Details

Subject(s)

• Manorial courts—France—Burgundy—History—18th century [Browse]

Series

• Changing perspectives on early modern Europe ; v. 10. [More in this series]
• Changing perspectives on early modern Europe, 1542-3905 ; v. 10 [More in this series]

Summary note

In 'Enlightened Feudalism', Jeremy Hayhoe demonstrates that these local institutions actually functioned with a degree of efficiency, professionalism, and attention to peasant concerns that few historians have appreciated. Set in Northern Burgundy, this study reveals how provincial administrative elites quietly encouraged the use of simpler procedure for minor disputes, thus bringing seigneurial courts closer to village life. But these reforms paradoxically made the newly invigorated courts a key instrument of the late eighteenth-century intensification of the seigneurie. Peasant ambivalence toward seigneurial courts reflected this duality, as the 'cahiers de doléances' both praised the institution for its role in community affairs, and vigorously criticized it for bolstering the seigneurial system. By situating the local court within a wide range of para-judicial institutions and behaviors, Hayhoe presents a new vision of village society, one in which communal bonds were too weak to enforce behavioral norms. Village communities had substantial authority over their own affairs, but required the frequent and active collaboration of the court to enforce the rules that they put into place. Jeremy Hayhoe is assistant professor at the Université de Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.

Notes

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 02 Oct 2015).

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references ( p. 277-301) and index.

Language note

English

Contents

• Tiny courts, incompetent judges?
• Justice in the interests of lords
• Justice in the interests of the community
• Conflict and consensus in and out of court
• Local knowledge and legal reform : the transformation of justice
• Tocqueville in the village : seigneurial reaction and the central state
• A popular institution? : seigneurial justice in the cahiers de doléances
• Lords, judges, and the self-regulating village.

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ISBN

• 1-282-89495-1
• 9786612894954
• 1-58046-721-0

OCLC

680036596

Doi

10.1515/9781580467216

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