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French History Advance Access originally published online on May 15, 2007
French History 2007 21(2):147-164; doi:10.1093/fh/crm002
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for the Study of French History. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

The kingdom's two bodies? Corporeal rhetoric and royal authority during the religious wars

Penny Roberts*

* The author is Associate Professor in History at the University of Warwick. She can be contacted at penny.roberts{at}warwick.ac.uk


  Abstract

The conventional discourse of the body politic assumed a peculiar resonance during the French religious wars due to the unique identification of the king with the well-being of his kingdom. The duality of this relationship was echoed in the language and imagery of corporeal rhetoric which infused the declarations of all sides during the conflict. The combined threat of heresy and civil war, and the shared imperative to defend the unity and integrity of the kingdom, lent a renewed relevance, but also a profound discord, to this rhetoric. While opinions differed about the best means to cure France's ills—the royal policy of pacification being the most controversial of them—monarchical authority was bolstered by the king's undisputed role as head of the body politic and protector of, and physician to, his realm.


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