L'idéologie constitutionnelle en France : le lit de justice

Résumé En

This historical essay develops a new interpretation of the Lit de Justice of the kings of France by concentrating on the historical and legendary life of the assembly and the ceremonial ritual and modes of discourse illicited therein : the Lit de Justice assembly made its constitutional début in the early XVIth century, not in the XIVth century, as previously supposed, and provided a forum for propagating precepts of French public law : following the novel convocation of Francois Ier three Lits de Justice of 1527 and 1537, and again in the wake of Louis XIII extraordinary inaugural Lit de Justice of 1610, the archival research of antiquarians produced first a fiction, then a legend, about the Lit de Justice within the assembly in the ancient French constitution. In turn, that influencial legend stimulated the convocation of more Lits de Justice in the XVIth century and numerous assemblies in the XVIIth century, evincing a transformation of constitutional ideology.