Observations sur les structures familiales de l’aristocratie normande au xie siècle

Family relationships are central to studies of networks and interdependencies in medieval societies. On the basis of Norman examples, this paper looks at the notion of a “mutation familiale”, as applied to Western Europe in the period from the 10th to the 12th centuries. In Normandy, from the end of the 11th century onwards, the awareness of belonging to a lineage became stronger, and tended to be more closely related to the ducal dynasty. At the same time, constraints related to heritage became more strict. Inheritance practices, however, appear more flexible than in the later Coutume, and if the significance of links through the women of the kin are considered, lineage as a model does not seem to have met with complete success. Equally, on occasion, the links that were fostered between some Norman noblemen and their parents issued from both lines, paternal and maternal, brought distant solidarities into being.