§ VIII
The King's First Study: Justice and the Law of Nations
The king must move beyond private property laws to study the true form of government, the law of nations, and the fundamental laws that shape justice between his nation and himself.
Have you studied the true form of government of your kingdom?1 It isn't enough to know the laws that govern ownership of land and other goods among private persons: that is, without a doubt, the lesser part of justice.2 What is at stake is the justice you must keep between your nation and yourself, and between yourself and your neighbors.3 Have you seriously studied what is called the law of nations—a law a king is all the less free to ignore, because it is the law that governs his conduct in his most important duties, and because this law reduces to the most obvious principles of natural law for the whole human race?4 Have you studied the fundamental laws and the long-standing customs that have the force of law for the general government of your particular nation?
The Bounds and Roots of Royal Authority
The king is to know without flattery the limits of his power, and to understand the changing forms of the kingdom, from old parlements and Estates-General to ordered royalty between anarchy and arbitrary power.
Have you tried to know, without flattering yourself, what the bounds of your authority are?5 Do you know by what forms the kingdom was governed under the various dynasties?67 What the old parlements were, and the Estates-General that succeeded them; what the subordination of the fiefs was; how things passed into their present state; on what that change is founded; what anarchy is; what arbitrary power is; and what royalty ordered by the laws is—the middle path between those two extremes?89
Learning as an Essential Duty of Kingship
No judge or general would act without skill, and God does not permit a king to reign untaught; therefore the study of history, customs, and the old government is an essential royal duty.
Would you let a judge decide cases without knowing the law, and a general command an army without knowing the art of war?10 Do you believe that God allows you, if you reign, to reign without being taught what must limit and govern your power?11 So you must not treat the study of history, of customs, and of every detail of the old form of government as idle curiosity, but as an essential duty of kingship.
Read the original French
Avcz-vous étudié la vraie forme du gouvernement de votre royaume? Une suffît pas de savoir les lois qui règlent la propriété des terres et autres biens, entre les particuliers : c'est sans doute la moindre partie de la justice. Il s'agit de celle que vous devez garder entre votre nation et vous, entre vous et vos voisins. Avez-vous étudié sérieusement ce qu'on nomme le droit des gens : droit qu'il est d'autant moins permis à un Roi d'ignorer, que c'est le droit qui règle sa conduite dans ses plus importantes fonctions, et que ce droit se réduit aux principes les plus évidents du droit naturel pour tout le genre humain? Àvez-vous étudié les lois fondamentales et les coutumes constantes qui ont force de loi pour le gouvernement général de votre nation particulière ? Avez-vous cherché à connoître sans vous flatter, quelles sont les hornes de votre autorité? Savez-vous par quelles formes le royaume s'est gouverne sous les diverses races ? Ce que c'était que les anciens parlements et les étatsgénéraux qui leur ont succédé ; quelle étoit la subordination 7 des fiefs ; comment les choses ont passé à l'état présent ; sur quoi ce changement est fondé ; ce que c'est que l'anarchie ; ce que c'est que la puissance arbitraire ; et ce que c'est que la royauté réglée par les lois, milieu entre les deux extrémités ?
Souffririez; - vous qu'un juge jugeât, sans savoir l'ordonnance, et qu'un général d'armée commandât, sans savoir l'art militaire? Croyezvous que Dieu souffre,si vous régnez, que vous régniez sans être instruit de ce qui doit borner et régler votre puissance ? Il ne faut donc pas regarder l'étude de l'histoire, des mœurs et de tout le détail de l'ancienne forme du gouvernement, comme une curiosité indifférente, mais comme un devoir essentiel de la royauté.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source reads «Avcz-vous»; translated as intended «Avez-vous» (Have you).
- 2 ↩Source opens «Une suffît pas»; translated as intended «Il ne suffit pas» (It is not enough).
- 3 ↩«celle» refers back to «la justice» in the previous sentence; rendered as «the justice» for clarity.
- 4 ↩«droit des gens» is the classical term for the law of nations (ius gentium); kept as «law of nations» rather than modern «international law» to match Fénelon's register.
- 5 ↩Source «hornes» corrected to intended «bornes» (bounds/limits).
- 6 ↩Source «s'est gouverne» read as intended past participle «s'est gouverné».
- 7 ↩«races» here means royal houses/dynastic lines, not ethnic groups; rendered «dynasties».
- 8 ↩Stray «7» after «subordination» treated as a footnote-marker artifact, not part of the sentence.
- 9 ↩«parlements» left as parlements (French sovereign courts), not English «parliaments», to avoid anachronistic constitutional sense; «états-généraux» as Estates-General.
- 10 ↩Source punctuation is corrupt (“Souffririez; - vous”); read as Souffririez-vous. Ordonnance here is the body of law a judge must know, not a mere administrative order.
- 11 ↩Souffre here means “allows/permits,” not “suffers pain.”
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