Nobility of the First French Empire

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nobles of the First French Empire, were created by Napoleon Bonaparte to institute a stable elite in the First French Empire, after the instability resulting from the French Revolution.

Like many before a since Napoleon found that the ability to confer titles was also a useful tool of patronage which cost the state little treasure. In all, about 2200 titles were created by Napoleon:

  • Princes and Dukes:
    • sovereign princes (3)
    • duchies grand fiefs (20)
    • victory princes (4)
    • victory dukedoms (10)
    • other dukedoms (3)
  • Counts (251)
  • Barons (1516)
  • Knights (385)

Napoleon also established a new knightly order in 1802, the Légion d'honneur, which is still in existence today.

Contents

[edit] Creation

Enoblement started in 1804 with the creation of the princely title for members of Napoleon's imperial family. Others followed. In 1806 ducal titles were cerated and in 1808 those of count, baron and knight.

Napoleon founded the concept of nobility of Empire by an imperial decree on 1 March 1808. The purpose of this creation was to amalgamate the old nobility and the revolutionary middle-class in one peerage system. This step which aimed at the introduction of a stable elite, is fully in line with the creation of the legion of honour and of life senatorial peerages.

A council of the seals and the titles was also created and the council was charged with establishing armorial bearings, and had a monopoly of this new nobility.

These creations are to be distinguished an order or nobility, such as the Order of the Bath. These titles of nobility did not have any true privileges with two exceptions:

  • right of armorial bearing
  • the lands granted with the title were held in a majorat, they were transmitted jointly with the title.

[edit] Hierarchy

Inside Napoleon's nobility existed a strict and precise hierarchy of the titles, that granted office to some according to their membership of the imperial family, of their rank in the army or their administrative career in the civil or clerical administrations:

  • Prince: for the members of the imperial family and certain principal leaders of the Empire (Talleyrand was a prince of Bénévent, some marshals of the Empire)
  • Duke: for the principal dignitaries and marshals of the Empire
  • Count: for the ministers, senators, archbishops, councilors of State, the president of the corps legislative
  • Baron: chairmen of the Court of Auditors, bishops, mayors of 37 good cities
  • Knight: other functions

Obviously one could receive one of the titles without exercising one of the enumerated functions.

To title of marquis was not used during the First French Empire, and that was the reason why it became very fashionable after the restoration, as it was not perceived to be tainted by these revolutionary creations.

This nobility is essentially a nobility of service, to a large extent made up of soldiers (67,9%), some civils servant (22%) and some collaborating members of the Ancien Régime.

Napoleon's nobility was not abolished at the restoration but disappeared gradually for natural reasons, due in part to the great number of soldiers that had been promoted and died during the Napoleonic Wars.

There were 239 remaining families belonging to the First Empire nobility in 1975. Of those, perhaps about 135 were titled. Only one princely title (Essling, since Sievers is no longer used and Pontecorvo is merged with Prince Murat) and seven ducal titles remain today.

[edit] Titles

[edit] Princes

There were three types of princely titles:

[edit] Dukes

There were three types of ducal titles:


For a ducal title to be hereditary, it was necessary that the holders had at least a 200,000 Franks annual income and that the land that generated the income must be held in a majorat for the inheritor of the dukedom.

These titles were allotted to only Marshals of the Empire and to certain ministers.

[edit] Counts

The ordinary title of count always went in front of the name. It was subject to the same rules as the title of duke but with an income threshold of only 30,000 franks.

Senators, Ministers, and Archbishops were all counts. From 1808 until 1814, 388 titles were created.

[edit] Barons

The title of baron was comparable with that of count, except that the incomesthreshold fell to 15,000 franks.

The mayors of the large cities and the bishops were all barons. Between 1808 and 1814, 1090 titles of baron were created.

Nowadays, there are still some families being able to claim the title of baron of the First French Empire: d'Allemagne, Ameil, d'Andlau, d'Astorg, Auvray, Caffarelli, Christophe, Daru, Dein, Dubois, Eblé, Evain, Fabvier, Fain, Géloes, Gourgaud, Guerrier de Dumast, Hamelin, Hottinguer, Laffitte, Lefebvre, Lepic, Méquet, Mallet, Marbot, Martin de Lagarde, Massias, Nérin, Nicolas, Parmentier, Petiet, Pinoteau, Portalis, Rey, Rippert, Roederer, de Saint-Didier, de Saint-Geniès, de Saizieu, Salmon, de Saluce, Seillère, Testot-Ferry, Thiry, de Villeneuve.

[edit] Knights

The title of knight also went in front of the name, there was an obligation to have an income of at least 3,000 franks and a majorat on the land generating the income was not obligatory.

All the knights of légion d'honneur received the title of chevalier d'Empire or knight of Empire, but there had to be three generations of successive knights for the title to become hereditary. Between 1808 and 1814, 1600 titles of knight were created.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2007)

François R. Velde. Napoleonic Titles and Heraldry, www.heraldica.org

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ François R. Velde. Napoleonic Titles and Heraldry: Sovereign Princes www.heraldica.org
  2. ^ a b François R. Velde. Napoleonic Titles and Heraldry: Victory Titles www.heraldica.org
Languages