Medieval Law and the Foundations of the State

Alan Harding9780198219583, 0-19-821958-X

The State is the most powerful of political ideas but where does it come from? This broad-ranging new study traces the history of the word and the concept back to the systems of law and justice created by medieval kings and shows how legal institutions acquired political force.

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Table of contents :
EEn……Page 1
Preface……Page 6
Contents……Page 8
Abbreviations……Page 11
1 – Introduction. State: Word and Concept……Page 12
2 – Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Justice……Page 21
3 – The Courts of Lords and Townsmen……Page 54
4 – The Spread of the Organized Peace……Page 80
5 – The Judicial Systems of France and England……Page 120
6 – New High Courts and Reform of the Regime……Page 158
7 – The Legal Ordering of ‘the State of the Realm’……Page 202
8 – The Monarchical State of the Later Middle Ages……Page 263
9 – From Law to Politics: the Genesis of ‘the Modern State’……Page 306
Conclusion: Law and the State in History……Page 347
Bibliography……Page 352
Index……Page 380