FAVORITE AND VASSAL: LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP AT COURT OF MEDIEVAL RULERS (KOUAMENAN D.B.R. LE ROI, SON FAVORI ET LES BARONS: LÉGITIMATION ET DÉLÉGITIMATION DU POUVOIR ROYAL EN ANGLETERRE ET EN FRANCE AUX XIV e ET XV e SIÈCLES. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Press, 2021 (Pariser Historische Studien, 123). 449 p.)

The article is devoted to the book of D.B.R. Kouamenan which investigates the strategies of legitimation and of delegitimisation of french and english kings’ authority in late Middle Ages. The approach used by D.B.R. Kouamenan appears as a novelty when the author examines these strategies from cultural perspective and not from political one. D.B.R. Koumenan proves that in these strategies the notion of friendship was used to legitimate the ruler’s authority because this notion used to be a part of fundamental principles of feudal society. On the contrary the notion of sodomy was used to delegitimate the ruler’s authority and was meant to attack the courtly favouritism. The latter was supposed to undermine feudal relations because it was based on personal attachment and not on feudal lineage.

France, England, late Middle Ages, favouritism, feudalism, gender studies, comparative studies, legitimation, friendship, sodomy, court culture