Facinger, Marion F. “A Study of Medieval Queenship: Capetian France, 987–1237.” Studies in
Medieval and Renaissance History 5(1968):3–47.
Kelly, Amy Ruth. Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1950.
ELECTION
. The word “election” has an ecclesiastical meaning, describing the process for choosing
abbots and bishops. It also referred to the geographical jurisdiction of the the fiscal
officers called élus. Yet it had a particular significance when applied to organs of the
royal government. It meant the selection of officials on the basis of merit, rather than
their being handpicked by the king and a few of his closest advisers. Election was an
attempt to eliminate corruption, nepotism, and cronyism. Various ordinances of reform in
the 14th and 15th centuries required that officers be “elected” by the royal council, which
often contained men who were not of the king’s own choosing. In practice, this
requirement of election was not always observed, but it was relatively successful in the
case of the Parlement de Paris, where “election” became a form of cooptation that gave
this court considerable practical independence.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
Cazelles, Raymond. Société politique, noblesse et couronne sous Jean le Bon et Charles V. Geneva:
Droz, 1982.
Lot, Ferdinand, and Robert Fawtier. Histoire des institutions françaises au moyen âge. 3 vols.
Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1957–62, Vol 2: Institutions royales (1958).
ELEDUS ET SERENE, ROMAN DE
. Extant in a single manuscript (B.N. fr. 1943), Eledus et Serene is a Picard reworking of
an earlier (lost) Occitan adventure tale, possibly in the form of a chanson de geste. The
lovers are mentioned in several southern French works, the earliest being Matfre
Ermengaud’s Breviari d’Amor of 1288. Lacking its ending and with important lacunae,
the poem nonetheless contains 7,314 octosyllabic couplets in its French version, which
was composed in the early 14th century. It may be a fictionalized account of the struggles
of the Romans and West Goths with the Vandals.
William W.Kibler
Reinhard, John R., ed. Le roman d’Eledus et Serene. Austin: University of Texas
Press, 1923.
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