The Court of France: from Louis XI to Henri II

Abstract

The extensive anti-courtier literature of the sixteenth century and the opinions of respected historians such as Pierre de Vaissière have created the impression that the Valois court remained until the Wars of Religion a fairly modest institution by later standards. It has been assumed that it was kept at arm’s length by the mass of the nobility, who were apt to believe court life synonymous with corruption and servitude. The true picture is far from being so straightforward and is in many ways quite different; the repetition of clichés by poets, rhétoriqueurs or memoir-writers is testimony enough to the attractive power of the court and, indeed, its political and social significance. Francis Decrue long ago argued that it was in the sixteenth century that the French nobility ceased to be territorial and became a court nobility. Although this itself is also an exaggeration, studies of the court as an institution and a political centre made over the last generation quite plainly require a reassessment of its place in public life during the Renaissance.¹