Government and inquests from Philip Augustus to the last

Capetians

When studying the central Middle Ages, it is hard to miss

the importance of the inquisitorial procedure, for the inquest

was everywhere in the West and touched every field of medieval

administration, whether judicial, political, economic or

administrative1. Aiming to find or to establish the truth by

examining testimonies, inquests were used by the Inquisition –

of course – but also, on a greater scale, by central

authorities – both laic and ecclesiastical – and locally, by

lords. Whether it was to unmask a heretic, to try a case or to

estimate the income of a land by the confession of its own

tenants2, the process was always the same: gathering the

information from the very mouth of the subject, the sworn

witness, “veritatis adiutor3”. Inquests were related to the

affirmation of seigneurial domination and to the construction

of royal subjection, shaped in turn by constraint and consent.

If one defines medieval government as “l’ensemble des techniques, des

1 I would like to thank Damien Kempf for helping me writing this article inEnglish.2 On this theme, Joseph Morsel, “Quand faire dire c’est dire. Le seigneur,le village et le Weistum en Franconie du XIIIe au XVe siècle”, in Information etsociété en Occident à la fin du Moyen Age: actes du colloque international tenu à l’Université duQuébec à Montréal et à l’Université d’Ottawa (9-11 mai 2002), Claire Boudreau, KoukyFianu, Claude Gauvard and Michel Hébert, eds. (Paris, 2004), 309-326 orLaure Verdon, “Le territoire avoué. Usages et implications de l’enquêtedans la définition et la délimitation du territoire seigneurial enCatalogne et en Provence au XIIIe s.”, in Les territoires du médiéviste, BenoitCursente, Mireille Mousnier, eds. (Rennes, 2005), 207-221 and “ Aveu etlégitimation du pouvoir seigneurial. L’exemple des capbreus du roi deMajorque (1292-94), in Quête de soi, quête de vérité, Laurent Faggion and LaureVerdon, eds. (Aix-en-Provence, 2007), 161-172.3 Yves Mausen, Veritatis adiutor: la procédure du témoignage dans le droit savant et la pratiquefrançaise, (Milan, 2006).

1

pratiques et des représentations qui mettent en acte la souveraineté d’un prince4”,

then leading an inquest is ruling5.

The Capetian kings seemed to have used the inquest as an

instrument of government as their feudal realm turned

progressively into a modern state. Inquests were frequently

organized during Carolingian times by missi dominici to restore

order and justice on a large scale and, on a smaller one, by

royal agents to write polyptychs6. But afterwards, the procedure

is said to have disappeared in France before its ‘re-discovery’

at the very end of the 12th century, while the tradition was

still alive on the other side of the Channel – in particular

through the famous Domesday Book7. Before B. Lemesle’s works8, it

was commonly accepted that between the end of the 11th century

and the end of 12th century, the inquisitio only survived in the

Anglo-Norman world and in Anjou9. By discovering new textual

evidence, this author has recently moved forward this dating:

4 Étienne Anheim, “Le savoir et le gouvernement. À propos du livre deSamantha Kelly, The New Solomon. Robert of Naples (1309-1343) and Fourteenth-CenturyKingship, Brill, Leiden-Boston, 2003 ”, Médiévales, no 53 (2007): 165-174, 166.5 Quand gouverner c’est enquêter. Les pratiques politiques de l’enquête princière (Occident, XIII e-XVe

s.), ed. Thierry Pécout, (Paris, 2010).6 On the missi dominici, Karl Werner, “Missus-Marchio-Comes, entrel’administration centrale et l’administration locale de l’Empirecarolingien”, in Histoire comparée de l’administration, IVe-XVIIIe s., Werner Paravicini,Karl Ferdinand Werner, eds. (Zurich, 1980), 191-239 and François Bougard,La justice dans le royaume d’Italie de la fin du VIIIe siècle au début du XIe siècle (Rome, 1995),esp. 177-178.7 On the Domesday Book between many, cf. David Roffe, Domesday: the inquest and thebook (Oxford, 2000) and Decoding Domesday (New York, 2007) ; Vivian HunterGalbraith, Domesday Book : its place in administrative history (Oxford, 1974) ; PeterSawyer, Domesday Book : a reassessment (London, 1987). 8 Bruno Lemesle, “L’enquête contre les épreuves. Les enquêtes dans la régionangevine (XIIe-début XIIIe siècle)”, in L’enquête au Moyen Age, ed. C. Gauvard(Rome, 2008), 185-210.9 Robert Besnier, “Inquisitiones et Recognitiones, le nouveau système des preuves àl'époque des coutumiers normands”, Revue de droit français et étranger, no 28(1950): 183-212.

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he observes in Anjou a permanence of the Carolingian inquisitio as

soon as the 10th and 11th centuries10. According to him, the

generalization of the inquisitorial procedure at the end of the

12th century is not “la redécouverte d’une procédure ancienne qui serait

tombée en désuétude, puisque la documentation atteste qu’elle ne l’était pas11”. He

also fights against the common doxa assuming that the inquests

held in the Plantagenet lands influenced Angevine ones12.

Following Lemesle’s conclusions, is it possible to assume

that in the Capetian justice too, inquests continued to be held

despite a cruel documentary gap? The reminiscence of

Carolingian features in the inquests ordered by Philip Augustus

can let us to think so13, but in the absence of documentation,

it feels more appropriate to follow J. Baldwin who states that

“though Louis VII may have made occasionally use of it and

Philip availed himself of the device during the first decade,

it did not become a standard feature of French royal justice

until 119014”. As “Normandy’s most important influence was to

stimulate and reinforce comparable institutions, which had

already been framed in the 1190s15”, other influences are to be

found as a “contamination progressive mais somme toute rapide des enquêtes

de pays par la procédure d’origine canonique16.” The etiologic quarrel

10 Lemesle, “L’enquête ”, 44. He shows however that the documentation isstill very scarce until 1110.11 Ibid., 50.12 For instance, he contradicts Robert Besnier (Besnier, “Inquisitiones”).13 Marguerite Boulet-Sautel, “Aperçus sur le système des preuves dans laFrance coutumière du Moyen Âge”, Recueil de la Société Jean Bodin, no 17 (1965): 278-325.14 John Baldwin, The Government of Philip Augustus (London, 1986), 142.15 Ibid., 258.16 B. Lemesle draws the attention on the papal legates’ role, whose presencecan be tracked during trials in Anjou at the beginning of the XIIth

century (Lemesle,“L’enquête”, 55).3

regarding possible influences should not retain us: “l’idée même

de modèle cache à l’historien le besoin de création institutionnelle que peut avoir un

ensemble politique à un moment donné, son mode de croissance, son degré de

maturité administrative et politique17”. It is likely that the Capetians

did not rediscover the inquest at the end of the 12th century but

beforehand preferred other forms of conflict resolution such as

ordeals. The inquest became a common instrument of government

according to the need of the Crown, first involved in a process

of territorial expansion and then of state development, and

according to the possibility for reinforced administrations to

order these procedures ex officio18.

This paper will focus on this major political sequence,

leaving largely aside domanial surveys. After describing the

progressive diffusion of the inquisitio and its principal

mutations, we will concentrate our analyses on the men who

carried these investigations: the enquêteurs.

1- Louis IX’s predecessors

The story of the Capetian inquest is vitiated by

teleology. Everything is supposed to start with Philip Augustus

– the great administrator – driven by “the mentality of taking

stock19” whereas Louis IX – the holy king – is supposed to be

moved by a Christian spirit of charity when he ordered the

17 C. Gauvard, “Introduction”, in Pécout, Quand gouverner, 14.18 On the development of the procedure ex officio, cf. MAUSEN, Veritatis adjutor, 7and Julien Théry, “Fama : l’opinion publique comme preuve judiciaire.Aperçu sur la révolution médiévale de l’inquisitoire XIIe-XIVe siècles”, inLa preuve en justice de l’Antiquité à nos jours, ed. B. Lemesle (Rennes, 2003), 119-147.19 Baldwin, The Government, 248.

4

famous inquests of 1247-4820. After his death and close to the

dark legend of the Rois Maudits, the last Capetians are said on

the contrary to divert the pious goal of the inquest to control

their administration and to perceive taxes21. Among the

Capetian kings, Louis IX would have been the only one using the

inquest for the sake of justice. In the light of recent studies

on the inquest, this simplistic narrative must be rewritten

from the beginning22.

a- Philip Augustus: “the mentality of taking stock”?

Most of the inquests kept during Philip Augustus’s reign

have been transmitted thanks to his registers, published by J.

Baldwin in 199223. Despite their edition and their great

interest, historians have not fully and adequately assessed

these historical documents.

The growing interest brought to inquests by the royal

chancery is evidenced by the compilation of each register.

Philip Augustus used successively three cartularies: register A

– used from 1204 to 1211– register C – from 1211 to 1220 – and

20 Marie Dejoux, “Gouverner par l’enquête au XIIIe siècle. Les restitutions de Louis IX (1247-1270)” (PhD diss., Paris I University, 2012). The documentary corpus wasestablished by Leopold Delisle in Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France(RHGF), “Les enquêtes administratives du règne de Saint Louis et lachronique de l'anonyme de Béthune”, (Paris, 1904).21 The idea of a corruption of royal inquests is initiated by Delisle in thepreface of RHGF, t. XXIV, developed by Langlois in “Doléances recueilliespar les enquêteurs de Saint Louis et des derniers capétiens”, Revue historique,no 92 (1906) : 1-41 and no 100 (1909): 63-95, and finally taken up by JeanGlénisson in “Les enquêteurs-réformateurs de 1270 à 1328 ”, (PhD diss., École desChartes, 1946).22 Two international conferences devoted to this subject gave way to tworeference works L’enquête au Moyen Age and Quand gouverner c’est enquêter.23 John Baldwin, Les registres de Philippe Auguste (Paris, 1992).

5

register E, still used by Louis VIII and designed by Guérin,

archbishop of Senlis, who was, we shall see, one of the most

active enquêteur of Philip Augustus and his chancellor. J.

Baldwin notices that only a dozen of inquests were recorded in

the primitive version of register A, before adding another nine

inquests. This increase did not go unnoticed by the writer of

register C who decided to create a new section in his register

titled “Inquisitiones facte24 ”. Despite this new organization, many

other inquests were recorded on blank pages, pushing Guerin to

gather them again in a same chapter. He also added all the

inquests held since 1220 so that “by the end of the reign the

chapter on Inquisitiones in Register E, included at least ninety-

nine inquests25”.

M. Nortier describes these books as “administrative

registers26” rather than chancery ones, for the enrolment of

royal acts became systematic only in the 14th century. The

expression of “cartulaire-registre”, forged recently by G. Chenard

and J.-F. Moufflet, also fits very well with their nature,

their function and their material form27. Because they

permitted to draw an inventory of domanial rights, inquests

became more and more appealing to the royal Chancery. Half of

them deal with forest “customs” and the other half deal, in

order, with feudal affairs, justice, clergy and regalia,

24 Baldwin, The Government, 249.25 Ibid.26 Michel Nortier, “Les actes de Philippe Auguste: notes critiques sur lessources diplomatiques du règne” in La France de Philippe Auguste : le temps desmutations, ed. Robert-Henri Bautier (Paris, 1982), 429-455, 435.27Gael Chenard, Jean-François Moufflet, “La pratique des registres dans leschancelleries de saint Louis et Alphonse de Poitiers: regards croisés”(paper presented on Mai 12, 2009 during the journée d’étude “L’art duregistre à la chancellerie du roi de France (XIIIe-XIVe s.)”. 

6

domanial revenues and gîte, tolls and administrative districts28.

For M. Nortier, the inquests ordered by Philip Augustus “forment

en quelque sorte le ‘coutumier’ de France à l’aube du XIIIe siècle29 ” and for J.

Baldwin, they embody the same “mentality of taking stock” as

the contemporary royal inventories 30.

However, we need to differentiate between the documentary

logic that led the inquests’ inclusion in royal cartularies –

motivated by a will of inventory – and the practical one that

prevailed when the king decided them: the intention may have

been different. For instance, when the king wanted all uses and

users to be listed in the forest of Loges, he did so with a

“mentality of taking stock”, close to any kind of land

survey31. But when the king contested the vidame of Châlons-sur-

Marne’s right to the regalia of the bishopric, the inquest he

ordered was no longer domanial but contentious: it aimed at

deciding between two contending parties and at solving a

conflict32. Moreover, in this precise case, the king was not

even the true instigator of the procedure as he answered the

vidame’s request for a judgment by inquest. That the royal

scribes perceived a posteriori this second investigation as a

source of domanial information must not delude the historian on

the real use of the inquest by the king. It is hence crucial to

separate judiciary inquests from domanial surveys.

The very shortened form under which these inquests have

sometimes reached us complicates matters. First, depending

28 Ibid., 25029 Nortier, “Les actes”, 449.30 Baldwin, The Government, 319-332.31 Inquest realized in 1202 (BALDWIN, Registres, no 3, 38-47). 32 Ibid., no 4, 47-48.

7

whether the procedure was “Norman” or canonical, we have more

or fewer details on the way the investigations were carried

out. In the Norman type, “the judge selected the jurors from

the vicinity and they arrived at their verdict collectively.

Since the jurors’ proceedings were mainly oral, only their

final opinion was recorded in writing33.” In the canonical

type, each contending party chose its jurors who were forced to

answer specific questions: their answers were necessarily

recorded, often separately. Furthermore, it is sometimes

difficult to determine whether litigation caused the inquest:

anxious to extract information, royal scribes did not care to

reproduce the procedure and selected only a few elements. We

have in most cases a title, more or less explicit, and more

rarely a preamble. Despite the difficulty of the task, we have

tried to separate judiciary inquests – dealing clearly with a

conflict – and domanial surveys, whose purpose was to register

uses, rights or incomes on a large scale and without any traces

of contending parties. However, in several instances, it was

impossible to differentiate between the two procedures.

33Baldwin, The Government, 142. On Norman juries cf. Ralph Turner, “The originof medieval English jury : Frankish, English or Scandinavian?”, Journal ofBritish Studies, no 7/2 (1968): 1-10 et Robert Helmerichs, “Norman Institutionsor Norman legal practices? Geoffrey le Bel and the development of the juryof recognition”, Haskins Society Journal, no 10 (2001), 83-94.

8

Type of inquests NumberJudiciary inquests 46Domanial surveys 32Undetermined 19Others34 3Total 100

Nature of the inquests registered in Philip Augustus’s

registers

The distinction is coarse but meaningful: half of the

inquests registered in Philip’s registers belong to judicial

practice. Only a third of them embody a “mentality of taking

stock”, close to sources described later on as prisées or états35,

as for instance in 1204, when Philip exchanged with Bérengère,

Richard’s dowager queen, three castles against the city of Le

Mans. In a spirit of fairness, the queen must earn the same

income she perceived from the three fortresses before: the

French king therefore asked his inhabitants to declare the

extent and the value of these incomes36. This single example

illustrates the infra-judiciary part that even informative

surveys can conceal: if this inquest does not sort a judiciary

case, it surely prevents it. This porous frontier forced J.

Glénisson to admit, when writing his seminal paper on the

“enquête administrative”, that he was not “tout à fait sûr de l’existence de

34They are acts of a different nature and yet inserted among the inquests.35Cf. for instance Gui Fourquin, Le domaine royal en Gâtinais d’après la prisée de 1332(Paris, 1963) or the état du domaine in the bailliage of Rouen made by Juliende Péronne in 1261: Joseph Strayer, The royal domain in the bailliage of Rouen(Princeton, 1936). 36Baldwin, Registres, no 10, no 11, no 12, 54-55.

9

l’enquête administrative (à cause de la difficulté) à dresser une frontière entre

l’aspect judiciaire et les modalités administratives de l’action du Prince37”. De

facto, in the ancient right, the king is above all the upholder

of the law38: at that time, most of the investigations

participated in the construction of royal justice.

If royal registers show evidence of a “mentality of taking

stock”, Philip II was therefore not driven by a “fureur

d’inventaire39” when ordering his inquests. He used the

inquisitorial procedure as much as an administrator as an

upholder of the law, either as a referee – when he was asked to

sort a conflict between two contending parties – or at the

request of one of his opponents, or even on his own volition.

Sometimes, the king had to fight against competing powers to

impose the investigation: anxious to know the extent of his

possessions in the town and duchy of Laon, the king was forced

to send Guérin to sway the bishop, who was strongly opposed to

the investigation40. Philip Augustus can be regarded as the

first promoter of the inquisitio as evidenced by the number of

decisions using this procedure in the Curia Regis: four from 1179

to 1190, seven from 1191 to 1203, nineteen from 1204 to 1214

and sixteen from 1215 to 1223. The inquest clearly progressed

37Jean Glénisson, “Les enquêtes administratives en Europe occidentale auxXIIIe et XIVe s.”, in Histoire comparée de l’administration, 17-25, 17. This seminalpaper has legitimized an unthought-of heritage of the Methodical School.The category of the “enquête administrative” is however neither based on adocumentary reality nor settled on medieval law. For a total questioning ofthis notion, cf. Dejoux, “Gouverner par l’enquête”, 544-549.38Grégoire Bigot, Introduction historique au droit administratif depuis 1789 (Paris, 2002),esp. 19-2; Sylvain Soleil, “Administration, justice, justice administrativeavant 1789. Retour sur trente ans de recherches”, in Regards sur l’histoire de lajustice administrative (Paris, 2006), 3-30. 39 Glénisson, “Les enquêtes administratives”, 23.40 Baldwin, Registres, no 95, 154-155.

10

in conflict resolution from thirteen to twenty-four percent41.

Nevertheless, this increase could certainly be related to the

growing interest of the chancery for this type of documents and

a vast majority of decisions were still taken without recourse

to it42.

b- Louis VIII, “novateur ou roi de transition43” ? 

Because of his brevity, we will not linger on Louis VIII’s

reign: the fact that two powerful counsellors of his father –

Barthélémy de Roye and Guérin – were still in office at the

head of the Curia Regis raises questions about the independence

of his policy: the inquests continued to be copied in register

E, which argues for continuity. Their edition by J. Baldwin has

greatly enriched the modest list established in 1896 by C.

Petit-Dutaillis44. Their number is surprising given the

shortness of the reign: nearly twenty surveys have been

recorded; that is seven a year, against four for Philip

Augustus45. It confirms the increasing interests of the

chancery for these documents and of the king for this way of

resolving disputes. Petit-Dutaillis mistakenly described them

as “enquêtes administratives46”, that is, devoted only to land

41 Baldwin, The Government, 41. 42 Ibid. C. Gauvard demonstrated that, even at the end of the middle Ages,inquests are often unnecessary to help the king deciding (C. Gauvard, “ Dela requête à l’enquête : réponse rhétorique ou réalité politique ? Le casdu royaume de France à la fin du Moyen Âge ”, in L’enquête au Moyen Âge, 429-458).43 Gérard Sivéry, Louis VIII, le Lion (Paris, 1995).44 Charles Petit-Dutaillis, Études sur la vie et le règne de Louis VIII (1187-1226) (Paris,1894).45 Ninety-nine inquests in twenty-five years for Philip Augustus.46 Petit-Dutaillis, Études, 371.

11

management. But according to our survey, Louis VIII, like his

father, ordered as many judiciary inquests as domanial

surveys47. Fewer investigations as extensive as those being

carried out by Philip Augustus are to be noticed but a new

interest for his administration appears: around 1225, the

inquest on the bailli Jean du Rouvray established the results of

his action in an unprecedented way48. This document and the

desire to preserve it are singular and surely linked to the

former reorganization of territorial administration in 1190,

with the creation of baillis.

c- Geographical scale of the inquests

A simple map confirms J. Baldwin’s observation: “although

the initial incentive for compiling the registers was

undoubtedly the conquests following 1204, overwhelming

attention (82 percent of the inquests) was directed to lands

acquired before that date49” (map 1). The interest is focused

on Artois, Vermandois and on the old domain of Paris, and “even

among the Norman lands themselves, more inquests treated the

smaller gains before 1204 than the vast post-1204 lands50”: the

purpose is clearly not to inventory newly conquered lands.

Moreover, the geographical repartition may be influenced by the

chancery’s interest in forest matters (fifty percent of the

inquests registered). The area covered by the investigations

47 There are six judiciary inquests, seven domanial surveys, et sixundetermined. 48 Baldwin, Registers, no 112, 171-172.49 Baldwin, The Government, 250.50 Ibid.

12

ordered by Louis VIII is almost the same, though slightly

extended.

With respect to our topic, the real shift occurs under

Louis IX: inquests started being applied to the whole of the

kingdom; they became compulsory in the judicial system of

evidence and a new ideal of government was conveyed by the

investigations: the réparation of misbehaviours and of ill-gotten

gains.

2- Louis IX’s practice of inquests: a shift

Compared to Philip Augustus and to Louis VIII’s reigns,

textual evidence of Louis IX’s inquisitorial practice are

multiple and innovation does not come from royal registers

anymore: his chancery simply copied in his cartularies the

inquests ordered by his predecessors. The numerous documents

published by Delisle in 1904 under the title Enquêtes

administratives de saint Louis inevitably come to mind51. Launched by

Louis IX in 1247 before his first departure on crusade, these

famous inspections were pursued until the king’s death in 1270.

They were meant to collect the grievances concerning the king,

his predecessors, their officers and even Jewish moneylenders.

A series of financial reparations subsequently took place,

hence the typology adopted in my PhD thesis of enquêtes de

réparation. These sources had long been considered a monument of

French national history – dedicated to the holiness of St Louis

– and this status, as well as the sheer volume of the

51 RHGF, t. XXIV.13

documentation, may have discouraged scholars from truly

exploiting them. Despite their superficial treatment, the

enquêtes de réparation overshadowed many other documentary traces

of Louis IX’s interest for the inquisitorial procedure, such as

evidenced by the Trésor des Chartes’s Supplément, the Parliament

registers – the Olim – or legislative sources.

a- Louis IX and the promotion of inquests within royal justice

As in other areas, a decisive step was taken after the

king’s return from the crusade: Louis IX prohibited judicial

duel and substitutes the inquest in royal courts by two

separate provisions, one for civil cases in 1254, and the other

for criminal cases in 125852. Anxious to promote equitable

justice in his kingdom, Louis IX wished in his court only

“bones prueves et loyaux”, which excluded ordeals, inherited from

another legal system: the barbarous laws53. The efficiency of

royal justice rested on its being accessible to all: the idea

that the duel prevented the weakest from getting justice

emerged gradually. Guillaume de Saint-Pathus lended Louis IX

these words during the famous episode of Enguerran de Coucy’s

trial: “quand il s’agissait des églises, des pauvres et des personnes dont on doit

avoir pitié, on ne devait pas mener les choses par le recours au duel; on ne trouverait

52 Cf. Ernest Josepf Tardif, L’ordonnance de Saint Louis sur le duel judiciaire (Paris,1887), Ordonnances des roys de France de la troisième race, Eusèbe Laurière, DenisFrançois Secousse, eds. (Paris, 1723), vol. 1, 86-93 and Paul Guilhiermoz,“Saint Louis, les gages de bataille et la procédure civile”, BEC, no 48(1887), 111-120.53Bruno Lemesle, “ La postérité des lois barbares ”, Publications en ligne del’Université de Bourgogne (2011),halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/63/52/52/PDF/Lemesle_PostA_ritA_des_lois_barbares.pdf.

14

en effet aucun champion pour représenter ces personnes contre un baron du

royaume54”. The duel “n’est pas voie de droit55 ” and royal action was

entirely oriented toward the delegitimization of this mode of

conflict resolution, even though, in practice, the battle was

marginal in the evidence system56.

Louis IX is not the first to attempt to outlaw this

practice. Canonists’ hostility toward duels is well known, as

in their express prohibition in the fourth Council of Latran in

121557. Before then, local churches used the duel, sometimes

with reservations, but most of the time without any scruple58.

Louis VII and Philip Augustus also took at times restrictive

measures against judicial duels59. If Louis IX action fits into

a relatively canonical denunciation, the novelty of both

ordinances of 1254 and 1258 lies in the promotion of the

testimonial evidence, which is said to become compulsory. It

should be noted however that this legislation is only extended

to the royal domain, leaving intact noble courts60. In

addition, the application of these orders seems uncertain,

especially in criminal cases and among the aristocracy61.54 Guillaume de Saint-Pathus, La vie et les miracles de saint Louis roi de France, ed. HenriDelaborde (Paris, 1899), 136-139.55 Ibid.56 Romain Telliez, “Preuves et épreuves à la fin du Moyen Âge. Remarques surle duel judiciaire, à la lumière des actes du Parlement, 1254-1350”, inHommes, cultures et sociétés à la fin du Moyen Âge, Patrick Gilli, Jacques Paviot, eds.(Paris, 2012), 107-121, esp. 108-110.57 Robert Bartlett, Trial by fire and water (Oxford, 1986), 117-118. 58 Lemesle, “La postérité ”, 12 and Lemesle, “La pratique du duel judiciaireau XIe s., à partir de quelques notices de l’abbaye Saint-Aubin d’Angers”,in Actes des congrès de la SHMESP (Paris, 2000), 146-168. 59 Yvonne Bongert, Recherches sur les cours laïques du Xe au XIIIe siècle (Paris, 1949),234-236. 60 Ibid., 238.61 Paul Guilhiermoz, “Saint Louis, les gages de bataille et la procédurecivile”, BEC, no 48 (1887) : 111-120, 112; Boulet-Sautel, “Aperçu”, 301;Jean Hilaire, La construction de l’État de droit. Dans les archives judiciaires de la cour de France

15

Unlike urban bourgeoisie, who was hostile to judicial duel and

preferred testimonial evidence, aristocrats expressed more

reservations62. Their first reason is material: they lost part

of the profit they earned from taxes imposed on judicial

duels63. A case extracted from the Olim illustrates this

conflict: in 1260, a knight claims a compensation for five

pennies he earned to guard the camp whenever there was a duel,

but the request is judged unacceptable by the Parliament64. The

second ground of aristocratic hostility is symbolic: “les obliger

à renoncer à la bataille pour suivre le sort commun des sujets leur apparaissait

comme une atteinte directe à l’un des privilèges fondamentaux de leur statut65.”

This reproach is clearly expressed in the pamphlet “Gent de

France, mult estes esbahie!”, written during Louis IX’s reign66. Faced

with such resistance, the king tried to make a spectacular

example by imposing the inquest to one of his barons, Enguerran

de Coucy, sentenced to death in a “comédie de l’inflexibilité” well

analysed by D. Barthélémy67. More than any other episode, the

account of this affair by Louis IX’s hagiographers depicts the

king of France as a determined and sometimes reckless promoter

of the inquest, even if documentary evidence proves that the

confrontation is an “échec (ou un demi-échec)”68.

au XIIIe s. (Paris, 2011), esp. 43-44.62 Lemesle, “ La postérité… ”, 13; Hilaire, La construction, 45. 63 Hilaire, La construction, 43.64 Bongert, Recherches, 236; Hilaire, La construction, 45-46.65 Hilaire, La construction, 43.66 Antoine Leroux de Lincy, « Chansons historiques des XIIIe, XIVe et XVe

s. ”, BEC, no 1 (1840): 370-374.67 Dominique Barthélémy, « L’affaire Enguerran de Coucy ”, in Affaires, scandaleset grandes causes de Socrate à Pinochet, Luc Boltanski, Elisabeth Claverie, NicolasOffenstadt, Stéphane Van Damme, eds. (Paris, 2007), 59-77, 77.68 Hilaire, La construction ,70; Dejoux, “Gouverner”, esp. 574-583.

16

Reforms implemented by Louis IX go hand in hand with the

decision of separating the curia regis from a curia in parlamento in

125469 : the deepest consequence of Louis IX’s procedural

reforms was to attract an increasing number of litigants toward

the new curia in parlamento, who placed the inquest at the heart of

its proceedings. According to J. Hilaire, the royal promotion

of the appellatio (or hierarchical call by opposition to the

feudal call, strictly linked to judicial duel) contributed to

inscribe the inquest at the centre of parliamentary

procedure70. At least fifty-six percent of the 1550 decisions

registered in the Olim from 1254 to 1270 required an inquest71.

Guarantees offered to the plaintiff in comparison with ordeals

explain both success of the Curia in Parlamento – whose judicial

activity intensified during this period – and of the

inquisitorial procedure: in 1278, a proper Chambre des enquêtes

was created. If the procedure itself ensured an equal treatment

to each party72, the analysis of the sentences given after

inquest proves that the king was however eager to defend his

own interests, particularly on forest matters73: in his

Parliament, the king gets a successful conclusion more often

than the reverse74.

69 Éric Bournazel, “Réflexions sur l'institution du conseil aux premierstemps capétiens (XIIe-XIIIe siècles)”, Cahiers de recherches médiévales, 7 (2000),crm.revues.org/876.70 Hilaire, La construction, esp. 40-41.71 Decisions both registered in the Livres des enquêtes and the Livres des requêteswere taken into account, from 1254 to 1270 (Les olim, ou registres des arrêts renduspar la Cour du Roi, ed. Auguste Beugnot (Paris, 1839-1848)).72 Ibid., 161-163.73 Dejoux « Gouverner », 590-593.74 Among the 716 inquests registered in the Livre des Enquêtes, only 406 of theminvolved the king as a litigant party.

17

Sentencesfavourableto theking

Unfavourablesentences

Compromise Notsettledordoubtful

Total

Number 226 129 36 15 406

From a geographical standpoint, if the ordinances of 1254

and 1258 only applied to the royal domain, the appellatio to the

Parliament was extended to each subject of the realm: it was

therefore a gain of sovereignty. The mapping of the 716

inquests registered in the Livre des Enquêtes of the Olim

illustrates this extension, even if the ancient domain and

Normandy represent most of the calls to the royal Parliament

(map 2). Nevertheless, the massive adoption of royal inquests

and their equal extension both to ancient domain and to newly

conquered lands happened slightly earlier and came from another

channel: the enquêtes de réparation.

b-The geographical generalization of the inquest

Despite a very incomplete documentation, the first mapping

of the enquêtes de réparation ordered by Louis IX from 1247 to 1270

shows their extension to the whole kingdom, apanaged lands

included (map 3)75. For the first time in the Capetian realm,

all the lands under royal domination were meant to be treated

equally.

75 To build this map, not only the sources edited by Delisle have been used,but also royal accounts and a series of letters sent by French bishops onLouis IX’s restitutiones in 1259 (Paris, Archives Nationales, J 367 n° 1-39bis,1259). Even if inquests took place in the bailliages rather than in thedioceses after 1254, we used these territories to ease comparisons.

18

Sending dozens of enquêteurs’s teams allowed Louis IX to

minimize the prince’s physical distance, whose itineraries were

relatively limited to the ancient domain76. Faced with the

enlarged scale of the inquests ordered in his Parliament, the

geography of the enquêtes de réparation partly compensated

administrative imbalances, especially between northern and

southern France. The royal restitutions proceeding itself

carried some “homogénéisation administrative77” and permitted a

“reterritorialisation des pouvoirs séculiers à l’imitation des institutions

ecclésiastiques”, observed elsewhere by M. Lauwers and L. Ripart78.

Organized initially within the only territories mobilizable as

such – the dioceses – and perhaps according to the only proven

model of spatial wandering – the pastoral visits –, the

repetition of the investigations allowed the king to

progressively use the bailliage, the sénéchaussée and the prévôté’s

frameworks, giving these new territories a real administrative

consistency79.

Their unprecedented scope matches with the rather broad

sociology of the plaintiffs80. While the lion’s share went to

traditional elites and to a broader “group of government”, the

76 Jean-François Moufflet, “Autour de l’Hôtel de Saint Louis, le cadre, leshommes, les itinéraires d’un pouvoir” (PhD diss., École des Chartes, 2007);Olivier Guyotjeannin, Atlas de l’histoire de France IXe-XVe s. (Paris, 2005), 57.77 O. Guyotjeannin, “L’intégration des grandes acquisitions territoriales dela royauté capétienne (XIIIe -début XIVe siècle)”, in Fragen der politischenintegration in mittelalterlichen Europ, ed. Werner Maleczek (Ostfildern, 2005), 211-241.78 Michel Lauwers, Laurent Ripart, « Représentation et gestion de l’espacedans l’Occident médiéval (Ve- XIIIe s.), in Rome et l’État moderne européen, ed.Jean-Philippe Genet (Rome, 2007), 115-171.79 On medieval dioceses, L’espace du diocèse. Genèse d’un territoire dans l’Occident médiéval(Ve-XIIIe s.) ed Florian Mazel (Rennes, 2008). On Louis IX’s restitutionesterritorial organization, Dejoux “Gouverner”, esp. 313-318.80 Dejoux, “Gouverner”, 407-467.

19

investigations also included the “honnêtes gens” of each

locality. If women were not excluded, poor people were not

heard by royal enquêteurs, confirming the idea that a certain

standard of living was necessary to have a right to speak in

medieval society. By their unique territorial and social

extent, these investigations allowed central administration to

promote the fairness of royal justice and to create consent to

its domination on an unprecedented scale.

Beside inquisitiones speciales – held contra quemquam – inquisitiones

generales – ordered contra omnes et singulos – took place not only in

the king’s lands but also in territories linked to the Capetian

Crown81. The first reference to the “inquisitio generalis” is to be

found, according to L. Verdon, in the legislation that Frederic

II issued in 1231 for the kingdom of Sicily, known as the

Constitutions of Melfi or Liber Augustalis82. On behalf of the utilitas

publica and of the duty of correctio belonging to the sovereign,

this legislation required “l’instauration d’enquêtes générales régulières

pour pourchasser le crime dans l’ensemble du royaume83”. The difference

with the enquêtes de réparation organized by Louis IX, and then by

81 On Alphonse de Poitiers, cf. Gael Chenard, “Les enquêtes administrativesdans les domaines d’Alphonse de Poitiers”, in Quand gouverner c’est enquêter, 157-168, on Raymond VII, Enquêtes administratives d’Alphonse de Poitiers, Pierre-FrançoisFournier, Pascal Guébin, eds. (Paris, 1959), XXI, and Layettes du trésor desChartes, t. V, no 569,193. On Charles I and II of Anjou, cf. Thierry Pécout,« Indagatio diligens et solers inquisitio. L’enquête princière, domaniale et deréformation : France actuelle, Provence angevine, XIIIe-XIVe s. », Inquirir naIdade Média : espaços, protagonistas e poderes (sécs. XII-XIV). Tributo a Luis Krus. Colòquiointernacional. Lisbonne, 14-15 décembre 2007, ed. Amélia Aguiar Andrade (Lisbonne, tobe published).82 Laure Verdon, “Aux origines de l’enquête générale en Provence :principes, modalités et fondements idéologiques de Charles d’Anjou au roiRobert ”, in L’enquête générale de Leopardo da Foligno en Provence Orientale (avril-juin 1333),ed. Thierry Pécout (Paris, 2008), XXVII-XXXVIII, XXIX.83 Ibid.

20

Alphonse de Poitiers, Raymond VII of Toulouse and Charles II of

Anjou is that general investigations against misbehaviours were

rather ordered on behalf of their personal salvation84.

c- An original ideal of government: the restitution of the male

ablata

The desire to promote royal power in sometimes newly

conquered lands and to pacify the kingdom before the king’s

departure for the crusade is obvious. But extending the

investigations to the misconducts of the king himself –

directly or indirectly through his predecessors and officers –

and to the restitution of Jewish usury also indicates a strong

penitential goal. By reintegrating these investigations in the

spiritual horizon of their time, anxious with conscience

introspection, confession and penance, I have managed to show

that they incarnated a private conception of royal power and

found their place in the economy of salvation and in the

“comptabilité de l’au-delà85”. These surveys were ordered on behalf of

the king’s soul, as indicated in the instructions given to his

investigators, “saluti anime nostre providere volentes86”, or “ob conscientiae

84 Dejoux, “Gouverner”, 611-619 and 648-651.85 On the economy of salvation, cf. Jacques Le Goff, “Au Moyen Âge : tempsde l’Église et temps du marchand”, Annales ESC, no 3 (1960): 417-433; J., Lanaissance du Purgatoire (Paris, 1981); La Bourse et la vie. Économie et religion au Moyen Âge(Paris, 1986); on the “ comptabilité de l’au-delà ”, Jacques Chiffoleau, Lacomptabilité de l’au-delà : les hommes, la mort et la religion dans la région d’Avignon à la fin duMoyen Âge (Rome, 1980). J-R. Strayer had already had the feeling that LouisIX’s inquests had to do with the king’s conscience (Joseph Reese Strayer,“La conscience du roi: les enquêtes de 1258-1262 dans la sénéchaussée deCarcassonne-Béziers”, in Mélanges R. Aubenas (Montpellier, 1974), 725-736. 86 According to royal orders given in 1268 (RHGF, t. XXIV, 7-8*).

21

scrupulum evitandum” as in a letter to his bishops87. The

enquêteurs-réparateurs had the singular mission to redeem the

king’s soul before its exposure to the crusade’s dangers, by

repairing financially the faults his administration committed

against his people. The enquêtes de réparation are therefore linked

to the ecclesial theory of the ill-gotten restitution, actively

promoted at that time by the Church, especially by mendicant

orders88. Starting from the 13th century, the restitution of male

ablata became a prerequisite to any absolution. Required during

the confession, restitutiones appeared therefore in sermons, in

the wills of usurers, crusaders and magnates and – from Louis

IX – in broad investigations89. To quote G. Todeschini, “la

passione di restituire, e la codificazione della restituzione come comportamento

esemplare tanto economicamente che moralmente, esplode90.” In Louis IX’s

case, several tracks may be followed to explain this

unprecedented initiative: the king’s personal devotion,

organized around a daily practice of confession, his proximity

with the mendicant friars (among whom he recruited part of his

intellectual circle and above all, his confessors) and last,

the obligation to write two wills before both departures on

crusade91. The enquêtes de réparation respond to a double logic of

penitential and political transaction: their aim was both the

self-government of the king and the government of the kingdom.

87 Archives Nationales, Paris (1268) J 367 n° 1.88 Giacomo Todeschini, Il prezzo della salvezza : lessici medievali del pensiero economico(Rome, 1994), 133-185 and Giovanni Ceccarelli, « L’usura nella trattatiscateologica sulle restituzioni dei male ablata (XIIIe -XIVe secolo) ”, in Creditoe usura fra teologia, diritto e amministrazione : linguaggi a confronto, sec. XII-XVI, GiacomoTodeschini, Gian Maria Varanini, eds. (Rome, 2005), 3-23.89 Dejoux, “Gouverner”, 599-628. 90 Todeschini, Il prezzo, 135.91 Dejoux, “Gouverner”, 597-629.

22

Royal emissaries also took into account royal interests: if

their decisions must be taken “inspecta anime Regis”, their refunds

were constantly made “salvo jure tamen proprietatis domino regi”.

Despite their original purposes, they have long been

confused with the enquêtes de réformation conducted by the last

Capetians.

3- From reparations to reformation: the last Capetians’

inquests

The documentation produced by the enquêteurs-réformateurs was

considerable but largely disappeared in the Chamber of

Accounts’ fire in 1737. Thanks to the inventory realized by

Robert Mignon in 1328, and thanks to fragments conserved in the

Trésor des Chartes’ Supplément, it is however possible to list the

investigations: from 1273 to 1328, J. Glénisson counted more

than one hundred tours92.

Even though Pope Gregory X gave, at Philip III’s request a

residence exemption to all the churchmen in charge of

“inquirendum et restituendum ea que pater tuus, seu tu, vel ballivi tui indebite

extorsitis93” on March 1273, the son deviates from his father’s

policy as soon as the 1st of August by sending two clerks

responsible for pursuing royal properties illegal holders and

to revoke faulting officers94. My PhD thesis has demonstrated92 Glénisson, “Les enquêteurs-réformateurs”. This review is precised from1314 to 1328 only by O. Canteaut (Olivier Canteaut, « Le juge et lefinancier. Les enquêteurs-réformateurs des derniers capétiens (1314-1328) ”, in L’Enquête au Moyen Âge, Gauvard, 269-31893 Registres de Grégoire X, ed. Jean Guiraud (Paris, 1892), no 153, 51. A firststep in that direction was taken by Alphonse de Poitiers when he orderedhis own enquêtes de réparation (Chenard, “Les enquêtes”).94 Glénisson, “Les enquêteurs-réformateurs”, no 1, 314.

23

the originality of Louis IX’s project, king “réparateur”,

overshadowed by successors anxious to control their

administration and especially by Philip IV, who substituted

durably the réformation to the réparations. Motivated by the common

utility and not by the king’s soul, the many enquêtes de réformation

established the control of royal officers, dealt with tax

perception and pursued offences endured by the prince more than

by his subjects. No later than the reign of Philip V, O.

Canteaut observes the implementation of a genuine system of

compensations: the enquêteurs-réformateurs put an end to royal

abuses against the payment of gracious subsidies95. Inversely,

the enquêtes de réparation were designed to reduce royal debts; in

theory, proceedings against officers cannot be separated from

the king’s prosecution, although in practice the former were

more sued than the latter96. While the enquête de réformation led to

dismiss and to punish wrong officers, the enquête de réparation did

not correct them but simply forced them to give back their ill-

gotten gains. In the réformation, royal officers became some

“victimes émissaires génératrices d’une unanimité et d’une complicité entre le roi et

son peuple97”: the inquests lost all introspective and penitential

vocation, which, as we shall see, may explain the mendicants’

withdrawal from the commissions. In his seminal paper on royal

réformation, R. Cazelles was therefore wrong to present Louis IX’s

enquêteurs as the first royal reformers, and hence, the surveys

they undertook as measures of general reform and of curialium

95 Canteaut, “Le juge”, 290.96 Dejoux, “Gouverner”, 344-371.97 Claude Gauvard, « Ordonnance de réforme et pouvoir législatif en Franceau XIVe siècle ”, in Renaissance du pouvoir législatif et genèse de l’État, AlbertRigaudière, André Gouron, eds. (Montpellier/Perpignan, 1988), 89-98, 97.

24

correctio98. Not only is this vision faulty, but it is

anachronistic. If the words réformer and réformation are “issus d’une

très longue histoire (Sénèque, les Pères de l’Église)99”, their import in the

Capetian political field is due to Philip the Fair. If Philip

III’s ordinances invoked the common profit, they never refer

explicitly to the idea of reform100. This notion really took off

during the 14th century at the instigation of clerics. For

instance Guillaume le Maire, bishop of Angers, enjoined in 1299

the king to send men “pour enquêter sur les abus des officiers, les corriger et

pour réformer le statut de la province de Tours101”. The royal commission

following this request does not use the term of reform yet, but

Philip IV took it over a bit later, during his quarrel with

Boniface VIII, supporting the idea expressed by J. Théry of a

“pontificalisation de la monarchie sous Philippe le Bel102”. 

In the bull Ausculta fili dated 5 December 1301, the pope

threatened Philip to take care of the “reformationem regis et regni,

correctionem preteritorum excessuum, et bonum regimen regni103”. The king

reacted by announcing during the great assembly of 10 April

98 Raymond Cazelles, R., “Une exigence de l’opinion depuis Saint Louis: laréformation du royaume ”, Annuaire-bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire de France, années1962-1963 (1964): 91-99.99 Philippe Contamine, « Le vocabulaire politique en France à la fin duMoyen Âge: l’idée de réformation ”, in État et Église dans la genèse de l’État moderne,ed. Jean-Philippe Genet (Madrid, 1986), 145-156, 148.100 Cazelles, “Une exigence”, esp. 91-92.101 Canteaut, “Le juge”, 273.102 Julien Théry, “Une hérésie d’État. Philippe le Bel, le process des“perfides templiers” et la pontificalisation de la royauté française”,Médiévales, no 60 (2011): 157-186. 103 Elizabeth Brown, “Unctus ad executionem justitie : Philippe le Bel, BonifaceVIII et la grande ordonnance pour la réforme du royaume (du 18 mars 1303)”,in Le roi fontaine de justice. Pouvoir justicier et pouvoir royal au Moyen Âge et à la Renaissance,Silvère Menegaldo, Bernard Ribémont, eds. (Orléans, 2012), 145-168, 152, n.21.

25

1302104 that he would assume the “relevationem gravaminum predictorum,

reformationem regni et ecclesie Gallicane105” himself. He even claimed

that the bull counteracted a campaign he intended to correct

his officers106: the king is a pope in his realm107. The

réformation entered the royal vocabulary this way, but Philip’s

rhetoric should not deceive us: only the papal charges induced

him to send, at the end of the year, some investigators to

“corriger ou réformer tout ce qu’ils jugeraient nécessaire de réformer ou corriger108”

and to write the ordinance of 1303 “pro reformatione regni nostri”. As

the primary goal of royal prescription, the term reformatio opens

the text and is repeated twice in its substantive form when the

ordinance of 1254 used a gerund and an adverb to clarify an

undefined meaning (ad statum regni reformandum in melius)109.

Louis IX’s inquests and those of the last Capetians therefore

emanate from two different religious ideals: the restitution of

male ablata on the one hand and the réformation on the other.

Even so, is it appropriate to accuse the last Capetians of

having corrupted royal inquests as historians traditionally do?

No. They had the same goal as Louis IX in 1247: to restore, and

even to establish, royal justice. The difference comes from the

growing sovereignty of the Capetian crown and from the

development of the state. Moreover, even if the ideals of

104 Caroline Decoster, C. « La convocation à l’assemblée de 1302, instrumentjuridique au service de la propagande royale ”, Parlements, États etreprésentations, no 22 (2002): 17-36. 105 Brown, “Unctus”, 152, n. 22.106 “Super quibus debite correctionis remedium, ante adventum prefati archidiaconi, ordinaveratexhibere, quod jam duxisset in executionis effectum, nisi quod id ex metu, vel ad mandatum vestrumfecisse forsan aliquibus videretur, id quod vobis adscribere non possetis.”, Ibid.107 Théry, “Une hérésie”.108 Canteaut, “Le juge”, 273.109 Claude Gauvard is therefore right to start her paper on the “ordonnancesde réforme” from1303 (Gauvard, « Ordonnance de réforme ”).

26

réparation and of réformation differ, both are inseparable from a

religious vision of politics110. By a close examination of

reform ordinances’ vocabulary, C. Gauvard demonstrated that

there was no opposition between politics and religion in the

genesis of the legislative realm111. Last but not least, the

enquêtes de réformation cannot be reduced to a matter of taxes: O.

Canteaut takes as evidence the lack of financial staff in the

enquêteurs’s teams, which were made of men linked with royal

justice112. To understand once and for all the evolution of the

use of inquests by the Capetian kings, we shall finish with the

identity of the royal enquêteurs.

4- Of Kings and enquêteurs: the investigators’ profile

a-Philip Augustus’s new men

Around sixty percent of the inquests recorded in Philipp

Augustus’s registers do not indicate the identity of their

investigators; in total, the name of fifty-two of them

appears113. The two following graphs detail their profile: the

first one represents the functions occupied by the fifty-two

enquêteurs (fig. 1) whereas the second one takes into account

the number of investigations carried out by each of them,

showing the actual weight of each group (fig.2). The numerous

investigations held by two major counsellors of the sovereign,

Barthélémy de Roye, knight of the king, and Guérin, bishop of110 Théry, “Une hérésie”.111 Ibid., 95.112 Canteaut, “Le juge”, 292.113 Cf. appendix.

27

Senlis, explain the noticeable differences between the two

graphs. If we look for information on each individual, the

enquêteurs overall reflect the nature of Philip Augustus’s

government: they are new men, just as Guérin and Barthélémy114.

J. Baldwin underlined how the crusade was a deep caesura in the

constitution of Philip Augustus’s teams of government: “having

left the baronial counsellors of the first decade of his reign

behind in the sands of the Holy Land, Philip Augustus made no

effort to replace them with their peers after his return115”.

The king appeared to get rid of the magnates’ influence to

choose young men of more obscure birth on which he could

exercise greater control. Barons now attended important

occasions, but were generally deprived of exercising

administrative tasks, such as inquests: except for the count of

Saint-Pol and Raoul, viscount of Beaumont, who each conducted

one investigation, no magnate is to be found among the

enquêteurs116. This also applies to bishops to whom only very

specific investigations were entrusted, such as an inquest on

the regalia of the diocese of Châlons-sur-Marne in 1202117.

Because of his divorce, the king entertained difficult

relationships with the clergy, summoned to follow the papal

excommunication. Névelon, bishop of Soissons, who defied the

king on this question, only investigated once, after the king’s

reconciliation with the queen. The other bishops committed to

those missions were king’s faithful men, raised to their

114 Dejoux, “Gouverner”, 273-281.115Baldwin, The Government, 104.116Moreover, these two characters are not part of the regular council of theking (Ibid., 658-659)117 Ibid.,193.

28

dignity by the latter, like Guérin. These enquêteurs were hence

completely different from the missi dominici, which combined

ecclesiastical and noble magnates118.

Royal officers constituted nearly forty-three percent of

the investigators and among them, the baillis – function created

by Philip Augustus – represented the majority. Their privileged

participation is not surprising for the baillis were designed as

mobile emissaries, operating in teams in order to supervise the

prévôts. Some royal enquêteurs were also chosen among local

nobility and elites. The conquest forced the aristocracy living

in the newly conquered lands to take sides. Thanks to the fief-

rents system, the king managed to secure their loyalty. When he

needed to investigate their lands, Philip Augustus sometimes

chose these new allies as enquêteurs, such as Richard de Vernon.

Following the tradition of Norman inquests, local elites were

also involved in the surveys: in 1212-1213 and in 1220 the

mayor and jurors of Compiègne and Andelys were summoned to list

all rights existing in their forest119.

The characteristic of the teams was to mix familiares from

the Curia Regis with officers or with members of local elites,

even if some of them were only composed with one of these

components: it is a good way to combine the respect of royal

rights and good field knowledge.

b-Louis IX enquêteurs-réparateurs and the enquêteurs of his

Parliament

118 Werner, “Missus-Marchio-Comes”, 191-239; Bougard, La justice, esp. 177-178.119 Cf. appendix.

29

The theological dimension of the enquêtes de réparation can

also be found in their personnel. The enquêteurs-réparateurs were

all clergymen who were specialists of salvation but whose

skills went beyond the mere religious sphere. The

prosopographical study of about fifty individuals whose name

survived showed they were selected almost equally between

secular and mendicant friars120.

The former were chosen for their legal skills and their

sometimes intimate knowledge of royal interests, like Gui

Foucois, who was, before becoming pope, one of the most active

agents of the Capetian monarchy, or Henry de Vézelay or Philip

de Chaourse, who were Louis IX’s will executors121. The prism of

the functions occupied by this group is large, from the simple

priest to the archbishop, even if less prestigious functions

predominate ultimately, like clerks or canons (fig.3): in this

group, the mission of enquêteur may be entrusted to relatively

young people, or at least, to men who were promised a career in

the Church afterwards.

The mendicant enquêteurs’ profile was quite the opposite:

they had no legal training, no personal link with the king for

they were recruited directly by their authorities in the

investigated region; most of them were simple friars who humbly

returned to their monasteries afterwards. They were associated

with seculars because of their image of extreme probity and

their ability to attract crowds to their assizes with their

120 DEJOUX, “Gouverner”, 229-271.121 After serving Alphonse de Poitiers as a clerk and a jurisperitus, GuiFoucois is in charge from 1254 of many missions by Louis IX (inquests,ordinances, consultations…). Only his election to the papal throne inFebruary 1265 takes him away from the curia regis.

30

mastery in preaching. Employed by Louis IX, the friars become

the “propagandistes de l’idée royale122”. Their daily activity of

confessors also predestined them to master the subtle

conversions demanded by the restitution of male ablata123: from

the mid-13th century, G. Todeschini demonstrates how a new

image of the Franciscan order spread, “le pauvre volontaire (est)

dorénavant décrit comme un expert de la valeur des choses124. ” Here we touch

the very essence of the investigations ordered by Louis IX,

operation of material losses evaluation, of currency conversion

and of recirculation in the Christian society of ill-gotten

gains.

At the same period, the enquêteurs chosen by the Parliament

were very different and more consistent with the ordinary

government staff. After analysing the Olim, 195 distinct

individuals emerge (fig. 4). At first sight, there seems to be

a perfect balance between laymen and clergymen, among whom

seculars come first and Mendicants last. Yet, the frequency of

charges granted to a single individual varies the distribution

(fig. 5). The balance previously observed is here reversed:

with sixty-two percent of missions accomplished, laic enquêteurs

come first. As under Philip Augustus, baillis were the very first

investigators: in many cases, inquests were held by the single

bailli. When a delegate was sent on the field, the bailli or the

prévôt was almost always involved in the investigations, which122 Le Moyen Âge. Le roi, l’Église, les grands, le peuple, 481-1514, Philippe Contamine,Olivier Guyotjeannin, Régine Le Jan, eds. (Paris, 2002), 329.123 On this question cf. for instance Nicolas Pluchot, “Ad restituendas omnesinjurias… Pratiques de la restitution des biens mal acquis à Manresa(Catalogne) au XIVe siècle, autour de l’intermédiaire dominicain”, to bepublished, and Ceccarelli, “ L’usura nella trattatistica”, 19.124 Giacomo Todeschini, Richesses franciscaines. De la pauvreté volontaire à la société demarché (Bologne, 2004), 116.

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could not be the case for the enquêtes de reparation, as baillis or

prévôts were often the defendants (nonetheless, they were

sometimes given auxiliary tasks such as summoning witnesses).

The role taken by regular friars, including Mendicants is

anecdotal: defining the rights of the king, of his subjects or

prosecuting crimes of blood were not, contrary to royal

reparations, their competence. The Parliament did not recruit

its enquêteurs among high dignitaries of the Church: sixty

percent of the seculars were clerks of the king, which confirms

the growing role of these individuals in governmental tasks.

Laymen and clergymen were generally associated125.

Finally, only four enquêteurs of the Parliament were also

enquêteurs-réparateurs: Robert de la Houssaye, Gui Foucois,

Philippe de Chaourse and Henri de Vézelay, all of them

belonging to Louis IX’s narrowest circles. From this, we can

infer that the king was in general reluctant to entrust his

restitutions to the same staff he employed in his Parliament.

c-The enquêteurs-réformateurs

I won’t linger on these figures as they have been well

studied in two monographs126. The latter highlight the

systematic sending of a clerk and of a knight of the king and

the homogeneity of the enquêteurs-réformateurs’s population. All of

them belonged to governmental staff, whether clerks, knights or

simple familiares: “ils incarnent la Curia regis des siècles précédents127”. O.

125 Dejoux, “Gouverner”, 281-284.126 Glénisson, “Les enquêteurs-réformateurs” and Canteaut “Le juge”.127 Canteaut, “Le juge”, 279-280.

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Canteaut estimates that 150 inquests were ordered annually by a

royalty who was not as hesitant as Louis IX to entrust the same

people with ordinary and extraordinary inquests128. The growing

reluctance of mendicant orders toward missions progressively

considered as “officia odiosa” may explain their total absence from

the enquêteurs réformateurs’s ranks129. Another important

difference, due to the increasing role taken by the Parliament

in the conduct of inquests, may be observed: “c’est avant tout parmi

les parlementaires que se recrutent les enquêteurs-réformateurs: les trois quarts

d’entre eux siègent au Parlement à un moment ou à un autre de leur carrière, et

l’enquête de réforme ne constitue souvent pour eux qu’un intermède plus ou moins

long entre deux séances au Parlement130. ” The baillis’s participation was

anecdotal131.

In conclusion, except in the enquêtes de réparation, the

enquêteurs’s profile reflects the evolution of the teams of

government: lay and ecclesiastical Carolingian magnates, Philip

Augustus’s new men, baillis and clerks of the king in Louis IX’s

Parliament, knights and clerks of the last Capetians. More than

ever, Louis IX’s reign appears as an interface: in addition to

the baillis – creation of Philip Augustus who gave them the

earliest inquests — the rising group of the clerks – both

mastering law and written culture – establishes itself as a

major force. The establishment of the Parliament in 1254 also

announced future changes: the enquêteurs-réformateurs are foremost

128 Ibid., 281.129 Yves Dossat, “Inquisiteurs ou enquêteurs? À propos d’un texte d’Humbertde Romans”, Bulletin philologique et historique (1958) : 105 à 113.130 Canteaut, “Le juge”, 283.131 Ibid., 284.

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members of this institution who gradually became specialized in

the inquests132. The supposedly canonical tandem of a clerk and

a knight of the king, generally highlighted by historiography,

is hence a product of a slow evolution.

The enquêtes de réparation therefore appear to be a unique

experience for the Capetian monarchy, both in their penitential

purpose and in the personnel they employed. Nevertheless,

whatever their motivations, their goals or their scale,

Capetian inquests had one thing in common: the constant

construction of a sovereign royal justice. The fact that Philip

IV had to reintroduce in 1306 gages de bataille to establish the

proof in the most serious crimes133 – at least in the absence of

witnesses, which is an essential restriction – should not

deceive us: while Louis IX’s ordinances only applied to the

domaine, the king’s jurisdiction was now extended, on those

matters, to the whole French realm134. “Au début du XIVe siècle […] la

preuve testimoniale, base de l’enquête, était consacrée comme ‘voie ordinaire’135.”

If the inquest may have been a tool to build a modern state,

this state was designed by the Capetians according to the rule

of Law.

Appendix :

132 Beside the Grand-Chambre appears, in the ordinance of 1278, a Chambre desenquêtes. This latter takes a growing part among the recruited réformateurs (Canteaut, “ Le juge ”, 284).133 Boulet-Sautel, “Aperçu”, 301; Hilaire, La construction, 43-44.134 Telliez,“ Preuves et épreuves”.135 Hilaire, La construction, 44.

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Philip Augustus’s enquêteurs , according to J. Baldwin, Les registres de Philippe Auguste (Paris, 1992)

-Hersin (1201): the count of Saint-Pol, Barthélémy de Roye,Aubert de Hangest, Guillaume Pasté, Pierre prévôt of Amiens,Névelon, marshal (no 1, 37).

-Saint-Pol (1196-1201?): Barthélémy de Roye, Aubert de Hangest,Guillaume Pasté, Pierre prévôt of Amiens and Névelon, marshal(no 8, 52).

-Forest of Évreux (1207): Guillaume Durguenel, châtelain ofÉvreux (no 16, 61). -Forest of Retz (1207): Anselme bishop of Meaux, Barthélémy deRoye, chamberlain, Névelon, bishop of Soissons, Pierre deBéthisy, prévôt of Amiens, his brother Renaud, Gui de Béthisyand others (no 17, 61).

-Beaufort (1212): Guillaume d’Azay, Hervé de Belmort (no 27,72).

-Forest of Andelys (1220): Hugues Pullum, Amaury Coipel, themayor and jurors of Andelys (no 30, 75).

- Forest of Vernon (1220): Richard de Vernon, Philippe deBlaru, Amaury de Blaru, Richard Venator (no 33, 79).

-Forest of Compiègne (1212-1213): Roger de Verberie, Renaud deBéthisy, the mayor and jurors of Compiègne, Guillaume Pasté,Gilles de Versailles, Eude Plastart (no 40, 85).

-Forest of Retz (1214): Barthélémy de Roye, Gautier, chambellan,Henri Clément, marshal, brother Guérin and others (no 42, 88).

-Forest of Retz (1215): Aubert de Hangest, Guillaume de laChapelle, Hugues d’Athies, knights (no 43, 90).

-Bourges (1215): Guérin, bishop of Senlis, Barthélémy de Roye(no 46, 94).

-Saint-Aignan d’Orléans (1216): Guillaume Menier (no 53, 101).35

- Poissy (1217): Thibaud Macro, Bernard de Poissy (no 55, 104).

-Chauny (1217 ou 1218): Aubert de Hangest, Guillaume deChâtelliers (no 56, 107).

-Forest of Breteuil (1220): Barthélémy Droon, Thibaud de laChapelle, pannetier (no 69, 117).

-Thury-en-Valois (1220): Guérin, bishop of Senlis (no 70, 118).

- Thury-en-Valois (1220): Guérin, bishop of Senlis (no 71,118).

-Montdidier (1216-1220): Gilles de Versailles, Renaud deBéthisy, Soibert de Laon (no 72, 119).

-Forest of Évreux (1215-1220): Guérin, bishop of Senlis,Barthélémy de Roye (no 78, 130).

-Vernon (1220): Geoffroi de la Chapelle (no 81, 137).

-Forest of Bréval (1220): Milon de Mesnil, Simon de Mesnil,Raoul de Felins, Jean de Saliceio, his brother Robert (no 83,139).

-Saint-Lucien de Beauvais (1220): Renaud de Béthisy, Anseau deRonquerolles, Jean de Vignes, prévôt of Senlis (no 85, 140-41).

-Arguilcourt-le-Sart, (1220): Guillaume des Barres, Guillaumede Châtelliers (no 88, 146).

-Laon (1221): Guérin, bishop of Senlis (no 95, 154).

-Forest of Laigue (1221): Gilles de Versailles, Guillaume, sonof the châtelain of Thourotte (no 96, 156).

-Cepoy (1222): Guillaume Menier, Étienne de Hautvillier (no 99,161).

- Forest of Vallée (1224): Raoul viscount of Beaumont, Thierryde Galardon, Guillaume de Fougère (no 103, 165).

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-Oppy and Bois-Bernard (1225): the abbey of Mont-Saint-Eloi,Renaud de Beron (no 106, 167).

- Bresles (1225): Guérin, bishop of Senlis, chancellor ofFrance (no 108, 169)

The enquêteurs-réparateurs of Louis IX

1- Seculars

Étienne de LorrisGeoffroi de BulliGui FoucoisGuillaume de BussyGuillaume de VaugrigneuseHenri de VézelayJean de la Cour d’AubergenvilleJean de la PorteJean de la RocheNicolas de ChâlonsNicolas de VerneuilPhilippe de ChaoursePhilippe, archbishop of AixPierre de la ChâtrePierre de MincyPierre de VoisinsRobert de la HoussayeThomas, pénitencier de Beauvais

2- Mendicants

Adam de Saint-RiquierGeoffroi TribuelGilles de GerlinGuillaume de SéguinGuillaume RobertHugues d’YerresJean de Saint LeuNicolas de TroyesPierre ChotardPierre de Montiéramey

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Pierre de ValenciennesPonce de Saint-GillesRobert de la BasséeRobert de NesleThibaud de CoulomniersThierry de CrécyThomas de Chartres

C- Regulars 

Hervé BlondeauJean de FaukemberguesJean de LonguevalJean du TempleThiecelinThierry, abbey of Valenciennes

D- Others

Guillaume ad CapamGuillaume de Croisset

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