MAISONS, HOSTELS, MEIX: THE RESIDENCES OF THE LOCAL ELITES IN AUXOIS (DUCHY OF BURGUNDY) IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES

Unlike the castles and fortified houses of country nobility, the city palaces and peasants' homes of the Middle Ages that have been studied for long by historians and archaeologists, light has rarely been cast on the homes of the local elites, i.e. the important merchants from small cities and countryside, the law and finance officials, the married clergy, the notaries and other men of law, but also the priests or canons of collegiate chapters, commonly originated from the common people but sometimes also from the lower nobility. Therefore, this article aims at giving a deeper insight into these residences through the example of the Auxois bailiwick, in Burgundy. First of all the terminology used by Burgundy administrative sources will be scrutinized - recognition of cens (farms) or fief, administrative or tax enquiries, accounts, etc. - to qualify these residences. It reveals that three terms are most commonly used: ``maison'', ``hostel'' and ``chez''. These terms remain so general and so common that they don't give a precise idea of the architectural features of the buildings insofar as documentation uses them as much to designate aristocrats' residences as those of the most miserable peasants or middle classes. The concomitant use of these three different terms does not actually relate to different types of buildings but rather to semantic nuances: the word ``hostel'' refers to the home and its hosting function whereas ``maison'' relates to the notion of property. For this reason, the same building can be named by any of these two terms depending on the context. Thus these terms do not reflect the exact composition of the designated residences as they can alternatively indicate several buildings or a single place. However, by focussing on detailed descriptions and observations of still standing monuments or vestiges excavated by archaeologists, it becomes possible to overcome the vagueness of the sources regarding residences of the local elites. Indeed the sporadic use of more precise words - ``manoir'', ``meix''... - allows us to describe these residences as vast and complex properties combining housing and buildings for economic purposes, in particular for farming activities. In town, notables' residences, sometimes formed by the gradual annexation of neighbouring dwellings, could also support the agricultural activities, in particular in order to secure supplies, but they could also be dedicated to all sorts of activities such as trade. At last it is to be noticed that notables very often owned, in addition to their main residence, one or more ``secondary'' residences aimed at making their business flourish, at limiting the amount of their royal and seigniorial taxes, and serving their social ascent. Beyond the composition of the residences of local notables, the examination of their exterior appearance and interior structure conveys the willingness to distinguish oneself from common people and to assert their social superiority. The location of the residence - for example within the castle or in a town's door - could demonstrate such superiority. The features of such residences, i.e. their shapes, the extent or prestige of their dependencies as well as the building materials, also expressed a social status: the tower, the dovecot or the use of stones would tell much about the nobility of the master. As far as the interior composition of the residences is concerned, it shares a common feature with aristocratic homes, i.e. the division of space between common and private spaces. More precisely, the existence of a ``reception hall'' (salle), considered as a common and multipurpose room, is very frequent, to such an extent that the wealthiest Burgundy bourgeois would extensively receive guests, sometimes developing a hosting activity that would be supplement their main activities of law or finance ducal officers or trade. The present study of the residences of local elites in Burgundy reveals the intermediary status of these homes, designated by common words and located in rural and urban areas, but also characterized by their generous size and their wealthy nature in order to assert some social superiority. This study also demonstrates the importance of the economic purpose almost systematically attached to these residences.