A King Subject to the Law

From what we have seen it can be most clearly observed that the power of late medieval sovereigns was bound by significant limitations in their submission to the law.

This idea that the kings were obliged to respect the law gained ground after the rediscovery of Roman law, which was once again studied in European universities beginning in the late eleventh century.

Significantly, the Englishman Henry Bracton (d. 1268), one of the first jurists to codify common law (Bracton 1997), expressly placed the king sub Deo et sub lege (under God and the Law) (Loughlin 2010, 40). Similarly, Accursio, the author of the Magna Glossa, and one of the leading scholars of Justinian’s Corpus Juris Civilis, believed that the emperor was compelled to obey the law, even though there was nobody empowered to judge imperial infractions under the ancient Roman Empire. In this manner, at least theoretically, the idea that the law could limit the king’s authority began to take shape, without any doubt setting the stage for what we know as the modern-day “rule of law” (Caenegem 1995, 89).

Strayer (1971, 209) has described one of the most important kings of France, Philip the Fair (1285-1314), as a “constitutional king”, as the monarch strove to conform to the traditions of the French monarchy and the practices of the French government, endeavoring to stay within the letter of the law and observe the customs of the kingdom. Moreover, when he had to act outside of established custom he always sought to justify his action and obtain the consent of those affected. This is why the monarch convened the Estates General to explain his policies toward Boniface VIII and the Templars, for example, or sought approval for unusual taxes, reflecting the king’s desire to recognize legal limitations.

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Source: Aguilera-Barchet Bruno. A History of Western Public Law. Between Nation and State. Springer,2015. — 788 p.. 2015

A King Subject to the Law

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