CONSTANTINE MAVROCORDATOS’ CONSTITUTION IN MERCURE DE FRANCE (1742) SOME PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON THE FRENCH TEXT
CONSTANTINE MAVROCORDATOS’ CONSTITUTION IN MERCURE DE FRANCE (1742) SOME PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON THE FRENCH TEXT

Summary/Abstract: The present paper is a first attempt to read through the lines of a legal text, namely the 1742 French version Constitution of Wallachia that was published in Mercure de France. Despite the differences between the original and the translation, we will not compare the two texts in the present paper. Our aim is rather to stress the ideas this very version of the Constitution presents for the first time to the French readers at a very critical moment both for the distant region of the Balkans and for their own political life and international relations under the King Louis XV. The “Constitution” seems to be conservative because the Prince is presented as elected with God’s will and he offers tax exemption to the Clergy and Nobles. But, between the lines, we can see that it is an effort to relieve the poor. The Prince also admits that some Nobles, Priests and Abbots or government officials should be controlled, in order not to act for their own benefit. Thus, he stresses that the modernization of a state has to do with laws properly applied, in fiscal, judicial, administrative and social issues. All these can be seen within the frame of the Early Modernity ideas when Enlightenment is getting more mature.

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