1 - Legal Imagination in a Christian World

Summary

The consolidation of French kingship in the 13th century was accomplished by a group of jurists – the legists – trained in the Civil Law and ready to imagine their ruler as princeps after the Roman model. No longer simply a feudal suzerain, Philip the Fair would assert his legal authority against provincial lords, against the head of the Roman Church (Boniface VIII), and against whoever would possess the imperial throne. Although described as legibus solutus by his legal counsel, Philip remained dependent on the material resources possessed by his most powerful vassals, by the church orders and by his bankers, all of whom were learning to invoke their dominium proprietatis against the dominium iurisdictionis of their king.