Most Christian Majesty

[Leo van de Pas]

In 1778 the USA Congress instructed to have a "Plan of a Treaty" with his most Christian Majesty of France.

It appears that the "Most Christian Majesty" title started in France with Charles V and Charles VI. Does anyone know what the origins of this title are?

With many thanks
Leo van de Pas
Canberra, Australia

[Francisco Tavares de Alme]

On 23 Fev, 19:07, "Leo van de Pas" <[email protected]> wrote:

In 1778 the USA Congress instructed to have a "Plan of a Treaty" with his most Christian Majesty of France.

It appears that the "Most Christian Majesty" title started in France with Charles V and Charles VI. Does anyone know what the origins of this title are?

With many thanks
Leo van de Pas
Canberra, Australia

It started some centuries before. France was the first state
recognised by the Church and was called the "Church's eldest
daughter". Because of their special relation with the Church, Frankish
Kings were called Rex Christianissimus, later in french Roi Très-
Chrétien. But the use in documents to third countries was only
generalised with Charles VI and with Charles VII it become an official
title used in diplomatic or particular documents but mostly for
external use (rarely inside France).

Best regards,
Francisco

P.S.- Spanish kings - Ferdinand and Isabel after the conquest of
Granada - received the title of Catholic Majesty and even later
portuguese kings become Most Faithfull Majesty. Hungarian kings were
Apostolic Majesty but that Papal title in Hungary had more than one
creation what may cause some disturbance in Richardson's well ordered
conceptions.
F.

[Christopher Ingham]

On Feb 23, 2:07 pm, "Leo van de Pas" <[email protected]> wrote:

In 1778 the USA Congress instructed to have a "Plan of a Treaty" with his most Christian Majesty of France.

It appears that the "Most Christian Majesty" title started in France with Charles V and Charles VI. Does anyone know what the origins of this title are?

In "Glorifying and Exporting French Kingship: Political and

Legal Models in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
(" in C.M. Coates, ed.,_Majesty in Canada: Essays on the
Role of Royalty_[TorontO, 2006], 158-80), S. Soleil discusses
how the French cultivated during the Renaissance the notion
of the exceptionality and glory of its polity. Theirs was the
earliest independent nation of Europe and the first to have
accepted the Christian faith, and their kings had always been
particularly favored by heaven.

"They firmly believed that God preferred France and its dynasty.
Their lack of doubt as to the veracity of the themes that they
developed explains why this discourse was exported with such
effectiveness abroad. For example, in the fourteenth century,
during the reign of Charles V, the pope gave the title of the
'Most Christian King' to the Capetian dynasty." [p. 160]

Christopher Ingham