Charles T. Lipp,Noble Strategies in an Early Modern Small State: The Mahuet of Lorraine

Reviewed by: Anne Motta, Université de Lorraine, France

Charles-Ignace Mahuet’s faint smile on the portrait chosen by Charles T. Lipp as the illustration for the book cover seems to express the satisfaction of an ennobled man whose family has steadily climbed up the social ladder in Lorraine from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. Thanks to the chronology – it would not have been totally useless to give the exact dates in the title – we are reminded that reputation and status are the results of a process that spans several generations. The history of that family is divided into four episodes: first, the author talks about the first ennoblement obtained in 1599 and then confirmed in 1620 by ducal favour. In the next two chapters, he examines the administrative careers of the two brothers, Marc-Antoine (1643–1717) and Jean-Baptiste (1649–1721), at a time (1633–1697) when France occupied the Duchies: the former followed the Duke in exile, whereas the latter served as a magistrate for France. The Mahuet dynasty reached its zenith under Leopold (1697–1729) but the central power, more absolute here than in larger states, imposed its limits to Jean-François Mahuet’s ecclesiastical career. This last issue is tackled in the fourth chapter. Finally, some statistical tables in the annexes give a more general view on the Dukes’ ennoblement politics.

The author tells the well-documented evolution of a family considered exemplary with great accuracy and clarity. The Mahuets found their salvation in serving the Duchy, by combining a pluralist identity and varying ‘strategies’: the Mahuets adapted themselves to different sovereignties (Duchy, the French Kingdom, the Empire) from the 1660s onwards, and in the 1730s they gave up administrative positions to take over some others in the Army, thus contributing greatly to the success of a resourceful family in the midst of a complex political context. However, multiple loyalties were not especially rare in borderlands, and joining the sword nobility as soon as possible was the main goal of the anoblis everywhere in Europe. The author rightly points out that the usual divide between sword nobility and civil nobility was less obvious in Duchies because local nobles were more ambivalent. Contracting fine alliances and purchasing lands were less the signs of particular ‘strategies’ than the living proof that the Mahuets had been acquainted for a long time with the well-established social rules of the nobility to develop the family’s heritage. Having said that, the author highlights and comments on the originality of the role of women in safekeeping the status of the Mahuets.

Analysing the complex relationships between the elites and the prince within a peripheral principality is most interesting and refreshing because, so far, historiography has privileged the study of absolutism in large states. According to Charles T. Lipp, the physical proximity of the elites with the prince explains their quick rise of fortune. But the Duchies cannot be considered as the epitome of the standard early modern small state because of the shock waves by which they were swept as early as 1633: war, foreign occupation and the prince’s forced exile. The author is very much aware of this but it is somewhat diluted in long digressions about the general situation in the Duchies. Even if the Duke maintained a stronger hold over that social group than in the neighbouring states – venality hardly existed in Lorraine and advancement within nobility came almost from his patronage – his domination remained incomplete. Actually the French occupation, together with the loss of advantages granted by the Prince, has quickened the emigration of the elites who looked for service with foreign rulers. Consequently, some nobles freed themselves from the duke’s authority and engaged in an international career, regardless of their masters. The author unfortunately did not pay enough attention to how remarkably multicultural the second order was, as this is indeed one of the key features of this border zone nobility.

Charles T. Lipp’s book throws new and useful light on the role and function of nobility in the unprecedented framework of a border state, but without the analysis of other comparable itineraries, it remains debatable if the destiny of the Mahuet House of Lorraine can be considered a model or a singular exception.