A Treatise of Orders and Plain Dignities

This was the first English edition of a treatise which influenced French thinkers from its publication in 1610 until the end of the ancien regime. Charles Loyseau’s Treatise of Orders and Plain Dignities is the third of three major works in which he sets out to harmonise with law his fellow citizens’ values and behaviour in the crucial sphere of possession and exercise of public power. Howell A. Lloyd’s introduction outlines Loyseau’s political thesis on the basis of all three of the author’s treatises, and examines in relation to the Treatises of Orders Loyseau’s use of literary, historical and legal materials within the philosophical framework that governed his approach. This edition thus not only makes available an important text, but also casts light upon the intellectual milieu of those who administered early-modern France.

• The first English edition • Makes available a text which was important and influential for nearly two centuries • Sets it in a broad and useful context of French political and legal thought

Acknowledgements; Introduction; Principal events in Loyseau\'s life; Bibliographical note; Note on translation and citations; List of abbreviations; Biographical notes; Dedicatory epistle: Charles Loyseau to the Honourable Jean Forget; Preface; 1. Of order in general; 2. Of the Roman orders; 3. Of the order of the clergy; 4. Of the order of nobility in general; 5. Of plain gentlemen; 6. Of the high nobility; 7. Of princes; 8. Of the third estate; 9. Of solemn deprivation of order; 10. Of the plain dignities of Rome; 11. Of the plain dignities of France; Index.