A little something from France ITTL, modelled on our OTL British upper house. Thanks to
@Julio974 for giving me some feedback on this and helping me establish my ideas more clearly.
The
French nobility (French:
la noblesse) is a legal system and class comprising both hereditary and lifetime titles, and members of their immediate family who bear courtesy titles, composed of various noble ranks and forming a constituent part of the French honours system. The nobility of France has played a major role in shaping the history of the country, although in the present day they retain only the rights to stand for election to the Chamber of Peers, position in the formal order of precedence, the right to certain titles, and the right to an audience with the monarch. Still, more than a fifth of French land is in the hands of aristocrats and traditional landed gentry. The prestigious title and position of
Peer of France (French:
Pair de France) is held by the highest-ranking members of the nobility, and thus the French nobility differs from the British as the vast majority of nobles are not peers.
As a privileged social class, the French nobility emerged in the Middle Ages and endured until its abolition on 19 June 1790 during the French Revolution. The nobility was first revived in 1805 with limited rights as a titled elite class during the First French Empire, and was given a constitutional function in 1814 during the Bourbon Restoration with the creation of the Chamber of Peers. Following the Revolutions of 1848, the chamber and the nobility were abolished again, although the nobility and the granting of titles continued under the Second French Empire between 1852 and 1870. The restoration of the monarchy under the Bourbons, and later Orleans, also re-established the French nobility along the lines of the July Monarchy, with the reconvening of the Chamber of Peers.
Since 1871, the French nobility has declined in prominence. Lifetime titles had been granted throughout the 19th century, although they required special dispensation to sit in the Chamber of Peers, which remained dominated by hereditary members of the nobility. In 1937, the socialist government of Léon Blum passed the Chamber of Peers Reform Act which enabled lifetime title holders to sit in the chamber, and from then on the creation of hereditary titles rapidly became obsolete. The granting of hereditary titles almost ceased after the 1960s, with the exception of members of the French royal family. Following constitutional reforms in 1999, which primarily abolished agnatic primogeniture for the Crown and nobility, possession of a title no longer entitled its holder to a seat in the Chamber of Peers. Since then, only 35 hereditary nobles are entitled to sit in the chamber, elected by the members of the nobility by ballot and replaced on death.
The
Dukedom of Bayeux (French:
Duché de Bayeux) is a title in the French peerage that was created on 20 January 1946 by King Henri VI for General Charles de Gaulle. A decorated officer, de Gaulle had led the French Resistance against Nazi Germany during the Second World War, and chaired the Provisional Government of France from the liberation of Paris in 1944 to 1946 in order to re-establish democracy in France. He was also made
Count of Colombey, which is used as a courtesy title by the Duke's heir apparent. The first Duke came out of retirement and returned to power following the 1958 crisis, when he was appointed President of the Council of Ministers until 1967 when he was appointed President of the European Commission, a position he held until 1969.
The dukedom of Bayeux and countcy of Colombey were one of the most recent hereditary titles created for someone other than a member of the royal family, and as of 2019 the titles are held by de Gaulle's son, the second Duke, who succeeded in 1970 on his father's death. Between 1970 and 1999, the second Duke sat as an hereditary member in the Chamber of Peers, and in 1999 he was elected to remain in the chamber as one of the 35 hereditary members, representing the UNF.
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