Canadian Feudalism

We in the United States tend to myopically view the western hemisphere through the lens of democracy, as if every republic on the continent sprang forth fully-formed from the mind of Libertie herself. Reality, of course, tells a quite different story. While the English colonies were certainly more egalitarian, the French and Spanish possessions were often more reminiscent of the old world. New France, in particular, imported a peculiar brand of Gallican feudalism from the ancien regime.

The seigneurial system was used throughout Quebec, Louisiana, and Acadia as a means of encouraging settlement. Much like the feudal system of the Medieval period, the King would grant fiefs, called seigneuries to nobles, called seigneurs, who would take possession of the land in person and parcel out land to commoners who would pay him a small rent. The people who lived upon the land were known as habitants. Cardinal Richelieu, the administrative mastermind of Louis XIV, devised the particulars of the seigneurial system for New France, which began with the granting of the Seigneury of Beauport just outside of Quebec City to Robert Giffard, a surgeon from Mortagne-au-Perche in Normandy.

Charles Le Moyne, Baron Longueuil

The seigneurial system was one means by which the French middle class was able to ascend social strata. This, in itself, encouraged emigration from the old country. Following their countryman Giffard, dozens of people from Mortagne and other villages in the Perche région made their way to Quebec. My own ancestor, Michel Messier, left Rouen and settled in Montreal, where, after a strategic marriage and successes in the fur trade in Michigan, he was made Seigneur de Cap-Saint-Michel et de La Guillaudière, encompassing much of the land around Varennes, the ancestral home of my maternal grandmother's family. More interesting, perhaps, is the story of Messier de La Guillaudière's wife's family. Anne Le Moyne was the daughter of an innkeeper from Dieppe in Normandy. Her brother, Charles, came to Quebec with her and, after beginning at age fifteen as an indentured servant in the service of Jesuit missionaries followed by a distinguished military career in the service of the colony, was named Seigneur de Longueuil et de Châteauguay. He had twelve sons, many of which reached illustrious heights in the government of New France. Among them were Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, the great soldier, tradesman, and explorer; Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the founder of New Orleans, Mobile, and Biloxi, governor of Louisiana; and Charles Le Moyne de Longueuil, who was governor of Montreal and was made a baron - the first native born Canadian to be so named.

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Not only are these stories interesting from a personal point of view, since they compose a part of my family's history, but, I think they illustrate several useful points. The first is they help abolish the misconception that the class divisions of the ancien regime were completely static. The case of the Le Moynes, for instance, shows how, with a lot of work and a little luck, it was possible to go from an innkeeper to an indentured servant to a baron in three generations. In general, hard work - whether military or otherwise - was rewarded in the colony. Even the habitants were not the hovel-dwelling, dirt-scraping peasants of popular imagination. Many of them - sometimes even women - became quite wealthy in terms of land and possessions (I think of Adrienne Du Vivier-Hebert, widow of the first colonist of Montreal, who expanded her family's landholdings in her own name). Some even had hired servants. 

Thus, in New France, there was a sense of Liberté, Egalité, et Fraternité within a hierarchical, monarchical system. People who deserved to be honored were given honors that then became associated with the entire family. Those who lived average lives were not "oppressed", but they were not elevated beyond their rank for no reason. This, I think, is one of the virtues of aristocracy.

I came across this quote earlier this week by the conservative Colombian philosopher Nicolás Gómez Dávila, which, I think, sums it up quite nicely: "In societies where everybody believes they are equal, the inevitable superiority of a few makes the rest feel like failures. Inversely, in societies where inequality is the norm, each person settles into his own distinct place, without feeling the urge, nor even conceiving the possibility, of comparing himself to others. Only a hierarchical structure is compassionate towards the mediocre and the meek."

I think of our current culture when I read this quote. I think we have the worst scourges of aristocracy without the graces of nobility. We have fabulously wealthy and influential families and people in this country, yet we refuse to honor them in the way that the ancien regime would have. We pretend that "all men created equal" erases the fact that some men are born to higher stations than others. As if the Medieval monarch thought he was a "higher being". He knew, as all Christians know, that rights come from God, and that souls are equal, though station in life may not be.

I am reminded of the burial custom of the Habsburg monarchs. When the body of the deceased is brought before the Franciscan Church in Vienna, where the family crypt is, the steward of the church knocks on the door three times. The monks inside inquire thrice as to who is begging admittance. The first two times, the steward responds with the full list of titles of the deceased. The door remains unopened. The last time, the steward simply announces the first name of the deceased, followed by "a humble, sinful man." The door is than opened.

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So, let the Le Moynes keep the Baronetcy of Longueuil. Give a duchy to the Kennedys. Make the Vanderbilts Viscounts of Asheville. Name George H.W. Bush the Earl of Kennebunkport. Give Americans the benefit of having a codified upper class to lampoon. Give them little privileges and little responsibilities. Like the seigneurs of New France, let them have a nice house, but make them build a grist mill for the community. Let the President name new nobles for meritorious service to the nation, so that people have a goal to aspire to above and beyond the jet-set lifestyle of Malibu and Miami.

Thoughts on Monarchy

Soon after the election results were in, I joked on my Facebook page that I was going to withdraw from American politics, help the French monarchists restore the King, get Quebec to secede from Canada and rejoin the reinvigorated French Empire, and then have them annex Michigan (and Ontario) so that I could live contentedly under a Catholic monarchy. Such fantastic (but far-fetched) scenarios aside, I do have a soft-spot for monarchical government, as understood in Medieval Christendom. Admittedly, there were defects, but in its idealized form all persons were equal before God and treated with dignity. The King administered God's justice and maintained a reflection of the divine order through his reign. The King was prevented from usurping too much power by the Church, who could pressure the King with various ecclesiastical actions (interdiction, excommunication, etc.). The Church also acted as the provider of community welfare through the various charitable efforts of monasteries and parishes, maintaining a level of political stability among the poor.

Monarchy obviously gets a bad name in the US, which was born of anti-Royal sentiment, yet there is something further to be said of the nature of leadership in a monarchy which is distinct from our current form of democracy. The monarch did not have to gain his power. He was born into it. He was groomed for it from a young age - a spirit of service to his subjects permeated his education. He did not have to sell his soul to corporations or special interests to gain power. He could devote himself to ideals shamelessly. He did not have to pander to various constituencies at the expense of others.

There were abuses of this power, but on the whole I think it may be a better system than our current plutocracy that goes to the polls every four years in order to claim legitimacy.

Blessed Charles, pray for us

Today is the feast of Blessed Charles of Austria, the last emperor of Austria-Hungary. In our current age, when most politicians are barely decent, let alone saintly, we need the prayers of Blessed Charles ever more urgently. Charles is recognized by the Church as having been a lone voice for peace during World War I, as well as a personally holy man. His marriage to his wife Zita was exemplary of Christian matrimony, and his sense of duty to God and his subjects is worth imitating. In my estimation, it is a shame that the Allies pushed Charles off the throne after the war. A man of his moral character would have been a good bastion against the increased radicalism in Europe in the interwar period. But, alas, the Twentieth Century saw Christian monarchs as unfashionable, and deposed them without pity.

In any event, let us pray unceasingly through the intercession of Blessed Charles for the strengthening of the moral fiber of all of our leaders of authority, both civil and religious.

Photo: The blessed Emperor greets one of his subjects

Otto, a mortal, sinful man

You may not have heard, but on the Fourth of July, as we were celebrating our independence from monarchy, the last heir of one of the great monarchies of Europe passed away. Otto von Habsburg, the last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary died July 4th at the ripe old age of 98. His life was marked with all of the turbulence of the Twentieth Century's major events, from the deposition of his family from the Austrian throne to the Second World War to the birth of the European Union. A tireless campaigner for recognition of the God-given dignity of each human being, Otto von Habsburg continued his family's legacy of using the monarchy as a way to work on behalf of his people. You can read a full obituary of this great man here. 

One of the most moving parts of the entire gamut of funeral events was the traditional knocking at the door of the Kapuzinerkirche in Vienna where the Imperial Crypt is located. The text of the dialog is reprinted below.

The herold taps three time on the gate with his rod. 

Capuchin friar: "Who begs entrance?"

Herold: "Otto of Austria, once Crown Prince of Autria-Hungary, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia, of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria and Illyria; Grand Duke of Tuscany and Cracow, Duke of Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Bucovina; Grand Prince of Transylvania, Margrave of Moravia; Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, Modena, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Auschwitz, Zator, Teschen, Friuli, Ragusa and Zara; Princely Count of Habsburg and Tyrol, Kyburg, Görz and Gradisca; Prince of Trent and Brixen; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and in Istria; Count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz and Sonnenberg, etc.; Lord of Triest, Cattaro and in the Windic march; Grand Voivode of the Voivodeship of Serbia; etc. etc."

Capuchin friar: "We know him not."

The herold knocks again.

Capuchin friar: "Who begs entrance?"

Herold: "Dr. Otto von Habsburg, President and Honorary President of the Paneuropean Union, Member and Father of the House of the European Parliament, honorary doctor of numerous universities and honorary citizen of many municiplaities in central Europe, member of venerable Academies and Institutes, bearer of high and highest state and Church decorations, orders and honours, which were granted to him in recognition of his decade-long struggle for the freedom of peoples, for what is right and just."

Capuchin friar: "We know him not."

The herold knocks for the third time.

Capuchin friar: "Who begs entrance?"

Herold: "Otto, a mortal, sinful man."

This small ceremony epitomizes the virtues of Christian monarchy. The monarch's soul, in the end, must be commended to God in the same way as that of the poorest peasants of the empire - my great-great grandfather's for instance. Otto von Habsburg, despite his positions of authority and honor, is at his core a mortal and sinful man, as are we all. Video of the ceremony, the last ever (since Otto was the last born into the monarchy) is shown below.