Construction généalogique et développement de l'État moderne. La généalogie des Bailleul

Résumé En

Genealogical construction and the development of the modem State: the genealogy of the Bailleuls Parisian grands robins (1600-1650). The "Genealogy of the Illustrious Family of the Bailleuls," ordered in 1639 by Nicolas de Bailleul, president of the Parlement of Paris, provides interesting ground for discussion of the socio-political function of the genealogical works composed by members of the haute robe during the first half of the 17th century. To begin with, through an analysis of narrative process system of representations of kinship may be defined confrontation between the discourse constructed by the genealogist on the one hand and the family realities restitued by critical analysis of various archival sources on the other hand then reveals artificial kinships and genealogical forgeries. In the end the genealogical exercise appears as one of set of privileged means of aristocratic affirmation of the haute robe. It participates fully in the logic of construc tion of modern State whose objective was to gather around the person of the monarch the two aristocracies, old and new, military and civil, both of them equally under the obligation of providing proof, even if fake, of their nobility.