From ca. 1260, the fairs developed the function of financial clearinghouse. Towns like
Montpellier and Perpignan acted as intermediaries in the late Middle Ages in financial
networks linking the Hispanic world with Bruges and northern France. Papal financial
operations from the capital of Avignon crisscrossed medieval France in the 14th century.
From the 13th century until 1307, the Temple in Paris functioned as the French royal
bank; Jews and Italians were also prominent on the national lending scene. French kings,
notoriously short of funds, borrowed frequently and were not adverse to confiscating
assets of their creditors to increase royal revenues. While Louis IX legislated against any
interest as usury, French kings in the 14th century sanctioned interest rates of between 15
and 20 percent. Medieval France lagged behind Italy and the Low Countries in the
sophistication of its private and public financial institutions.
Kathryn L.Reyerson
Bizaguet, Armand. “Les origines des institutions et des mécanismes bancaires en Europe
occidentale: de la banque romaine a l’empire napoléonien.” Revue internationale d’histoire de
la banque 9(1974):17–79.
——. The Dawn of Modern Banking. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979.
Reyerson, Kathryn L. Business, Banking and Finance in Medieval Montpellier. Toronto: Pontifical
Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1985.
BANNERET
. The word banneret was coined in France under Philip II to describe knights or esquires
who, as the commanders of military units of about ten to a hundred men (typically
including some other knights or esquires), displayed their personal heraldic arms on the
large rectangular flag called a “banner” (bannière) rather than on the small triangular
lance-pennon carried by knights and esquires of the rank and file. Down to 1438,
chevalier and escuier (or damoiseau) banneret constituted the highest noble pay grades in
the royal army, above those of chevalier simple or bachelier and escuier simple, but like
the proportion of knights the proportion of bannerets of both grades in the royal armies
diminished steadily between 1340 (when it was 1.5 percent) and 1411 (when it was 0.3
percent), and these grades were finally suppressed.
D’A.Jonathan D.Boulton
Contamine, Philippe. Guerre, état et société a la fin du moyen âge: études sur les armées des rois
de France 1337–1494. Paris: Mouton, 1972.
BANQUETING
. Banqueting in medieval France called for a group of separately served courses with
several dishes to a course—as many as fifteen in each of three to five courses at 15th-
century courts, with forty items in a course reported for the spectacular Pheasant Banquet
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