Féodalités 8881180

The period when the Capetian dynasty emerged does not coincide with "the birth of France". Although the kingdom of Western Francia then France, which includes Catalonia to the south and Flanders to the north, becomes a political entity that is no longer shared, the sovereign continues explicitly to call himself "king of the Franks" rather than "king of France". If the monarchy methodically builds and expands its domain, there is no sense of French unity at the time.

Feudal France remains a mosaic of regions with diverse languages and customs. Concerned to escape any dynastic or national teleology, the argument made here pays great attention to these regional singularities. It also embraces the many territories, now French, which were then under other kings and princes and endeavors to insert all analyses into a European perspective. The centuries of feudalism, long described as centuries of iron, actually correspond to the moment of "European takeoff".

Economic dynamism, Christian expansion, and social changes go hand in hand at this time, driven by the affirmation of a lordly order that gradually erases the last remnants of the Carolingian Empire. As this work shows, the findings of historical research over the past twenty years have profoundly renewed understanding of this long period of transition. They allow for the description of rural growth that dates back to the Carolingian era, even if urban and commercial development alters its forms and strengthens its vigor from the end of the 11th century.

They lead to re-examining such fundamental questions as the gathering of populations and "the birth of the village", the establishment of the châtelain seigneury, the role of monastic reforms or the flourishing of Romanesque and Gothic art. Above all, they call into question the thesis of a "feudal mutation" rapid and brutal around the year one thousand in favor of a more nuanced appreciation of the evolutions, articulated on the two major inflections that are the decomposition of the Carolingian order, from the end of the 9th century, and the Gregorian reform, in the second half of the 11th century.

As the chapter devoted to the historian's workshop shows, archaeology and anthropology have contributed much to these renewals.