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The system of appanage has greatly influenced the territorial construction of France and explains the flag of many provinces of France. The word apanage or appanage comes from the Late Latin apanare which meant “to give bread” (panem).
This article currently deals with appanage in France alone.
The appanage system in France
An appanage was a concession of a fief by the sovereign to his youngest sons, while the eldest son became king on the death of his father. Appanages were considered as part of the inheritance transmitted to the youngest sons. These lands could not be sold, neither hypothetically nor as a dowry, and returned to the royal domain on the extinction of the princely line. Daughters were excluded from the system: a false interpretation of salic law generally prohibited daughters from inheriting land and also from acceding to the throne.
The appanage system was used to avoid the division of the kingdom among princes of royal blood. It was used in this way in 843, by the Treaty of Verdun, when Louis the Pious divided his empire between his sons Lothair and Louis the German. This division was a source of antagonism between France and Germany, less so in France, since the treaty was imposed on Lothair by Louis.
King Charles V tried to remove the appanage system, but in vain. Provinces conceded in appanage tended to become de facto independent and the authority of the king was recognized there reluctance. Theoretically appanages could be reincorporated into the royal doman but only if the last lord had no male heirs. Kings tried as much as possible to rid themselves of the most powerful appanages: for example, Francis I confiscated the Bourbonnais, the last appanage of any importance, in 1531 after the treason of the constable of Bourbon.
The first article of the Edict of Moulins declared that the royal domain (defined in the second article as all the land controlled by the crown for more than ten years) could not be alienated, except in two cases: by interlocking, in the case of financial emergency, with a perpetual option to repurchase the land; and to form an appanage, which must return to the crown in its original state on the extinction of the male line. The apanagist therefore could not separate himself from his appanage in any way.
After Charles V, a clear distinction had to be made between titles given as names to children in France, and true appanages. At their birth the French princes received a title independent of an appanage. Thus, the Duke of Anjou, son of Louis XIV, never possessed Anjou and never received any revenue from this province. The king waited until the prince had reached adulthood and was about to marry before endowing him with an appanage. The goal of the appanage was to provide him with a sufficient income to maintain his noble rank. The fief given in appanage could be the same as the title given to the prince, but this was not necessarily the case. Only seven appanages were given from 1515 to 1789.
Appanages were abolished in 1792 before the proclamation of the Republic. The youngest princes from then on were to receive a grant of money but no territory. Appanages were reestablished by Napoleon and confirmed by king Louis XVIII. The last of the appanges, the Orléanais, was reincorporated to the French crown when the Duke of Orleans, Louis-Philippe, became king of France in 1830.
The word appanage is still used in French but in a non-historic sense: “to have appanage over something” is used, often in an ironic and negative sense, to claim exclusive possession over something. For example, “cows have appanage over prions.”
Creations of appanages
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