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A Contested Inheritance: The Family and the Law from the Enlightenment to the French Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2018

Abstract

This article examines a particularly interesting inheritance case from late-eighteenth-century France to study the intersection of legal practices and Enlightenment ideas at the end of the Old Regime. The case, involving dispute around the estate of a deceased tax farmer, addresses family relations broadly within the specific context of inheritance and spousal assets. The five briefs produced on appeal to the Parlement of Paris show particular engagement with Enlightenment themes of reason, nature, and sentiment. The family was a locus of particular interest in eighteenth-century France because of its implications for social relations and its connection, through inheritance, to royal sovereignty. However, family law has been primarily studied from the perspective of practices, whereas the present article focuses on ideals. The article argues that the courtroom was an important site where the diverse implications of Enlightenment thought on family law were worked out. The argument that family law was a site for integrating ideals into practices has implications for how we think about the relationship between law and social change, as well as, in particular, the relationship between Enlightenment and Revolution.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
Copyright © the American Society for Legal History, Inc. 2018 

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Footnotes

She thanks the anonymous reviewers who provided feedback on drafts of this article, as well as Emma Rothschild, Patrice Higonnet, Elizabeth Cross, Miranda Spieler, Marika Knowles, and the participants of the Harvard Mahindra Center “Women and Culture in the Early Modern World” seminar, led by Diana Henderson and Marina Leslie. Translations are author's own unless otherwise noted.

References

1. Mémoire pour les sieurs Jacques-Francois Baudon, ci devant Directeur des Fermes; Charles-Guillaume Baudon, l'un des Administrateurs du Domaine; Mr Julien, ancien Conseiller en la Cour, Maître des Requêtes, Commissaire départi en la Généralité d'Alençon; & demoiselle Elisabeth Baudon, son épouse. Le sieur Cromot, Surintendant de la Maison de Monsieur, Frère du Roi; & demoiselle Rose-Josephe-Sophie Baudon, son épouse; et les sieurs Tocquiny, enfans de Rose-Magdeleine Baudon, veuve, en premières noces, du sieur de Tocquiny, & décédée femme, en secondes nôces, du Marquis de Pontbriant; contre demoiselle Anne-Marguerite-Charlotte de Ligneville, veuve du sieur Baudon père, Fermier Général; et encore contre le sieur Gilbert de Courcelles, tuteur de Jean François-Charles & Charles-Jacques Baudon, enfans mineurs dudit feu sieur Baudon, première partie. Sur la nullité du prélegs de quatre cens mille livres (Paris: P.G. Simon, 1781), 48. Hardoin's name is sometimes spelled Hardouin, a discrepancy not unusual in the orthography of the time. Here we retain the spelling in use in this particular case.

2. Careful examination of an outstanding example crossed over into history from anthropology during the vogue for microhistory, and continues to be relevant. It is also established practice in family history, particularly with regard to lawsuits. See Desan, Suzanne and Merrick, Jeffrey, Family, Gender, and Law in Early Modern France (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2009)Google Scholar; Merrick, Jeffrey, Order and Disorder under the Ancien Régime (Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2007)Google Scholar; and Bellavitis, Anna and Chabot, Isabelle, La justice des familles: autour de la transmission des biens, des savoirs et des pouvoirs (Europe, nouveau monde, XIIe-XIXe siècles) (Rome: École Française de Rome, 2011)Google Scholar.

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15. By the time of the lawsuit, Rose-Magdeleine had died; her sons represented her in the family. d'Est-Ange, Gustave Chaix, Dictionnaire des familles françaises anciennes ou notables à la fin du XIXe siècle XI (Paris: Editions Charles Hérissey, 1983), 510Google Scholar.

16. The month of June 1749; cited in Mémoire pour Anne-Marguerite-Charlotte née Comtesse de Ligniville & du Saint Empire, veuve du sieur Beaudon, Secrétaire du Roi du Grand Collège, Appellante; contre M. Jullien, le sieur Cromot, les Demoiselles Beaudon, les héritiers Tocquigny & les sieurs Beaudon, enfans & héritiers du feu sieur Beaudon, Intimés (Paris: P.G. Simon, 1781), 4.

17. Gazette des Tribunaux, 11, no. 1, 1781, 306. The marriage was considered socially advantageous for Baudon: Chaix d'Est-Ange, Dictionnaire XI, 510.

18. The boys were both alive at the time of the lawsuit, but only one, Jean-François-Charles, survived to adulthood. Chaix d'Est-Ange, Dictionnaire XI, 510.

19. Archives Nationales Y61 July 22, 1780, “Testament de François Baudon fermier général.” The will also names a daughter from his first marriage, not a party to the lawsuits, Angélique Marie Baudon, abbess of the royal abbey of Sainte Perine de Chaillot, whom the will identifies as disabled and endows with a variety of investment revenues.

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24. Gazette des Tribunaux, 11, no. 20, 1781, 305.

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37. Among Gerbier's other clients that year were the Prince de Soubise; the Queyssat brothers case drew far more publicity. Compare also to the La Girouzière case, which involved a mistress (then wife) with a false identity and a fictitious cousin.

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40. Mémoire pour Anne Marguerite Charlotte, 28.

41. Ibid. Bonnières refers to five years of domestic solicitude because the period of the lease in question overlapped with the couple's marriage for just five years, although they were married for a total of 22 years.

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43. Mémoire pour Anne Marguerite Charlotte, 27–29.

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51. Mémoire pour le Sieur Gilbert de Courcelles, 38.

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53. Mémoire pour les Sieurs, 14.

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57. Ibid., 47.

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62. On the Enlightenment culture of sensibility see Rosenfeld, A Revolution in Language.

63. Mémoire pour le Sieur Gilbert de Courcelles, 10.

64. Ibid., 19.

65. “n'est-ce pas là épiloguer sur les mots?” Mémoire pour le Sieur Gilbert de Courcelles, 32.

66. Ibid., 5.

67. Rousseau's works, Emile and La nouvelle Héloïse, were particularly influential in this regard.

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84. Desan, The Family on Trial, 283–310; and Verjus, Anne, “’Révolution et conception bourgeoise de la famille’: Paternalisme et légitimation de l'autorité dans les débats du Code civil,” in Vers un ordre bourgeois?: Révolution française et changement sociale, ed. Jessenne, Jean-Pierre (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2007), 353–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Verjus makes a useful distinction between the patriarchalism of the Old Regime and the paternalism of the Civil Code. See also Théry, Irène and Biet, Christian, La famille, la loi, l’État: de la Révolution au Code civil (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1989)Google Scholar; and Halpérin, Jean-Louis, L'impossible Code civil; André-Jean Arnaud, Les origines doctrinales du Code civil français (Paris: Librairie Générale de Droit et de Jurisprudence, 1969)Google Scholar.