The subject of this study is Henry II’s monastic patronage in England 1154-1189. Past studies have examined aspects of Henry II’s patronage but an in-depth survey of Henry’s support of the religious houses throughout his realm has never been completed. This study was therefore undertaken to address modern notions that Henry’s monastic patronage lacked obvious patterns and medieval notions that the motivations behind his patronage were vague. The thesis seeks to illustrate that Henry’s motivations for patronage may not have been driven by piety but rather influenced by a sense of duty and tradition. This hypothesis is supported by examining and analyzing both the chronology and nature of Henry’s patronage. This thesis has integrated three important sources to assess Henry’s patronage: chronicles, charters, and Pipe Rolls. The charters and Pipe Rolls have been organized into two fully searchable databases. The charters form the core of the data and allow for analysis of the recipients of the king’s patronage as well as the extent of his favour. The Pipe Rolls provide extensive evidence of many neglected aspects of Henry’s patronage, enhancing, and sometimes surpassing, the charter data. The sources have allowed an examination of Henry’s patronage through gifts of land and money rents, privileges, pardons and non-payment of debt, confirmations and intervention in disputes. The value, geography and chronology of this patronage is discussed throughout the thesis as well as the different religious orders that benefited and the influences Henry’s predecessors and family had upon the king. Quantitative analysis has been included where possible. Henry II was a steady patron throughout his reign and remained cautious with his favour. He maintained many of the benefactions of his predecessors but was not an enthusiastic founder of new monasteries in England. There is no sign that neither the killing of Thomas Becket, nor the approach of Henry’s own death, had a marked effect on his patronage.

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the main theme of Heptameron, by Marguerite de Navarre, is not love, as numerous critics maintain, but the notion of honour. This notion is the real unifying principle that indisputably confers its penetrating unity to the book. / If the kind of dialogue favoured by the Queen creates a polyphony which, at first, may seem destabilizing and hinder the coherence of the book, after reading it carefully, however, one notices that a certain number of guidelines relating to the notion of honour permeate the book. By identifying systems and ensembles, one discovers different sets of correlations--in connection with the notion of honour, that are connected by intelligible links and form homogeneous units that are completely meaningful. This reveals that, behind the obvious conservatism of the characters and members of the storyteller circle of Heptameron, the bivalence of the honour code, in the relationships between men and women, is challenged, even criticized.

The main objective of this thesis is to offer an understanding of the nature and political importance of English royal councils in the reign of Henry II (1154 -- 1188), a subject that has never attracted historical attention before. While the analysis of particularly controversial meetings has been incorporated in several studies, the common features of councils have never been made a subject of historical enquiry. The present study has relied on the evidence provided in contemporary sources, such as the numerous chronicle and a large body of royal charters, treatises, and official documents which have been preserved for this period. It has also studied a number of political, legal, administrative and "seal treatises, all of which provide useful insights into the mentalities of the time and the Institutional makeup and governance of England under Henry II. The first chapter is a chronological narrative which aims to introduce the reader into the subject and to associate group of councils with the different phases in Henry's reign. Then the terminology employed in the sources to identify and describe these meetings is analysed so to understand how were these assemblies perceived in the political community. The third chapter deals with the circumstantial aspects of councils by offering a study of the places and buildings where assemblies take place, as well as the calendar and the frequency they followed. The following two chapters discuss the evidence for and the process of conciliar consultation, and the matters discussed at royal councils In this period. The following chapter studies the attendance and the social aspects of these meetings. The last chapter Is an essay which evaluates the place occupied by these councils within the early history of parliament. The central conclusion which brings together all these chapters is that the unprecedented frequency with which Henry II summoned great assemblies meant that most important decisions made during his reign are connected with conciliar activity and, therefore, assented by the nobles of the realm, and that gathering councils consequently became a very useful Instrument of royal governance and a most public occasion for baronial politics in this period.

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During the latter half of the 11th century through to the end of the 13th century, Europe was experiencing what is considered by some historians as “the” medieval renaissance, otherwise referred to as the European Renaissance of the Twelfth Century. The time appears to have been ripe for an explosion of cultural and intellectual advancement and change. Two fields that experienced significant development during that period were law and governance, both secular and ecclesiastical. In England, the period which most legal historians consider to be the key formative years of the common law was the reign of King Henry II. Indeed, Sir William Holdsworth credits Henry II for “substituting one common law for that confused mass of local customs of which the law of England had formerly consisted”. But as R.H. Helmholz said, “legal history, like any other, is a history of winners, and the history of the losing side is often overlooked. That we only hint of the history of the canon law by reference to the common law is a fact of life and not to be lamented”. However, he admonishes us not to ignore the intrinsic importance of the jurisdiction once exercised by the courts of the Church in the development of the law of England. I take up Helmholz’ challenge in this thesis and examine the relationship that developed between the English royal authorities and the Latin (Western) Christian Church from the beginning of the reign of Edward the Confessor to the end of the reign of King John. Through a review of cases reported by the Selden Society from the royal courts of Henry II, Richard I and John, I then focus my research on the 62 year period between the beginning of the reign of Henry II and the death of John, and consider the influence of the Church and State relationship on the structure and processes of the developing English royal law and its scope. / Graduate

This dissertation analyzes the use of speech (prise de parole ) in Marguerite de Navarre's works of fiction in conjunction with the place that the arguments of the Quarrel about Women hold in her writings. / The texts of the Quarrel about Women, which were very popular in sixteenth century France, tried to prove the superiority or the inferiority of women depending on which side of the debate the writer belonged to. The works of Marguerite de Navarre incorporate numerous arguments of this literary debate to deconstruct them and establish a certain balance between the qualities and the defaults of men and women. Contrary to the writers of the Quarrel who were using as examples women from the Bible or the Antiquity, the Queen of Navarre's works portray mainly characters from daily life in situations that illustrate the way the two sexes use speech differently. / Thus, in the religious poems, women communicate more quickly with the divine because they listen more to their heart which is the receptacle of God. Indeed, the only obstacle that stands between them and mystical union resides in a too strong attachment to a human being, whereas men encounter more hindrances linked, among others, to ambition, science and lust. As for profane poems, they highlight the value of feminine friendship by presenting a free and equal verbal exchange, among women only, based on mutual aid. In the Heptameron, men, in the novellas, hold a greater power than women and it is mirrored in the efficiency of their prise de parole, while there is a certain equality, in the cornice, between the devisants of both sexes. Finally, in the theater, women as well as men deliver God's Word. / Speech which constitutes the most important meeting ground for men and women, in Marguerite's writings, demonstrates how the main criticism directed at women by the detractors of the Quarrel, their unstoppable and slanderous chattering, as well as many other faults are rejected by using examples of women that speak wisely. This makes Marguerite de Navarre's writings modern, because while they deconstruct the binary opposition of man versus woman, with everyday life examples, they do not propose to establish a new hierarchy and thus they are open to plurality.

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François de Lorraine, duc de Guise, fut l’un des principaux acteurs politiques du royaume de France de 1547 à sa mort en 1563. Célèbre, il n’a pourtant pas fait l’objet d’une étude historique approfondie alors que les matériaux sont nombreux pour retracer son parcours. Plus qu’une biographie traditionnelle, le doctorat a eu pour visée d’articuler la problématique de l’identité aristocratique et la question de l’engagement d’un homme qui se pensait entre Dieu et le Roi. Prince de la Renaissance, François de Lorraine construisit son rôle en se fondant d’une part sur l’intégration d’un riche capital identitaire en grande partie constitué de la geste de son lignage lorrain, et d’autre part sur la force qu’il tirait de la maison de Guise, en particulier grâce à l’association étroite de son frère Charles, cardinal de Lorraine. Le duc poursuivit sa quête de salut divin et de reconnaissance sociale dans deux contextes très différents qui déterminèrent des oscillations dans son jeu d’acteur. Le premier est celui du règne d’Henri II (1547-1559), durant lequel il s’imagina être le bras armé du Roi Très-Chrétien en vue d’établir une monarchie universelle. Le second (1559-1563) fut marqué par la crise profonde et multiforme du royaume de France : le duc aspira à être alors le défenseur des catholiques face au calvinisme qu’il associa à une hérésie et contre lequel il assuma d’être tel un nouvel envoyé de Dieu aux côtés des jeunes rois François II puis Charles IX. / François de Lorraine, duc de Guise, was one of France’s most influential politicians from 1547 to 1563, at the time of his death. Although a potent figure, he hasn’t been the subject of any serious historical study. Yet, historical sources are numerous. This thesis is much more than a traditional biography : it aims at questioning the identity of De Guise as an aristocrat and his commitment as a man who figured himself as standing between God and his king.Prince of the Renaissance, François de Lorraine built up his influence by relying on both his heritage and identity as a member of the Lorraine family and his power derived from the de Guise family and his close association with his brother Charles, the Bishop of Lorraine. The duke undertook his quest for divine salvation and political recognition in two different historical contexts which determined and influenced his actions. First, under the reign of Henry II (1547-1559), he acted as the Christian king’s executioner with the view to establishing a universal monarchy.Then, between 1559 and 1563, when the kingdom of France suffered from crises which were deep and manifold, the duke posed as the protector of the Catholics against Calvinism which he considered as heresy. He resisted it by assuming the role of a protector sent by God to assist the two young kings, François II and Charles IX.

The purpose of the study is to analyse and to compare the reign of two rulers of Francia Orientalis - Henry II and Henry III. The reason for the author's research is that the conception of the legitimization of kingship is nowadays a highly discussed issue and it is one of the most significant tasks the medieval research is facing. Methods used in this study are analysis and comparison. The study is composed of six chapters, each of them dealing with different aspect of the legitimization of kingship. Chapter One is introductory and defines basic terminology used in the study. Chapter Two examines relevant specialized discursus. Chapter Three deals with the sources of medieval thinking and consists of three parts. Part One explains the terms of sacrality and legitimacy. Part Two focuses on the roots of sacral kingship. Part Three investigates the history of legitimization of kingship in the Frankish Empire. Chapter Four is subdivided into four parts and it mainly provides an outline of Henry's II reign and examines relevant historical sources. Part One discusses the policy of Henry's predecessor Otto III. Part Two is an analysis of relevant historical sources. Part Three examines Henry's policy. Intermediate conclusions are drawn in Part Four. Chapter Five endeavours to explain and analyse the...