repertory and were not always connected to the dance. Besides narratives with lyrical
insertions, refrains also appear in chan-sons à refrain and chansons avec des refrains,
and with music in many 13th-century motets. In the 14th and 15th centuries, refrains are
essential components of the formes fixes.
Lawrence Earp
[See also: BALLADE; DANCE; FORMES FIXES; MOTET (13TH CENTURY);
MULTIPLE REFRAIN SONGS (CHANSONS AVEC DES REFRAINS); RONDEAU;
VIRELAI]
Bec, Pierre. La lyrique française au moyen-âge (XIIe-XIIIe siècles): contribution à une typologie
des genres poétiques médiévaux. 2 vols. Paris: Picard, 1977.
Boogaard, Nico van den. Rondeaux et refrains du XIIe siècle au début du XIVe. Paris: Klincksieck,
1969.
Doss-Quinby, Eglal. Les refrains chez les trouvères du XIIe siècle au début du XIVe. New York:
Lang, 1984.
REGALE/REGALIA
. Legal historians describe as “regalian” those rights, powers, and prerogatives associated
with royal sovereignty, such as minting money, collecting taxes, punishing or pardoning
criminals, or making war. In theory, these were, or should have been, a royal monopoly,
but through most of the Middle Ages many great seigneurs exercised and profited from
some regalian rights. In most cases, their ancestors had acquired these by delegation or
usurpation and had transmitted them to their heirs as in-heritable private property.
Although only the greater territorial lords wielded significant regalian powers by the end
of the Middle Ages, some private exercise of these rights survived until the French
Revolution.
Prelates and religious bodies were among the seigneurs with some regalian powers,
generally as a result of “immunities” granted to churches as far back as Merovingian
times. When exercised by ecclesiastics, regalian rights formed part of the temporal
possessions (“temporalities”) of the church. Yet while the crown had conferred rights on
churches, it also took from them, the most famous example being Charles Martel’s
appropriation of church lands to provide income to support his warriors. Kings had long
been accustomed to intervening in the temporal affairs of the church, often to the
consternation of ecclesiastical reformers. Because of the assumption that the lands and
temporalities of the church derived ultimately from the crown, these were known as
“regalia.”
The term “regale” came to refer to a special regalian right over the temporalities of a
bishopric or monastery when the position of bishop or abbot was vacant. Although some
lords other than the king exercised the regale, it was much less widely dispersed than
other regalian powers, was gradually becoming a royal monopoly, and was not granted to
princes with apanages. The expanding royal control of the regale was one measure of the
growth of royal authority under the Capetian monarchy, but it was never a universal right
exercised in every diocese.
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