Quotation from: Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period

Written by: Paul Lacroix


The right of jurisdiction, which gave judicial power to the dukes and
counts in cases arising in their domains, had no appeal save to the King
himself, and this was even often contested by the nobles, as for instance,
in the unhappy case of Enguerrand de Coucy. Enguerrand had ordered three
young Flemish noblemen, who were scholars at the Abbey of "St. Nicholas
des Bois," to be seized and hung, because, not knowing that they were on
the domain of the Lord of Coucy, they had killed a few rabbits with
arrows. St. Louis called the case before him. Enguerrand answered to the
call, but only to dispute the King's right, and to claim the judgment of
his peers. The King, without taking any notice of the remonstrance,
ordered Enguerrand to be locked up in the big tower of the Louvre, and was
nearly applying the law of _retaliation_ to his case. Eventually he
granted him letters of pardon, after condemning him to build three
chapels, where masses were continually to be said for the three victims;
to give the forest where the young scholars had been found hunting, to the
Abbey of "St. Nicholas des Bois;" to lose on all his estates the rights of
jurisdiction and sporting; to serve three years in the Holy Land; and to
pay to the King a fine of 12,500 pounds tournois. It must be remembered
that Louis IX., although most generous in cases relating simply to private
interests, was one of the most stubborn defenders of royal prerogatives.

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