Acceso usuarios
Caroline Decoster
One of the main characteristics of the reign of Philip the Fair is the holding of large-scale assemblies. The one held in 1302 was the first. The topic of this essay is neither to hark back to the context of this meeting nor to describe its course. Caroline Decoster intends to demonstrate how the king's legists justified the summons of the three orders of the realm: the nobility, the clergy and the representatives of the towns. The use of principles proceeding from Roman law is obvious. Following the example of the neighbouring countries and ecclesiastical institutions, they justified the scale of the summons by the maxim Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari et approbari debet to express the king's will to assemble his subjects. But they tried to control its consequences in so far as it could become dangerous to the royal power. So as to counter the effects of the imperative mandate used by universitates, towns and communities to send their representatives, they required to a degree the use of plena potestas in the matter of consent. To be sure of the impact of the summons on the different orders of the kingdom, some concepts of feudal law were also used to remind the subjects of the link that bound them to the king and the obligations that it involved for them. In fact, this assembly can be considered as an effective means of Philip IV's propaganda, but also as an important stage towards what was going to become the Estates General during the following reigns. It was an important step as well in the process of asserting a strong royal power.
