La noblesse en Touraine de 1774 à 1875
Institution:
Paris 4Disciplines:
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Abstract EN:
The statistical and mental development of the nobility during this "long" century in the classic department of Indre-et-Loire (formerly known as Touraine) seemed to be worth studying. From five hundred families under Louis XVI we were able to draw up a schedule of their manners of living; their attitudes about the revolution (migration, acceptance or prison) and their lack of action during the counter-revolution which announced the return of emigres. The scission, at that time, of the remaining resident families taking part in this research into three groups (the high nobility who outlives fearlessly, the liberal nobility who served any government and the gentry who lived buried in their dream of self-sufficiency until 1830) gave the opportunity of following a representative gentleman from the rites attending his birth to his education, career, marriage, tastes, leisure activities, charities and political life. . To this chronological and then thematic study we have added an index of the thousand families named in the main part of the text. We have thrown light on some topics of literary, social and provincial history; we have discovered the noble dream of the nineteenth century and the asymptotic development of the three groups.
Abstract FR:
L'évolution statistique et mentale de la noblesse durant ce long siècle a paru pouvoir être étudiée dans ce département moyen de l'Indre-et-Loire, ancienne Touraine. Cinq cents familles sous Louis XVI permettaient un inventaire des modes de présence. Leurs attitudes devant la Révolution (émigration, caméléon ou prison), le peu d'action dans la contre-révolution préludent au retour des émigrés. La scission, alors, en trois groupes (la grande noblesse qui passe, impavide; la libérale qui sert tous les régimes; la châtelaine qui se retire dès 1830 dans le rêve autarcique), comme la subsistance de familles résidentes s'offrant à l'enquête, ont permis de suivre un gentilhomme imaginaire: des rites de la naissance à l'instruction, carrière, alliance, goûts, loisirs, charité, vie politique. . . A cette étude chronologique puis thématique, on joint un dictionnaire des mille familles citées dans le corps du texte. On a éclairé quelques points d'histoire provinciale, sociale ou littéraire; on a découvert le rêve noble du XIXe siècle et l'évolution asymptotique des groupes.