The French nobility () is an aristocratic social class in France dating from the Middle Ages.
From 1808 to 1815 during the First Empire the Emperor Napoléon bestowed titles that were recognized as a new nobility by the Charter of 4 June 1814 granted by King Louis XVIII.
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 a hereditary distinction without any 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. However, the ancient authentic titles transmitted regularly can be recognized in the Grand Livre du Sceau (equivalent to the British Roll of the Peerage) as part of the name after a request to the Department of Justice.
Families of the French nobility could have two origins as to their principle of nobility: the families of immemorial nobility and the ennobled families.
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.Bluche, 84. 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 , ),Wright, 15. which agrees with the estimation of historian Jean de Viguerie,Viguerie, 1232. or a little over 1%. At the time of the Revolution, noble estates comprised about one-fifth of the land.Hobsbawm, 57, citing Henri Eugène Sée (1991), .
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.
Origins of French nobility
Among the French nobility, two classes were distinguished: The immemorial nobility for the families recognized for having always lived nobly. The ennobled families (ennobled by an office or by Letters patent from the King).
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 Gallo-Romans and subdued Germanic tribes that had also attempted to seize Gaul before the Franks, such as the Alemanni and Visigoths. The theory had no proven basis, but offered a comforting myth for an increasingly impoverished noble class.Viguerie, 781–82.
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.
Immemorial nobility The immemorial nobility (also called or ) includes the families recognized for having always lived nobly and never ennobled.
Genealogists sometimes make the following distinctions: (nobility of the sword): Known as France's oldest aristocracy, but its existence has, in recent years, been questioned by some scholars. (feudal nobility): nobility proved since the 11th century. (knightly nobility): nobility proved since the 14th century with the qualification of "knight" at this time. (nobility of old extraction): nobility proved since the 15th century. (nobility of extraction): nobility proved since the 16th century.
Ennobled families The ennobled families includes the families ennobled by an office or by letters patent from the King. Different principles of ennoblement can be distinguished: (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 existed by longstanding tradition. In 1600 it gained legal status. High positions in regional parlements, tax boards (), 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, Dauphiné, Besançon and Flanders, as well as on the tax boards of Paris, Dole and Grenoble elevated an official to nobility in one generation. (nobility of the chancery): commoner made noble by holding certain high offices for the king. The 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 ("soap for serfs"). ("nobility of the bell") or ("Nobility of the Aldermen"): person or family made noble by being a mayor () or alderman () or (, 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 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 , acquiring nobility as city councillors; by the Revolution these cities were only a handful. (military nobility): person or family made noble by holding military offices, generally after two or three generations. (ennobled through Letters Patent): person made noble by letters patent from after the year 1400. The 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 , but eventually resumed the practice. Acquisition Depending on the office, the acquisition of nobility could be done in one generation or gradually over several generations: (nobility in the first generation): nobility awarded in the first generation, generally after 20 years of service or by death in one's post. : 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 (through the female line) recognized as valid in the provinces of Champagne and Lorraine.
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 to which only commoners were subject. Moreover, non-nobles who owned noble fiefs were obliged to pay a special tax () on the property to the noble liege-lord.
Proofs of nobility 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 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. 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.
The rank of noble was forfeitable: certain activities could cause (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.
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 Louis XI after 1440, and included the right to hunt, to wear a sword and to possess a (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 .
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 ("blood tax").
History The Fronde and the Wars of Religion 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.
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 () 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 significant political move by Louis. By distracting the nobles with court life, he neutralized a threat to his authority and removed a large obstacle to his ambition to centralize power in France.