France
Royal Recovery
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| King Charles V of France grants the sword of Constable to Bertrand du Guesclin |
As important as recovering lost physical ground was Charles' efforts to restore the prestige of the royal crown. Parlement did not play a large role in this; rather, it was accomplished through the efforts of lawyers and scholars, and the actions of Charles himself at court.
The effects of the failure of the Capetian line still reverberated. The debate had been serious and while it had been settled decisively in favor of male succession, the house of Valois had done nothing to justify the choice. Charles tried to rectify that. In 1361 he promulgated an act, approved by the Parlement of Paris, that royal land was inalienable. This is in sharp contrast with the Golden Bull of 1348 over in Germany, one provision of which specifically required the Emperor to grant estates back out again when they escheated to the crown. In France, while estates could be granted to nobles, the estates were still specifically royal estates, held but not owned by the noble recipient.
Charles continued the practice of his forebears of giving special status to the apanages. These were estates held by the sons and other close relatives of the king. Very large and very wealthy (e.g., Burgundy or Orléans), these estates also enjoyed special privileges such as a portion of royal revenues. The apanages were likewise subject to rules regarding indivisibility and inalienability.
It was during these years (the Valois in general but particularly with Charles) that we find increasing emphasis on royal symbolism, especially on the oriflamme and the fleurs-de-lis, and most especially on the crown itself. For example, only the members of the royal family were allowed to display the fleurs-de-lis on their coats of arms. And the crown was the subject of direct praise, as a semi-mystical object. The king had long been held to have supernatural powers, the most important of which was the ability to cure scrofula, a skin disease, simply by touching the afflicted.
By emphasizing these elements, Charles helped to give the status of king an exalted dignity. He didn't invent these things, but the prestige of the crown was in bad shape when he came to power, and by reiterating, furthering, and propounding the symbolism and external signs of royal power (he also constructed royal palaces, etc.), Charles helped keep the monarchy's head above water, as it were. Coupled with some signal victories in the field, the reign of Charles V marks a change in the tides of fortune for France.