Last modified: 2013-12-28 by ivan sache
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The Armorial Général instituted by King of France Louis XVI has been widely used by French municipalities to confirm their arms or design new ones.
Ivan Sache, 20 May 2006
In 1686, William of Orange formed the League of Augsburg, in an attempt
to curb the territorial ambitions of Louis XIV. When Louis invaded the
Palatinate in 1688 the League declared war against him. In 1689 England
joined the League and made William king.
All wars are expensive to maintain and this one was no exception. So,
in order to help raise funds for its prosecution, in 1697 Louis
instituted the Armorial Général, under the charge of Charles d'Hozier,
juge d'armes. From the point of view of heraldry, it has often been
stated that the Edict of November 1697 served to limit the use of arms
to certain social classes, since its declared aim was to remedy the
numerous abuses committed against heraldic law.
In fact it was simply an ingenious device, among others, to raise money
for the war, and from this point of view it was extremely successful,
since it has been estimated that five and a half million livres were
raised in revenue.
The effect of the work was twofold: firstly, through regional
maîtrises, or administrative centres, under the direction of Paris, de
connaître et de régler toutes les causes héraldiques [to know and
prescribe all heraldic cases); and secondly, to compile an Armorial Général, despot public des armes et blasons [public depot of arms and
balzons] in which were gathered together all the arms borne in the
realm, whether those of nobles or common people, individuals or
communities.
Failure to register arms led to a fine of 300 livres, but in spite of
this threat registrations during 1697 were small in number, and were
largely confined to the nobility and to religious institutions. A
further decree of December 1697 brought about the drawing up of rolls
for each community which, according to the administrators, indicated
those who were capable of bearing arms. When the rolls were published
in the communes registration of their arms by those named had to take
place within eight days.
It was from this point onwards that thousands of unwanted arms were
ascribed to artisans, bourgeois, merchants and communes who would not
otherwise have considered the bearing of them. It was for these who had
not previously borne arms that Hozier and his commissioners constructed
series of similar arms with variations on a theme for whole area, as
well as a huge quantity of tasteless armes parlantes [canting arms], arms which were
lovingly entered into the Armorial Général but never used by the
recipients.
The first wave of registrations lasted for two years, with frequent
fines being imposed on defaulters. Riots broke out in some areas, for
example in Bayonne and Toulon, because of the rigour imposed, and
eventually, in December 1699, a further decree gave certain exemptions
to indivuals and communities which were considered too poor to pay for
their arms. Following this, the regional maîtrises were gradually
suppressed, registration became rarer, and then ceased in 1709; dès
lors chacun fut de nouveau libre de porter les armes de son choix ou de
ne pas en adopter [then everyone was free again to bear the arms of
his choice or not to bear any arms].
In 1760, an attempt was made to reverse this decree, to make it illegal
for certain people to bear arms who were deemed unworthy to do so, but
this was rejected by Parliament as being contraire aux lois, maximes
et usages du royaume [contrary to the laws, maxims and uses of the
kingdom].
It seems a strange coincidence that there followed in France throughout
the 18th century a similar evolution in heraldic matters to that
which occurred in England. Most French writers agree that the
institution of the Armorial Général caused a deplorable decline in
heraldic standards.
The Armorial Général is the most consulted work in the Bibliothèque Nationale, and unfortunately many people mistakenly regard it as the
font of heraldic research.
The effect of the work of the Armorial Général on the evolution of
civic heraldry in France was enormous, and although many communes
rejected the arms ascribed, and either reverted to those previously
borne or refused to use any at all, there are as many who today proudly
display arms which were arbitrarily given to them without any
consideration other than that of convenience.
The cost of the registration of arms was twenty livres for a commune,
and the copy of the arms ascribed which were given to the commune were
painted on a certicate without the blazon, although the blazon itself
appears in the registers of the Armorial Général. It was this practice
that led to errors in later copies of the arms of many communes, due
partly to the incompetence of the original artists in depicting some
charges, and partly to the deterioration of the pigment.
The methods of the administrators were simple. If the commune
registered its arms, these were usually accepted without question. If
they did not, then arms were ascribed to them and the fee was taken.
In order to facilitate the process, certains patterns were used in
combinations of tinctures and shapes until they were exhausted; a
particular charge, like for example the figure of a saint, was used,
with merely a change of name to distinguish it from the arms of a
neighbouring commune; and puns and plays on words with no linguistic
knowledge were imposed wherever other methods were not. The whole
process seemed to depend on the whim of the local commissioner.
In the Registre d'Orléans, there is a consecutive list of 198 ascribed
arms tierced per bend and tierced per fess. This is not unusual
occurrence within the Armorial Général.
As far as puns are concerned, one example will suffice to make the
point. The arms of Rognonas, Bouches-du-Rhône, are:
"Azure three kidneys or kidney beans or",
where the charges are a rebus on rognon, kidney.
One aspect of the work of the administrators is not often commented
upon. In several cases, both in individual and in communal arms where
they had not been voluntarily registered, malice played a part in their
entries. For example the arms of Bagnols-sur-Cèze, Gard, are:
De gueules à trois tinettes ou cuvettes d'or, suspendues chacune à un
anneau par trois cordons du même, posées deux en chef et une en pointe;
au chef cousu de sinople, chargé de trois fleurs de lys d'or
(Gules three tubs with a ring and three cords or a chief vert three
fleurs de lis or).
The cuvettes were used in the Roman baths from which the name of the
commune is derived, from the Roman name Balnearius which gradually
changed to its present form in the XVIIth century. The meaning of
tinette is soil tub, for carrying away the contents of latrines.
Brian Timms, 20 May 2006
Neubecker [neu77b] gives more technical details on the Armorial Général. Charles d'Hozier, already juge général d'armes de France, was
appointed Garde de l'Armorial Général. He was appointed an
assistant, Adrien Vannier, who bore the title of directeur du Traité
des armoiries. Vannier's duty was the perception of registration fees
on the king's behalf.
On 20 Novembre 1996, the Royal Council of Finances stated that the
registration fees should be paid to Adrien Vannier personally, and
prescribed the fee list as follows:
- personal arms: 20 livres
- provincial arms: 300 livres
- upper rank towns (with an archbishopric, bishopric or upper
companies): 100 livres
- other towns: 50 livres
- duchies and pairies: 50 livres
- counties and marquisates: 40 livres
- viscounties, baronies and vidamies: 30 livres
- domains with rights of greater, middle and lesser justice: 20 livres
- domains with rights of middle and lesser justice: 10 livres
- simple domains (without justice rights): 5 livres
- archbishoprics, religious orders and universities: 100 livres
- bishoprics, cathedral chapters and abbeys: 50 livres
- other chapters, priories, convents: 25 livres
- other religious bodies: 15 livres
- bodies of upper companies: 100 livres
- municipal bodies, professional bodies, companies and communities
established in upper rank towns: 50 cities
- other bodies, companies and communities: 26 livres
The Armorial Général is made of 69 volumes and include c. 110,000 arms.
Louis de Bresc gives in his Armorial des communes de Provence
[bjs94] the complete text of Louis XIV's 1696 edict as well as the list of further decrees related to the registration of arms (after
Godefroy de Montgrand's Armorial de la ville de Marseille):
- 20 November 1696: Decree of the Council, appointing Adrien Vannier to
perceive the registration fees for the Armorial Général
- 20 November 1696: Decree prescribing the paiement of the fees to
Adrien Vannier personally
- 18 December 1696: Decree appointing Charles d'Hozier Garde de
l'Armorial Général de France
- 22 January 1697: Decree postponing the deadline for the registation
of arms to 1 February 1697
- 19 March 1697: Decree postponing the registration of arms bearing
fleurs de lis or on an azure field
- August 1700: Decree suppressing the grande maîtrise and the
maîtrises particulières in charge of the Armorial Général
- April 1701: Decree reestablishing the charge of juge d'armes
- 9 March 1706: Decree of the Council allowing d'Hozier to correct the
arms erroneously ascribed or explained in the Armorial Général.
The Hozier family is presented on the
website of the French National Archives (page no longer online).
Pierre d'Hozier (Marseilles 1592- Paris 1660), lord of La Garde, was a cavalryman (chevau-léger) in a company owned by Marshal de Crequi (1578-1638), ambassador in Venice and Rome. Hozier first built the family tree of the Crequi family, and later of other
noble families. He was appointed juge d'armes in 1641, maître
d'hôtel of the king in 1642 and State councillor in 1654. Hozier helped
Théophraste Renaudot (1586-1653) to found the Gazette (1631), one of
the oldest French newspapers. Hozier's main books are:
- Recueil armorial, contenant par ordre alphabétique, les armes et
blasons des anciennes maisons de Bretagne (1638) [Armorial including
the coat of arms and blazons of the ancient families of Brittany,
arranged in alphabetical order]
- Les noms, surnoms, qualités, armes et blasons de tous les chevaliers
de l'ordre du Saint-Esprit (1643) [Names, nicknames, titles, coat of
arms and blasons of all the Knights of the Order of the Holy Spirit]
- Généalogie des principales familles de France [Genealogy of the main
French families] in 150 volumes
Charles-René d'Hozier (1640-1732), Pierre d'Hozier's son and the first
editor of the Armorial Général, published:
- Recherches de la noblesse de Champagne (1673) [Research on nobility
in Champagne].
- Recherches des armoiries de Bourgogne [Research on Burgundian coats
of arms]
and several family trees.
Louis-Pierre d'Hozier (1685-1767), Charles-René d'Hozier's nephew,
was juge d'armes, State councillor and Dean of
the Order of Holy Spirit. He published with his son the
Armorial Général de France (1736-1768).
Antoine-Marie d'Hozier (1721-1810), Louis-Pierre d'Hozier's son, was juge d'armes until the French Revolution. He published the third and fourth volumes of the Armorial Général.
Ambroise-Louis-Marie d'Hozier (1760-1834), Antoine-Marie d'Hozier's
nephew, was appointed vérificateur des armoiries
de France près le conseil du sceau des titres under the Restauration.
He published the Indicateur nobiliaire (1818, uncompleted) and the two
first volumes of the Armorial Général.
Ivan Sache, 20 May 2006
