Avaray () is a
commune in the
Loir-et-Cher
Loir-et-Cher (, ) is a department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France. Its name is originated from two rivers which cross it, the Loir in its northern part and the Cher in its southern part. Its prefecture is Blois. The INSEE and La P ...
department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
in central
France.
History
Avaray is a French territorial title belonging to a family some of whose members have been conspicuous in history. The
Béarn
The Béarn (; ; oc, Bearn or ''Biarn''; eu, Bearno or ''Biarno''; or ''Bearnia'') is one of the traditional provinces of France, located in the Pyrenees mountains and in the plain at their feet, in southwest France. Along with the three Bas ...
aise family named
Besiade moved into the
province of
Orléanais
The Duchy of Orléanais () is a former province of France, which was created during the Renaissance by merging four former counties and towns. However after the French Revolution, the province was dissolved in 1791 and succeeded by five ''départm ...
in the 17th century, and there acquired the estate of Avaray. In 1667
Theophile de Besiade, marquis d'Avaray, obtained the office of grand
bailiff
A bailiff (from Middle English baillif, Old French ''baillis'', ''bail'' "custody") is a manager, overseer or custodian – a legal officer to whom some degree of authority or jurisdiction is given. Bailiffs are of various kinds and their offi ...
of Orleans, which was held by several of his descendants after him.
Claude Antoine de Besiade Claude may refer to:
__NOTOC__ People and fictional characters
* Claude (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Claude (surname), a list of people
* Claude Lorrain (c. 1600–1682), French landscape painter, draughtsman and etcher ...
, marquis d'Avaray, was deputy for the
bailliage of Orleans in the states-general of 1789, and proposed a
Declaration of the Duties of Man
Declaration may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''Declaration'' (book), a self-published electronic pamphlet by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri
* ''The Declaration'' (novel), a 2008 children's novel by Gemma Malley
Music ...
as a pendant to the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen; he subsequently became a lieutenant-general in 1814, a peer of France in 1815, and duc d'Avaray in 1818.
Antoine Louis Francois de Besiade
Antoine is a French given name (from the Latin '' Antonius'' meaning 'highly praise-worthy') that is a variant of Danton, Titouan, D'Anton and Antonin.
The name is used in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, West Greenland, Haiti, French Guian ...
, comte d'Avaray, son of the above, distinguished himself during the Revolution by his devotion to the comte de Provence, afterwards
Louis XVIII, whose emigration he assisted. Having nominally become king in 1799, that prince created the estate of
Ile-Jourdain a duchy, under the title of Avaray, in favour of the comte d'Avaray, whom he termed his "liberator".
Population
Sights
The Château d'Avaray was built in the 16th century; of this building only four corner towers remain. In the 1730s a central building with two curving wings was erected. The park is magnificent and is said to have been designed by Le Nôtre.
[''Châteaux of the Loire''. (Nagel Travel Guide Series.) Geneva: Nagel; p. 45]
See also
*
Communes of the Loir-et-Cher department
References
;Attribution
*
Communes of Loir-et-Cher
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