The expression salic law indicates two quite different realities.
- In the Early middle ages, it acts of a code of law worked out starting from the beginning of the 4th century for the people of the Francs known as “saliens”, whose Clovis was one of the first kings. This code established inter alia the rules to follow as regards heritage inside these people.
- Several centuries after Clovis, in the current of the 14th century, an article of this salic code was exhumed, isolated from its context, employed by the lawyers of the royal dynasty of the Valois to justify the prohibition made to the women succeed the throne of France. At the end of the medieval time and modern, the expression salic law thus indicates the rules of Succession to the throne of France. These rules were in addition imitated in other European monarchies. The ousting of the women of the capacity by this law is based on a certain number of forgeries in writing, lies and omissions of the History, studied by the historian Éliane Viennot, which also shows that this ousting caused as of the 13th century of resistances and the conflicts, whose actors and actresses still remain for the majority absent from the school handbooks.
A “barbarian” code of law?
The first salic law was a penal code and civil clean with the Francs known as “saliens” (4th century). The adjectives salic and salien would come from named an in the past city Sala, today Overijse, in Belgium. Initially memorized and transmitted orally, it was put in writing by Eckhardt in the first years of the 6th century at the request of Childebert, king of the Francs, then altered several times thereafter, until Charlemagne. The terms used in the written version and the principles applied as many testify broad loans to the Roman law to the Germanic tradition.
The first version of the law (there was at least eight of them) bore the name of pactus legis salicæ (pact of the salic law). Historiographiquement, one a long time saw in this Law a transcription of the Germanic habits, but its introduction introduces four frank chiefs like the instigators of the law, and names the cities where she was proclaimed. However these same names, under their form Latin, find in sources administrative Roman, which learn us that these Francs, enacting a law applicable to a territory of the empire (just in the South of the Rhine), were in fact of the Roman officers (“main of the militia” or “Master of the cavalry”), who had made their weapons everywhere in the empire, some even having massacred other franques leagues. The terms used are those of the Roman law and one finds as many low-imperial military uses than of Germanic traditions in the text (see respectively the following title and Wergild for more details).
It is thus more advisable to see the specificity of the Francs there, in what they are more largely heirs to the Roman empire than all the other cruel nations: it is a compromise text, and of as much less monolithic than it was altered in different contexts. Other versions of the law were indeed elaborate until the middle of the 9th century: each time, the law was increased, amended and adapted to the circumstances of the moment. It is thus difficult to date precisely certain articles.
Among these rehandlings, one notes the progressive replacement of Wergild (system where the sorrow is negotiated) by the fine (the sorrow is imposed by the royal authority). The political situation disturbing itself passably at the 5th century, the kings mérovingiens support any authority other than less and less theirs (in fact that of the influential parentèles and the councils of old cf Wergild), and thus harden their influence on the company. In this respect, the salic law carries out well the transition between the Germanic structures and the medieval royalty.
A article-key: the of alodis
Article 62 of the initial pactus relates to the transmission of the freeholds, i.e. grounds held in freehold by a family group. Following several articles stipulating that the women could inherit these grounds, a short passage was promised with a long posterity. Here is a version:- “ Of will terra salica nulla portio hereditatis mulieri veniat, sed AD virilem sexum tota terræ hereditas perveniat. ”
- “As for the salic ground, that no part of the heritage returns to a woman, but that all the heritage of the ground passes to the male sex. ”
However what is precisely the “salic ground” is not defined in the text. An assumption proposes that it is about the transmitted ground in a hereditary way, or perhaps of the family residence, in the middle of the field. It is in any case certain that the article does not have anything a “constitutional” law and that the “salic ground” does not indicate any ground of the kingdom of the Francs saliens, for the simple reason which there did not exist nothing like it at the 4th century: the geographical limits assigned with the Law correspond to letic prefectures where Roman generals of franque origin exerted their authority in the name of the emperor.
This irrefutable fact introduces one second assumption. Wouldn't these Roman veterans to whom one entrusted a strategically significant area (a edge in contact with Germanic leagues some are still quarrelsome) have liked “to engrave in the marble” the military principles whose they could appreciate the frightening effectiveness? This interpretation is pressed on texts going back to the 3rd century, which describe the frontier policy of the emperor Alexandre Sévère. It installed its soldiers on the edges in their giving grounds and slaves, in order to reinforce these areas. The ground was transmissible with their children, but any occupant was indebted of a military service, since it is the condition of soldier who had allowed to enjoy these grounds. The use was taken again and generalized by the following emperors, and the proximity with the statute of Lète is striking. The will terra salica , it is then perhaps the provinces on which the Francs saliens were originally established as Lètes (subjected to the army thus), which would explain why the women do not have right there: they cannot be useful in the army.
The goal of this passage would be thus to ensure that these grounds, obtained thanks to a military regime letic, remain between the hands of mobilizable men for the army. This assumption is correlated by the fact that the “not-salic” grounds, whose possession by women is attested, are always out of the provinces on which the Roman administrative sources announce of Lètes francs.
The recovery of the salic law with
It is only at the 14th century that this legal provision private is again called upon - the salic law having fallen in the oubli - with a new interpretation, to support the claims of the dynasty of the Valois to the throne of France. Resulting from a branch junior by the dynasty by the Capétiens, Valois were indeed opposite with the Plantagenêts of England which, going down from Capétiens by the women, also claimed them with the crown. The recourse to the legal fiction of the salic law made it possible to justify the exclusion of the women and to lend an old legal basis to the monarchy of Valois.
Problems of succession at the beginning of the 14th century
Since Hugues Capet until Louis X, then, very briefly, to the son of this last, Jean I {{er}}, shortly after dead its birth, the crown of France was continuously transmitted of wire father (first Capétiens taking the precaution to associate their oldest son with the throne, which brought the crown gradually, initially elective, with becoming hereditary). This succession without concern, in a perfect continuity from 987 to 1316 (an elder male heir was with each loan generation to be succeeded its father), led the historians to qualify these generations of “Miracle capétien”.Between 1316 and 1328, only the power struggles concerned at the time dictate the successions of the direct Capétiens last: they are thus primarily policy options, carried out without one not evoking the old salic law. These is then, 80 years later, that the ousting of Jeanne de Navarre was allotted, wrongly, with the application of the old salic law to justify from now on application of this law which for a long time will évincera the women of the French policy and the capacity.
Thereafter, the principle of masculinity will become one of the fundamental laws of the Kingdom of France of the French Crown. The fundamental laws of the Kingdom of France are formed starting from the events, and enact the standard starting from old examples.
Thus, the succession of 1316 and more still that of 1328 will be at the origin of this legal habit. Only the men can reach the throne, and they only can transmit the capacity. An good example of this principle is the succession of Henri III in 1589, when several applicants with the Throne of France are in competition. But among them, only Henri IV of France goes down from the royal family by the men. It is thus him which is supported by the royal legists, with the reason for the principle of masculinity.
Succession of Louis X (1316)
In 1316, Louis X Hutin, king de France and of Navarre, wire of Philippe IV Beautiful the, dies without male heir. It leaves a girl in low age exit of the first bed, Jeanne de Navarre, girl of Marguerite of Burgundy, and an expectant mother, Clémence of Hungary.The brother of Louis X, Philippe, count de Poitiers, sees the occasion then there to become king de France: he agrees with Eudes IV of Burgundy, uncle maternal of Jeanne, to be the regent of the child to come if this last would be a son. If, on the other hand, the child is a girl, it will be excluded from the throne like her older sister, but that only until its majority. It seems whereas there is possibility for the two young girls, and particularly for Jeanne, to go up on the throne of France. This provision leaves however a respite to Philippe of Poitiers to be made admit as king.
At this stage, no legislation was still called upon.
Succession of Jean Ier (1316 - 1317)
The child of the Clémence queen, who is born on November 15th, 1316, is a son. He receives the first name of Jean (it is called in general Jean I {{er}} Posthumous the). But the royal child dies five days later.Philippe then hustles the agreements made with Eudes of Burgundy: he proclaims king de France and of Navarre, and is made crown the January 9th 1317 under high military protection. Indeed, Philippe is held for a usurper by Agnès of France, mother of Marguerite of Burgundy, grandmother of Jeanne and girl of holy Louis. She claims the gathering of the even and Philippe V the Long one makes call the representatives of the three orders. He asks the University to write a sales leaflet justifying his right to go up on the throne of France. The salic law, at this time, is not called upon yet: the sales leaflet proposed at the profit of Philippe V is very poor, being based only on the degree of proximity with Louis saint.
Philippe has the support of the nobility: what account here is that it has the means of its ambitions. A treaty is signed between Eudes of Burgundy and Philippe V: Jeanne gives up her claims with the crown of France. It seems strange that solid arguments, as the usual character of male heredity (it is the miracle capétien) were not formulated. It is undoubtedly that this debate opens at the time when the women have a role of most important in policy; thus Mahaut d' Artois, mother of Jeanne II of Burgundy (the wife of Philippe V), it is named even of the kingdom. Moreover, Philippe V is in a contradictory situation: the alive one of Louis X, Philippe to his prerogative of Poitou to his/her daughter… why the girl of Louis X couldn't had asked for his brother the permission of transmit consequently have inherited the kingdom of France?
Succession of Charles IV (1328)
Charles IV dies in his turn in 1328: a new successional crisis bursts. The queen, Jeanne d' Evreux, are pregnant. The same problem that in 1316 is thus posed: it is at the same time necessary to prepare with a possible regency (and thus to choose a regent) and to prepare a possible succession with the throne. It seems from now on acquired that the women cannot claim with the crown of France (without no written rule stipulating it yet). Are thus excluded a priori:-
Isabelle de France, the sister of Louis X, Philippe V and Charles IV, wife of the king Edouard II of England;
- girls of Louis X, Philippe V and Charles IV;
- a possible girl to be born from the pregnancy of the queen Jeanne d' Évreux.
On the other hand, it is not known as that the women cannot transmit their rights to the throne to their sons. Two men are opposed then and asserted the succession: Philippe, count de Valois, wire of an younger brother of Philippe IV the Beautiful one and thus first cousin of the late Charles IV; and Edouard III, king d' Angleterre, wire of Isabelle, grandson of Philippe IV the Beautiful one and thus nephew of the late Charles IV.
It is Philippe de Valois who was selected as king by an assembly of the barons (principal lords of the kingdom of France). It went up on the throne under the name of Philippe VI. Two primary reasons explain this choice of the barons:
-
Edouard III asserts the throne via his/her mother. If he had been proclaimed king de France, a string of claims on behalf of others wire resulting royal girls could have re-appeared… This reason was perhaps not the principal one in 1328, but it was regularly proposed thereafter. Thus, in the years 1360, Charles II of Navarre, wire of Jeanne (the girl of Louis X), to which Philippe VI had returned Navarre, is supported by the public opinion and hopes to go up on the throne;
- the true reason of the choice of the barons, is that French monarchy is a national monarchy… However Edouard III is already king d' Angleterre, which pushes the barons to reject his candidature. Edouard III resigns himself then and recognizes Philippe VI as king de France: he lends even a liege homage to king to him de France in 1331, under duke of Guyenne. He however reconsiders his acceptance in 1337 after Philippe took again Bordeaux to him and Guyenne, causing the Guerre One hundred Year old.
Redécouverte and reinterpretation of the salic law
The claims of Edouard III and Charles the Bad one, who combine themselves with the difficulties of the first kings Valois, Philippe VI and Jean II the Good, push Charles V, wire and successor of Jean II, to make formulate a rule of clear and indisputable succession. It is thus under its reign that Nicolas Oresme more concretely takes again the argumentation of François de Meyronnes and of Raoul de Presles. In its Book of Policy , it defines three means of accession in the throne:
- - by dynastic transmission - with the oldest son of the king;
- - by election - as for Hugues Capet;
- - by election of chalk-lining - as Philippe VI.
- - by election - as for Hugues Capet;
In 1378, Evrart de Trémaugon, in the Dream of Vergier , will seek in the Roman law a justification which calls upon the “weakness of the sex” ( imbecillitas sexus ). This justification is interesting, but it does not make it possible to justify the exclusion of the male descendants of this woman, which are not touched by this “weakness”.
It is finally only in 1388 that article 62 of the “law of the Francs saliens” (i.e. of the salic law original) is redécouvert and used within the framework of a law of succession. The recourse in this article makes it possible to affirm that, as of the reign of Clovis, founder of the kingdom, the woman could not “have in heritage any share of the kingdom”. It goes without saying it is about an abusive interpretation of this text of the 6th century, which, let us recall it, legislated on the private law of the successions, and had thus nothing to see with the royal succession, which concerned the public law.
One added thereafter many other justifications also not very probable. Thus, one could propose an expression drawn from the Évangile according to saint Matthieu, where Christ declares that “the lilies do not slip by”. Lilies being the symbol of French monarchy, and the spinning a typically female activity, one deduced from it that Jesus Christ himself had declared that the women could not succeed the throne of France.
One must thus conclude on this point by observing that the majority of these “laws” were in realities of the justifications brought a posteriori to support positions of principle whose legitimacy became efficient by the use, insofar as the party which preached them were more “extremely” politically and militarily.
Uses of the salic law in European monarchies
Uses in France
After some gropings in first half of the 15th century, the salic law reinterpreted by the lawyers of Charles V becomes the principal law of succession to the throne, and one of the fundamental rules of the kingdom. It involves the systematic exclusion of the members of other royal families bound by marriage to the French royal family. She thus guarantees that only a French prince can reach the throne of France and reinforces the national character of monarchy.One of the principal applications of this law took place in second half of the years 1580. Henri III, last king Valois, had provided that the prince Henri of Bourbon, king de Navarre, would succeed to him. But this succession was not due to the fact that Henri de Navarre, having married Marguerite, sister of Henri III (this Marguerite is celebrates it queen Margot); she was due to the fact that Henri de Navarre descended in uninterrupted male line from the king Louis IX (1226 -1270). It was, in male line, more the close relative of Henri III. The great difficulties of Henri IV at the beginning of his reign (Henri III is assassinated in 1589) are explained more by its religion (it was Protestant whereas the majority of the population was catholic) why by the fact that he was a relative very far away from the preceding king. On the contrary, one can say that the salic law had entered so much manners which it appeared almost impossible to choose another king that indicated by the application of these rules of succession.
In the same way, in the first years of the 18th century, the king growing old Louis XIV, and having lost the majority of his legitimate descendants, wanted to modify the rules of succession and to allow the accession of his illegitimate children (children of its mistresses) the throne of France. This decision was, as of the death of the king in 1715, broken by the Parliament of Paris, because of the intangibility of the rules of succession, the salic law being considered a “fundamental law of the kingdom”, and such not being able to be modified, even by the king.
Uses in other monarchies
The system of the salic law for the succession with the throne is or was into force in many monarchical modes.The abrogation of the salic law led to disputes and even to several civil wars in Spain, where it had been adopted following the accession of a French prince in 1700. In 1830, the king Ferdinand VII abrogea the salic law, which made to his/her girl Isabelle her heiress and excluded from the throne her Charles brother. This decision led to an important crisis of succession in Spain, the First war carlist (1833 - 1846).
It is often supposed that the salic law was used to separate the Grand-Duché from Luxembourg of the Netherlands. In fact, after the death of the king Guillaume III in 1890 without male exit, Wilhelmine of Orange-Nassau became queen of the Netherlands, while Adolphe de Nassau-Weilburg went up on the Luxembourg throne. This under the terms of a contract of heritage signed in 1783 between the two surviving branches of the House of Nassau, the line ottonienne (the House of Orange-Nassau) and the line walramienne (the House of Nassau-Weilburg). This separation was thus not based on a Luxembourg law or Dutchwoman but on a dynastic convention.
The salic law was repealed in Denmark in 1953, in Sweden in 1979 and Belgium in 1991.
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