The nobles were the most privileged of all in medieval France, and their concern was
to be treated as a separate caste. They might demand the right to render personal military
service (the “tax in blood”) instead of paying to finance a war. They might be willing to
pay a tax based on some established feudal obligation, such as funding the ransom of a
captured king. They even acquiesced, reluctantly, in taxes designed exclusively to pay
military salaries. If possible, however, they wanted to make their contributions in a
different way from others so that their separate status might be underscored.
In general, noble claims of privileges exempting them from taxation were increasingly
denied in court by the third quarter of the 14th century, but the political turmoil of
Charles VI’s reign improved the bargaining position of the nobility. Ordinances of 1388
and 1393 granted nobles exemption from the taille and the aides, respectively, subject to
certain conditions. In the end, the most important of these conditions required that they
“live nobly” and avoid actions, such as engaging in trade, incompatible with noble status.
Failure to “live nobly,” known as dérogeance, could in principle cause a loss of fiscal
exemptions. Nobles with fiscal exemptions were defined strictly at first, but by the mid-
15th century the exemption was broader and few nobles could fail to qualify.
Fiscal privileges were an important matter to nobles who lacked great wealth, as many
did by 1450, but it had real significance only when royal taxes became heavy and regular.
The nobles had many other privileges, however, some deeply rooted in custom; these
included judicial privileges, those attached to certain offices, honorific privileges, and
many rights associated with the medieval lordship, or seigneurie. The real heyday of
privileges, especially those of the nobles, was not the medieval period but the three
centuries that ended in 1789.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
[See also: AIDES; COMMUNE; NOBILITY]
Bush, Michael L. Noble Privilege. London: Holmes and Meier, 1983.
Dravasa, E. “‘Vivre noblement’: recherches sur la dérogeance de noblesse du XIVe au XVIe
siècle.” Revue juridique et économique du Sud-Ouest (1965):7–260.
Henneman, John Bell. “Nobility, Privilege and Fiscal Politics in Late Medieval France.” French
Historical Studies 13 (1983): 1–17.
Timbal, Pierre C, et al. La guerre de cent ans vue a travers les registres du Parlement, 1337–1369.
Paris: CNRS, 1961.
PROCESSION
. The ceremonial procession is a common ritual element of virtually all religions. Biblical
processions that might have affected Christian practice are those that were held with the
Ark of the Covenant and that of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. There is
already frequent mention of processions in the patristic period, and by the early Middle
Ages they are firmly established in the liturgy. The pope, attended by Roman officials
and clergy, was conducted in solemn procession to the stational church on each of some
ninety dates throughout the year; upon arrival, he vested and was led again through the
nave of the church to the sanctuary as the Introit antiphon and psalm were chanted.
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