The crown lands, crown estate, royal domain or (in French) domaine royal (from demesne) of France were the lands, fiefs and rights directly possessed by the kings of France.[1] While the term eventually came to refer to a territorial unit, the royal domain originally referred to the network of "castles, villages and estates, forests, towns, religious houses and bishoprics, and the rights of justice, tolls and taxes" effectively held by the king or under his domination.[2] In terms of territory, before the reign of Henry IV, the domaine royal did not encompass the entirety of the territory of the kingdom of France and for much of the Middle Ages significant portions of the kingdom were the direct possessions of other feudal lords.
In the tenth and eleventh centuries, the first Capetians—while being the kings of France—were among the least powerful of the great feudal lords of France in terms of territory possessed. Patiently, through the use of feudal law (and, in particular, the confiscation of fiefs from rebellious vassals), conquest, annexation, skillful marriages with heiresses of large fiefs, and even by purchase, the kings of France were able to increase the royal domain. By the time of Philip IV, the meaning of "royal domain" began to shift from a mere collection of lands and rights to a fixed territorial unit,[3] and by the sixteenth century the "royal domain" began to coincide with the entire kingdom. However, the medieval system of appanage (a concession of a fief with its land rights by the sovereign to his younger sons, which reverts to the crown upon the extinction of the male line of the original holder) alienated large territories from the royal domain and sometimes created dangerous rivals (especially the Duchy of Burgundy from the 14th to the 15th centuries).
During the Wars of Religion, the alienation of lands and fiefs from the royal domain was frequently criticized. The Edict of Moulins (1566) declared that the royal domain (defined in the second article as all the land controlled by the crown for more than ten years) could not be alienated, except in two cases: by interlocking, in the case of financial emergency, with a perpetual option to repurchase the land; and to form an appanage, which must return to the crown in its original state on the extinction of the male line.
Traditionally, the king was expected to survive from the revenues generated from the royal domain, but fiscal necessity, especially in times of war, led the kings to enact "exceptional" taxes, like the taille, upon the whole of the kingdom (the taille became permanent in 1439).
Chronology of the formation of the royal domain
House of Capet
Reign of Hugh Capet
At the beginning of Hugh Capet's reign, the crown estate was extremely small and consisted mostly of scattered possessions in the Île-de-France and Orléanais regions (Senlis, Poissy, Orléans), with several other isolated pockets, such as Attigny. These lands were largely the inheritance of the Robertians, the direct ancestors of the Capetians.
the king spends much of his reign pacifying and consolidating the royal domain by battling certain feudal lords (lords of Montlhéry, of Coucy, of Puiset, of Crécy...)
1208: La Ferté-Macé confiscated from Guillaume IV of Ferté-Macé
1220: the County of Alençon is reunited to the royal domain in the absence of a male heir to Count Robert IV (the county is sold by the vicomtesse of Châtellerault).
1225: in his will, Louis grants the appanages of Artois and his mother's inheritance to his second son Robert; Poitou and Auvergne to his third son Alphonse; and Anjou and Maine to his fourth son John (due to John's death, these possessions would go to Louis' seventh son Charles).[15]
1284: marriage of Philip the Fair, the future king of France, with Queen Joan I of Navarre, Countess of Champagne. The County of Champagne is reunited to the royal domain (made official in 1361)
1285–1295: purchase of the County of Guînes from Count Arnould III who needed money to pay a ransom.
1336: conquest of the County of Ponthieu, given to the king of England in 1360.
1343–1349: the Dauphiné is sold to the kingdom of France by the Dauphin of Viennois
1349: purchase for the kingdom of France of the seigneurie of Montpellier from James III of Majorca, the dispossessed king of Majorca, for 120 000 écus.
1350–1360: after the death of Raoul II of Brienne, Count of Guînes, and connétable of France (decapitated for treason), the County of Guînes is confiscated. It will be ceded to the English by the Treaty of Brétigny.
1434: Amboise is confiscated from Louis of Amboise (who had plotted against Georges de la Trémoille, a favorite of the king) and reunited with the crown.
1498: the crowning of the new king brings his appanages Valois (alienated in 1386?) and Orléans (alienated in 1392) back to the royal domain, and the county of Blois is integrated into the royal domain for the first time.
1498: the second marriage of the king with the Duchess Anne of Brittany continues the personal union of Brittany to the kingdom which had been interrupted when Anne, as widow, asserted the independence of Brittany.
1498: at the death of Odet of Aydie, the County of Comminges (alienated in 1462) returns to the crown.
From the reign of Francis I, the concept of "royal domain" begins to coincide with the French kingdom in general; the appanage of the House of Bourbon however remains alienated.
1532: union of the Duchy of Brittany to France, the inheritance of Claude of France daughter of Anne of Brittany. The Dauphin becomes the Duke of Brittany but dies before he ascends to the throne of France.
1547: for the first time the title Duke of Brittany and King of France is held by the same male primogeniture descendant. This marks the final step in the personal union of Brittany with France.
1620: The king leads an army over Béarn and issues an edict at Pau, incorporating the Kingdom of Navarre and Béarn to the crown of France. From then on, while some prerogatives and the name were kept, the Kingdom of Navarre (Basse Navarre) with Béarn was no longer sovereign.