Page 045

 

 

Page 045

└ Tags: ,

Discussion (5)¬

  1. Lily says:

    In the seventeenth century in France, if a noble woman married a commoner, she lost her nobility, her husband didn’t gain it. I can’t think of any European rank system where the titles pass through women, actually, but France’s nobility was particularly byzantine in organization.

    Plus, if the family has two estates, that means they have a lot of land, and land = money. Losing the house? Sure, there’s some stuff in there you probably wanted, but not having to pay upkeep on a big old pile of stone? That’s worth a lot of money. They might even be richer after the fire.

    I know I’m picking some pretty minor nits, but in a comic about the French Revolution I expect basic historical facts to be correct.

  2. Tim McDaniel says:

    I am familiar with the English system. I mention it only as an example of the sorts of things that might happen — if I knew about the French ancien regime, I’d address it.

    In England, a number of people are “lord” and “lady” only by courtesy, but are in law commoners. The only actual nobles are the sovereign and the peers.

    If a lady, by courtesy or no, marries an untitled man, she keeps her Lady part (snicker) but alters part of her name. E.g. Lady Mary Wimsey became Lady Mary Parker, Mrs. Charles Parker. But her husband did not get any sort of title or style.

    Women *can* inherit a title if the remainder allowed for it, which has been rare but not unknown (e.g., the Mountbatten earldom). Also, a “barony by writ” (usually old) can be inherited via daughters, though it goes into abeyance until the lines of all the daughters but one goes extinct.

    My understanding is that all the sons of a French lord shared his title, but that’s about the limit of my knowledge.

  3. Tim McDaniel says:

    I’ll address the second part. Specifically, land = rents and tenants and tax exemption = money. And in France, nobility = exemption from most taxes. So I’m afraid that point is substantive: one manor house burning would not of itself ruin them — they’d move south and leave a bailiff in the north to collect the rents and dues.

  4. Tim McDaniel says:

    As for the first part:

    I am familiar with the English system. I mention it only as an example of the sorts of things that might happen — if I knew about the French ancien regime, I’d address it.

    In England, a number of people are “lord” and “lady” only by courtesy, but are in law commoners. The only actual nobles are the sovereign and the peers.

    If a lady, by courtesy or no, marries an untitled man, she keeps her Lady part (snicker) but alters part of her name. E.g. Lady Mary Wimsey became Lady Mary Parker, Mrs. Charles Parker. But her husband did not get any sort of title or style.

    Women *can* inherit a title if the remainder allowed for it, which has been rare but not unknown (e.g., the Mountbatten earldom). Also, a “barony by writ” (usually old) can be inherited via daughters, though it goes into abeyance until the lines of all the daughters but one goes extinct.

    My understanding is that all the sons of a French lord shared his title, but that’s about the limit of my knowledge.

    And in any aristocratic system, someone without a title managing to marry someone with a title got a social boost regardless of whether they got a title themselves.

  5. Ben says:

    Like the basic historical fact that the French Revolution occurred in the 18th century, not the 17th?

Comment¬