Kingship and Law in the Middle Ages

Originally published in 1914, Kingship and Law in the Middle Ages by Fritz Kern is one of the most important studies of early constitutional law. In this book Kern highlights the well-established traditions of the medieval state-its foundation on justice; the supremacy of the law; and the cooperation, with reciprocal rights and duties, of the monarch and folk in maintaining the law-and undertakes a thorough examination of the relevant legal theory underlying kingship in the early Middle Ages. How, he asks, did medieval canonists and jurists view the relationship between the rights of the monarch and those of the populace? Kern shows the origins of this debate to have stemmed from both church doctrine and the politics of early German states, which then set the ground for constitutional theory and modern liberalism. Kingship and Law in the Middle Ages remains an exceptionally informative study of the origins and development of constitutional government.

"The present volume makes available in English one of the classical expositions of early medieval kingship."-FRANKLIN L. BAUMER, American Historical Review

"No lawyer and no constitutional historian should overlook this volume. There is no question whatever as to the general importance of Kern's work."-B. WILKINSON, University of Toronto Law Journal