Historical provinces of France
 | This article does not have any sources. (March 2025) |
The Kingdom of France was organized into provinces until March 4, 1790, when the establishment of the departments abolished the existing provinces. The change was an attempt to eradicate local loyalty based on feudal land ownership and to concentrate all loyalty in the central government of Paris.
The names of the ancient provinces are still used by geographers to designate natural regions, and many French administrative regions bear their names.
The meaning of "province"
[change | change source]The French departments, their names, and boundaries were decided by the central government. On the contrary, the existence of the provinces came from the droit coutumier (" Customary law "), which was simply certified by the state. A province, also called pays ("country"), was characterized by the laws that belonged to it. One province could include many other provinces. For example, Burgundy was a province, but Bresse - another province - was still a part of Burgundy.
Therefore, an official list of provinces is missing. The list of generalities, administrative subdivisions of the kingdom, is often presented when the list of provinces is established on the eve of the French Revolution. The list that appears below is much broader, including provinces that were created throughout French history.
List of historical provinces of France
[change | change source]Provinces
[change | change source]| Prinsipałi provinçe francexi prima de ła rivołusion, con le cavedale provinziai segnae. Le cità in graseto le gavea parlamenti provinziai o "conseils souverains". | ||
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1. Île-de-France (Paris) 2. Verì (Bourges) 3. Orléanais (Orléans) 4. Normandie (Rovan) 5. Languedoc (Toulouse) 6. Lyonnais (Lyon) 7. Dauphiné (Grenoble) 8. Champagne (Troyes) 9. Aunis (La Rochelle) 10. Saintonge (Saintes) 11. Poitou (Poitiers) 12. Guyenne e Guascogna (Bordeaux) 13. Burgundy (Dijon) 14. Picardy (Amiens) 15. Anjou (Angers) 16. Provence (Aix-en-Provence) 17. Angoumois (Angoulême) 18. Bourbonnais (Moulins) 19. Marche (Guéret) 20. Brittany (Rennes) |
21. Maine (Le Mans) 22. Touraine (Tours) 23. Limousin (Limoges) 24. Foix (Foix) 25. Auvergne (Clermont-Ferrand) 26. Béarn (Pau) 27. Alsace (Strasbourg, cons. souv. a Colmar) 28. Artois (Arras) 29. Roussillon (Perpignan) 30. Fiandre e Hainaut (Lille, parlemento a Douai) 31. Franche-Comté (Besançon) 32. Lorraine (Nancy) 33. Corsica (fora da ła mapa, Ajaccio, cons. souv. a Bastia) 34. Nivernais (Nevers) 35. Comtat Venaissin, un feudo papałe 36. Łibera sità inperiałe de Mulhouse 37. Savoia, un feudo sardo 38. Nisa, un feudo sardo 39. Montbéliard, un feudo de Württemberg 40. (mia raprexentà) Trois-Évêchés (Metz, Toul e Verdun). | |
Parts of France in
[change | change source]- Alsazia
- Angoumois
- Anjou
- Artois
- Aunis
- Auvergne
- Basse-Navarre
- Béarn
- Soule
- Beaujolais
- Berry
- Bourbonnais
- Burgundy
- Bretagna
- Champagne
- Corsica
- Dauphiné
- Flanders and Hainaut
- Pays de Foix
- Forez
- Franche-Comté
- Guascogna
- Guyenne
- Île-de-France
- Languedoc
- Landau (Łibera sità inperiałe ocupà in tel 1680, restitui a ła Baviera in tel 1815)
- Limousin
- Lorena
- Lyonnais
- Maine
- Marche
- Combrailles
- Nivernais
- Normandie
- Orléanais
- Perche
- Picardy
- Poitou
- Provensa
- Roussillon
- Saintonge
- Touraine
- Trois-Évêchés
Provinces that were not part of France in
[change | change source]- Avignon and the County of Venaissin, belonging to the Pope, were incorporated in
- Montbeliard was incorporated in 1793 as part of the French Republic, to which it belonged for a short time.
- Mulhouse, a free imperial city allied to Switzerland, was incorporated in
- Savoy and Nice had been temporarily annexed to France in the period 1792 - 1815, but were returned to the Kingdom of Sardinia by the Congress of Vienna Only in 1860 was it annexed again to France.
- Many other territories along the northern border of Alsace and Lorraine were incorporated during the French Revolution.