The Lord's First Night by Alain Boureau
The ultimate symbol of feudal barbarism has been the "droit de cuissage" or right of a feudal Lord to sleep with the bride of a vassal on her wedding night. This text demonstrates that it is a myth, under contextual examination nearly all the evidence for this custom melts away, yet belief in it has survived for seven hundred years. The text shows how each era turned the mythical custom to its own ends, in the late Middle Ages monarchists raised the custom to rally public opinion against local lords, and partisans of the French Revolution pointed to it as proof of the corruption of the Ancien Regime.
Alain Boureau, directeur d'etudes a l'E.H.E.S.S., est medieviste. Parmi ses derniers ouvrages: L'Evenement sans fin. Recit et christianisme au Moyen Age (1993), Le Droit de cuissage. Histoire de la fabrication d'un mythe (1995), Theologie, science et censure au XIIIe siecle. Le cas de Jean Peckham (1999), La Loi du royaume. Les moines, le droit et la construction de la nation anglaise (XIe-XIIIe siecles) (2001), Satan heretique. La naissance de la demonologie dans l'Occident medieval (1280-1330) (2004). Il dirige avec Ruedi Imbach la collection Bibliotheque scolastique et, avec Michel Desgranges, la collection Histoire. Il a realise l'edition des quatre tomes precedents.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780226067438 |
| ISBN 10 | 0226067432 |
| Title | The Lord's First Night |
| Author | Alain Boureau |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | The University of Chicago Press |
| Year published | 1998-09-01 |
| Number of pages | 310 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |