Dès que l’on en vient au Moyen Age central, il est difficile de faire abstraction de l’enquête, tant cette procédure est caractéristique du regimen médiéval et devient centrale dans l’art de gouverner. L’article se centre sur la séquence politique majeure allant de Philippe Auguste aux derniers Capétiens, quand les rois de France se saisirent de l’enquête comme d’un mode de gouvernement, lors de la transformation progressive de leur royaume féodal en Etat moderne. Après avoir décrit la progressive diffusion de l’inquisitio et ses principales mutations, cette contribution se concentre sur les hommes qui menèrent ces investigations : les enquêteurs.
When studying the central Middle Ages, it is hard to miss the importance of the inquest, a procedure that becomes characteristic of the medieval regime and central to the art of government. This article focuses on the major political evolution from Philip Augustus to the last Capetians, a period during which the kings of France used the inquest as an instrument of government in the progressive transformation of their feudal realm into a modern state. After describing the progressive diffusion of the inquisitio and its principal mutations, the article concentrates its analysis on the men who carried out these investigations: the enquêteurs.
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