#brick rambles

(LM 1.1.5, regarding the bishop)

Reading this paragraph made me feel extra emotional about the bishop because I have long known, of course, about what happens with Valjean later, but never that the bishop specifically did not enjoy eating with utensils that weren't silver. And yet, even then...

‘Oh, the wicked fellow! He’s stolen our silver!’

The bishop remained silent for a moment, then raised his solemn gaze and said quietly to Madame Magloire, ‘Now was that silver ours in the first place?’

Madame Magloire was left speechless. There was another silence, then the bishop went on, ‘Madame Magloire, I’ve been wrongfully keeping that silver for a long time. It belonged to the poor. And what was that man? Obviously one of the poor.’

. . .

‘What’s Monseigneur to eat with now?’

The bishop gazed at her with an expression of amazement. ‘Ah, come now! Haven’t we some pewter cutlery?’

Madame Magloire shrugged. ‘Pewter has a smell.’

‘Tin cutlery, then.’

Madame Magloire gave a meaningful grimace. ‘Tin leaves a taste in your mouth.’

‘Very well,’ said the bishop, ‘wooden cutlery.’

after putting nearly everything into an annuity providing an income of fifteen thousand francs, three-quarters of which would terminate with his own demise. He had not hesitated, little concerned about leaving any legacy.

(LM 3.2.5)

So I have done a lot of research in the not so distant past about inheritance laws in France! Please correct me if I'm wrong - and maybe somebody else has already talked about this, and possibly talked about it better than I will, and if someone else has already been over this, I'd love a link! - but at this time, the law meant that everything was to be divided up equally between the children, and if they had no children there was this whole order of who it went to (the wife was so much farther down in the list than she should've been and didn't get much 💀 unless the husband wrote something into his will to make sure she got more, which thankfully, it sounds like was pretty common because a lot of people wanted to keep to the old way of doing things rather then just letting the current and somewhat newer laws take place upon their possessions).

Before I continue, I want to add that everything I've read about has only talked about estates, I don't know if this includes other assets.

Continuing on: One could also get around the equal split in order to continue favoring the eldest by bequeathing upon them land and money prior to the person's death (though there was a limit, to ensure that other kids would get something after death), or, for some nobles, they could actually bestow a bit more to an eldest son upon their death regardless with a special law for them (Majorat). But at least any of the other kids would get something, and even included illegitimate children as long as the father had legally recognized them at some point (albeit less for them).

That aside, there was also the option of giving part of what you had away instead of leaving as an inheritance. As I mentioned before, it could be written up to go to a spouse, or it could go to a friend, charity - whatever it was you wished. Thus, less would go to their kids, grandkids, parents, siblings, grandparents, spouse, or other relatives (yes, that was the order of precedence for inheritance - see how far down the spouse is? Crazy).

Now here's the weird thing... According to law, the amount that could be used in this way was specific and depended on the number of children you had. You had to leave behind a portion as an inheritance (called the résèrve légale). If you had one child, like Gillenormand had, half of the estate was to go to that child. And then the number continued to grow if you had more kids.

So how the heck was he getting away with disposing of 3/4 of his finances? Because, from what I understand, rente (aka the annuity he's living on) comes from property. That property should still be part of the inheritance, and half of that should go to his daughter by law. So????

That aside, continuing on:

Besides, he had noticed that unexpected things happened to patrimonies, for instance they became ‘national assets’.

So initially I had figured he just meant he was going to let the government take 3/4 of his assets after he died instead of providing more for his daughter (female children were equally as entitled to inheritance as long as they were not married!) Though again, this makes no sense by law, that he can get rid of 3/4 of it.... Legal limitations should mean she gets 1/2... Unless the Majorat law came into play?

So remember how I said some nobles could get away with giving more to their eldest son? If Gillenormand had a noble title attached to some land given to him by Napoleon or Louis XVIII, that could go to his eldest son directly. But he doesn't have an eldest son. Maybe that meant he could do whatever he wanted with that property?? Maybe that's 1/4 of his assets, which means "half" of the rest would be... Another 1/4, if I'm a mathing correctly (bad at math sorry), Which means 3/4 of his total assets could be up to him as to how he wants to dispose of them... That is if whatever he has under Majorat could be done away without ever he chooses since he doesn't have an eldest son. I don't know how that works. Does anyone else know?

Anyway, the really buckwild thing to me about this is it sounds like he's not giving it to anything at all. He doesn't want the government to have it even? He's just.... Like completely dissolving the existence of it I guess??? He could let his daughter have it (or even give part of it to Marius), but instead he'd rather just. Destroy it entirely. Dang. This guy. 💀

EDIT: From what I can find, it seems that if there were no male relatives to take the Majorat, it became extinct. So that might be our answer! Except... He had Marius?? 🤔 Geez, I dunno LOL

Refs:

https://www.placedauphine.net/projects/inheritancelaw.html

Page 679-689: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1182&context=lalrev

https://tontinecoffeehouse.com/2023/01/16/revolution-rentes/

https://tontinecoffeehouse.com/2024/01/29/wealth-in-fin-de-siecle-france/

https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/oa_edited_volume/chapter/2476298

https://jerripedia.org/wiki/Rentes

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