The nobility of Blois-Chartres: Family and inheritance, 980-1140. (Volumes I and II)

Recently medievalists have begun to examine the structure of the noble family. Generally scholars believe that collateral family organization and partible inheritance was replaced by patrilineage and primogeniture in the eleventh century. While there is consensus on the impetus for such a transformation, a lack of land, they disagree over what caused such a depletion of resources.; This thesis addresses these theories on noble family structure and seeks to determine the inheritance practices and family experiences of the noble families of the county of Blois-Chartres from the late tenth century to the mid twelfth. Most historians assert that the change to patrilineage and primogeniture occurred in the period under consideration. The evidence from the charters of the local religious foundations of Blois-Chartres questions the eleventh-century chronology of this transformation in inheritance and family structure. Furthermore, the absolute association between the practice of primogeniture and patrilineal family orientation frequently is not apparent among the noble families of this region. Indeed, by 1080 only some of the families of knights had begun to adhere rigidly to both primogeniture and patrilineage. Some castellan and vicecomital families passed titles to the eldest sons, but they do not yet exhibit the characteristics of patrilineage.; The lack of land that precipitated the transformation in the inheritance patterns of the noble families of Blois-Chartres was the result not only of the partitioning of the patrimony, but also a series of economic and social challenges that the Chartrain nobility faced in the late eleventh and the first half of twelfth centuries. The settlement of the region, which meant that a surplus land was no longer available to buttress or expand noble family patrimonies, the threat of royal centralization and the Gregorian reform movement, combined to compel some families to alter their organization. To preserve their resources, the families of knights, castellans, lords, viscounts, and in some cases counts, not only passed titles and patrimonial lands to the eldest son, but also began to conform to patrilineage by excluding other progeny from inheritance.; The findings of this study are pertinent not only to the history of the nobility, but also touch upon related issues of family history, the experience of noblewomen, and the broader framework of social history. The examination of family structure and inheritance patterns lends insight into the impact that larger historical trends had on the private life of the medieval nobility.