Il Medioevo nel pensiero politico di Montesquieu. Origine ed evoluzione della monarchia in Francia.

This study focuses on the XXVIII, XXX and XXXI books of the Esprit des lois, dedicated to the origins of civil and feudal laws in relation to the history of the French monarchy, and aims to clarifying understudied aspects of Montesquieu’s theory of governments.Montesquieu’s theories are investigated by linking them to the eighteenth-century historiographical debates, to the political and institutional transformations of the French monarchy of the time and to author’s life. Through historical research Montesquieu means to interpret political events of his times, in particular the institutional changes taking place in the Kingdom of France: examining the socio-political and institutional upheavals that, starting from the realms generated from the disintegration of the Roman Empire, led to the birth of modern European monarchies, Montesquieu meditates on the power and forms of government in their historical development. This doctoral dissertation wishes to shed new light on the political theories contained in the Esprit des lois and highlight some aspects that, until now, have been mostly neglected by critics, in particular the role of seigneurial jurisdictions and feudal laws within the form of monarchical government, as well as the relationship between nobility and sovereign.