The Salic Law, French Queenship, and the Defense of Women in the Late Middle Ages
Craig Taylor
The Lex Salica (Salic Law) was a legal code written around the time of Clovis (476–96) for Salian Franks. After being revised and expanded under Merovingian Carolingian kings, it slowly forgotten until middle fourteenth century, when rediscovered by Richard Lescot monks Saint-Denis. Salic
Law enjoyed second lease on life from beginning fifteenth officially adopted French Crown as postfactum justification exclusion women royal succession. pivotal moment probably occurred 1413 Jean de Montreuil added marginal note to A toute la chevalerie, polemical
treatise supporting Valois monarchy against English. Defending succession, notaire et secretaire cited clause chapter ‘‘De allodio,’’ which dictated that men should receive ancestors’ heritage (their landed property, ‘‘terra salica’’) just personal property. To make this statement apply kingdom, inserted words in regno into an inaccurate transcription clause. Thereafter series writers employed monarchy, all connected with chancellery, used Salic Law defend boldest provided 1464 Pour ce que plusieurs, work key dissemination myth thanks its printed eleven times in
Paris, Rouen, Caen between 1488 1558, most commonly title La Loy Salique, premiere loy des Francois.
French Historical Studies