Le proces de la condition mainmortable en france et dans les etats voisins : 1661-1798

The trial of the ''condition mainmortable'' (serfdom) in france and borderlands (1661-1798)

• Auteur / Autrice : Thierry Bressan
• Direction : Jean Nicolas
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Histoire
• Date : Soutenance en 1996
• Etablissement(s) : Paris 7

Mots clés

Mots clés contrôlés

Serfs -- Émancipation

France

Mainmorte

Paysannerie

18e siècle

17e siècle

Servage

Résumé

Du dernier tiers du xviie siecle a son abolition definitive, intervenue au debut de la periode revolutionnaire, la ''condition mainmortable'', heritiere du servage de corps medieval, continua d'affecter en france un nombre non negligeable de provinces: cela sous des formes diverses, allant de regimes de pure dependance personnelle a des servitud es exclusivement foncieres. En outre, elle suscita un important proces public, aisement decelable au travers de la produ ction litteraire et de la jurisprudence de l'epoque. Cette vaste remise en cause, qu'inaugura le projet d'affranchisseme nt general developpe par le premier president lamoignon, connut son apogee avec la campagne voltairienne contre le chapitre de saint-claude et la promulgation, peu apres, de l'edit neckerien d'aout 1779. A vrai dire, elle se situait a l'intersection de trois dynamiques progressistes contemporaines d'envergure : les mouvements en faveur de l'unificatio n du droit coutumier, de la rehabilitation des ''minorites'' socio-juridiques et du rachat des rentes feodo-seigneuriales. . . D'ou une importance intrinseque indeniable. Elle eut egalement des parentes, des ramifications evidentes dans la quasi-totalite des etats limitrophes, ou la permanence de regimes serviles guere dissemblables etait tout autant, voire davantage, marquee.

From the last third of the 17th century to its final abolition at the beginning of the revolutionary period, the ''condit ion mainmortable'', heir to the medieval corporeal serfdom, kept affecting a not inconsiderable number of french province s. It made it under different forms : regims of pure personal subjection, solely landed servitudes, or mixings of both. Moreover it rose up an important public trial, which is easily disclosed throught the contemporary literary output and jurisprudence. This wide arraignment, which the general plan of emancipation worked out by the ''premier president'' lamoi gnon opened, was at its zenith with the voltairian campaign against the chapter of saint-claude and, shortly after, the promulgation of the neckerian edict of august 1779. As a matter of fact, such an arraignment was at the crossing of three large-scale progressive movements: the movements for the unification of the customary laws, for the rehabilitation of juridical minorities and for the repurchase of manorial rights. . . Whence an undeniable intrinsic significance. It had got also obvious kinships, ramifications in the quasi-totality of borderlands, where the permanence of rather similar servile forms was quite as much, and even more, pronounced.