Avaray

Avaray

Coat of arms
Avaray

Coordinates: 47°43′24″N 1°33′55″E / 47.7233°N 1.5653°ECoordinates: 47°43′24″N 1°33′55″E / 47.7233°N 1.5653°E
Country France
Region Centre-Val de Loire
Department Loir-et-Cher
Arrondissement Blois
Canton Mer
Government
 • Mayor (2008–2014) Jean-François Mézille
Area1 13.88 km2 (5.36 sq mi)
Population (2009)2 730
 • Density 53/km2 (140/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code 41008 / 41500
Elevation 75–118 m (246–387 ft)
(avg. 106 m or 348 ft)

1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Avaray is a commune in the Loir-et-Cher department in central France.

History

Avaray is a French territorial title belonging to a family some of whose members have been conspicuous in history. The Béarnaise family named Besiade moved into the province of Orléanais in the 17th century, and there acquired the estate of Avaray. In 1667 Theophile de Besiade, marquis d'Avaray, obtained the office of grand bailiff of Orleans, which was held by several of his descendants after him.[1]

Claude Antoine de Besiade, marquis d'Avaray, was deputy for the bailliage of Orleans in the states-general of 1789, and proposed a Declaration of the Duties of Man as a pendant to the Declaration of the Rights of Man; he subsequently became a lieutenant-general in 1814, a peer of France in 1815, and duc d'Avaray in 1818. Antoine Louis Francois de Besiade, comte d'Avaray, son of the above, distinguished himself during the Revolution by his devotion to the comte de Provence, afterwards Louis XVIII, whose emigration he assisted. Having nominally become king in 1799, that prince created the estate of Ile-Jourdain a duchy, under the title of Avaray, in favour of the comte d'Avaray, whom he termed his "liberator".[1]

Population

Historical population
YearPop.±%
1793 709—    
1800 760+7.2%
1806 748−1.6%
1821 836+11.8%
1831 865+3.5%
1836 922+6.6%
1841 917−0.5%
1846 942+2.7%
1851 965+2.4%
1856 892−7.6%
1861 851−4.6%
1866 903+6.1%
1872 863−4.4%
1876 823−4.6%
1881 813−1.2%
1886 807−0.7%
1891 706−12.5%
1896 659−6.7%
1901 622−5.6%
1906 606−2.6%
1911 579−4.5%
1921 509−12.1%
1926 458−10.0%
1931 480+4.8%
1936 423−11.9%
1946 385−9.0%
1954 394+2.3%
1962 397+0.8%
1968 491+23.7%
1975 466−5.1%
1982 481+3.2%
1990 514+6.9%
1999 577+12.3%
2006 708+22.7%
2009 730+3.1%

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Prinet 1911, p. 51.

References

Attribution
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