Editing Robert II of France (section)

====The royal administration====
Is known that since around 992, Robert II has exercised the royal power transmitted by his aging father Hugh Capet. Historians thus show that the first Capetians begin to give up power around the age of 50, by tradition but also because the life expectancy of a sovereign at that time is around 55–60 years. Robert II followed this tradition in 1027, his son [[Henry I of France|Henry I]] in 1059 and his grandson [[Philip I of France|Philip I]] in 1100.{{sfn|Bautier|1992|p=35}} In the image of his father and in the Carolingian tradition of [[Hincmar]] of Reims, Robert II takes advice from the ecclesiastics, something that was no longer done, to the great regret of the clerics, since the last Carolingians. This policy is taken up and theorized by [[Abbo of Fleury]]. From the time he was still associated with Hugh Capet, Robert II could write from [[Pope Sylvester II|Gerbert of Aurillac]]'s pen:

{{blockquote|author=Gerbert of Aurillac, ''Letter to the Archbishop of Sens'', ca. 987.{{sfn|Sassier|2000|p=205}}|"Not wishing in any way to abuse the royal power, we decide all the affairs of the ''res publica'' by resorting to the advice and sentences of our faithful ones."}}

The term that comes up most often in royal charters is that of "common good" (''res publica''), a concept taken from Roman Antiquity. The king is thus the guarantor, from the height of his supreme magistracy, of the well-being of all his subjects.<ref name="Guillot">Olivier Guillot, Yves Sassier, ''Pouvoirs et institutions dans la France médiévale'' (in French). Volume I: ''Des origines à l'époque féodale''. Colin, Paris, 2003, pp. 234–235. {{isbn|978-2-200-26500-7}}</ref>

The royal administration is known to us through the archives and in particular through the content of the royal diplomas. As for his father, Robert II record both a continuity with the previous era and a break. Historiography has truly changed his perspective on administration in Robert II's day over the past fifteen years. Since the thesis of Jean-François Lemarignier was thought that the space in which the diplomas were shipped had tended to shrink during the 11th century: "the decline is observed between 1025–1028 and 1031 to the various points of view of qualification categories". But the historian affirmed that, starting from Hugh Capet and even more under Robert II, the charters included more and more foreign subscriptions (signatures) than the traditional royal chancellery: thus the [[châtelain]]s and even simple [[Chivalry|knights]] mingled with the counts and bishops until then predominant and outnumbered them at the end of the reign. The king would no longer have been sufficient to guarantee his own acts.<ref>Jean-François Lemarignier, ''Le gouvernement royal aux premiers temps capétiens (987–1108)'' (in French). Picard, Paris, 1965, pp. 68–76. [https://www.persee.fr/doc/rhef_0300-9505_1968_num_54_152_1793_t1_0090_0000_2 online 1][https://www.persee.fr/doc/rnord_0035-2624_1966_num_48_189_5767_t1_0229_0000_5 online 2]</ref>

More recently, [[Olivier Guyotjeannin]] has brought to light a whole different perspective on the administration of Robert II. The introduction and multiplication of subscriptions and witness lists at the bottom of the acts sign, according to him, rather a new deal in the systems of evidence. The royal acts by addressees and by a chancellery reduced to a few people still consist for half of them, of a Carolingian-type diplomatic (monogram, Carolingian forms) until around 1010. The preambles change slightly under the chancellor Baudouin from 1018 but there is still "political Augustinism and the idea of the king as protector of the Church". Above all, underlines the historian, the royal acts drawn up by Robert II's chancellery do not open until very late and very partially to signatures foreign to those of the king and the chancellor. On the other hand, in the second part of the reign, one notes some acts with multiple subscriptions: for example in the act delivered at the [[Flavigny Abbey]] (1018), was notes the ''signum'' of six bishops, of Prince Henry, of Count [[Odo II, Count of Blois|Odo II of Blois]], of Count [[Otto, Count of Vermandois|Otto of Vermandois]] and some later additions. It seems nevertheless that the knights and the small counts present in the charters are not the rebellious squires of the traditional historiography but rather the members of a local network woven around the abbeys and the bishoprics held by the king.<ref>Olivier Guyotjeannin, ''Les évêques dans l'entourage royal sous les premiers Capétiens'' (in French). ''Le roi de France et son royaume autour de l'an mil'', Picard, Paris, 1992, pp. 91–93.</ref> Clearly, the changes in royal acts from the end of Robert II's reign do not reflect a decline in kingship.