French nobility
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The French nobility (French: la noblesse française) was a privileged social class in France from the Middle Ages until its abolition on 23 June 1790 during the French Revolution.
From 1808
From 1814 to 1848 (Bourbon Restoration in France and July Monarchy) and from 1852 to 1870 (Second French Empire) the French nobility was restored as an hereditary distinction without privileges and new hereditary titles were granted. Since the beginning of the French Third Republic on 4 September 1870 the French nobility has no legal existence and status.[4][5][6][7] However, the former authentic titles transmitted regularly can be recognized as part of the name after a request to the Department of Justice.[8]
Families of the French nobility could have two origins as to their principle of nobility: the families of
Sources differ about the actual number of French families of noble origin, but agree that it was proportionally among the smallest noble classes in Europe. For the year 1789, French historian François Bluche gives a figure of 140,000 nobles (9,000 noble families) and states that about 5% of nobles could claim descent from feudal nobility before the 15th century.[10] With a total population of 28 million, this would represent merely 0.5%. Historian Gordon Wright gives a figure of 300,000 nobles (of which 80,000 were from the traditional noblesse d'épée),[11] which agrees with the estimation of historian Jean de Viguerie,[12] or a little over 1%. At the time of the Revolution, noble estates comprised about one-fifth of the land.[13]
Origins of French nobility
Among the French nobility, two classes were distinguished:[9]
- The immemorial nobility for the families recognized for having always lived nobly.[9]
- The ennobled families (ennobled by an office or by Letters patent from the King).[9]
In the 18th century, the comte de Boulainvilliers, a rural noble, posited the belief that French nobility had descended from the victorious Franks, while non-nobles descended from the conquered Gauls. The theory had no validity, but offered a comforting myth for an impoverished noble class.[14]
The French historian Guy Chaussinand-Nogaret, specialist of the French nobility in the 18th century, writes that some historians mistakenly confused the knightly nobility (noblesse chevaleresque) with the sword nobility (noblesse d'épée) that they opposed the robe nobility. He reminds that sword nobility and robe nobility are states, professions and not social classes within the French nobility and that they often merge within the same family. He writes that the notion of sword nobility means nothing and he reminds us that the King of France did not establish a military nobility until 1750.[15]
Immemorial nobility
The
Genealogists sometimes make the following distinctions:[16]
- Noblesse d'épée (sword nobility): Known as France's oldest aristocracy, but its existence has been denied recently.[15]
- Noblesse féodale (feudal nobility): nobility proved since the 11th century.[16]
- Noblesse chevaleresque (knightly nobility): nobility proved since the 14th century with the qualification of "knight" at this time.[16]
- Noblesse d'ancienne extraction (nobility of old extraction): nobility proved since the 15th century.[16]
- Noblesse d'extraction (nobility of extraction): nobility proved since the 16th century.[16]
Ennobled families
The ennobled families includes the families ennobled by an office or by Letters patent from the King).[9] Different principles of anoblissment can be distinguished:
- elevated an official to nobility in one generation.
- Noblesse de chancellerie (nobility of the chancery): commoner made noble by holding certain high offices for the king. The noblesse de chancellerie first appeared during the reign of Charles VIII at the end of the 15th century. To hold the office of chancellor required (with few exceptions) noble status, so non-nobles given the position were raised to the nobility, generally after 20 years of service. Non-nobles paid enormous sums to hold these positions, but this form of nobility was often derided as savonnette à vilain ("soap for serfs").
- Noblesse de cloche ("nobility of the bell") or Noblesse échevinale/Noblesse scabinale ("Nobility of the Aldermen"): person or family made noble by being a mayor (Bourgmestre) or alderman (échevin) or prévôt (Provost, or "municipal functionary") in certain towns (such as Abbeville and Angers, Angoulême, Bourges, Lyon, Toulouse, Paris, Perpignan, and Poitiers). Some towns and cities received the status temporarily or sporadically, like Cognac, Issoudun, La Rochelle, Lyon, Nantes, Niort, Saint-Jean-d'Angély and Tours. There were only 14 such communities by the beginning of the Revolution. The noblesse de cloche dates from 1372 (for the city of Poitiers) and was found only in certain cities with legal and judicial freedoms, such as Toulouse with the "capitouls", acquiring nobility as city councillors; by the Revolution these cities were only a handful.
- Noblesse militaire (military nobility): person or family made noble by holding military offices, generally after two or three generations.
- Anoblis par lettres (ennobled through Letters Patent): person made noble by letters patent from after the year 1400. The noblesse de lettres became, starting in the reign of Francis I, a handy method for the court to raise revenues; non-nobles possessing noble fiefs would pay a year's worth of revenues from their fiefs to acquire nobility. In 1598, Henry IV undid a number of these anoblissments, but eventually resumed the practice.
Depending on the office, the acquisition of nobility could be done in one generation or gradually over several generations:
- Noblesse au premier degré (nobility in the first generation): nobility awarded in the first generation, generally after 20 years of service or by death in one's post.
- Noblesse graduelle: nobility awarded in the second generation, generally after 20 years of service by both father and son.
Once acquired, nobility was hereditary in the legitimate male line for all male and female descendants, with some exceptions of noblesse uterine (through the female line) recognized as valid in the provinces of
Wealthy families found ready opportunities to pass into the nobility: although nobility itself could not, legally, be purchased, lands to which noble rights and/or title were attached could be and often were bought by commoners who adopted use of the property's name or title and were henceforth assumed to be noble if they could find a way to be exempted from paying the taille to which only commoners were subject. Moreover, non-nobles who owned noble fiefs were obliged to pay a special tax (franc-fief) on the property to the noble liege-lord.
Proofs of nobility
The rank of "noble" was forfeitable: certain activities could cause dérogeance (loss of nobility), within certain limits and exceptions. Most commercial and manual activities, such as tilling land, were strictly prohibited, although nobles could profit from their lands by operating mines, glassworks and forges. A nobleman could emancipate a male heir early, and take on derogatory activities without losing the family's nobility. If nobility was lost through prohibited activities, it could be recovered as soon as the said activities were stopped, by obtaining letters of "relief". Finally, certain regions such as Brittany applied loosely these rules allowing poor nobles to plough their own land.[19]
Privileges
From feudal times to the abolition of the privileges in 1789, the French nobility had specific legal and financial rights and prerogatives. The first official list of these prerogatives was established relatively late, under
With the exception of a few isolated cases, serfdom had ceased to exist in France by the 15th century. In early modern France, nobles nevertheless maintained a great number of seigneurial privileges over the free peasants that worked lands under their control. They could, for example, levy the cens tax, an annual tax on lands leased or held by vassals. Nobles could also charge banalités for the right to use the lord's mills, ovens, or wine presses. Alternatively, a noble could demand a portion of vassals' harvests in return for permission to farm land he owned. Nobles also maintained certain judicial rights over their vassals, although with the rise of the modern state many of these privileges had passed to state control, leaving rural nobility with only local police functions and judicial control over violation of their seigneurial rights. In the 17th century this seigneurial system was established in France's North American possessions perpetuating well into the 19th century under British rule.
Duties
Nobles were required to serve the king. They were required to go to war and fight and die in the service of the king, so called impôt du sang ("blood tax").
History
The Fronde and the Wars of Religion
Before
Before and immediately after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, many Protestant noble families emigrated and by doing so lost their lands in France. In certain regions of France a majority of the nobility had turned to Protestantism and their departure significantly depleted the ranks of the nobility. Some were incorporated into the nobility of their countries of adoption.[citation needed]
By relocating the French royal court to
Much of the power of nobles in these periods of unrest comes from their "clientèle system". Like the king, nobles granted the use of fiefs, and gave gifts and other forms of patronage to other nobles to develop a vast system of noble clients. Lesser families would send their children to be squires and members of these noble houses, and to learn in them the arts of court society and arms.
The elaboration of the ancien régime state was made possible only by redirecting these clientèle systems to a new focal point (the king and the state), and by creating countervailing powers (the bourgeoisie, the noblesse de robe).[20] By the late 17th century, any act of explicit or implicit protest was treated as a form of lèse-majesté and harshly repressed.
Economic studies of nobility in France at the end of the 18th century, reveal great differences in financial status at this time. A well-off family could earn 100,000–150,000 livres (₶) per year, although the most prestigious families could gain two or three times that much. For provincial nobility, yearly earnings of 10,000 livres permitted a minimum of provincial luxury, but most earned far less.[21] The ethics of noble expenditure, the financial crises of the century and the inability of nobles to participate in most fields without losing their nobility contributed to their relative poverty.
Guy Chaussinand-Nogaret divides the nobility of France into five distinct wealth categories, based on research into the capitation tax, which nobles were also subject to. The first category includes those paying over 500 livres in capitation and enjoying at least 50,000₶ in annual income. 250 families in total comprised this group, the majority living in Paris or at court. The second group numbered around 3,500 families with incomes between 10,000₶ and 50,000₶ These were the rich provincial nobility. In the provinces, their incomes allowed them a lavish lifestyle, and they made up 13% of the nobility. The third group were the 7,000 families whose income was between 4,000 and 10,000₶ per annum, which allowed a comfortable life. In the fourth group, 11,000 noble families had between 1,000 and 4,000₶ per year. They could still lead a comfortable life provided they were frugal and did not tend toward lavish expenditures. Finally in the fifth group were those with less than 1,000₶ per year; over 5,000 noble families lived at this level. Some of them had less than 500₶, and some others had 100 or even 50₶. This group paid either no or very little capitation tax.[22]
The French Revolution
At the beginning of the French Revolution, on 4 August 1789, the dozens of small dues that a commoner had to pay to the lord, such as the banalités of Manorialism, were abolished by the National Constituent Assembly; noble lands were stripped of their special status as fiefs; the nobility were subjected to the same taxation as their co-nationals, and lost their privileges (the hunt, seigneurial justice, funeral honors). The nobles were, however, allowed to retain their titles. This did not happen immediately. Decrees of application had to be drafted, signed, promulgated and published in the Provinces, such that certain noble rights were still being applied well into 1791.
Nevertheless, it was decided that certain annual financial payments which were owed the nobility and which were considered "contractual" (i.e. not stemming from a usurpation of feudal power, but from a contract between a landowner and a tenant) such as annual rents (the cens and the champart) needed to be bought back by the tenant for the tenant to have clear title to his land. Since the feudal privileges of the nobles had been termed droits de feodalité dominante, these were called droits de féodalité contractante. The rate set (3 May 1790) for purchase of these contractual debts was 20 times the annual monetary amount (or 25 times the annual amount if given in crops or goods); peasants were also required to pay back any unpaid dues over the past thirty years. No system of credit was established for small farmers, and only well-off individuals could take advantage of the ruling. This created a massive land grab by well-off peasants and members of the middle-class, who became absentee landowners and had their land worked by sharecroppers and poor tenants.[23]
The
The First Empire
From 1808 to 1815 during the
Napoleon also established a new knightly order in 1802, the
The Restoration, July Monarchy and Second Empire (1814-1870)
From 1814 to 1848 (Bourbon Restoration and July Monarchy) and from 1852 to 1870 (Second French Empire) the French nobility was restored as an hereditary distinction without privileges, and new hereditary titles were granted.
Nobility and titles of nobility were abolished in 1848 during the French Revolution of 1848, but hereditary titles were restored in 1852 by decree of the emperor Napoleon III.
From the Third Republic (1870) to today
Since the French Third Republic on 4 September 1870 the French nobility is no longer recognized and has no legal existence and status.[25][5][26][27] The former regularly transmitted authentic titles can however be recognized as part of a name, after a request to the Department of Justice.[8]
Aristocratic codes
The idea of what it meant to be noble went through a radical transformation from the 16th to the 17th centuries. Through contact with the Italian Renaissance and their concept of the perfect courtier (Baldassare Castiglione), the rude warrior class was remodeled into what the 17th century would come to call l'honnête homme ('the honest or upright man'), among whose chief virtues were eloquent speech, skill at dance, refinement of manners, appreciation of the arts, intellectual curiosity, wit, a spiritual or platonic attitude in love, and the ability to write poetry. Most notable of noble values are the aristocratic obsession with "glory" (la gloire) and majesty (la grandeur) and the spectacle of power, prestige, and luxury.[28] For example, Pierre Corneille's noble heroes have been criticised by modern readers who have seen their actions as vainglorious, criminal, or hubristic; aristocratic spectators of the period would have seen many of these same actions as representative of their noble station.[citation needed]
The château of Versailles, court ballets, noble portraits, and triumphal arches were all representations of glory and prestige. The notion of glory (military, artistic, etc.) was seen in the context of the Roman Imperial model; it was not seen as vain or boastful, but as a moral imperative to the aristocratic classes. Nobles were required to be "generous" and "magnanimous", to perform great deeds disinterestedly (i.e. because their status demanded it – whence the expression noblesse oblige – and without expecting financial or political gain), and to master their own emotions, especially fear, jealousy, and the desire for vengeance. One's status in the world demanded appropriate externalisation (or "conspicuous consumption"). Nobles indebted themselves to build prestigious urban mansions (hôtels particuliers) and to buy clothes, paintings, silverware, dishes, and other furnishings befitting their rank. They were also required to show liberality by hosting sumptuous parties and by funding the arts.[29]
Conversely, social parvenus who took on the external trappings of the noble classes (such as the wearing of a sword) were severely criticised, sometimes by legal action; laws on sumptuous clothing worn by bourgeois existed since the Middle Ages.
Traditional aristocratic values began to be criticised in the mid-17th century: Blaise Pascal, for example, offered a ferocious analysis of the spectacle of power and François de La Rochefoucauld posited that no human act – however generous it pretended to be – could be considered disinterested.
Titles
Nobility and hereditary titles were distinct: while all hereditary titleholders were noble, most nobles were untitled, although many assumed titres de courtoisie.
The authentic titles of nobility would be created or recognized by letters patent of the sovereign. If a title was not created or recognized by the sovereign it was a
- title of courtesywithout any rank.
- Duc
- Marquis
- Comte
- Vicomte
- Vidame: it was a rare title, always with the name of a diocese, as their origin was as the commander of a bishop's forces.
- Baron
- Chevalier (during the First French Empire), "chevalier" also was a title borne by a noble who belonged to an order of chivalry
During the
Note :
- Écuyer was not a nobility title, but a title borne by untitled nobles to indicate that they were noble.
- Seigneur ("Lord of the manor" and literally: "lord"): indicated a landlord's property but it did not indicate the owner was noble, especially after the 17th century.
- Titles worn by members of the royal family (Prince du Sangetc.) were not titles of nobility but titles of dignity.
The use of the
Noble hierarchies were further complicated by the creation of
Heraldry
In France, by the 16th century the
However, all noble families did have a registered coat of arms. The ring was traditionally worn by Frenchmen on the ring finger of their left hand, contrary to usage in most other European countries (where it is worn on the little finger of either the right or left hand, depending on the country); French women, however, wore it on their left little finger. Daughters sometimes wore the signet ring of their mother if the father lacks a coat of arms, but a son would not.[
The chevalière may either be worn facing up (en baise-main) or facing toward the palm (en bagarre). In contemporary usage, the inward position is increasingly common, although some noble families traditionally use the inward position to indicate that the wearer is married.[citation needed]. There is no legal or formal control or protection over signet ring carrying.[citation needed]
Symbolic crowns :
Ancien Régime
Duke and Peer of France
|
Duke | Marquis
|
Count | Viscount | Vidame | Baron | Knight |
First Empire :
Prince | Duke | Count | Baron | Knight |
Peerage
- Peerage of France
- List of French peerages / List of French peers
- List of coats of arms of French peers
- Seigneurial system of New France
References
- ^ "Bulletin des lois de la République française, 1808, page 177". January 1808. Archived from the original on 28 January 2023. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
- ISBN 978-2-213-61387-1. Archivedfrom the original on 27 April 2023. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
- ^ "Charter of 4 June 1814". Archived from the original on 6 July 2018. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
- ^ "Répertoire général alphabétique du droit français, 1901, page 533". 18 March 2024. Archived from the original on 27 April 2023. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
- ^ a b Régis Valette, Catalogue de la noblesse française au XXIe siècle, Robert Laffont, 2007, pages 12-13.]
- ISBN 978-2-7351-1371-2. Archivedfrom the original on 27 April 2023. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-598-77727-0. Archivedfrom the original on 27 April 2023. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
- ^ a b "Marc Guillaume, Maître des requêtes au Conseil d'Etat, Directeur des affaires civiles et du Sceau, Le Sceau de France, titre nobiliaire et changement de nom". 3 July 2006. Archived from the original on 5 June 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f du Puy de Clinchamps, Philippe (1962). La noblesse [The nobility] (in French). Paris, France: Presses universitaires de FranceS. p. 13.
- ^ Bluche, 84.
- ^ Wright, 15.
- ^ Viguerie, 1232.
- ^ Hobsbawm, 57, citing Henri Eugène Sée's Esquisse d'une histoire du régime agraire en Europe aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles (1991).
- ^ Viguerie, 781–82.
- ^ a b Guy Chaussinand-Nogaret, Une histoire des élites, 1700–1848, 2020, pages 44-51.
- ^ a b c d e Valette, Régis (2007). Catalogue de la noblesse française [Catalog of the French nobility] (in French). Paris, France: Editions Robert Laffont. p. 11.
- ISBN 0-86597-432-2.
- ^ Dewever, Richard (June 2017). "On the changing size of nobility under Ancien Régime, 1500-1789∗" (PDF). Paris School of Economics. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 January 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
- ^ Pike, John (2011). "Nobility - Classes and Precedence". Global Security org. Archived from the original on 31 January 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
- ^ See Major.
- ^ Viguerie, 1233.
- ^ Chaussinand-Nogaret, Guy; p. 53
- ^ See Soboul, 192–195 for information on the abolition of privileges.
- ^ "Charter of 4 June 1814". Archived from the original on 6 July 2018. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
- ^ "Répertoire général alphabétique du droit français, 1901, page 533". 18 March 2024. Archived from the original on 27 April 2023. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
- ISBN 978-2-7351-1371-2. Archivedfrom the original on 27 April 2023. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-598-77727-0. Archivedfrom the original on 27 April 2023. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
- ^ See Bénichou.
- ^ For more on this, see Elias. This kind of expenditure mandated by social status also links to the theories of sociologist Marcel Mauss on the "gift".
- .
- ^ Velde, François R. (June 2008). "Nobility and Titles in France". Heraldica. Archived from the original on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
- ISBN 9785873562893.
- ^ Mordell, Anne (January 2018). "Everyone Wants a French Noble Among Their Ancestors". The French Genealogy. Archived from the original on 28 October 2020. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
Works cited
- ISBN 2-07-032473-7
- Bluche, François. L'Ancien Régime: Institutions et société. Collection: Livre de poche. Paris: Fallois, 1993. ISBN 2-253-06423-8
- Chaussinand-Nogaret, Guy. The French Nobility in the Eighteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
- Hobsbawm, Eric. The Age of Revolution. New York: Vintage, 1996. ISBN 978-0-679-77253-8
- Major, J. Russell. From Renaissance Monarchy to Absolute Monarchy: French Kings, Nobles & Estates. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1994. ISBN 0-8018-5631-0
- ISBN 0-394-71604-3
- ISBN 2-209-05513-X
- Viguerie, Jean de. Histoire et dictionnaire du temps des Lumières 1715-1789. Collection: Bouquins. Paris: Laffont, 1995. ISBN 2-221-04810-5
- ISBN 0-393-95582-6
Further reading
- Ford, Franklin L. Robe & Sword: The Regrouping of the French Aristocracy after Louis XIV. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1953.
- Dioudonnat, Pierre-Marie. Encyclopedie de la Fauss Noblesse et de la Noblesse d'Apparence. New ed. Paris: Sedopols, 1994.
- La Chesnaye-Desbois et Badier, François de (comp). Dictionnaire de la Noblesse de la France. 3d ed. 18v. Paris: Bachelin-Deflorenne, 1868–73 (Kraus-Thomson Organization, 1969).
- Pillorget, René and Suzanne Pillorget. France Baroque, France Classique 1589–1715. Collection: Bouquins. Paris: Laffont, 1995. ISBN 2-221-08110-2