This project will examine the evolution of land law and systems of tenure in France during the period between the Wars of Religion and the Revolution. It is widely recognised that Louis XIV saw France's lingering feudal tradition as a threat to his absolutist vision of the French state, equally, it remains true that feudal law and tenure endured, in some forms, until the Revolution of 1789. Core elements of the project will involve the analysis of emergent ''national'' legal literature and its relationship to existing sources of law, many of which predate the emergence of the modern French polity. The challenges posed by feudalism for the political thought and practice of the French monarchy will be considered, as will feudal law's enduring relevance. Neither the specific region(s) studied nor the methodologies of this project are prescribed, but it is envisioned that analysis of French legal literature of the period will be central to the project. Research will focus on the emergence of municipal/national legal literatures which supplants or complements the existing structures of customary and feudal law, with consideration of the challenges which feudalism posed for the Bourbon state of Louis XIV and his successors.