The Salic Law

Salic Law

The Salic regulation (Lex Salica) is a cipher of law in writing around the time of Clovis (476-96) for the Salian Franks, in Latin blended with Germanic words. It deals mostly with monetary compensations (wehrgeld) and furthermore with municipal regulation with esteem to men and land. Clause 6 in name 59, which agreements with inheritance rules for allodial lands (i.e. family countries not held in benefice) identifies that in "concerning salic countries (terra Salica) no piece or inheritance is for a woman but all the land pertains to constituents of the male sex who are brothers." A capitulary of Chilperic, ca. 575, expands this by admitting inheritance by a female child in the nonattendance of sons: "id a man had friends but after his death children and daughters stayed, as long as there were sons they should have the land just as the Salic regulation provides. And if the children are currently dead then a daughter may obtain the land just as the children would have finished had they lived." The monarchy is nowhere mentioned. The Salic Law was reformulated under Charlemagne and still applied in the 9th years, but it slowly went away as it became incorporated into localizedized widespread laws. By the 14th years it was completely forgotten.

Historical view

The first time under the French Capetian line that a monarch past away without departing a enduring male heir was in 1316, when Louis X past away leaving a 6-year old daughter Jeanne and a with child widow. The widow provided birth to a child who died within days. During the pregnancy, Louis' male sibling Philippe had been regent for both kingdoms of France (inherited from Louis' dad Philippe IV) and Navarre (from Louis' mother Jeanne de Navarre-Champagne). At the death of the infant, he had himself proclaimed nearest heir by an assembly of lords and prelates and was crowned on January 9, 1317.

Among the causes that may have decided in favor of Philippe over Jeanne was that he was a developed man prepared to rule, not a 6-year vintage girl. Moreover, Jeanne was the daughter of Louis X' first marriage to Marguerite de Bourgogne, implicated in the scandal of the Tower of Nesles or the activity of the King's Daughters-in-law (1314): she had been having an activity since at least 1311 (she was imprisoned in an unheated cell and left to pass away of cold in 1315). Therefore, Jeanne's legitimacy appeared tainted.

Philippe V died in 1322 departing four daughters, and the throne passed to his male sibling Charles IV, who also died departing only a female child and a with child widow in 1328. As in 1316, the nearest male heir was nominated regent: it was Philippe de Valois, first kin of the late king. When the widow devotes birth to a female child, Philippe de Valois, a developed man and famous lord, had no trouble being declared monarch by another assembly of lords and prelates in Vincennes and crested on May 29, ...