Province de la Sarre

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The Province de la Sarre (Saar Province ) was a French administrative unit during the reign of King Louis XIV in the area of ​​today's Saarland and beyond, which existed from 1679 ( Peace of Nijmegen ) to 1697 ( Peace of Rijswijk ). The capital of the province was Saarlouis .

history

French territorial changes at the time of Louis XIV. The territories lost again in 1697 are shown in blue
The borders of the Saar Province; in hatching the boundaries of today's Saarland

The area of ​​today's Saarland came in 925 with the Franconian Lotharingia to the Eastern Empire, from which the later Holy Roman Empire developed. During the feudal period , the Archbishopric and Electorate of Trier , the Duchy of Lorraine , the Wittelsbach Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken and the County of Saarbrücken were the most important territorial lords in what is now Saarland. With the Treaty of Nuremberg in 1542, in which the empire granted the Duchy of Lorraine a special status under constitutional law as a free and independent duchy, the Saar region increasingly turned into a contested border area and in the course of its recent history was at times under the influence of France or its sovereignty .

Until the Peace of Westphalia was concluded in 1648, what is now Saarland was part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. In the peace treaty, the imperial cities of Metz , Toul and Verdun , conquered by France in 1552 , as well as the three eponymous bishoprics ( Trois-Évêchés ) were ceded to France under international law. Due to the fact that the rule of Püttlingen belonged to the duchy and bishopric of Metz , it was annexed by France. This made a first part of what is now Saarland French.

In the years from 1670 to 1672 the French troops occupied Lorraine as well as what is now Saarland. As a result of the Peace of Nijmegen ( Nijmegen ) in 1679, however, it was forced to return the occupied territories. Only the Lorraine region remained France. The German territories annexed by the so-called reunions were merged in 1679 to form the French Saar Province (Province de la Sarre). Thus, after the early medieval Franconian county of Saargau and the county of Saarbrücken, a new, independent administrative unit was created that had the term “ Saar ” in its name.

The repeal of serfdom in the Saar Province by the French government; Single-sheet print “Extrait des registres du conseil d'estat du roy”, Louis XIV of France, Versailles January 5, 1685 - The French administration took numerous measures during the reunification period (1681–1697) to rebuild the conquered territories and give them to France to match. While the sovereigns and the landlords were weakened, the population should be tied to France through relief. With the decree of January 5, 1685, serfdom and the obligation to buy ransom associated with it were repealed. This should also promote the freedom of movement with regard to the settlement and marriage of young people. Likewise, the compulsory labor should be reduced by three quarters and the manorial grazing rights to a quarter of the existing pasture land. The introduction of new taxes should benefit the French treasury.

The amalgamation of the territories was carried out by so-called reunion chambers, which also functioned as courts of law. You should determine the historical fiefdom dependencies of areas in relation to the three principal bishops and monasteries Metz, Toul and Verdun. Afterwards an annexation by France in the sense of a "reunification" should be initiated. On July 8, 1680, the county of Saarbrücken was declared a fiefdom of the prince-bishopric and bishopric of Metz by the judgment of the Metz Reunionskammer, and a complete annexation of the area was initiated. In addition, the newly founded Saar province of German Lorraine and parts of the Palatinate were incorporated . With this, almost the entire area of ​​today's Saarland, with the exception of two areas in the northwest, was united under the name "Baillage d'Allemagne" and France exercised sovereignty there. The following territories belonged to the Saar Province:

Thus 26 cities and 1660 villages were subject to the newly founded Saar Province.

For the previous feudal lords, submission to French sovereignty brought many disadvantages which they had to accept if they did not want to be driven from their property. They lost their financial sovereignty and had only limited power over their subjects. The expansion of the French bureaucracy and strict surveillance by royal officials resulted in a loss of income due to the lifting of customs borders within the Reunion areas. In addition, previous charges such as escort money and soldiers' money had been abolished. The estimate has been reduced by two thirds compared to 1672. It came repealing serfdom , the Loskaufgeld was so off that forced labor was reduced by 75%, limited the stately grazing rights on a quarter of all pastureland, controls the stately spending by royal officials, the jurisdiction was lost and the Imperial Court as a court accounted . The embarrassing neck court order of Emperor Charles V was replaced by French criminal law and French currency, coins, measures and weights were finally introduced.

One of the most urgent tasks of the French officials was the repopulation of the areas devastated in the Thirty Years War and also afterwards and the increase in the population that was still found. In addition, despite guaranteed religious freedom, an intensified re-Catholicisation campaign was started with the aim of returning all places that had become Protestant to the Catholic Church.

The measures brought some advantages to the region: There was an upturn in trade due to the now fallen customs barriers. New markets emerged, economic relations with the neighboring imperial territories were maintained, the infrastructure was improved through the construction of roads and the establishment of regular postal connections. The subjects were now exempt from serfdom and the possible ransom that went with it, the compulsory labor was reduced by 75% and they had increased grazing rights. In 1680, the French King Louis XIV ( Louis XIV ) had Saarlouis (original name: Sarre-Louis ) built to protect the new eastern border. The builder Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban designed the fortress city symmetrically in the shape of a star with six bastions that were used to set up cannons. The plans for this came from Thomas de Choisy . The newly founded city became the capital of the Saar Province in 1685. This was also the seat of the Intendant of the Saar Province, Antoine Bergeron, Seigneur de la Goupilière, to whom all Reunion territories subordinated to the French king were subject from October 23, 1679.

The director controlled the financial budgets of the cities and feudal lords, the forest administration, the police, road construction and customs borders and collected taxes. The feudal lords of the Saar Province had to cede financial sovereignty and the highest jurisdiction to the Intendant in Saarlouis. In the provincial capital of Saarlouis, the Siège présidial, the upper tribunal, was set up with effect from February 26, 1685, and was subordinate to the parliament in Metz as the last instance.

The first president was the judge and previously authorized representative of the German Ballei in Lorraine, the Wallerfanger Franz Ernst de Koeler (1629–1705, ennobled 1664). The previous Wallerfanger court had already been moved to Saarlouis with effect from November 1, 1683. The place of justice was the town hall on the Great Market.

With the Peace of Rijswijk, which ended the War of the Palatinate Succession in 1697 , the Saar province came to an end after 18 years of existence. The territories had to be returned to the Holy Roman Empire and the Duchy of Lorraine was restored within the borders of 1670. Following the intervention of England , France was allowed to keep the two fortress cities Saarlouis and Landau to secure its borders. So Saarlouis remained until the Revolutionary Wars as a French exclave and remainder of the former Saar province and was added to the province of "Three Bishoprics". The Siège présidial remained in place until the French Revolution .

Only with the succession of the Duchy of Lorraine to the French crown in 1766 was France able to regain a quarter of what is now Saarland. The entire area on the left bank of the Rhine fell to France with the Treaty of Lunéville in 1801.

literature

  • Guido Braun: From the political to the cultural hegemony of France. 1648–1789 (= German-French history. 4). Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2008.
  • Georg Baltzer: Historical notes about the city of Saarlouis and its immediate surroundings, Trier 1865.
  • Ludwig Karl Balzer: Saarlouis, the royal hexagon, construction of the fortress city in the time of the Sun King, Saarbrücken 2001.
  • Thomas Gergen: Saarlouis - Siège présidial and Supreme Court, A look at the legal history of Saarland since 1679, in: Our home, bulletin of the Saarlouis district for culture and landscape, 43rd volume, issue No. 3, 2018, pp. 97-110 .
  • Hans-Walter Herrmann: Geschichtliche Landeskunde des Saarlandes, in: Hans-Walter Herrmann and Kurt Hoppstädter (Hrsg.): Volume II, From the Franconian land acquisition to the outbreak of the French Revolution, Saarbrücken 1977.
  • Hans-Walter Herrmann and Franz Irsigler (eds.): Contributions to the history of the early modern garrison and fortress town, presentations and results of the discussion of a colloquium in Saarlouis from 24.-27. 6. 1980, Saarbrücken 1983.
  • Hermann Kaufmann: The Reunionskammer in Metz, in: Yearbook of the Society for Lorraine History and Archeology 11 (1899), pp. 1–313.
  • Walter Mohr: The Duchy of Lorraine between France and Germany (14th – 17th centuries), Part IV, Trier 1986.
  • Marie Odile Piquel-Marchal: La Chambre de Réunion de Metz, Paris 1969 (= Travaux et recherches de la faculté de droit et des sciences de Paris, Series Sciences historiques 17).
  • Fritz Textor: The French "Saar Province" 1680–1697, A contribution to the history of the reunions, in: Rheinische Vierteljahresblätter Jg. 10, 1940, pp. 1–76.
  • Martin Wrede: Ludwig XIV. - The Warlord from Versailles, Darmstadt 2015.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walter Mohr: The Duchy of Lorraine between France and Germany (14th – 17th centuries), Part IV, Trier 1986, p. 163ff.
  2. ↑ Klaus Geiben: Constitution and administration of the Duchy of Lorraine under its last Duke and former King of the Poles Stanislaus Leszczysnki, Saarbrücken 1989, p. 8ff.
  3. ^ Fritz Kloevekorn (ed.): The Saar area, its structure, its problems, Saarbrücken 1929, p. 77.
  4. ↑ Hans-Walter Herrmann: Geschichtliche Landeskunde des Saarlandes, in: Hans-Walter Herrmann and Kurt Hoppstädter (eds.): Volume II, From the Franconian Landquisition to the outbreak of the French Revolution, Saarbrücken 1977, p. 441.
  5. ^ Hans Ammerich: Landesherr und Landesverwaltung, contributions to the government of Pfalz-Zweibrücken at the end of the Old Empire (publications of the Commission for Saarland State History and Folk Research, XI), Saarbrücken 1981.
  6. ↑ Werner Hesse: Here Wittelsbach, here Pfalz, the history of the Palatinate Wittelsbacher from 1214 to 1803, Landau / Pfalz 1986.
  7. ↑ Hans-Walter Herrmann: Geschichtliche Landeskunde des Saarlandes, in: Hans-Walter Herrmann and Kurt Hoppstädter (eds.): Volume II, From the Franconian Landquisition to the outbreak of the French Revolution, Saarbrücken 1977, p. 455.
  8. ↑ Hans-Walter Herrmann: Geschichtliche Landeskunde des Saarlandes, in: Hans-Walter Herrmann and Kurt Hoppstädter (eds.): Volume II, From the Franconian Landquisition to the outbreak of the French Revolution, Saarbrücken 1977, pp. 535, 455ff.
  9. ^ Fritz Textor: The French "Saar Province" 1680 - 1697, A contribution to the history of the reunions, in: Rheinische Vierteljahresblätter Jg. 10, 1940, pp. 1–76, here pp. 10ff. and 26ff.
  10. ^ Ludwig Karl Balzer: Saarlouis, The royal hexagon, building the fortress city in the time of the Sun King, Saarbrücken 2001, pp. 362-370.
  11. ↑ Ludwig Karl Balzer: Saarlouis, The royal hexagon, building the fortress city in the time of the Sun King, Saarbrücken 2001, p. 47ff. u. 361ff.
  12. ^ Georg Baltzer: Historical notes on the city of Saarlouis and its immediate surroundings, Trier 1865, pp. 202–203.
  13. ↑ Hans-Walter Herrmann and Franz Irsigler (eds.): Contributions to the history of the early modern garrison and fortress town, presentations and results of the discussion of a colloquium in Saarlouis from 24.-27. 6. 1980, Saarbrücken 1983, pp. 94, 107f.
  14. ↑ Thomas Gergen: Saarlouis - Siège présidial and Supreme Court, A look at the legal history of Saarland since 1679, in: Our homeland, bulletin of the Saarlouis district for culture and landscape, 43rd year, issue No. 3, 2018, p. 97– 110.