Duchy of Lorraine

The duchy of Lorraine was born from the division of the Lotharingie in 959. The Duché will perdurera until in 1766, date of its integration in the Royaume of France. Its capital was Nancy.

History

Formation of the duchy

Lorraine is resulting from several divisions:
  • in 843, by the Treated of Verdun, where the wire of Louis the Piles divide the Carolingian Empire. The territory of future Lorraine returned to Lothaire Ier
  • in 855, with died of Lothaire Ier, its sons divide its kingdom and its northern part returns to Lothaire II. Its kingdom is indicated by Lotharii regnum , which will become deformed in Lotharingie . With its death (869), Lotharingie is divided by his/her two uncles by the Traité of Mersen, but Louis the Young person joins together of them the two parts by the Traité of Ribemont.
  • From 901, Lotharingie will be entrusted by the Germanie king then the emperor to dukes, but importance of this duchy, which is a border vis-a-vis the kingdom of France, as well as the frequent revolts of the dukes of Lotharingie, will lead Brunon of Cologne and its brother the emperor Otton Ier to divide Lotharingie into two:
    • the Low-Lotharingie , corresponding overall to current the the Benelux countries
    • the Highone, which will become the duchy of Lorraine .

This duchy of Lorraine, until its fastening in France in 1766, will always depend on the Germanic Roman Holy roman Empire, the emperor investing the dukes who follow one another dynastiquement.

High Lotharingie

Brunon installed a vice-duke into High-Lotharingie, who was the count de Bar Frederic de Bar. This last becomes duke of High Lotharingie in 977, and charges it (because with dead of a duke, the emperor named the new duke) transmitted itself to its descendants, until Frederic III, which died in 1033. The duchy was then entrusted to a cousin Gothelon Ier who was already duke of Low-Lotharingie. With its death in 1044, his/her son Godefroy II was named duke High-Lotharingie, but not the Lowone. Irritated, he revolted, was overcome and the duchy was confiscated to him to be given in 1047 to Adalbert of Alsace.

In 1048, Gerard Ier of Lorraine, is named by the emperor. He will be founder of the Family of Lorraine, makes build a castle seigneurial near a small village (Nanceio) which will become later the Capital of the Dukes: Nancy.

The various disorders which agitated the duchy for this period made that certain Lorraine lords revolted and made themselves more or less independent:

The house of Alsace

Adalbert, then its nephew Gerard of Alsace had to fight Godefroy II, the former évincé duke who did not acknowledge himself not overcome. With died of Gerard, Louis of Montbeliard, Lord of Monsoon, count de Bar and brother-in-law of Frederic III disputed the succession with Thierry II of Alsace. The emperor sliced in favor of Thierry, but it was to remain a competition between the dukes of Lorraine and the counts de Bar, which will perdurera until in 1420.

The Lorraine dukes were the faithful ones of the emperor, but kept a careful reserve during the Querelle of the Nominations. Thiébaud I {{er}} had to fight at the side of Othon IV of Brunswick to Bouvines, was made prisoner. Released, he fought against Frederic II of Hohenstaufen, which set fire to Nancy. Litigations with the count de Champagne where it was also overcome obliged it to be declared vassal of the count de Champagne for some strongholds located at the west of its states.

One century later, the marriage between Jeanne de Champagne and Philippe IV Beautiful the placed it in the direct vassalage of king de France. The French influence started to be felt in Lorraine. The duke Raoul fought with Crécy at the sides of the French, and was killed there, in 1346. Its grandson Charles II, took the party of Burgundy in the conflict of the Armagnacs and Burgundian the, but after the death of Jean without Peur and with the policy openly pro-English of Philippe III the Good, it chose a policy of neutrality and Maria in 1420 her girl Isabelle with Rene Ier of Anjou, a prince capétien of the house of Anjou-Valois, heir to the county of Bar, and future brother-in-law of the king Charles VII.

Of Rene Ier of Anjou to the Wars of religion

Charles II succeeded his daughter Isabelle Ire of Lorraine, the husband of Isabelle, Rene Ier of Anjou, already duke of Bar, also took the title of duke of Lorraine. But the succession was also asserted by Antoine, count de Vaudémont, nephew of Charles II, as a next of kin by the males. Antoine was supported by Philippe III the Good, duke of Burgundy; Rene, beaten in 1431 with Bulgnéville, was taken along in captivity to Dijon. He was released only in 1437; having become meanwhile duke of Anjou, count de Provence and king de Naples, it left Lorraine to join its new States, leaving Lorraine to his son Jean II ( Jean of Calabria ).

In 1473, the duchy passed to Rene II, grandson at the same time of Rene Ier and Antoine de Vaudémont. It had to defend its duchy against Charles Bold the, which died in front of Nancy in 1477 (cf Bataille of Nancy). But Rene scrambled with Louis XI, which refused the heritage of his/her grandfather and in particular the duchy to him of Anjou. Rene II approached the Empire then. To escape French suzerainty, it bequeathed all its French fields, of which the county of Own way, with its second wire Claude, who was naturalized French by the king François Ier and was the stem of the Maison of Own way.

Antoine Ier, the oldest son of Rene II, approached France and subdued the Révolte of the Alsatian bumpkins. In 1552, the king de France Henri II took the Three bishoprices. The emperor Charles Quint had then given up his suzerainty on Lorraine which became for at the time independent. During the Wars of religion, the duke Charles III supported the Holy-League, directed by his cousins of Own way, but refused to intervene directly in the conflicts.

With died of the king Henri III, Charles did not accept that France returns to Protestant and proposed the candidature of his/her own son, the hereditary prince Henri of Lorraine, nephew of Henri III of France by his mother Claude of France. But the League gave support little to him, and the conversion of Henri IV put a term at this claim; to seal the reconciliation, prince Henri of Lorraine married the sister of Henri IV, Catherine of Bourbon.

Between France and Austria

The death of the duke Henri II (1624) announced a difficult succession. The will of Rene II had specified that Lorraine was to be transmitted only in male line, but Henri II, without wire, had indicated to succeed to him his daughter Nicole, married to a first cousin, Charles de Vaudémont, which was to hold the role of " duke consort". But Charles pushed his father François de Vaudémont, the older brother of the late duke, to assert the duchy: he obtained win later one year, and abdicated in favor of his son. Nicole was thus évincée of the succession in spite of the provisions of her father, and Charles received full sovereignty.

The king of France Louis XIII having expressed his opposition to this succession, Charles IV approached Habsbourg, combatant at their sides the Protestant princes, and accommodating the opponents with kings de France. In 1631, the troops of Gustave-Adolphe, king de Suède devastated Lorraine. The French troops occupied Lorraine and Charles IV had to abdicate in 1634 in favor of his brother Nicolas François, considered to be more malleable by the king of France.

In 1635, Nicolas François escapes the French supervision and flees; Charles IV tries to reconquer his duchy but without success, and Lorraine is devastated then occupied again by the French. The Three bishoprices are definitively joined together in France in 1648. Except for short periods, the dukes will not be able to remain any more in Lorraine until in 1697: by the Treated of Ryswick, Louis XIV then returns the duchy to the duke Léopold, born at the court from Vienna, but which married for the occasion one of the nieces of king de France, the princess Elisabeth Charlotte of Orleans.

Fastening in France

In 1736, the duke François III, wire of Léopold, marries the archduchess Marie-Therese of Austria, heiress of the Habsbourg.

Alsace was gradually annexed to the kingdom of France during the reign of Louis XIV. In this situation, Lorraine and Barrois are almost a foreign enclave in its territory: Louis XV refuses to see it passing completely between the hands of a foreign great power, which more is the Empire, his hereditary enemy. The Austria and France conclude a market in virtue of which François gives up Lorraine to become large-duke of Toscane (Austrian possession), and France accepts the Pragmatic Sanction of the emperor.

In order to spare susceptibilities, the duchies are not immediately annexed in France but given, on a purely basis for life, the father-in-law of Louis XV, the ex-king of Poland Stanislas Leszczyński which, starting from 1737, is the last sovereign duke. The country is already controlled in fact by a chancellor named by France and, to died of Stanislas in 1766, Lorraine and Barrois are definitively annexed in France and are reorganized.

Ducal administration

With the head of the hierarchy, the duke of Lorraine and Bar was. However it would be an error to believe that before the Révolution, one knew only the mode of the absolute Pouvoir. Here, at least until the XVIIe century, the government was really constitutional.

General states

Each year, indeed (more often even when the circumstances required it), the General states met, generally in Nancy. They included/understood:

  • the Nobility, i.e. members of the old Lorraine knighthood, and with time, the anoblis, not a certain number of them, but all those which wanted to go there,
  • the Clergé (not of the members elected in its center, but those which occupied such or such privileged situation, like the senior of the Primatiale of Nancy or the Prieur of Châtenois),
  • the Tiers State, i.e. deputies of the cities or the villages surrounded by walls, many in Lorraine with the Moyen-âge.

The power of the General states was very large: succession with the throne, supervision of the duchy, laws and taxes, all the important businesses were subjected to their decision. One seldom saw the duke modifying what they had solved. It was a guarantee for the people, but an embarrassment for the ducal power which sought to be freed from this control. The meeting of 1629 was the last, Charles IV always gave to later the convocation of the General states and the occupation of Lorraine by the French supported his intention.

After the treaty of Ryswick in 1697, Léopold took care well not to restore the States, despite everything the complaints. Making of its duchy a small absolute monarchy with the image of large of which he was the neighbor, he raised there taxes without control, he returned justice supremely there. Remainder, its people was not more unhappy, so much it had in heart to make him good. His/her son François III imitated it. But after its departure for Austria in 1737, the Lorraine ones had to undergo the orders of an intendant without pity, represented with the bailliage by its subdelegated: they had to suffer much from the abuses and the financial distress of the government under which they passed. Also they with joy accommodated, in 1789, the meeting of the General states which pointed out one of their older institutions and which in their thought was to put an end to their evils!

Council of State

Time of the General states, as after their suppression, the duke of Lorraine exerted his government by his Council of State , more often called private Conseil , than it chaired the every day.

Organized already perfectly in XVIe century under the mode of Charles III, this Council saw François III in 1739 (problem of date?) and Stanislas on his arrival in Lorraine to modify its composition of it, but its attributions remained about the same ones. As nowadays, in our Council of Ministers, one treated what related to the good administration of the duchies of Lorraine and Bar, then, the finished council, the secretaries (as the current employees of ministries) wrote the instructions to be given inside and outside, because the Duke of Lorraine also maintained the ambassadeurs in the majority of the courses foreign.

Bailliages

The Dukes of Lorraine established on their grounds the 3 Bailliage S of Nancy, Vôge and Germany, administrative zones being distributed prévôtés.

With the head of the bailliage was the bailli, chief of the civil capacity. It is with him that the Duke of Lorraine addressed his ordinances: letter of S.A. to the Baillif S of each province:

  • on the liftings of people of war,
  • to transport the grain in place closed and strengthened,
  • on the precautions to be taken against the contagion,
  • mandement of S.A. to the sior baillif de Vôge for the fact of hunting,
  • to make inform against the receiver of Neufchâteau on liftings of sums of money, etc
The Baillif was to make publish the ordinance with the chief town of bailliage, to transmit it to the provosts, and to take care that those make it publish and carry out.
"And finally that no one does not claim of it ignorance, you will make publish this nostre presents ordinance to public cry and will order from all the provosts to hold the hand and to have the eye, that the contents are maintained, on sorrow to answer about it. Sy will not make fault there, because thus us plaît."
Chief of the judicial power, the baillif chaired the tribunal bailliage and even that of Bases, but it was not entitled to vote, its functions were limited to the preparatory and executory acts of justice. Military chief, the baillif enlists the men necessary, the conduit with the ducal army, their order in time of war. In times of peace, the troops in garrison obey the baillif as with the chief of their province.

In the organization chart, after the baillif, lieutenant it général came. It helped the baillif and replaced it in its absence. One will quote for example:

  • with Mirecourt, Louis Pierre Alba, lord of Ravon and Villers, announced in 1746 for a sale of grounds,
  • with Neufchâteau, of 1765 to 1781, Claude Sauville (salesman of a Gagnage with Neuveville), then Jean Claude Cherrier (elected appointed with the General states).
After the general Lieutenant, lieutenant it particulier intervened which came to him to assistance. Thus in 1790, Joseph Daniel Maire exerts the functions of the general lieutenant appointed with the National Assembly.

There were then a assesseur and some conseillers called formerly échevins. Claude Quinot, for example, who was president of the Directoire department of the Vosges, had been Assesseur with the bailliage of Neufchâteau.

There were finally the procuror général and his substitut. Among the known prosecutors, one will quote, for example, Louis Malcuit, dispossessed of his load by Louis XIII in punishment of his fidelity to the Duke Charles IV.

Without speaking about lawyers, ushers, sergeants, notaries, one will only point out that separately the baillif and his lieutenants, the other officers of the bailliage exerted rather legal functions.

Prévôtés

With the head of prévôté, the provost was, who exerted triple capacity there: civilian, legal and military. He made publish and addressed to the mayors the ducal ordinances which he received from the baillif. He continued the criminals, supervised the fairs and returned justice in times of peace. In time of war, it ordered the quota of its territorial district. It is conceived that the provost did not always have to rent soldiers raised without any preparation. In the War of the Bumpkins, in 1525, the Duke Antoine, for example, was so dissatisfied with the indiscipline of the quotas of Châtenois and Dompaire that it returned them in their country.

Below the provost his lieutenant was. With them, there was an assessor, a substitute of the public prosecutor. An usher, a sergeant, a clerk supplemented the court of prévôté. Here, as with the chief town of the bailliage, the offices, besides those of the provost and of his lieutenant, were rather offices of judicature.

Village municipalities and communities

Before having a common administration, the inhabitants of the villages were taillables and corvéables at mercy, they were the thing of the lord. The origin of this absolute capacity of a caste privileged on the mass has multiple causes:
1. The constitution of the rural property such as it was in Gaulle Roman, i.e. the existence of great fields had by the noble ones and cultivated by slaves who remained there and whom one sold with the funds;
2. Invasions of the Barbarians during which the populations without defense bought the protection of the great landowners become warlike, while alienating what remained to them of freedom;
3. Disappearance with the last Carolingians of the central capacity which ceased controlling, to defend its subjects and gave up with the great landowners all the care of law and order, as the police force and justice. As this capacity is restored and is strengthened in Lorraine with the Dukes and France with Capétiens, the power of the lords decreases, the subjects recover a certain independence.

It was into 1192 that the stamping from the communes started. Guillaume, the archbishop of Rheims, based on his grounds the town of Beaumont-in-Argonne and granted privileges to those which would come to be fixed at it. Undoubtedly it kept its triple character of privileged owner, dispenser of justice and military chief, but it substituted for the future of the fixed royalties for the arbitrary requirements of the past. The charter or law of Beaumont was accommodated with joy like an notable improvement under the condition of the people. Soon the lords granted it sometimes spontaneously, sometimes with the request of their people. This concession was called: to put at the law or the frankness from Beaumont. The Dukes of Lorraine hastened to free their subjects. The particular lords their States transfer themselves little by little constrained to imitate them, which decreased their power with the great advantage of the Sovereign.

The village community, which has the forests and the grounds that its lord gave him, manages itself under the control of the officers of the prince: the provost and the baillif. At its head, the Mayeur is who has very wide capacities. It publishes the ordinances of the sovereign, it makes the statement of the Conduit S which must pay the royalty, it raises the taxes, it manages the particular goods of the community, it visits the forests, the ways, the furnaces and the chimneys, it makes payments of police force, it taxes the fines for pastoral Mésus, it judges even out of civil matter in first authority. He is assisted in his task by:

  • the aldermen who sit three: the Master alderman called sometimes lieutenant of the mayor, the alderman and the small alderman;
  • the sergeant called also senior, and
  • the clerk, at least starting from 1583, date of its institution.
Each year, towards the Saint Martin's day, takes place the yearly Plaid. Previous Sunday, at the exit of the parochial mass, the mayor warns the inhabitants, of the day, of the place and the hour when the plaid will be held. All must be there under penalty of fine. At the fixed hour, the mayor declares the meeting opened, it notes the absences, pronounces the fine with less of legitimate excuse; it defends with the inhabitants to disturb the meeting by cries or noise and to leave before the end. The clerk then reads the enumeration of the rights, taxable quota and royalties with the lord. Then it is the turn of the pastoral fines incurred in the year. After the reading of each statement and the observations of the delinquent, the mayor " échaque " (i.e. pronounces) the fine.

He must in his turn give an account of his administration, of his management of the communal goods. After that, and each year, takes place the election by the inhabitants of new civils servant: mayor, alderman, sergeant, clerk, Bangard and foresters, and the service of the oath. " the mayor who leaves load , known as an old account of Neuveville (1667), receives the oath of that which enters into icelle. " One counsel then the Paulier presented by the décimateurs, one fixes the wages of the schoolmaster, the shepherd, one decides repairs to make with the church, at the house of the priest, the bridge of the brook, the local road, one promulgates some new payments of police force in the interest of all. One renews the old ones, one recalls for example that it is defended to attend the cabarets, to pre-empt the ways, to make hullabaloo with the weddings, of going in the stables with not closed lanterns, removing the grains before they are dîmés, to lead to the church of the small children which would disturb the offices, etc… One finishes by writing the official report of the meeting which is signed by all the appointed officials.

These yearly plaids which would point out the memory of distant times when the lord gathered its subjects to receive their homages, their royalties, and to return justice to them were organized in a uniform way in 1598 by an ordinance of Charles III and lasted until the Revolution.

With time, some modifications in the administration of the communities appear. Early, the mayor was discharged from the administration of the forests which passes to the Gruerie S.

As from 1615, it does not raise any more the taxes, this task is entrusted to the elected official while waiting for the institution at the following century of the asseyor S and collectors. In 1665, the Duke Charles IV removes to him, at least in prévôté of Châtenois, the administration of civil matter justice.

With the XVIIIe century, following the French occupation, the control of the ducal capacity was essential more in the administration of the communities. Thus the ordinance of 1707 supplemented by that of 1753, removed definitively with the inhabitants who still exerted it the right to create each year the municipal mayor and other officers. Those, named by the provost, were held to accept and lend oath to the chief town of the jurisdiction when they were necessary. One reads for example in the account of 1717:

with the provosts, substitute and clerk of Châtenois: 3 books for creation of the mayor .
After the administrative reorganization of 1751, the yearly plaid however continued to exist. " To date of November that they will choose, said the ordinance, the mayors will join together the community which will have to assist under penalty of fine to elect the bangard and foresters if the asseyeurs and collectors, for indiction of the harvests and the grape harvest, for the establishment of the pauliers introduced by the décimateurs, and will receive the oaths of known as the bangard, foresters, asseyeurs and collectors and pauliers and will draw up report. "

In 1738, the municipal authorities place centuries since from there, made up of the mayor, aldermen, of the sergeant and of the clerk, was singularly modified by Stanislas. Indeed, one of the first ordinances removed the aldermen and establishes a syndic elected each year by the inhabitants, for the management of the communal sums of money. The mayor was thus in charge only of the police force, but was in charge of communal accountancy. As from this time, the administration of the community thus included/understood the mayor, his lieutenant, the sergeant and the clerk named by the provost " for the exercise of the police force, the execution orders of its Highness and the tax of the pastoral fines " , and moreover, the syndic elected by the inhabitants for the management of the communal goods. Soon, this one, because of the importance of these functions, and also because he was the elected official of the population, took a dominating influence in the businesses of the community. All the parts of this time start with these words: The syndic, mayor and inhabitants brought together in body of community. The control established by Léopold on the administration of the communities became more rigorous with Stanislas, and especially after the meeting of Lorraine in France. The communities did not have any more any freedom, in all, they had to undergo the very powerful will of the intendant and his delegate to the bailliage. This mode lasted one half-century; but finally it was necessary to yield to the unanimous complaints of people which wanted to be heard, which wanted to have share with the administration of its interests.

The edict of January 8th, 1787 created provincial assemblies, the assemblies of the district, and reorganized the communal assemblies. The provincial assemblies took place in Nancy. One then agreed to think that the assemblies of the villages were too numerous. One thus substituted for the tumultuous meetings of all the community, such as they had taken place until there, a council made up of 3 or 6 members according to the places, elected by all the old owners of more than 25 years, the lord, the priest, the clerk, and an also elected syndic, who was to know to read, write, and belong to the first class of the taxpayers.

See too

  • Lotharingie
  • List of the dukes of Lotharingie
  • List of the dukes of Lorraine

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