Quoted By:
Jean Bodin on the Nobility
>Another great bond of this empire lies in the patronage of the nobles. While in all the states of Greece the weak and the plebs were oppressed by the patricians and the patricians rather often were driven out by the attacking plebs and the two classes were perpetually quarreling, it happened by a certain divine goodness that since the laws of fiefs were proclaimed the nobles have guarded the lowly from injury as their retainers. This is, perhaps, the reason why empires endure so long among peoples who use these laws. But we have this additional advantage, that the first-born among our nobility, as well as among the Britons, take a great part of the whole inheritance, lest if the fields were divided among many, the glory of a noble class, which maintains military discipline, might perish.
So it's not true Bodin had a grievance against the Nobility.
But that is the Tocquevillist / Jouvenel reading of monarchy.
I recommend Jean Bodin, Bossuet, King James VI & I, Robert Filmer, Thomas Hobbes, Dante Alighieri (De Monarchia).
Besides, the business here is Monarchy (rule of One), not Oligarchy (rule of Few).
In a pre-eminent Monarchy, the Monarch has the supreme authority.
I roll my eyes at anons making Monarchy all about the Nobility
As if it were an Oligarchical estate and not Monarchical.
