recueil des actes de Pépin Ier et de Pépin II, rois d'Aquitaine (814–38), ed. Levillain, L., Ch. et dipl., (1928), 44 and indexGoogle Scholar.

3 Poictou, 220: ‘Data est autem haec notitia XII. Kal. Iunii in castro Thoarcinsi, et percorroborata. 4. [thus] Kal. Iunii in villa Auriniaco anno. 3. regnante Rodulfo rege’. This king's ‘election’ and consecration occurred at Soissons, 13 July 923, Dufour, ibid., introduction, xcviii. That results in the year 926 rather than 925, as given by Garaud, , Les châtelains de Poitou et l'avènement du régime féodal (Xle et XII siècles, Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de l'Ouest, 4th series VIII (1964)Google Scholar, 9 n. 22 [hereafter, Châtelains de Poitou, and MSAO], Cf. also Richard, A., Histoire des comtes de Poitou, 2 vols. (Paris, 1903) [hereafter Richard, Comtes], I, 70–1 (with year 926)Google Scholar.

4 Bongert, Y., Recherches sur les cours laiques du Xe au XIIIe siècle (Paris, 1949), 143Google Scholar (referring favourably to the extension of royal judicial authority during the twelfth century by means of war, as well ‘judicial’ activity). Cf. the comment, ‘Early medieval court cases were political’,The Settlement of Disputes in Early Medieval Europe, ed. Davies, W. and Fouracre, P. (Cambridge, 1986), [hereafter Davies and Fouracre, Disputes] 233CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and also Fouracre, ‘Carolingian justice: the rhetoric of improvement and contexts of abuse’, 1–16 (to appear in the 1995 volume of the Settimane di Studio of Spoleto). My thanks to Paul Fouracre for allowing me to see this before publication.

5 The conviction that some, at least, of the current views on the settlement of disputes in post-Carolingian ‘France’ are in need of modification was prompted by the documentary material associated with die government and political power of the Poitevin dukes of Aquitaine (one of the chief themes of a forthcoming book). As there is no printed edition or catalogue of these rulers’ acta, charters and notices will be cited from numerous sources; but discussion of the disputes in which members of the Poitevin dynasty were involved is based on an unpublished calendar of their acta of these rulers prepared, but not included, in Martindale, , ‘The Origins of the Duchy of Aquitaine and the Government of the Counts of Poitou (902–1137)’ (D. Phil, thesis of the University of Oxford, 1964)Google Scholar. This paper coincides with the timespan of Garaud's pioneering work of legal history, but it has a political—rather than a strictly legal—point of departure, and thus needs to consider ducal territories beyond Poitou. The limiting ‘date’ is the year 1137, for with the marriage of Louis VII to Eleanor, the Poitevins' ‘territorial principality’ passed for the next twenty-five years into the hands of the Capetian king.

6 J-F. Lemarignier, ‘La dislocation du “pagus” et le problème des “consuetudines” (Xe-Xle siècles)’ in Mélanges Louis Halphen, 401–10 (citation, 408–9); and for comparisons between royal control in the tenth and early eleventh centuries, id.Le gouvernement royal aux premiers temps capétiens (987–1108) (Paris, 1965), 29–30, 65Google Scholar. Similar views were expressed by Bongert, ibid., 37–5, 291–2); cf. Poly, J. P. and Bournazel, E., La mutation féodale, XeXIIe siècles, (Paris, 1980), 59–103Google Scholar. On the earlier territorial organisation of ‘the ordinary court, that is the county court or mallus', Ganshof, F-L., ‘The impact of Charlemagne on Frankish institutions’ in The Carolingians and the Frankish Monarchy, Studies in Carolingian History (London, 1971–1st appeared 1965), 147–52Google Scholar (evidence chiefly taken from sources of prescriptive character); and for the comital role cf. Werner, K. F., ‘Missus-Marchio-Comes: entre l'administration centrale et l'administration locale de l'Empire carolingien’, Histoire comparée d l'administration (IVe-XVIIIe siècles), Beihefte der Francia, IX (1980), 199–200Google Scholar [hereafter ‘Marchio-missus-comes’]. Cf. also next note. Two important aspects of these developments have had to be omitted from this paper for lack of time and space. They are: the prominence attached to consuetidines/‘customs’ in the post-Carolingian world, and the fate of the ‘immunities’ which kings bestowed on ecclesiastical communities.

7 Duby, G., La société aux Xle et XIIe stècles dans la région mâconnaise (Paris, 2nd edn. 1971)Google Scholar [hereafter Mâconnais], 95–8, 140–5 (quotation, 142), 146–8; and id., ‘Recherches sur l'evolution des institutions judiciaires pendant le Xe et le Xie siecle dans le sud de la Bourgogne’ in Hommes et structures du moyen âge, recueil d'articles (Paris/The Hague, 1973— art. 1st published 1946), 14, 28–31Google Scholar. For the application of those conclusions to a very different cadre, Delumeau, J-P., ‘L'exercice de la justice dans le comté d'Arezzo (IXedébut XIIIe siècle)’, Mélanges de l'?École francaise de Rome, XC (1978), 563–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar; cf. Geary, P.J., ‘Vivre en conflit dans une France sans état: typologie des mécanismes de règlement des conflits’, Annales ESC, XL (no. 4), (1986), esp. 1107–10Google Scholar; and for a recent assessment of the social implications of some of the political and judicial changes postulated by White, Duby S., Custom, Kinship and Gifts to Saints, The Laudatio Parentumin Western France, 1050–1150 (Chapel Hill, 1988), 180–86Google Scholar. For more traditional ‘positivist’ accounts of the operations of justice within ‘la société féodale’, Halphen, , ‘La justice en France au XIe siècle, Région angévine’ in A travers l'histoire du mqyen âge (Paris, 1950—first appeared 1901), 175–202Google Scholar; Ganshof, , ‘Contribution à l'étude des origines de cours féodales en France’, Revue historique de droit francaiset etranger, 00 (1928), 644–65Google Scholar.

8 Duby, , Mâconnais, 140Google Scholar—late tenth to early eleventh century; and for a general review, id., ‘Les laïcs et la paix de Dieu’ in Hommes et structures (1st pub. 1966), 227–40; but cf. Cowdrey, H. J. A., ‘The peace and the truce of God in the eleventh century’, Past and Present, XLVI (1970), 42–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For a recent collection of studies on many facets of that ‘movement’, The Peace of God, Social Violence and Religious Response in France around the Year 1000, ed. Head, T. and Landes, R., (Ithaca, 1992)Google Scholar; for a study which has a bearing on the background to this paper, Martindale, , ‘Peace and war in early eleventh-century Aquitaine’ in The Ideals and Practice of Medieval Knighthood, ed. Harper-Bill, C. and Harvey, R., IV (1992), 147–76Google Scholar [to be reprinted during 1995 in a volume of collected essays, Status, Authority and Regional Power. Aquitaine and France, Ninth to Twelfth Centuries, Variorum Press, no. VI].

9 For criticism of the assumption of ‘the strength of the state being measured by the frequency of uncompromising judgments in courts, potentially cutting across all local relationships’, Davies, and Fouracre, , Disputes, 236Google Scholar; and in general on the prevalence and importance of ‘collective judgments’ over a long timespan, Reynolds, S., Kingdoms and Communities in Western Europe, 900–1300 (Oxford, 1984), 23–34Google Scholar; cf- White, , ‘Pactum … legem vincit et amor judgements', the settlement of disputes by compromise in eleventh-century western France’, American Journal of Legal History, XXII (1978), esp. 281–5, 307–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Cf; below, 29–31.

10 ‘Dominus ergo Savaricus vicecomes voluntates et professiones illorum rectas et iustas intelligens …’, Poictou, ibid. (Garaud's edition here reads possessions for professiones, Institutions judiciaires, 170). All quotations are my translations from Besly's text of the notice which (with the MS. tradition of the lost Poitevin charters for this religious community) will be discussed at greater length in the study already mentioned in note 5. For the venerable connection between kings, Frankish and Martin, Saint, Fleckenstein, J., Die Hofkapelle der deutschen Könige. Grundlegung. I, Die Karolingische Hofkapelle, Schriften der Monumenta Germaniae Historica [hereafter MGH], (Stuttgart, 1959), 11–16Google Scholar; and for Saint Martin as personal patronus of the members of the ‘Robertian’ dynasty, Actes de Robert ier et de Raoul, no. 40 (Appendix), grant of a. 897 by the Count-abbot Robert (future king and father of the Count-abbot Hugh of this document).

11 de Böuard, A., Manuel de diplomatique francaise et pontificate II, L'acte privé (Paris, 1948), 94–6, 100–01 (100 for the citation)Google Scholar. Medieval historians have often primarily studied the use of such symbols as part of a ‘system’ of ‘vassalage’, LeGoff, J., ‘Le rituel symbolique de la vassalité’ in Pour un ante moyen âge, temps, travail et culture en Occident (Paris, 1977—1st pub. 1976), 349, 365, 414–19Google Scholar; cf. the ‘classic’ exposition by Ganshof, , Feudalism (transl. Grierson, P., 3rd Eng. edn. 1964), 125–7Google Scholar (under ‘Investiture’). For a rather different viewpoint relating to the Germanic and Vulgar Roman law background to ‘la saisine’, Ourliac, P. and Gazzaniga, J., Histoire du droit privé français de l'an mil au Code Civil (Paris, 1985), 205–11Google Scholar; and now for a critical analysis of the whole ‘construct of feudalism’, Reynolds, , Fiefs and Vassals, The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted (Oxford, 1994), 1–16 (p. 10)Google Scholar.

12 Frotherius bishop of Poitiers, a. 900–36, Gallia Christiana … 16 vols., ed. Marthe, D. de Ste et al. , II (Paris, 1720), cols. 1159–60Google Scholar. The Diagram (p. 27) is intended to convey rapidly some impression of the extensive travels of the canons which have not been fully described here. Loudun and Colombiers were both described as fortified (castrum) in the noticia, but the former was also the seat of a Carolingian vicaria—i.e. an administrative subdivision of the pagus—(both now dép. Vienne, see Garaud, , Châtelains, 5, 16, 32Google Scholar; cf. id.‘Les circonscriptions administratives du comté du Poitou et les auxiliaires du comte au Xe siècle’, Le Moyen Age, LIX (1953), 13–61Google Scholar; and ‘La construction des châteaux et les destinées de la “vicaria” et du “vicarius” carolingiens en Poitou, RHDFE (1953), 55, n. 4. Auriniacum seems identifiable with Avrigny in the same département, but I have been unable to identify Orbiacum/Orbiciacus.

13 The viscounts' renunciation was made ‘secundum etiam quod domnus Ebolus suique fideles ex ipsa ratione Pictavis iudicaverant per consilium et consensum in circuitu omnium residentium …’, Poictou, ibid (this gathering is not called a mallus, but its members were behaving like one); but cf. Garaud, for whom the settlement was ‘cet accord … confirmé par le comk. Il n'y avail pas de jugement’, Châtelains de Poitou, 9. n. 22. Noticiae of three earlier occasions when Count Ebles presided over legal proceedings have been preserved, and all the disputes were heard and settled in Poitiers, on 4 May 903, 30 March 904, 28 April 925: Chartes de l'abbaye de Nouaillé de 678 à 1200, ed. de Monsabert, P., Archives Historiques du Poitou XLIX (1936) [hereafter AHP] nos. 32, 31 (from original, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Collection de Bourgogne vol. 76, no. 4; Poitiers, Archives Départementales de la Vienne, fonds Nouaillé, no. 20)Google Scholar;Chartes et documents pour servir à l'histoire de l'abbaye de Saint-Maixent, ed. Richard, A., AHP XVI–VII (1886) no. 11 (BN, ms. nouv. acqu. lat., 2386, no. 1)Google Scholar[hereafter all published documents from ecclesiastical archives will be cited under the name of the appropriate house]. Those who ‘sat’ with the count were described in these documents as obtimates/ optimates or as comital vassalli. For Garaud these gatherings embody ‘le type des premiers cours féodales qui ont conservé … le caractère des plaids carolingiens’, Institutions judiciaires, 37–41; cf. on Carolingian counts’ unfavourable press in judicial matters, Fouracre, , ‘Carolingian justice’, 9Google Scholar.

14 Above, n. 2. For the distinctions between methods of settlement of disputes, Davies, and Fouracre, , Disputes, 235–6Google Scholar; Roberts, S., ‘The study of disputes: Anthropological perspectives’, in Disputes and Settlements: Law and Human Relations in the West, ed. Bossy, J. (Cambridge, 1983), 1–17Google Scholar; cf. Gluckman, M., Politics, Law and Ritual in Tribal Society (Oxford, 1965), esp. 123–215Google Scholar; Cheyette, F., ‘Suum cuique tribuere’, French Historical Studies, VI (1970), 292–3Google Scholar.

15 Les Annales de Flodoard, ed. Lauer, P., Collection de textes pour servir à l'étude et à l'enseignement de l'histoire (Paris, 1905), 24—a. 924Google Scholar, ‘Ragenoldus cum suis Nordmannis, quia nondum possessionem intra Gallias acceperat, terram Hugonis inter Ligerim et Sequanam depopulatur’; and cf. 6 -a. 921 (for Hugh's father's attempt to expel those wishing to make a permanent settlement in the Loire region). For the movements of Saint Maixent's body, recalled in the cartulary of the Breton monastery of Redon, , Besly, , Poictou, 217–8Google Scholar; Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Redon en Bretagne, ed. de Courson, A., (Paris, 1863), no. 283Google Scholar. In general on that phenomenon, Bloch, M., Feudal Society, transl. Manyon, L., (London, 1961), 20–22Google Scholar.; but for a more critical attitude towards evidence of this type, Musset, L., Les invasions, le second assaut contre l'Europe chrétienne (VIIe-XIe siècles), Nouvelle Clio, (Paris, 1971), 228–9Google Scholar.

16 Annales de Flodoard, 26, cf. 61, 65–6 (devastation of Francia a. 937), 66–7 (same year, region of Reims and movement to the pagus of Bourges in Aquitaine), 131 (entry into Aquitaine, a. 951), 137 (Burgundy and Lotharingia/Lorraine, a. 954).

17 Eckel, A., Chartes le Simple (Paris, 1899), 130Google Scholar; and 123–4 for the battle near Soissons which preceded the accession of Raoul; cf. Lauer, P., Robert ler et Raoul de Bourgogne, rois de France (923–93) (Paris, 1910), 11–45Google Scholar;Actes de Robert Ier et de Raoul, intro. xcvi. For the wider political background, McKitterick, R., The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 751–987 (London, 1983), 306–13.Google Scholar; Histoire de France, I, Werner, K. F., Les origines (Paris, 1984), 451–61Google Scholar; Sot, M., ‘Hérédité royale et pouvoir sacré avant 987’, Annales E.S.C. (1988), 705–33Google Scholar.

18 For an earlier example of ecclesiastics from the Touraine being obliged to cross into Poitou (then within the regnum Aquitanorum) in order to obtain a settlement about lands held in that county and diocese—admittedly from the regional king, Recueil des actes de Pépin Ier et de Pépin II, rois d'Aquitaine, (814–48), ed. Levillain, L., Ch. et. dipl. (1926), no. XII—9 06 828Google Scholar; and for discussion, cf. Nelson, J., ‘Dispute settlement in Carolingian West Francia’ in Disputes, 48–52, 246–7Google Scholar.

19 ‘… communi Francorum Normannorumque placito petierunt reclamantes’, Recueil des actes des Ducs de Normandie, ed. Fauroux, M., Mémoires de la Société des Anu'quaires de Normandie, XXXVI (1961)Google Scholar [hereafter Ducs de Normandie], no. 3, 18 March 968. Like the Saint-Martin dispute, this went through a number of stages: first heard at Gisors, before it was moved to Rouen where Count Richard [i.e. Duke Richard I] ‘decreed’ the return of their potestas to the monks. Finally the latter travelled to Berneval, and the land of Saint-Denis was formally returned to them.

20 The drafter of the 926 noticia was careful in his use of terms denoting social and political relationships—dominus and fideles, the unusual compares, as well as amicus. Interestingly another judicial document from this scriptorium also describes the counts Berengar and the lay-abbot Robert (Hugh's father), as amici, Actes de Robert Ier et de Raoul, no. 37– 13 June 892, (141).

21 Schmid, K., ‘Unerforschte Quellen aus Quellenarmer Zeit: Zur amicitia zwischen Heinrich I und dem westfränkischen König Robert im Jahre 923’, Francia XII (1984), 136, 141Google Scholar; and for the text of the oath, 142 and n. 94. Cf. the wording of the vernacular fraternal oaths sworn by the Carolingians Louis and Chartes at Strasbourg in Feb. 842, Nithard, Histoire des fils de Louis le Pieux, ed. Lauer, P., Les classiques de l'histoire de France au moyen âge, (2nd edn., Paris, 1964), 104–5Google Scholar.; and see next n.

22 ‘… so zeigt dies, dass ein bestimmtes Bedeutungsfeld des Begriffi “amicitia” noch nicht richt im Blick ist’, contrasting the attention lavished by historians on the meanings of ‘Gefolge, Vasallen’, Schmid, ibid., 144 and to 146; Althoff, G., Verwandte, Freunde und Getreue, (Darmstadt, 1990), 105–7Google Scholar. But for amicitia between men who were not social or political equals, Reuter, T., Germany in the Early Middle Ages (800–1056), (London, 1991), 138–41, 144–50Google Scholar(Otto I's refusal to conclude such pacts), 259, 290; and in general on the ‘networks’ created by such alliances, Airlie, S., ‘After Empire—recent work on the emergence of post-Carolingian kingdoms’, Early Medieval Europe II (1993), 156–7Google Scholar.

23 A comprehensive bibliography on the ‘rise of the Capetians’ would be out of place in this context, but in general see now especially, McKitterick, , The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 314–36Google Scholar; Werner, , Les origines, 463–96Google Scholar; Dunbabin, J.France in the Making (843–1180) (Oxford, 1985), 65–8, 96–7, 103–4,133–40Google Scholar; Hallam, E., ‘The king and the princes in eleventh-century Capetian France’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, LIII (1980), 143–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Cf. the influential study by Dhondt, J., Etudes sur la naissance des principautés territoriales en France (IX-Xe siécde) (Bruges, 1948). 81–146Google Scholar; but also Werner, , ‘Kingdom and principality in twelfth-century France’, in The Medieval Nobility, Studies on the Ruling Classes of France and Germany from the Sixth to the Twelfth Century, ed. and transl. Reuter, T. (Amsterdam/New York, 1978), [hereafter ‘Kingdom and principality’], 243–90Google Scholar.

24 ‘Odo filius Rodbeiti usque ad ligerim fluvium vel Aquitanicam provinciam sibi in usum usurpavit; deinceps Ramnolfus se regem haberi statuit’, Annales Fuldenses, ed. Kurze, F., MGH, scriptores in usum scholarum (Hanover, 1891), 116 -a. 888Google Scholar; another annalist described this Ramnulf as ‘dux maximae partis Aquitaniae’, Annales Xantenses et Annales Vedastin, ed. de Simson, B., MGH … in usum scholarum, (Hanover, 1909), 67- a. 889Google Scholar; Sot, , ‘Hérédité royale’, 713–7Google Scholar For the expansion of the power of Ebles and his descendants, Auzias, L., L'Aquitaine carolinginne (Paris/Toulouse, 1937), 461–518Google Scholar (a fragmentary part of this posthumous work); Dhondt, ibid. 194–6, 215–26 (in need of considerable revision, however); McKitterick, ibid. 313, 320; Dunbabin, ibid., 58–63; Werner, , ‘Kingdom and principality’ 247–9, 252–3Google Scholar. The history of these counts is followed through on a chronological basis in Richard's standard account, see n. 3.

25 Cf. the account and examples cited above. See also White, , ‘Feuding and peacemaking in the Touraine around the year 1000’, Traditio XLII (1986), 195–263CrossRefGoogle Scholar; id.‘Inheritances and legal arguments in Western France, 1050–1150’, Traditio, XLIII (1987), 55–103Google Scholar; cf. Balzaretti, R., ‘The monastery of Sant' Ambrogio and dispute settlement in early medieval Milan’, Early Medieval Europe, III (1994), 1–18Google Scholar. For a well-merited attack on the excessively centralising standpoint of many historians, Werner, , ‘Royaume et regna, Le pouvoir en France comme enjeu entre le roi et les grands’ in Pouvoirs et libertés au temps des premiers Capitiais, ed. Magnou-Norutier, E. (Gholet, 1992), 25–6, 45–52Google Scholar.

26 For the description of ordeals as ‘magico-priestly’, Van Caenegem, R., ‘Methods of proof in western medieval law’, in Legal History: a European Perspective (London, 1991—article first publ. 1983), 73Google Scholar; and further below, 47–50 (and nn. 61–8). For analysis of the varying methods employed to secure settlement whether by ‘state’ or ‘local community’, Davies, and Fouracre, , Disputes, 235–6Google Scholar—note the comment ‘adjudication and mediation are in principle opposites, and can be separated analytically. But they do not represent historical oppositions’.

27 (i). For the acta of the Poitevin rulers, see below n. 30. (ii). a) Between the end of the tenth century and c. 1109, between 56–65 documents have been preserved relating to disputes in which the Angevin counts were involved—figures based on a correlation of the calendars and pièces justtficatives in Halphen, L., Le comté d'Anjou au XIe sièle (Paris, 1906)Google Scholar and Guillot, O., Le comte d'Anjou et son entourage au XIe siècle L'Anjou de nog à 1151, 2 vols.,(Paris, 1972)Google Scholar. The discrepancies can be largely accounted for by the rather different criteria employed in these works, b) 45 documents of judicial character are included in the later catalogue compiled by Chartrou, J., L'Anjou de nog à 1151, Foulque de Jerusalem et Geoffroi Plantegênet (Paris, n. d.)Google Scholar. Documents relating to Angevin rule in Normandy under Geoffrey ‘le Bel’ have not, however, been included, (iii). The acta of the counts of Angoulême (to the mid-twelfth century only) will be cited from the appendices to the unpublished thesis by Watson, Rowan, ‘The Counts of Angoulême from the Ninth to the Mid-thirteenth Century’, (PH.D. of the University of East Anglia, 1979)Google Scholar, which I am very grateful to be allowed to cite here. Between c. 1003X4 to the mid-twelfth century there are 12 documents of judicial character in which these counts were involved. (Two documents relating to Count Vulgrin's appearance before the Duke of Aquitaine with other secular lords of Oléron in the year 1131 are not included, see below, n. 45).

28 The edition of Norman ducal acta before 1066 (see, above n. 19) indicates the survival of 14 documents of judicial character in which Norman rulers were involved. Cf. the cautious interpretation of the evidence for ducal dispute settlement by Bates, D., Normandy before 1066 (London, 1982), 160–1Google Scholar; with the more tendentious discussion of ‘feudal jurisdiction’ by Ch. Haskins, , Mormon Institutions (New York, 1918), 24–7Google Scholar.

29 ‘Legis legum xansit autoritas …’, Garaud, , ‘Le droit remain dans les chartes poitevines du XIe au XIe sièles’ Mélanges de droit remain dédiés à Georges Comil, 2 vols (Paris, 1926), I, 400Google Scholar–24 (citation, 424). The following are nevertheless of wide general importance, Ourliac, P., ‘L'esprit du droit méridional,’ and ‘La “convenuntia”’ in Etudes d'Histoire du droit médiéval (Toulouse, 1979), 313–31Google Scholar; 245–55; Cl. Brunel, , ‘Les juges de la paix en Gévaudan au milieu du XIe sièle’, BEC, CXIX (1951), 32–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gouron, A., ‘Les étapes de la pénétration du droit romain au XIIe siècle dans l'ancienne Septimanie’, Annales du Midi, LXIX (1957), 103–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar; id.‘Diffusion des consulate m!eridionaux et expansion du droit romain au XIIe et XIIIe siècles’, BEC, CXXXI (1963), 26–76Google Scholar (and for late twelfth-century penetration of Roman law into Aquitaine, see his diagram II, 53).

30 None of the documents of the Poitevin dukes cited below has a secular provenance, although possibly some were preserved in a rudimentary ducal archive—see the Limoges charter cited, in n. 43; cf. Bates, ibid. on the defects of this type of ‘record’. A body of c. 420 charters has survived from the centuries of the Poitevin counts' government between 902–1137: of these only 37 are ‘dispute documents’, very unevenly distributed throughout these centuries, (i) After the four produced during the period of Count Ebles's rule (902–c. 34) only two have been preserved for the next century (i.e. during diree generations). On the other hand one of those implies the continuous functioning of a court and comital activity, n. 58 below; and this last does not include the conventum referred to below, nn. 73–6. (ii) Between the mid-eleventh century and 1137 31 documents have been preserved referring to pleas heard, ordered, or judged by these rulers: a fiill calendar cannot be given here. However, it is unlikely that diey represent the total judicial activity of those secular rulers. For these points, see above, 23–6 (and especially n. 13); below 44–6.

31 (i) Bordeaux, Archives Départementales de la Gironde, G. 335: for a partial facsimile, see Higounet, C., Bordeaux pendant le haut moyen âge, Histoire de Bordeaux, I, (Bordeaux, 1963Google Scholar), plate V; and Archives Historiques de la Gironde, XXX (1890), 1–4Google Scholar and pi. I. (ii) ed. Lacurie, J-L., Histoire de l'abbaye de Maillezais (Fontenay-le-Comte, 1852), 296Google Scholar. For a detailed chronological review of the titles attributed to successive members of the dynasty, Kienast, W., Der Herzogstitel in Frankreich und Deutschland (g bis 12 Jahrhundert)(Munich/Vienna, 1968), 175–241Google Scholar; the summary in Histoire des institutions françaises au moyen âge I, 158–62 is skimpy and unreliable.

32 To some extent these great territorial contrasts are self-evident, but should also emerge in their historical dimension from references in the following section of the paper to ducal appearances in places as far from Poitiers as Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Lescar. The itineraries of the Poitevin dukes cannot be extensively discussed here; but even under Carolingian rulers, differences of scale ‘couvrait des réaltiés fort différentes, Werner, K. F., ‘Missus-Marchio-Comes’ 223–4Google Scholar. For diagrams conveying the restricted scale of lordships under the count of Mâcon in the late tenth century and comparisons with châtellenies established in the same region by the end of the twelfth century, Duby, , Mâconnais, 510, 517Google Scholar.

33 Martindale, , ‘Succession and politics in the romance-speaking world, c. 1000–1140’, in England and Her Neighbours, 1066–1485, Essays in Honour of Pierre Chaplais, ed. Jones, M. and Vale, M. (London, 1989), 30–33 and esp. n. 55Google Scholar (the succession to Gascony and the Bordelais will receive more extended treatment in the work in course of preparation).

34 The earliest complaint was made ‘coram Gausfredo duce Aquitanie with three bishops present; the 1103 court sat when the count reached Gascony, although he had already ordered the viscount of Bezaume to make public restitution to the monks, Cartulaire du prieuré conventuel de Saint-Pierre de la Réole en Bazadais du IXe au XIIe siécle, ed. Grellet-Balguerie, C., Archives Historiques de la Gironde, V (1864), nos. 139; 70; 88Google Scholar. The castle of Taillacavat is canton Montségur, dép. Gironde: the editor dated that document c. 1090: it too concerned secular reluctance to relinquish control of a church.

35 An earlier plea concerning possession of this church had been heard before the viscount of Dax, ‘as Count Guy ought to have held it’. Unfortunately this important suit is known only from an abbreviated notice from the lost cartulary of the church of Lescar, de Marca, P., Histoire de Béarn (Paris, 1640), 283–4Google Scholar (the dates attributed by me are approximately those of Bishop Bernard of Lescar; cf. Richard, , Comtes I, 294Google Scholar with a date of c. 1063). Contrast the judicial proceedings for an ecclesiastical dispute over the tenure of a church heard in a council in Bordeaux (c.:079x80), Cartulaire de Saint-Jean d'Angély, ed. Musset, G., Archives Historiques de la Saintonge et de l'Aunis, XXX, XXXIII (1901–1903)Google Scholar, no. 100—on that occasion‘Guido comes Pictavensis’ sat in judgment with a number of clergy.

36 Ed. Fauroux, Ducs de Normandie, nos. 71, 72, 115, 145, 157—all dated c. 1034–1066.

37 The monastic viewpoint was that the count/duke had unjustly deprived the community of lands which had formerly been in the possession of a native Gascon ruler, so their abbot ‘predavit villas’—prompting the count's anger and the subsequent proceedings: ‘Unde rogemus Dominum ut reddat nobis dominium ilium’, Le cartulaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Jean de Sorde, ed. Raymond, P., (Pau, 1873), no. 40. Cf. no. 58Google Scholar for a further complicated dispute in which Guy-Geoffrey's son, Duke William IX, apparently used his ‘ban’ to ensure the return of monastic possessions (?); and for ducal confirmations, nos. 81 (c. 1120),—made when the ruler was on his way to Spain ‘et omnem Xristianitatem exaltare voluisset …’, 6 (c. 1128).

38 Dialogus de Scaccario, ed. Johnson, C., Classics, Medieval (Edinburgh and London, 1950), 120Google Scholar. Such methods might be considered as appropriate for territorial princes as for kings?

39 The early charters of this house have never been adequately published: the details supplied here are taken from Bordeaux, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 769 (1st cartulary of La Sauve-Majeure) pp. 10–14, ed. ‘The Counts of Poitou and the origins of the duchy of Aquitaine’ appendix II nos. 10–15. For the wide-ranging terms of the exemption covered by the sauveté: ‘securi sint, sive milites, sive rustici, sive mercatores; omnesque homines praeter fures publicatos [thus] et qui latrones vocantur…’ [Means of ejecting ‘thieves’ are given …] These regulations throw much light on problems of jurisdiction and law enforcement in the late eleventh century (together with certain similarities to Carolingian grants of immunity).

40 Mansirot (Marestangh, dép. Gironde) was given by two brothers and then confirmed by the duke at the request of the bishop of Pamplona, ‘et quicquid deinceps ab aliquo in terra mea ad ipsam beatae Fidis salvetatem datum fuerit ingenue concedo, done securitatem semper et ingenuitatem per totam terram meam coram principibus patriae rebus omnibus que ad ipsam prenominatam salvetatem pertinent’, Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Conques en Rouergue, ed. Desjardins, G. (Paris, 1879), no. 481–Google Scholarundated; cf. introd. xcvivii—(probably c. 1107X8).

41 Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Lezat, ed. Ourliac, P. and Magnou, A-M., Collection de documents inedits sur l'histoire de France, 2 vols. (1984, 87), II, no. 1343Google Scholar: ‘damus et firmamus iure perpetuo illain plateam et totum ilium locum qui videtur esse ante portam castri Narbonensis … tali convenientia, ut super ipsos qui ab alienis regionibus ad eundem locum causa manendi venerint seu habitaverint ullus princeps vel ullus vicarius seu aliquis ex nostra familia principatum vel dominationem seu justicias non requirant.’ (The editors give references to the sauveté, 212; and cf. introd.) Cf. ibid. no. 1342 for the same ruler's visit to Toulouse ‘ob reformandum … pacem’ (probably in the year 1114). For an exemplary study of a cluster of ‘sauvetés’ found outside the influence of Poitevin political authority, Ourliac, ‘Les sauvetés de Comminges, études et documents sur les villages fondés par les Hospitallers dans la région des côteaux commingeois’ in Études d'histoire du droit médiéval, 31–111.

42 For the reference cf. n. 13 above; see also de Lasteyrie, R., Étude sur les comtes et vicomtes de Limoges anterieurs à l'an 1000, (Paris, 1874), 57–66Google Scholar. and pièces justifs., nos VI (dated 904 rather than 903, however), and VII—grant made to the cathedral of Saint-Etienne de Limoges in May 914 ‘pro remedio anime … Aldeberti vicecomite patri meo necnon et matri mee nomine Adaltrude’.

43 … ‘sciente atque annuente domino meo Guillelmo duce Aquitanorum quia proprium exigit cartam …’ [but the ‘record’ of this survives only in transcripts of the ecclesiastical cartulary],Sancti Stephani Lemovkensis Cartularium, ed. Font-Réaulx, J., Bulletins de la Société archéologique et historique du Limousin, LXVTH–IX (1919–1920), no. lxxxGoogle Scholar; cf. the regulations relating to the protection of the canons' and bishop's possessions, and the agreement of the comes Pictaviensis not to make simoniacal appointments or to alienate the possessions of the see, ibid. no. clxxxi (datable c. 1038–52).

44 Cartulaire de Notre-Dame de Saintes, ed. Grasilier, T., Cartulaires inédits de la Saintonge (Niort, 1871), no. 267Google Scholar (the bishop sat with the prepositus), which I would date c. 1119X22; no. 122—the restoration took place in the court ‘non post multos dies’, which perhaps suggests tenure at fairly regular intervals; a similar reference at no. 266 (c. 1119X34) also shows another layman appearing ‘coram preposito comitis Pictaviensis“ Cf. no. 13 (c. 1066x79?)—an earlier plea (placitum) in which a layman claimed that he had been obliged to endow the convent ‘non sua sponte’ and was ‘commanded’ by Abbess Lethburgis to come to the disputed church, where the claim was settled in the nuns’ favour ‘coram comite Pictavensium Guidone et coram episcopo Xanctonice sedis’.

45 The count of Anguoulême, the viscount of Thouars, Gifard of Didonne and Gumbard de Mornay were named as co-lords. The surviving original charter is a notification by the duke of the decision reached by his curia, Blois, Archives Departementales du Loiret-Cher, 21. H. 173 (no. 2); Le cartulaire saintongeais de l'abbaye de la Trinité de Vendôme, ed. Metais, C., AHSA XXII (1893), no. 55Google Scholar (this, with other documents of the house, was uncritically edited); cf. Debord, A., La société laique dans les pays de la Charente, Xe–XIIe sièles (Paris, 1984), 174, n. 33Google Scholar.

46 In particular, in the year 1068 a complaint was brought against the ducal prepositus, Seniorulus of Saintes, by the monks of Vendôme, heard before Guidonem Aquitanorum ducern and two others and settled apud castrum Surgeriis (i.e. Surgeres, dép. Charente-Maritime); while the undated notice of a dispute between a man called Peter Tronellus and the Abbot of Maillezais was judged by Duke William and the bishop of Poitiers (adiudicavimus), at Fontenay (dép. Vendée), Besly, , Poictou, 464—Google Scholarthe court's decision to award the church to the abbey is recorded in an apparently lost charter drawn up in the bishop's name, with the signa of both bishop and duke (c. 1130X7).

47 Chartes … Saint-Maixent, nos. 150, 163 (an unsuccessful claim against the count himself brought by the abbot of the house); cf. Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Cyprien de Poitiers, ed. Rédet, L., AHP III (1874), no. 322 (a. 1073x86). And cf. below 47–8Google Scholar.

48 Reference to the raising of the complaint by the duke's prepositus, and the duke's own presence, ‘tam ego, quam barones mei in in conspectu meo ventilantes … Hec autem stabilivi et in manu filii mei, abbatisque eiusdem loci Guidonis baronum meorum firmanda tradidi …’ suggests very strongly that this was heard and settled in Poitiers, Recueil des documents rélatifs à l'abbaye de Montierneuf de Poitiers, ed. Villard, F., AHP LJX (1973) nos. 16; 27Google Scholar—the viscount ‘hoc placitum confirmavi in manu comitis et episcopi Pictaven[sis]’. Cf. ibid. nos. 81 for a judgment pronounced by the apostolic legate Giles of Tusculum in Poitiers in the presence of the prepositus of Poitiers; 79 for a controversia and calumpnia between the abbot of this Poitevin burial church and ducal officiarii in the Saintonge, settled in 1129 by the duke's own ‘definition’ at an unknown place.

49 On the modern monument, see Le Roux, H., Poitiers de A à Z, (Poitiers, 1976), 219–22Google Scholar,‘Palais de justice’ for a historical and archeological treatment, Claude, D., Topographie und Verfassung der Stadte Bourges und Poitiers bis in das 11 Jahrhundert (Lübeck/Hambourg, 1960), 99, 126Google Scholar; Favreau, R., ‘Le palais de Poitiers au moyen âge’, Bulletins de la Société des Antiquaires de l'Ouest, 4th ser. XI (1971–1972), 35–65Google Scholar.

50 ‘… quatinus rem in respectum mitteret donee comes veniret ad Talemundum & causam audiret …’, Cartulaires du Bas-Poitou, ed Marchegay, P. (Les Roches-Baritaud, 1877), 93–4Google Scholar (from the original notice now in the Archives Departementales de la Vendée at La Roche-sur-Yon). Signibficantly that claim by the monks to control of the terra Angulorum had been the subject of at least one previous legal process involving a layman who considered that his consent had not been obtained to the original grants, ibid, 91–2. Cf. also below, n. 60 for a very similar case, also relating to Marmoutier's possessions.

51 Above, nn. 6–9. On the significance of the study of rulers' itineraries as a tool for the understanding of their political activity and government, Brühl, C-R., Fodrum, Gistum, Servitium Regis 2 vols. (Cologne, 1968), I, 2–6Google Scholar and throughout; Reuter, T., Germany in the Early Middle Ages (London, 1991), 86–8, 208–12Google Scholar.

52 Garaud, , Institutions judiciaires, 43–5, 77–82Google Scholar (commenting on problems of competence and jurisdiction); cf. Mollat, G., ‘La restitution des églises privées au patrimoine ecclésiastique en France du Die au XIe siècle’, RHDFE, (1949), esp. 411–23Google Scholar. The extent to which in practice ecclesiastical ideas of libertas encroached on these long-established regional patterns will be discussed elsewhere.

53 See two contemporary versions of a dispute between the abbeys of Marmoutier and Saint-Pierre de la Couture which could apparently only be heard after the establishment of Norman control in the county of Maine (1063, but before the conquest of England). The first complaint was made in the city of Le Mans but later transferred to Domfront, where it was eventually concluded both by ‘the aforesaid count and the whole curia’, Fauroux, Ducs de Normandie, no. 159; the relative informality and formlessness of arrangements for ducal settlement of disputes before 1066 is noted by Bates, D., Normandy before 1066 81–2, 160Google Scholar.

54 A dispute between a layman and the canons of Saint-Vincent du Mans was settled in the city before Count Fulk and Bishop Hildebert (undated, c. 1109X24), Chartrou, L'Anjou de 1109 à 1151, catal. no. 64. On the day when he took the cross in the city (24 May 1128), a concardia was arranged by the same count (later confirmed in the city of Tours), ibid. no 87–ed. in full, 367–72. Cf. also no. 131 (15 Aug. 1141)—claim made by the canons of Saint-Julien to revenues and exercise of rights over parts of the city's fortifications; and nos. 138 (9 Aug. 1142); 173 (1146). Angevin political expansion along the Loire can to some extent also be traced through the comital tenure of pleas in places formerly outside Angevin control (e.g. Tours, or the important town and fortified site of Saumur), but that topic cannot be further developed here.

55 Martindale, , ‘Peace and war in early eleventh-century Aquitaine’ map facing 149, 161–3Google Scholar.

56 The greatly increased interest among medieval historians in the interaction between orality and literacy can only be touched on here but, in addition to many suggestive remarks in the papers ed. by Davies and Fouracre, in the context of the present paper, see H. Grundmann, , ‘Litteratus-illiteratus Der Wandel eines Bildungsnorm vom Altertum zum Mittelalter’, Archiv füt Kulturgeschichte, XL (1958), 1–65Google Scholar; Wormald, P., ‘The uses of literacy in Anglo-Saxon England and its neighbours’, ante 5th ser. XXVII (1977), 95–114Google Scholar; Murray, A., Reason and Society in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1978), 292–302Google Scholar; Clanchy, M., From Memory to Written Record, England 1066–1307 (2nd edn, Oxford, 1993)Google Scholar; McKitterick, R., The Carolingians and the Written Word (Cambridge, 1989)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and the studies collected in, id. (ed), The Uses of Literacy in Early Mediaeval Europe (Cambridge, 1990)Google Scholar.

57 A rare surviving notice of adjudication made in the Limousin between two lay parties in the year 898 ‘apud vicum qui vocatur Briva in mallo publico in manu domni Ademari et Gauzfredi vicecomitum’ seems to have turned on the misappropriation of an alod, rather than on any identifiable point of law relating to possession or inheritance, Baluze, E., Historia Tutellensis Libri Tres (Paris, 1717), cols. 348–50Google Scholar. Subsequently, secular custom and law in documentary sources can for the most part only be glimpsed through the impact which those had on the often conflicting claims and rights of ecclesiastical communities—e.g. in the Marmoutier case (n. 50 above), according to which ‘noluit Morinus films Frogerii suus homo devenire [i.e. of a new lord of the castle of Talmont] nisi placitum tenere inter eum & monachis Sancti Martini de elemosina …’ The monks were only interested in their own possession, although land had been granted to the monks which Morinus regarded as encroaching on his inheritance.

58 Chartes … Saint-Maixent, no. 91, from which this compressed account is taken; cf. Cowdrey, , ‘The peace and the truce of God’, 58–9Google Scholar. On Melle, , Garaud, , ‘Les circonscriptions administratives’, 13, 38, 49, 51–3Google Scholar, commenting on the continued co-existence of fortified and unfortified vicariae.

59 Above, nn. 6–7; cf. Debord, , La société laïque dans les pays de la Charente, 94–8, 105–7, 173Google Scholar. A comparison could perhaps be made with English territorial courts with a local ‘catchment area’ and regional officials, but which were nevertheless open to royal intervention, see for pre-Conquest examples, Wormald, P., ‘Disputes in Anglo-Saxon England’ in Davies, and Fouracre, , Disputes, 162–3Google Scholar; andid., ‘Domesday lawsuits: a provisional list’ in England in the Eleventh Century, ed. Hicks, C., Harlaxton Medieval Studies, II (1992), 61–102 (esp. 62, 74–7 and Tables)Google Scholar.

60 ‘… ille [William IX] … abbatem Sancte Crucis ad hoc rectum faciendum, Talamontis coram se venire fecit’. When both parties were assembled ‘ab utrisque partibus causae narratae fuissent’…, Cartuls … du Bas-Poitou, 101–4 (dispute between the monks of Ste-Croix de Talmont and of Marmoutier, c. 1098). Cf. for other instances of the exercise of ducal authority, above, 36–9 below, 47, 51–3); but, because there is almost no uniformity in the form of the documents being analysed and little in their language, it is virtually impossible to discover whether there was uniformity of procedure.

61 Besly, Poictou, 359–61; Cartulaire saintongeais, no. 33. The earlier plea had been held in the castle of Talmont, although no date was given. Cf. another plea relating to the abbey of la Trinite de Vendome (Oct. 1068) which was settled in the monks' favour by the production of their foundation charter guaranteeing them freedom ‘ab omni consuetudine consulari(except in time of war), Besly, , Poictou, 347–8Google Scholar;Cartulaire saintongeais, no. 23.

62 The elaboration of the proceedings involved can be seen from the clamor brought to Duke Guy-Geoffrey's notice by the abbot of Saint-Maixent in 1081, (above n. 47). The defendant was Robert de Bonolio whom the duke's steward (dapifer) judged should prove his case in Poitiers, according to the legem duorum hominum (Saint-Maixent had been dispossessed, according to the abbot). On the appointed day, Robert did not appear: he was summoned before the count for that failure, distrained, and obliged to relinquish the land on oath. From the year 1130 there is a case with a similar outcome: after duel (bellum) was ordered in curia comitis, the layman withdrew on the ‘battlefield’, Chartes … Saint-Maixent, no. 290. The Marmoutier notice (above, nn. 50, 60–1) also suggests that duel would be evaded or avoided wherever possible and, although the precise details are unclear, the dispute was eventually settled by compromise after ‘habuit consilium cum eis’ Cf. Halphen, , ‘La justice en France’ 185–6Google Scholar, for a layman who refused to engage in a duel after ‘judgment’ (judicium) had been pronounced by the bishop of Angers and the count.

63 Chartes … Saint-Maixent, no. 164—the monastic community was required to mark out the boundaries of what was claimed: possibly such a public occasion at the disputed site could have had the ulterior motive of encouraging the parties to reach a compromise. The layman Morinus on the other hand refused to fight a duel, ‘nisi terra percalcaretur1 ’, for reference see previous note.

64 The monks' account rather self-righteously recorded that they were prepared to fight ‘sicut comes et curia sua iudicaverat, vel sicut antiqua carta monstrabat', ibid. The final outcome was not happy for the monks, all the same: at the duke's death in 1086 Ebles once more seized possession of the marsh and, because Guy-Geoffrey's successor was only a boy, they could not obtain justice.

65 This seems to be borne out by the settlement of one of the Marmountier disputes ‘per duelli probationem’ because ‘deberent ostendere quia mariscus de quo tanta fiebat contentio [my italics], in eodem dono sancto Martino ac sancto Iohanni fuerit datus’. That decision was reached by die Duke and his officials; and cf. the example of battle between the ducal prepositus and the monastic community of Nouaillé, above, n. 60; below, n. 86. The situation was probably somewhat different in Gascony, Ourliac, ‘Le duel judiciaire dans le sud-ouest’, in Etudes d'histoire du droit, 253–8. For Van Caenegem's assessment of the situation, ‘Methods of proof in Western Mediaeval Law’, 73; Bongert, , Recherches sur les corns laïques, 228–261Google Scholar, (esp. 232–3);Hyams, P., ‘Trial by ordeal: the key to proof in the early Common Law, in On the Laws and Customs of England, Essays in honour of S. E. Thome, ed. Arnold, M. S., (Chapel Hill, 1981), esp. 112–26Google Scholar; Bartlett, R., Trial by Fire and Water, The Medieval Judicial Ordeal (Oxford, 1986), 103–26Google Scholar.

66 The circumstances surrounding the duel held before Duke-Guy-Geoffrey in Gascony (above, 37) are unknown; but of the eight known disputes north of the Gironde which were ordered to be decided by this method of proof in a comital court, only two were actually so settled (the Marmoutier dispute with Sainte-Croix-de-Talmont, and the 1104 dispute between the duke's own prepositus and the monks of Nouaillé, see previous n. and below n. 86). In suits of this nature, and at this level, the unilateral ordeal does not seem to have been employed; although William ‘the Great’ had offered to send a serf to that ordeal on one occasion, below, 52. In Anjou disputes coming before the count were occasionally ‘proved’ by the unilateral ordeal, however, see Halphen, Comte d'Anjou, catal. no. 235 = Guillot, Comte d'Anjou, II, no. 318 (c. 1068x77); Chartrou L'Anjou de 1109 à 1151, catal. no. 56 (a. 1123). The absence of examples for Normandy derives from Fauroux's catalogue, but for an example of the iudicium ferri caldi to decide a dispute over maternity, LeCacheux, P., ‘Une charte de Jumièges concernant l'epreuve par le fer chaud’, Société de l'Histoire de Normandie, Mélanges, XI (1927), 205–16Google Scholar—set in motion by King William and Queen Mathilda (before c. 1079?).

67 Gluckman, M., ‘The Peace in the feud’ in Custom and Conflict in Africa (Oxford, 1970), 1–26Google Scholar. The duel, however, would not have such wide social ramifications within a community as feud/vendetta. For an open acknowledgement of the deterrent effect of the threat of duel, see an Angevin example mentioning that the parties ‘caventes discrimen pugne, infra terminum fecimus concordiam’, Halphen ‘La justice en France’, 190 n. 6,191.

68 ‘Constituite comites et ministros rei publicae qui … placita teneant … ut … et plus litigantes ad concordiam salva iustitia revocare studeant’—the contrast is with officials who think about the money to be got from doing justice, and who do not attempt to make between disputing litigants, Capitularia Regum Francorum, MGH, Legum sectio II, ed. Boretius, A. and Krause, V. (1883), II, 436 (dated 858)Google Scholar; my thanks to Janet Nelson for drawing my attention to this important passage.L'accord aimable has often in the past been interpreted by historians as a sign of the defecu'veness of ‘judicial institutions’, e.g. by Halphen, ibid., 189.

69 It concerned the revenues of an oven in the city of Poitiers which had led to confrontation between the canons of the chapter of Saint-Hilaire and a comital official called Brictio. As a result of comital negotiation in the year 1136 the canons permitted the official to hold the oven as casamentum, Documents pour l'histoire de Saint-Hilaire de Poitiers, ed. Rédet, L., 2 vols., MSAO, 1st ser XTV-XV (1847, 52), I, no. 117Google Scholar; cf. above, n. 65.

70 The chronicler Adémar writing before the year 1034 reveals ducal or comital involvement in cases involving mutilation, witchcraft, and treachery towards a lord, which also preserve some traces of the survival of blood-feud, de Chabannes, Ademar, Chronique, ed. Chavanon, J., Collection de textes pour servir à l'etude et à l'enseignement de l'histoire, (Paris, 1897) 147, 150, 186, 191–2, 200Google Scholar—all of which will be considered in the study already mentioned.

71 The rights over which Andefredus was allowed to retain jurisdiction were ‘sanguinem et latronem et duellum et omnia alia [note that these are never given a generic description] … prefer exercitum meum et equitacionem et talliatam meam’—Chartrou, L'Anjou, pieces justificatives, no. 42, 374—5 (for the background to, and appearance of, the sworn inquest in Anjou under Count Fulk, ibid, 136–9, 153–7); cf. Bongert, ibid. 263–7 (later examples, however). Further discussion needs to be devoted to the vocabulary used in this charter which deals with legal and fiscal, as well as political, ‘rights’ and obligations.

72 It was terminated by a concordia brought about by the good offices of ‘friends’ of the two parties, although Count William Taillaferrus had first ordered a duel (pugna) to be held to settle the disagreement over the sum owed as acaptamentum, R. Watson, ‘The Counts of Angoulême’, catalogue no. 161 (unpublished charter).

73 Martindale, , ‘Conventum inter Guilktmum comitem et Hugonem Chiliarchum’, English Historical Review, LXXXIV (1969), 528–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Since the present paper was delivered in early 1994, a more extended study of the Conventum has been prepared, ‘onflict and settlement in the Conventum inter Willelmum comitem Aguitanorum et Hugonem Chiliarchum: Postscript to the edition of 1969’, to appear in the Variorum volume cited above, n. 8 (no. VIII).

74 The text contains 18 references to conventum as agreement as opposed to one to convenientia, 544; and 8 to placitum in some form. For noteworthy examples of direct speech, 544, 547; cf. for the general reflection on the count's treatment of Hugh, 546.

75 Ibid, 547–8; 541–2. All these points will be considered at length and with comparative material and bibliography, in the publication already mentioned.

76 Ibid., 545, 546, 548. For Hugh's actions prompted either for amor or amicicia of the count, 542, 546; however, the count's ira is also invoked, 543–4. Cf. the similarity of the language of a clamor brought before the count of Angoulême a century later: ‘Ipse vero comes, valde iratus pro tanta iniuria, vocavit eum ad iudicium …’, Calendar no. 140 (1120/40), Watson, , ‘The Counts of Angoulême’ 330Google Scholar.

77 On the first event, see the passage and comments of Werner, , ‘Kingdom and principality’, 245, 277Google Scholar;Actes de Philippe Ier, roi de France (1059–1108), ed. Prou, M., Ch, et Dipl. (1908), nos. LXXXIII–IV (Poitiers, 9 and 14 Oct. 1076)Google Scholar. For the second occasion, La Chronique de Saint-Maixent, 751–1140, ed. Verdon, J., Les classiques de l'histoire de France au moyen âge, (1979), 178Google Scholar; cf. Fliche, A., Le règne de Philippe ler, roi de France (1060–1108), (Paris, 1912), 272–3, 539Google Scholar.

78 But there can be no doubt that this was intended to be settled by legal proceedings since the king ‘diem inter eos [i.e. the bishop of Clermont and the count of Auvergne], presente duce Aquitanie, agendis Aurelianis, quod hue usque renuerant, statuit …’ The problems connected widi this expedition (1126?) cannot be discussed here, Suger, Vie de Louis VI le Gros, ed. Waquet, H., Classiques … (2nd edn, 1964), 235–40Google Scholar.

79 The household and curial officials of the Poitevin dukes will be discussed elsewhere.

80 The count summoned the parties: ‘certum locum certumque terminum posuerunt … Venit utraque pars ad castellum comitis Balgiacum et se ibi comiti et comitisse presentaverunt; sed quia comes quibusdam suis negotiis tune occupatus erat cause Ule tractande non affuit, sed comitisse vice suum et locum committens ut ipsa cum suis baronibus causam iuxte definiret impetravit … precepit comitissa baronibus suis ut facerent inde iudicium …’;, Chartrou, L'Anjou de 1109 à catal. no. 72—(dated 1109X26, ed. in part only).

81 ‘…donec ad aures dulcissimae domine nostrae Adelae, blesensis comitisse, incliti regis Anglorum Willelmi filiae …’, Marmoutier Cartulaire Blésois, ed. Métais, Ch., (Blois/Chartres, 1891), no. cxviii, a. 1104Google Scholar. Further examples of Adela's intervention in dispute process could be cited.

82 The authority attributed to Duke William IX's wife as claimant to the county of Toulouse needs further investigation, however; and I hope to return to this topic in a more general fashion. Cf. Chibnall, M., The Empress Matilda (Oxford, 1991), 33–4Google Scholar(for Italian examples); and for the contrast with the position of queen-consort as intercessor for parties drawn into disputes, 23–4.

83 This elaborate series of complaints was concluded after the count offered: ‘Relinque mini omnes querelas de retro quas requirebas, et iura mihi fidelitatem et filio meo …’, Conventum, 548; cf. Lewis, A., ‘Anticipatory association of the heir in early Capetian France’, American Historical Review, LXXXIII, (1968), 906–27Google Scholar.

84 The monks of Tours renounced any further claim ordine judiciario, Recueil des actes de Henri II concemant Us pronvinces françaises et les affaires de France, ed. Delisle, L. and Berger, E., Ch. et dipl., 3 vols. (1909–1927), I, no. iv, 8–10Google Scholar; cf. Chartrou, L'Anjou, catal. no. 152. A prince like the count of Anjou also wished to ensure that his son and prospective successor should understand his duty to protect churches founded by their ancestors, Chibnall, ibid, 145.

85 The Medieval French Roman d'Alexandre, ed. E. Armstrong, III, Version of Alexandre de Paris, Variants and Notes to Branch I, ed. Foulet, A. (Princeton, 1949), 41 (11. 98–9)Google Scholar; and cf. the absence of such a precise reference in the Alexandre Décasyllabique, ibid. 106 (11. 212–16 of MS.L); 163 (11. 341–8 of the G text of Branch I). Note also the different implications of ‘De jugement surmonter jugeors/Bastir agait por prendre robeors’ I, 4–5 (Arsenal MS, 11. 56–7).I should like to thank Dr. Ruth Harvey for her help in this matter.

86 Chartes … Nouaillé, no. 187; (cf. no. 180—which is a plea relating to the same land held between the years c. 1086—1091 before ‘Willelmum ducem Aquitanorum et Petrum episcopum et obtimates’). This seems to me to be a plausible explanation of the child's presence, although the motive for recording this may have been that die monks of Nouaillé hoped to impress on the child's mind the victory gained by their contestant. This was in any case a radier more down-to-earth form of education than the letter preserved for the future king Henry II, or even the fictional Alexander's tutorials.