tailles of their own choosing. In the 15th century, this system of fouages began to be
called the taille, and lawyers called it the taille réel because the “hearth” in the Midi had
come to refer to a certain type of property holding that was roturier (i.e., neither noble nor
clerical) rather than to actual households.
In northern France, the fouage was directly linked to households and, while it was
reckoned at three francs, actual payments per household varied from one to nine francs
according to wealth. Charles V canceled it in 1380, but in a few years the government
began resorting to occasional special taxes. These were apportioned direct taxes not
unlike the old fouage, but they were called tailles. After fifty years of intermittent tailles,
the Estates General of 1439 authorized a taille that the crown continued to collect year
after year, adjusting the amount as it saw fit. Under Louis XI (r. 1461–83), the proceeds
of the taille soared from 1.2 to 3.9 million pounds. It was reduced sharply in 1484 but
remained thereafter the basic tax of the French monarchy.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
[See also: FOUAGE]
Henneman, John Bell. Royal Taxation in Fourteenth Century France: The Development of War
Financing, 1322–1356. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971.
——. Royal Taxation in Fourteenth Century France: The Captivity and Ransom of John II, 1356–
- Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1976.
Rey, Maurice. Le domaine du roi et les finances extraordinaires sous Charles VI, 1388–1413.
Paris: SEVPEN, 1965.
Stephenson, Carl. Medieval Institutions: Selected Essays, ed. Bryce D.Lyon. Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 1954, pp. 41–103.
TAILLEVENT, MICHAULT (LE
CARON)
(ca 1390– ca. 1458). Born in Saint-Omer, the prolific and versatile poet Michault le
Caron dit Taillevent served some twenty-five years at the Burgundian court as an actor in
farces, as the duke’s valet, and as court poet. His work includes occasional poems;
numerous short lyrics (some arranged into longer pieces) and satirical, political, and
reflective poems; and a morality play. The Psautier des vilains (1440), the Passe temps
de Michault Taillevent (ca. 1440), and the Débat du cœur et de l’œil (ca. 1444) are his
best-known works. Of these, the Passe temps is the most appreciated for its vivid
evocation of his personal history and anxieties as well as its announcement of
Renaissance preoccupations with the quick passage of time and the carpe diem
“solution.” Taillevent’s technical mastery of verse, the adaptable registers of his poetic
voice, and his blend of didacticism and personal reflections place him in the tradition of
Charles d’Orléans and Alain Chartier.
Janice C.Zinser
Deschaux, Robert, ed. Un poète bourguignon du XVe siècle: Michault Taillevent. Geneva: Droz,
1975.
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1702