CURIA REGIS
. Although most commonly used for courts of the Norman kings of England, the Latin
term curia ac quired a general usage for any court of a feudal lord and his vassals,
including any meeting, whether for social, judicial, or political affairs. In France, curia
tended to refer to the king’s council acting in a judicial capacity. Rarely did all the twelve
peers, as they came to be called, con-vene, much less meet together with lesser lords or
prelates, because the kingdom was so loosely united and royal power so limited before
the 13th century.
By the 13th century, the Capetian monarch was recognized as suzerain over a great
number of direct and subvassals. The curia regis decided cases between the king and
those who held directly from him while cases between his vassals-in-chief and their
vassals were settled in their courts, until St. Louis (r. 1226–70) insisted on the right of
appeal to his court in cases of denial of justice or faux jugement in the feudal courts.
Often, he sat with his judges, who became specialized as the Parlement de Paris and
broke off from the less specialized curia regis, which handled fiscal affairs as well as
general policy. During the reign of St. Louis’s grandson Philip the Fair (1285–1314), the
Chambre des Comptes also broke off from the curia to handle fiscal affairs, and the
Estates General evolved perhaps on the model of the English Parliament as a sort of great
council with prelates and representatives of the lower clergy, peers and representatives of
the lower nobility, and representatives of the towns. It asserted on occasion the power to
approve taxes and legislate as well as to advise on policy. Under Charles VII (1422–
1461), the Estates Gen-eral, which granted permanent taxes (taille and gabelle) for the
army, lost control of the purse.
William A.Percy, Jr.
[See also: CHAMBRE DES COMPTES; CONSEIL; PARLEMENT DE PARIS]
CURRENCY
. The Frankish monarchy inherited late Roman coinage and continued production of a
small gold coin known as the triente. While appropriate for large-scale trade, gold coins
represented too much wealth to be useful in ordinary transactions by small consumers.
Trade tended increasingly to be local and small in scale, requiring a coin of less value.
Late in the 8th century, Charlemagne introduced a new monetary system featuring a
silver penny (Lat. denarius, OFr. denier) weighing about 1.7 grams. Twelve of these
equaled a shilling (Lat. solidus, OFr. sol or sou), and twenty shillings equaled one pound
(Lat. libra, OFr. livre). Only the denier was an actual coin during the Carolingian period.
The sol and livre were “money of account,” denominations used for record keeping when
large sums were involved.
The Carolingian reform was so successful that a system of pounds, shillings, and
pence prevailed throughout Europe for 1,000 years. Centralized Carolingian power
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