Castellania: sights, history and trails

From the 11th century, the term designated a new territory that had formed around a castle erected on a hill by rural aristocracy following the decline of central power. It appeared very early in the north of Drôme, especially in Romanais, which saw its territory covered by numerous castles on heights, about a dozen, of which eight outside the ancient Carolingian constituency.^[2] Chastellania became a complete administrative constituency over time, and it was assumed as a means of geographical location: « Ego, Ugo,..., unus mansus gift in casteli sent Montis Miratis... ». It should be noted that in Romanais the castellany was small in size and included only two or three parishes: the largest, that of Peyrins, six parishes, the equivalent today of six municipalities.^[2]

Contrary to what has occurred in certain principalities (e.g. in the Delphine), Chaldenia has remained a simple feudal constituency in the Paris basin and in the associated royal domain.^[3] This means that the king had decided to add vasal fiefs, according to criteria of seniority, geographical proximity or political facts.

The institution concerned only a geographically fixed vasaling line to ensure its effectiveness. Only the fiefs dependent on the prince were annexed to this castellania: those important for lordship were not. There were very rare cases of lords not from the prince who were able to equip themselves with a castellania. For this reason, in the royal domain, the castellans were not replaced by the priests, nor by the balves, when they appeared to you, in judicial or managerial attributes.

The number of castellanies has been multiplied on the initiative of the principles. Until then, the effectiveness of the service was rendered to the county seat. This split was carried out during the 12th century, but later almost completely ceased. It can be cited as an example that the king late created a castellania in Villeneuve-le-Roi (now Villeneuve-sur-Yonne), but not significantly diminishing the oldest one in Sens, home to an ancient county. He annexed his feudal advantages especially for judicial decisions, in the direction of the lands upstream of the Yonne Basin. Philip VI of Valois has worked on a very rare reform of rationalization of the split in the castellanies of Saens and Courtenay. In the same way, the Count of Champagne established new castles towards 1190 putting his hands on the lordships of Nogent-sur-Seine and Villemaur and annexing there fiefs whose gifts were right there brought to Troyes by the nobility of the surroundings. All the castles are well-known for the creation of a castle.

For his part, the castellan is a royal agent established in certain beetles. Within the reign Philip Augustus created it when he fought against John without Earth and conquered Normandy. The owner began to be recruited among the knights before being among the old servants of the crown. Thus the castellan of Sens, the knight Gilles de Flagy was an active diplomat, sent to the counts of Toulouse and the accounts of Provence (and he negotiated the marriage of Louis the Holy with Margherita of Provence). He is probably in charge of overseeing the castle, the nominal seat of the castellania and related gifts. His successor, Jean Le Monnayeur, taken by the local bourgeoisie, was a "retired" royal balive. As an example, it can be cited in Sens but not at Villeneuve-le-Roi in the 13th century. It is without doubt to its use that the vast census of all royal vasals has been implemented.^[4] This document would have allowed the castle to verify the effectiveness of feudal service.

In the 14th century, the function became honorable. It was later connected to the captain's, who was the pin of civil defence. Thus the feudal control (castellano) was combined with that of the cities (capitano). The function thus guaranteed a complement to the revenue. The withdrawal of feudal effects caused the fossilization of the title. So the royal balves became together balves, captains and chaplains of the city at the center of their baliato.

The consolidation of the royal authority allowed the mobilization of vassals and valvassors, according to a distinct administrative framework that did not take back that of the castellanies, but that of the baliato in the sixteenth century.

In the Delphine the function of captain-castle was much more. It lasted until the end of the judiciary and administrative type.Ancien Régime. The territorial framework for the exercise of one's function was the castellany. This unit included approximately three or four parishes. This administrative framework was established by the last independent Dolphins. It is therefore necessary to distinguish each political framework, under penalty of generating geographical and chronological anachronisms.

It should be noted the specific use of words made by historians from the second half of the twentieth century. According to them, the castellan evokes that fraction of the noncommunal nobility, which had extensive powers on populations. The term therefore is not used as it is in the documentation of the time. By extension, this "castellano" symbolizes feudal society.

Finally, "castellano" in the literature refers to the occupants of qualified residences as castles, but that are actually houses-forty or large homes.

The castellan was an official, comitary or princely, nominated and paid. His assignment was revoked and transferable. In his role as the guardian of the castle, he kept accounting and had to regularly present his accounts, those of the castellania. He also exercised all rights for delegations, military and judicial. By extension, and wrongly, all the owners of castles, either received or resumed in fief or elevated to their own alliedness, on which a lord exercised his ban, are called as chaplains. This title must be reserved to the gentlemen who received it directly from a count or prince, so the lord of a bano was not necessarily a "castle" even if provided with castle. This title was often assigned to the cadets of large families or to the small local nobility.

• Claude Gauvard, Alain de Libera, Michel Zink, Dictionnaire du Moyen Âge, Ed. PUF, 2002, p. 280.