2026/05/14 by Erika Graham-Goering · 1 voice
paper · doi:10.4324/9780415791182-rmeo536-1
Duchies were the highest-ranking level of aristocratic government in medieval France. The later Middle Ages have been called an ‘age of principalities’ when duchies, counties, and other large lordships played a distinctive role in French politics. The French kingdom is best understood as a political patchwork, where three kinds of political unit explain the importance of duchies. These were the royal domain, governed directly by the king and his administration; lordships held in fief from the king; and apanages, pieces of the domain given to members of the royal family. Duchies could be either of these last two types and could both contribute constructively as peerages of the realm and act as autonomous, even antagonistic powers. The archetypical duchies were Brittany in the northwest, held as a fief, and Burgundy in the northeast, granted as an apanage. An outline of their development from the tenth to the sixteenth century shows how dukes in both regions alternately depended on and resisted royal authority. These and other French principalities used sophisticated methods to exploit their financial and material resources, implement their jurisdiction and administration, and organise their households, courts, and wider assemblies. With the decline of the great principalities in the early modern period, many of these important functions had to be taken over by the Crown. Finally, while the lordship exercised by medieval men and women did not fundamentally differ, the role of duchesses is a significant aspect of political history. As wives, their high birth, familial connections, and training in the relevant skills of rulership made them essential partners in a successful duchy. When women inherited duchies in their own right, their rule often had major political consequences.