Kravtsova E.S. Franciscan Order as a Tool of Royal Control over Administrative Officers (Auvergne, 1250–1300) [Digital resource] // Vox medii aevi. 2018. Vol. 1(2). P. 136–158. URL: https://voxmediiaevi.com/vol-2-kravtsova
DOI: 10.24411/2587-6619-2018-00007
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Elena Kravtsova
Candidate of Sciences (History), Research Fellow of the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books, State Museum of the History of Religion (Saint Petersburg)
kravtsova.kes@gmail.com
Franciscan Order as a Tool of Royal Control over Administrative Officers (Auvergne, 1250–1300)
The author examines bureaucratic formulas in the administrative correspondence of Alphonse, the Count of Poitiers, in order to obtain information about the extraordinary service of the Franciscans to the Capetians in the second half of the 13th century. In the beginning, the author ascertains the place of the Franciscans in the hierarchy of the Count’s appanage and comes to the conclusion that Alphonse bypassed the traditional order that baillis should obey seneschals and constables. Alphonse used the reports of his enquêteurs to initiate prosecution of criminal-baillis. Further, by the example of Auvergne, the author demonstrates that the enquêteurs were a rather efficient tool for the reorganization of relations among different social groups as well as their relations with the count’s agents according to the count’s notions of justice.
The administrative system established by Philip II and represented by the baillis was not able to provide an acceptable level of management in the lands included in the royal domain at the first third of the 13th century. The author argues that the Franciscans filled a power vacuum and reorganized the administrative and social space of these territories in the second half of the 13th century. Thus, they prepared the basis for the reforms of Philip IV.
Key words: Louis IX; Alphonse of Poitiers; Auvergne; enquêteurs; Formulas in Medieval Culture; Representation of Power.