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The Lord's First Night:

The Myth of the Droit de Cuissage
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University of Chicago Press, Sep 1, 1998 - History - 300 pages
From the late Middle Ages to The Marriage of Figaro to Mel Gibson's Braveheart, the ultimate symbol of feudal barbarism has been the droit de cuissage, or right of a feudal lord to sleep with the bride of a vassal on her wedding night. The droit de cuissage even resurfaced in the debate over the French Penal Code of 1992 as a synonym for sexual harassment.

But, as Alain Boureau elegantly demonstrates in this book, the droit de cuissage is a myth. Under contextual examination, nearly all the supposed evidence for this custom melts away—yet belief in it has survived for seven hundred years. Boureau shows how each era turned the mythical custom to its own ends. For instance, in the late Middle Ages, monarchists raised the specter of the droit de cuissage to rally public opinion against local lords, and partisans of the French Revolution pointed to it as proof of the corruption of the Ancien Régime.

A fascinating case study of the folklore of sexuality, The Lord's First Night also offers evocative insights into popular (mis)conceptions of the Middle Ages.

On the French edition: "A richly informative study of attitudes to the past and the manipulation of history down the ages."—Peter Linehan, Times Literary Supplement
  

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Selected pages

Contents

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Copyright

Common terms and phrases

abuse Amiens Ancien Regime ancient archives Beam bishop Bizanos Boece Bordeaux bride canon Carpentier chapter chastity Christian Church Collin de Plancy corvee court Coutumes cullage culture custom Delpit denombrement domination dossier Douzens droit de cuissage droit du seigneur Dupin ecclesiastical edition emancipation fabliaux feudal formariage France French Georges Duby historians Ibid Jacques Jean juridical jurists jus primae noctis king land lord lord's Louis Louis Veuillot Louvie-Soubiron mainmorte marriage married medieval mention merchet Middle Ages milage Montauban Moyen Age myth night nineteenth century Normandy nouvelles parish Parlement de Paris payment peasant personal dependency Pierre poem political priest proofs published question Raepsaet ritual royal secular seems seigniorial seigniorial rights serfs Servin servitude sexual siècle sixteenth century social society Somloire tallage teenth term thirteenth century tion tradition trans twelfth century vassals Veuillot village villein wedding wife women young

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References from web pages

Boureau, Alain: The Lord's First Night
Boureau, Alain The Lord's First Night: The Myth of the Droit de Cuissage. Translated by Lydia G. Cochrane. 310 p. 6 x 9 1998 ...
www.press.uchicago.edu/ cgi-bin/ hfs.cgi/ 00/ 13493.ctl

Droit de seigneur - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Boureau, Alain. The Lord's First Night: The Myth of the Droit de Cuissage, translated by Lydia G. Cochrane, University of Chicago Press, 1998. ...
en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Droit_de_seigneur

Lenard R. Berlanstein - The French in Love and Lust - French ...
The Lord's First Night: The Myth of the Droit de Cuissage, by Alain Boureau. Translated by Lydia G. Cochrane (Chicago, 1998) ...
muse.jhu.edu/ journals/ french_historical_studies/ v027/ 27.2berlanstein.html

Richard Utz, phin 31/2005: 49-59.
Boureau, Alain (1998): The Lord's First Night. The Myth of the Droit de Cuissage. Trans. Lydia Cochrane, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. ...
web.fu-berlin.de/ phin/ phin31/ p31t4.htm

The lord's First Night - Boek - BESLIST.nl
Bekijk en vergelijk informatie, beoordelingen, vragen & antwoorden en de beste winkels voor 'The lords First Night' op BESLIST.nl ▪ Boeken Engels ...
boeken_engels.beslist.nl/ boeken_engels/ d0000041323/ The_LordS_First_Night.html

iuscholarworks Repository: Item 2022/2341
"Review of 'The Lord's First Night: The Myth of the Droit de Cuissage' (Boureau)." Folklore Forum 32(1/2):116-117. Other Information: Reviews ...
scholarworks.iu.edu/ dspace/ handle/ 2022/ 2341

Books by Alain Boureau
Search for. Author/Title, Keyword, Title, Author, Publisher, ISBN, Featured Books. in. All Scholarly Subjects, Scholarly & General Subjects ...
www.frontlist.com/ author/ 62114

Hexmasters Faktoider: Jus primae noctis
... Nacht av Dr. Hermann Friedrich Wilhelm Schmidt-Bleibtreu (1988) samt The Lord's First Night: The Myth of the Droit de Cuissage av Alain Boureau (1998). ...
www.faktoider.nu/ jpn.html

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY Department of History COLLOQUIUM HISTORICAL ...
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY. Department of History. COLLOQUIUM. HISTORICAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. Spring 2007. G57.1115.001 - Tuesday, 9.30AM-12PM - KJCC, ...
history.fas.nyu.edu/ docs/ IO/ 2907/ Bedos-RezakG571115.pdf

About the author (1998)

Alain Boureau is the director of studies at the Acole des hautes A(c)tudes en sciences sociales in Paris. He is the author of many previous books, including The Lord's First Night, Alter Histoire, L'AvA(c)nement sans fin, and La Papesse Jeanne.

Bibliographic information

QR code for The Lord's First Night
TitleThe Lord's First Night: The Myth of the Droit de Cuissage
AuthorAlain Boureau
Edition2
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press, 1998
ISBN0226067432, 9780226067438
Length300 pages
Subjects ›  › 

History / Europe / General
History / General
History / Medieval
Language Arts & Disciplines / Communication Studies
Social Science / Customs & Traditions
  
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