Social class in Middle Age and Early Modern France
The
French nobility
(
French
:
la noblesse francaise
) was an
aristocratic
social class
in France from the
Middle Ages
until its abolition on 23 June 1790 during the
French Revolution
.
From 1808
[1]
to 1815 during the
First Empire
the Emperor
Napoleon
bestowed titles
[2]
that were recognized as a new
nobility
by the
Charter of 4 June 1814
granted by
King
Louis XVIII of France
.
[3]
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
immemorial nobility
and the
ennobled families
.
[9]
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
Francois 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'epee
),
[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]
In 2016, it was estimated that roughly 4,000 families could claim to be French nobility, totaling around 50,000-100,000 individuals, or roughly the same number as they were in the 1780s.
[14]
Origins of French nobility
[
edit
]
Among the French nobility, two classes were distinguished:
[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.
[15]
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'epee) 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.
[16]
Immemorial nobility
[
edit
]
The
immemorial nobility
(also called
noblesse de race
or
noblesse d'extraction
) includes the families recognized for having always lived nobly and never ennobled.
[9]
Genealogists sometimes make the following distinctions:
[17]
- Noblesse d'epee
(sword nobility): Known as France's oldest aristocracy, but its existence has been denied recently.
[16]
- Noblesse feodale
(feudal nobility): nobility proved since the 11th century.
[17]
- Noblesse chevaleresque
(knightly nobility): nobility proved since the 14th century with the qualification of "knight" at this time.
[17]
- Noblesse d'ancienne extraction
(nobility of old extraction): nobility proved since the 15th century.
[17]
- Noblesse d'extraction
(nobility of extraction): nobility proved since the 16th century.
[17]
Ennobled families
[
edit
]
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:
- Noblesse de robe
(nobility of the robe): person or family made noble by holding certain official charges, like
masters of requests
, treasurers, or Presidents of
Parlement
courts. The
noblesse de robe
existed by longstanding tradition. In 1600 it gained legal status. High positions in regional
parlements
, tax boards (
chambres des comptes
), and other important financial and official state offices (usually bought at high price) conferred nobility, generally in two generations, although membership in the Parlements of Paris,
Dauphine
,
Besancon
and
Flanders
, as well as on the tax boards of Paris,
Dole
and
Grenoble
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 a vilain
("soap for serfs").
- Noblesse de cloche
("nobility of the bell") or
Noblesse echevinale/Noblesse scabinale
("Nobility of the Aldermen"): person or family made noble by being a mayor (
Bourgmestre
) or alderman (
echevin
) or
prevot
(
Provost
, or "municipal functionary") in certain towns (such as
Abbeville
and
Angers
,
Angouleme
,
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'Angely
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 degre
(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
Champagne
and
Lorraine
.
[18]
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
[
edit
]
Henry IV
began to enforce the law against
usurpation
of nobility, and in 1666?1674
Louis XIV
mandated a massive program of verification. Oral testimony maintaining that parents and grandparents had been born noble and lived as such were no longer accepted: written proofs (marriage contracts, land documents) proving noble rank since 1560 were required to substantiate noble status. Many families were put back on the lists of the
taille
and/or forced to pay fines for usurping nobility. Many documents such as notary deeds and contracts were forged, scratched or overwritten resulting in rejections by the crown officers and more fines.
[19]
During the same period Louis XIV, in dire need of money for wars, issued blank letters-patent of nobility and urged crown officers to sell them to aspiring squires in the Provinces.
[
citation needed
]
The rank of "noble" was forfeitable: certain activities could cause
derogeance
(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.
[20]
Privileges
[
edit
]
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
Louis XI
after 1440, and included the right to
hunt
, to wear a
sword
and to possess a
seigneurie
(land to which certain feudal rights and dues were attached). Nobles were also granted an exemption from paying the
taille
, except for non-noble lands they might possess in some regions of France. Furthermore, certain ecclesiastic, civic, and military positions were reserved for nobles. These feudal privileges are often termed
droits de feodalite dominante
.
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
banalites
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
[
edit
]
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
impot du sang
("blood tax").
History
[
edit
]
The Fronde and the Wars of Religion
[
edit
]
Before
Louis XIV
imposed his will on the nobility, the great families of France often claimed a fundamental right to rebel against unacceptable royal abuse. The
Wars of Religion
, the
Fronde
, the civil unrest during the minority of
Charles VIII
and the regencies of
Anne of Austria
and
Marie de' Medici
are all linked to these perceived loss of rights at the hand of a centralizing royal power.
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
Versailles
in the 1680s,
Louis XIV
further modified the role of the nobles. Versailles became a gilded cage: to leave spelled disaster for a noble, for all official charges and appointments were made there. Provincial nobles who refused to join the Versailles system were locked out of important positions in the military or state offices, and lacking royal subsidies (and unable to keep up a noble lifestyle on seigneurial taxes), these rural nobles (
hobereaux
) often went into debt. A strict
etiquette
was imposed: a word or glance from the king could make or destroy a career. At the same time, the relocation of the court to Versailles was also a brilliant political move by Louis. By distracting the nobles with court life and the daily intrigue that came with it, he neutralized a powerful threat to his authority and removed the largest obstacle to his ambition to centralize power in France.
Much of the power of nobles in these periods of unrest comes from their "clientele 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 regime
state was made possible only by redirecting these clientele systems to a new focal point (the king and the state), and by creating countervailing powers (the bourgeoisie, the
noblesse de robe
).
[21]
By the late 17th century, any act of explicit or implicit protest was treated as a form of
lese-majeste
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.
[22]
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.
[23]
The French Revolution
[
edit
]
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
banalites
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 feodalite dominante
, these were called
droits de feodalite 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.
[24]
The
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
had adopted by vote of the Assembly on 26 August 1789, but the abolition of nobility did not occur at that time. The Declaration declared in its first article that "Men are born free and equal in rights; social distinctions may be based only upon general usefulness." It was not until 19 June 1790, that hereditary titles of nobility were abolished. The notions of equality and fraternity won over some nobles such as the
Marquis de Lafayette
who supported the abolition of legal recognition of nobility, but other liberal nobles who had happily sacrificed their fiscal privileges saw this as an attack on the culture of honor.
The First Empire
[
edit
]
From 1808 to 1815 during the
First Empire
the Emperor
Napoleon
bestowed titles, which the ensuing
Bourbon Restoration
acknowledged as a new nobility by the
Charter of 4 June 1814
granted by
King
Louis XVIII of France
.
[25]
Napoleon also established a new knightly order in 1802, the
Legion d'honneur
, which still exists but is no longer hereditary. He decreed that after three generations of legionaries created knights by letters patent, they would receive hereditary nobility, but a small number of French families meet the requirement and the decree was abrogated and no longer applied.
The Restoration, July Monarchy and Second Empire (1814-1870)
[
edit
]
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
[
edit
]
Since the
French Third Republic
on 4 September 1870 the French nobility is no longer recognized and has no legal existence and status.
[26]
[5]
[27]
[28]
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
[
edit
]
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'honnete 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.
[29]
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 chateau 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 (
hotels 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.
[30]
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
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
posited that no human act ? however generous it pretended to be ? could be considered disinterested.
Titles
[
edit
]
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
courtesy title
without legal status or rank. Generally the titles were hereditary but could sometimes be personal. Under the
Ancien Regime
(before the French Revolution of 1789) titles were linked to a land called
fiefs de dignite
.
During the
Ancien Regime
, there was no distinction of rank by title (except for the title of duke, which was often associated with the strictly regulated privileges of the
peerage
, including precedence above other titled nobles). The hierarchy within the French nobility below peers was initially based on seniority; a
count
whose family had been noble since the 14th century was higher-ranked than a
marquis
whose title only dated to the 18th century.
Precedence
at the royal court was based on the family's
anciennete
, its
alliances
(marriages), its
hommages
(dignities and offices held) and, lastly, its
illustrations
(record of deeds and achievements).
Note :
- Ecuyer
(esquire) 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 (
dauphin
,
Prince du Sang
etc.) were not titles of nobility but titles of dignity.
The use of the
nobiliary particle
de
in a name is not a sign of nobility. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the
de
was adopted by large numbers of non-nobles (like
Honore de Balzac
or
Gerard de Nerval
) in an attempt to appear noble.
[31]
It has been estimated that today 90% of names with a particle are non-noble and a few authentic "extraction" nobles are without any particle at all.
[32]
[33]
[34]
Noble hierarchies were further complicated by the creation of
chivalric orders
? the
Chevaliers du Saint-Esprit
(Knights of the Holy Spirit) created by
Henry III
in 1578; the
Ordre de Saint-Michel
created by
Louis XI
in 1469; the
Order of Saint Louis
created by
Louis XIV
in 1696 ? by official posts, and by positions in the Royal House (the
Great Officers of the Crown of France
), such as
grand maitre de la garde-robe
(the grand master of the royal wardrobe, being the royal dresser) or
grand panetier
(royal bread server), which had long ceased to be actual functions and had become nominal and formal positions with their own privileges. The 17th and 18th centuries saw nobles and the
noblesse de robe
battle each other for these positions and any other sign of royal favor.
Heraldry
[
edit
]
In France, by the 16th century the
signet ring
(
chevaliere
) bearing a coat of arms was not a sign or proof of nobility, as many bourgeois families were allowed to register their arms, and they often wore them as a pretense of nobility.
[
citation needed
]
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.
[
citation needed
]
Originally, its purpose was practical and was worn by nobles and officials in the Middle Ages to press down and
seal
the hot wax with their coat of arms for identification on
official letters
, but this function became degraded over time as more non-nobles wore them for perceived status.
[
citation needed
]
The
chevaliere
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 Regime
First Empire
:
|
Prince
|
|
Duke
|
|
Count
|
|
Baron
|
|
Knight
|
Peerage
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Bulletin des lois de la Republique francaise, 1808, page 177"
. January 1808.
Archived
from the original on 28 January 2023
. Retrieved
30 November
2021
.
- ^
Lentz, Thierry (18 March 2024).
Thierry Lentz, Le Premier Empire: 1804 ? 1815, Fayard 2018, page 342
. Fayard.
ISBN
978-2-213-61387-1
.
Archived
from 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
.
- ^
"Repertoire general alphabetique du droit francais, 1901, page 533"
. 18 March 2024.
Archived
from the original on 27 April 2023
. Retrieved
15 March
2023
.
- ^
a
b
Regis Valette,
Catalogue de la noblesse francaise au XXIe siecle
, Robert Laffont, 2007, pages 12-13.]
- ^
Lancien, Didier; Saint-Martin, Monique de (4 July 2014).
Didier Lancien, Monique de Saint-Martin,
Anciennes et nouvelles aristocraties de 1880 a nos jours
, Les Editions de la MSH, 2014, page 232
. Les Editions de la MSH.
ISBN
978-2-7351-1371-2
.
Archived
from the original on 27 April 2023
. Retrieved
15 March
2023
.
- ^
Davis, William Stearns (18 March 2024).
William Stearns Davis,
A History of France from the Earliest Times to the Treaty of Versailles
, 1919, page 537
. Houghton Mifflin.
ISBN
978-0-598-77727-0
.
Archived
from the original on 27 April 2023
. Retrieved
15 March
2023
.
- ^
a
b
"Marc Guillaume, Maitre des requetes 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 Eugene See's
Esquisse d'une histoire du regime agraire en Europe aux XVIIIe et XIXe siecles
(1991).
- ^
"Why France's aristocracy hasn't gone away"
.
BBC News
. 29 October 2016
. Retrieved
12 May
2024
.
- ^
Viguerie, 781?82.
- ^
a
b
Guy Chaussinand-Nogaret,
Une histoire des elites, 1700?1848
, 2020, pages 44-51.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Valette, Regis (2007).
Catalogue de la noblesse francaise
[
Catalog of the French nobility
] (in French). Paris, France: Editions Robert Laffont. p. 11.
- ^
Grotius, Hugo (2005). Tuck, Richard (ed.).
The Rights of War and Peace, Book II
. Translated by Barbeyrac, Jean. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund. pp. 614, footnote 1.
ISBN
0-86597-432-2
.
- ^
Dewever, Richard (June 2017).
"On the changing size of nobility under Ancien Regime, 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
.
- ^
"Repertoire general alphabetique du droit francais, 1901, page 533"
. 18 March 2024.
Archived
from the original on 27 April 2023
. Retrieved
15 March
2023
.
- ^
Lancien, Didier; Saint-Martin, Monique de (4 July 2014).
Didier Lancien, Monique de Saint-Martin,
Anciennes et nouvelles aristocraties de 1880 a nos jours
, Les Editions de la MSH, 2014, page 232
. Les Editions de la MSH.
ISBN
978-2-7351-1371-2
.
Archived
from the original on 27 April 2023
. Retrieved
15 March
2023
.
- ^
Davis, William Stearns (18 March 2024).
William Stearns Davis,
A History of France from the Earliest Times to the Treaty of Versailles
, 1919, page 537
. Houghton Mifflin.
ISBN
978-0-598-77727-0
.
Archived
from the original on 27 April 2023
. Retrieved
15 March
2023
.
- ^
See Benichou.
- ^
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".
- ^
Lucas, Colin
(August 1973). "Nobles, Bourgeois and the Origins of the French Revolution".
Past & Present
(60). Oxford University Press: 90?91.
doi
:
10.1093/past/60.1.84
.
- ^
Velde, Francois R. (June 2008).
"Nobility and Titles in France"
.
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.
Archived
from the original on 20 May 2011
. Retrieved
25 July
2018
.
- ^
McDermott, John Francis (1941).
A Glossary of Mississippi Valley French, 1673-1850, Numeros 12-13
. Book on Demand. p. 65.
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
[
edit
]
- Benichou, Paul
.
Morales du grand siecle
. Paris: Gallimard, 1948.
ISBN
2-07-032473-7
- Bluche, Francois.
L'Ancien Regime: Institutions et societe
. 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
- Elias, Norbert
.
The Court Society.
(Originally publ., 1969) New York: Pantheon, 1983.
ISBN
0-394-71604-3
- Soboul, Albert
.
La Revolution francaise
. Paris: Editions Sociales, 1982.
ISBN
2-209-05513-X
- Viguerie, Jean de.
Histoire et dictionnaire du temps des Lumieres 1715-1789
. Collection: Bouquins. Paris: Laffont, 1995.
ISBN
2-221-04810-5
- Wright, Gordon
.
France in Modern Times
. 4th ed. New York: Norton, 1987.
ISBN
0-393-95582-6
Further reading
[
edit
]
- 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, Francois de (comp).
Dictionnaire de la Noblesse de la France
. 3d ed. 18v. Paris: Bachelin-Deflorenne, 1868?73 (Kraus-Thomson Organization, 1969).
- Pillorget, Rene and Suzanne Pillorget.
France Baroque, France Classique 1589?1715
. Collection: Bouquins. Paris: Laffont, 1995.
ISBN
2-221-08110-2
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