Peerage of France
- For the peerage of the United Kingdom, see British peerage.
The Peerage of France (French: Pair de France) was a distinction within the French nobility which appeared in the Middle Ages. It was abolished in 1789 during the French Revolution, but it reappeared after the Revolution. In 1830, hereditary peerage was abolished, but life-time peerage continued to exist until it was definitively abolished in 1848.
The prestigious title and position of Peer of France (French: Pair de France) was held by the greatest and highest-ranking members of the French nobility. In that respect the French peerage was very different from the British peerage (to whom the term Barons, their lowest class, was applied in its generic sense), because the vast majority of French nobles of ranks from Baron to Duke were not Peers.[1] The title of Peer of France was an extraordinary honour granted only to very few dukes or counts (including princes of the French church).
The French peerage was also imported into the Holy Land during the Crusades (see below).
The words "pair" and "pairie"
The French word pairie is the equivalent of the English peerage, in the sense of an individual title carrying the rank of Pair, Peer in English, which derives from the Latin par, equal, and signifies the members of an exclusive body of noblemen and prelates, considered to be the highest social order, not taking in account the royal dynasty, and even in a certain way as equals of the monarch as he is seen though their subjects and vassals, as their primus inter pares.
The main uses of the word refer to two historical traditions in the French kingdom, before and after the First French Empire of Napoleon I of France. The word also exists in a crusader imitation.
There is also an etymological theory that the French, and later English, word baron, via the Latin form baro, would also derive from the Latin par, which would fit its early sense, not as a title below comital ranks but used for the whole peerage.
Under the Monarchy: feudal period and ancien régime
In the Middle Ages, the dignity of peerage was conferred by the French king on certain of his preeminent vassals, both clerics and laymen.
Louis VII (1137–1180) is thought by some historians as the creator of the French peerage system.[2]
Peerage was attached to a specific territorial jurisdicton, be it an episcopal see in the case of the episcopal peerages or a fief in the case of secular peerages. Peerages attached to fiefs were transmissible or inheritable with the fief, and these fiefs are often designated as pairie-duché for duchies and pairie-comté for countships.
By 1216 there were nine peers:
- Archbishop of Reims who had the distinction of crowning the king
- Bishop of Langres
- Bishop of Beauvais
- Bishop of Châlons
- Bishop of Noyon
- Duke of Normandy
- Duke of Burgundy
- Duke of Aquitaine also called Duke of Guyenne
- Count of Champagne
The presence of Normandy – held by the English crown by Angevin heritage – was theoretical, since in French eyes it had been forfeited to the crown in 1202.
A few years later and before 1228 three peers were added to make the total of twelve peers:
These twelve peerages are known as the ancient peerage or pairie ancienne, and the number twelve is sometimes said to have been chosen to mirror the 12 paladins of Charlemagne in the Chanson de geste. Parallels may also be seen with mythical Knights of the Round Table under King Arthur. So popular was this notion, that for a long time people thought peerage had originated in the reign of Charlemagne, who was considered the model king and shining example for knighthood and nobility.
The dozen pairs played a role in the royal sacre or consecration, during the liturgy of the coronation of the king, attested to as early as 1179, symbolically upholding his crown, and each original peer had a specific role, often with an attribute. Since the peers were never twelve during the coronation (due to the fact that most lay peerages were forfeited to or merged in the crown), delegates were chosen by the king, mainly between the princes of the blood.
This paralleled the arch-offices attached to the electorates, the even more prestigious and powerful first college in the Holy Roman Empire, the other heir of Charlemagne's Frankish empire.
The twelve original peers were divided in two classes, six clerical peers hierarchically above the six lay peers, which were themselves divided in two, three dukes above three counts:
| Bishops | Lay | |
| Dukes | Reims, archbishop, premier peer, anoints and crowns the king | Burgundy, premier lay peer, bears the crown and fastens the belt |
| Laon, bears the sainte ampoule containing the sacred ointment | Normandy, holds the first square banner | |
| Langres, only of the five bishops not in the Reims province, bears the sceptre | Aquitaine also called Guyenne after its refounding, holds the second square banner | |
| Counts | Beauvais, bears the royal mantle | Toulouse, carries the spurs |
| Châlons, bears the royal ring | Flanders, carries the sword | |
| Noyon, bears the belt | Champagne, holds the royal standard |
Early in the 13th century the Duchy of Normandy was absorbed by the French crown, and later in that century two more of the lay peerages were absorbed by the crown, so that in 1297 three new peerages were created, the County of Artois, the Duchy of Anjou and the Duchy of Bretagne, to compensate for the three peerages that had disappeared.
Thus, beginning in 1297 the practice started of creating new peerages by letters patent, specifying the fief to which the peerage was attached, and the conditions under which the fief could be transmitted (e.g. only male heirs) for princes of the blood who held an apanage. By 1328 all apanagists would be peers.
The number of lay peerages increased over time from 7 in 1297 to 26 in 1400, 21 in 1505, and 24 in [[1588]. By 1789, there were 43, including five held by princes of the blood (Orléans, Condé, Bourbon, Enghien, and Conti), a legitimized prince (Penthièvre), and 37 other lay peers, ranking from the Duchy of Uzès, created in 1572, to the Duchy of Aubigny, created in 1787.
One family could hold several peerages. The minimum age was 25. The majority of new peerages created up until the fifteenth century were for royal princes, while new peerages from the sixteenth century on were increasingly created for non royals. After 1569 no more countships were made into peers, and peerage was exclusively given to duchies (duc et pair). Occasionally the Parlement refused to register the lettres of patent conferring peerage on them.
Apart from the coronation of French kings, the privileges of peers were largely matters of precedence, the titles Monseigneur, Votre Grandeur and the address mon cousin, suggesting parentage to the royal family, or at least equivalence, by the King, and a priviligium fori. This meant that judicial proceedings concerning the peers and their pairie-fiefs were exclusively under the jurisdiction of the Court of Peers. Members of the peerage had also the right to sit in a lit de justice, a formal preceding and speak before the Parlement of Paris, and they were also given high positions in the court, and a few minor privileges such as entering the courtyards of royal castles in their carriages.
While many lay peerages became extinguished over time, as explained above, the ecclesiastical peerages, on the other hand, were immortal, and only a seventh one was created before the French Revolution, taking precedence behind the six original ones, being created in 1690 for the Archbishop of Paris, after centuries as a mere suffraganage, styled as second archevêque-duc for he held the Duchy of Saint-Cloud.
The expression pair was also sometimes used for groups of nobles within a French fief, e.g. the Prince-Bishop of Cambrai, who held the County of Cambrais, was the overlord of its twelve pairs. These peers however did not benefit from the royal privileges listed above.
Under the First Republic and the First Empire : the revolutionary and Napoleonic period
The original peerage of the French realm, like other feudal titles of nobility, was abolished during the French Revolution, on the night of August 4, 1789, the Night of the Abolition of Feudalism.
Napoleon I Bonaparte (Emperor of the French since 1804) 'reinvented' the functions of the anciennes pairies, so to speak, as he created in 1806 the exclusive duchés grand-fiefs (in chief of politically insignificant estates in non-annexed parts of Italy) in 1806 and first recreated the honorary functions at (his own) imperial coronation, but now vested in Great officers, not attached to fiefs.
He later reinstituted French noble titles in 1808, but did not create a system of peerages comparable to the United Kingdom. He would on paper create a House of Peers on his return from Elba in 1815, but since he had to abdicate again after 100 days (Cent jours), this remained without effect.
Under the restoration of the Monarchy : the Chamber of Peers
The French peerage was recreated by the Charter of 1814 with the Bourbon Restoration, albeit on a different basis from before 1789. A new Chamber of Peers (Chambre des pairs) was created, on the model of the British House of Lords.
This chamber acted as a Upper House, like the House of Lords in the United Kingdom. Members of the Chamber of Peers were appointed by the king, without limit on their numbers, starting with 154, including all surviving pre-Revolution lay peerages (except for the British-held duchy of Aubigny) and the three ecclesiastical peerages left: Reims, Langres and Châlon.
Thirteen peers, however, were also prelates. Peerage was for life or hereditary, granted at the king's will. Male members of the royal family and descendants in male line of previous kings (princes du sang) were members by birth (pairs-nés), but needed explicit permission from the king to sit at each session of the Chamber of Peers.
At first it comprised only hereditary peers, but following the July Revolution of 1830, it became a body to which one was appointed for life. In 1848, following the Revolution of 1848, the Chamber of Peers was disbanded and the Peerage of France was definitely abolished.
Peerage of Jerusalem
In the kingdom of Jerusalem, the only
See also
Sources and references
- Heraldica.org on the French peerages by François Velde
- Richard A. Jackson, "Peers of France and Princes of the Blood", French Historical Studies, volume 7, number 1 (Spring 1971), pp. 27–46
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
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