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Wood for Burning: The Continuity of Woodland Management in Medieval and Early Modern France

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Environmental History in the Making

Part of the book series: Environmental History ((ENVHIS,volume 6))

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Abstract

This essay argues that over the last five or six centuries of the preindustrial era northern French patterns of woodland management, which prioritized the production of fuelwood, were more stable than is usually thought. Regulations were gradually tightened, most famously in the Forest Ordinance of 1669, but such administrative reforms aimed primarily to reassert the state’s authority and improve its finances. Silvicultural techniques themselves changed only incrementally, and more often as the result of market forces than of central planning. Early modern norms of woodland management had much deeper and broader sources than the tendency to trace them to royal initiative suggests. The French state appropriated and standardized practices that were in many cases already common by the thirteenth century. This essay focuses on the pervasiveness of coppicing, the enduring norms governing tree density and species, and the persistence of use rights.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Oliver Rackham, Ancient Woodland: Its History, Vegetation, and Uses in England [1980], 2nd ed. (Colvend: Castlepoint Press, 2003), 3–7, 137–72; Paul Warde, “Fear of Wood Shortage and the Reality of Woodland in Europe, c. 1450–1850,” History Workshop Journal 62 (2006), 28–57, who claims (p. 36) that “in northwestern and central Europe, the great bulk of wood grown in the lowlands, between 70 % and 90 %, was cut for use as firewood, in fencing, and in agriculture;” Joachim Radkau, Wood: A History, transl. Patrick Camiller (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2012), 92–103; Richard C. Hoffmann, An Environmental History of Medieval Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2014), 181–88, 199–202.

  2. 2.

    This remains true even if we allow for the cyclical character of much preindustrial growth. See: Warde, “Fear of Wood Shortage,” 39; Astrid Kander, Paolo Malanima, and Paul Warde, Power to the People: Energy in Europe over the Last Five Centuries (Princeton University Press, 2013), 37–118, 144–58.

  3. 3.

    For a succinct, critical account see James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 11–22.

  4. 4.

    Michel Devèze, La Grande Réformation des Forêts sous Colbert (1661–1683) (Publications de l’Université de Paris, 1954), 213–36; Paul Bamford, “French Forest Legislation and Administration, 1660–1789,” Agricultural History 29 (1955): 97–107.

  5. 5.

    For a contrasting view, see [Raymond Lefebvre et al.], Les Eaux et Forêts du 12e au 20e siècle (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1987), 131–65.

  6. 6.

    Andrée Corvol, L’homme et l’arbre sous l’Ancien Régime (Paris: Economica, 1984), 187–264; Jérôme Buridant, Espaces forestiers et industrie verrière, XVIIe – XIXe siècle (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2005), 291–364; Martine Chalvet, Une histoire de la forêt (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2011), 162–3.

  7. 7.

    Les Eaux et Forêts, 162, 477–82.

  8. 8.

    Christian Fruhauf, Forêt et société: de la forêt paysanne à la forêt capitaliste en pays de Sault sous l’ancien régime (vers 1670–1791) (Paris: CNRS, 1980); Tamara Whited, Forests and Peasant Politics in Modern France (Yale University Press, 2000), 21–51; Emmanuel Garnier, Terre de conquêtes: La forêt vosgienne sous l’Ancien Régime (Paris: Fayard, 2004), 525–39; Chalvet, Histoire de la forêt, 179–207.

  9. 9.

    Here my argument reinforces and extends that of Jérôme Buridant, “Du ‘modèle’ à la pratique: la gestion des peuplements caducifoliés dans la France moderne, XVIe-XVIIIe siècle,” Flaran 24 (2002): 203–20.

  10. 10.

    Scriptum Consecrationis Ecclesiae Sancti Dionysii, ed. and transl. Françoise Gasparri, Suger: Oeuvres, 2 vols. (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1996), 1: 18–21.

  11. 11.

    Bloch, French Rural History: An Essay on its Basic Characteristics, transl. Janet Sondheimer (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966), 7; Georges Duby, Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval West (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1968), 143. For these quotations and comment, see: Ellen Arnold, Negotiating the Landscape: Environment and Monastic Identity in the Medieval Ardennes (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), 64; and Richard Keyser, “The Transformation of Traditional Woodland Management: Commercial Sylviculture in Medieval Champagne,” French Historical Studies 32 (2009): 353–84.

  12. 12.

    For some examples concerning France, see: Guy Fourquin, Les campagnes de la région parisienne à la fin du Moyen Age (du milieu du XIIIe siècle au début du XVIe siècle) (Paris, 1964), 150; Robert Fossier, La terre et les hommes en Picardie jusqu’à la fin du XIIIe siècle (Paris, 1968), 309, 418–19, 430–31; André Chédeville, Chartres et ses campagnes (XIe–XIIIe s.) (Paris, 1973), 202–7; and Dominique Barthélemy, Les deux âges de la seigneurie banale: Coucy (XIe–XIIIe siècle) (Paris, 1984), 389.

  13. 13.

    George Bertrand, “Pour une histoire écologique de la France rurale,” in Histoire de la France rurale, ed. Georges Duby and Armand Wallon, vol. 1 (Paris: Seuil, 1975), 86.

  14. 14.

    For a recent survey of archeology focusing on early medieval France, see: Isabelle Catteddu, Archéologie médiévale en France: Le premier Moyen Age (Ve-XIe siècle) (Paris: Editions La Découverte, 2009). For discussions of the sources and methods of research on medieval woodlands, see: Peter Szabó, “Sources for the historian of medieval woodland,” in People and Nature in Historical Perspective, ed. József Laszlovszky and Peter Szabó (Budapest, 2003), 265–88; and Peter Szabó and Richard Keyser, “Woodlands,” forthcoming in Handbook of Medieval Environmental History, vol. 2, 1000–1350 (Leiden: Brill), ed. Timothy Newfield and Philip Slavin.

  15. 15.

    Odile Redon, “Une forêt urbaine: la ‘Selva del Lago’,” in Villes, bonnes villes, cités et capitales. Études d’histoire urbaine (XIIe-XVIIIe siècle) offertes à Bernard Chevalier (Publications de l‘Université de Tours, 1989), 247–57; Monique Somme, “Règlements, délits et organisation des ventes dans la forêt de Nieppe (début XIVe – début XVIe siècle),” Revue du Nord 287 (1990): 511–28; Bettina Borgemeister, Die Stadt und ihr Wald. Eine Untersuchung zur Waldgeschichte des Städte Göttingen und Hannover vom 13. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert (Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 2005).

  16. 16.

    Buridant, “Du ‘modèle’ à la pratique;” Corinne Beck, Les eaux et forêts en Bourgogne ducale (vers 1350 – vers 1480): société et biodiversité (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2008), 129–74; Keyser, “Transformation of Traditional Woodland Management.”

  17. 17.

    Alexandre Teulet, et al., eds., Layettes du Trésor des Chartes, 5 vols. (Paris: Plon, 1863–1909) [hereafter = LTC], 2, no. 2813, 5 years as the “custom of Champagne;” Paula Portejoie, ed., L’ancien coutumier de Champagne (XIIIe siècle) (Poitiers, 1956), 174, art. 21 (1271). See also Duby, Rural Economy, 144; Michel Devèze, La vie de la forêt française au XVI siècle, 2 vols. (Paris, 1961), 1: 100.

  18. 18.

    Baudrillart, Jacques-Joseph, Recueil chronologique des réglemens forestiers (Paris, 1821), 1: 41–92, at 75 (Title 25, art. 13).

  19. 19.

    André Lefèvre, “Les finances de la Champagne aux XIIIe et XIVe siècles,” Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes 19 (1858): 409–47, at 435–7; Joseph Strayer, The Administration of Normandy under Saint Louis (Cambridge: Medieval Academy of America, 1932), 43–4; Heinrich Rubner, Untersuchungen zur Forstverfassung des mittelalterlichen Frankreichs (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1965), 72–80, 94–116, 130–1; and John Baldwin, The Government of Philip Augustus: Foundations of French Royal Power in the Middle Ages (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 156–8, 242, 252–6. For a more detailed analysis of the material presented in this and the following paragraph, see Keyser, “Transformation of Traditional Woodland Management,” 371–80.

  20. 20.

    Auguste Longnon, Documents relatifs au Comté de Champagne et de Brie, 1172–1361, 3 vols. (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1901–1914) [hereafter = DCB], 2: 22, 24.

  21. 21.

    Jacques Laurent, ed., Cartulaires de l’abbaye de Molesme, 2 vols. (Paris, 1907–1911), 2: 324, no. 176.

  22. 22.

    BN ms français 4660, partially edited by Longnon, DCB, 3: 102–18. Comital income: Henri d’Arbois de Jubainville, Histoire des ducs et des comtes de Champagne, 6 vols. (Paris: Durand, 1859–1866) [hereafter = HDCC], 4: 803–24.

  23. 23.

    Les Olim, ou registres des arrêts rendus par le cour du roi…, tome 1 (1254–1273) (Paris, 1839), pp. 70–71; André Chedeville, Chartres et ses campagnes (XIe-XIIIe s.) (Paris: Garnier, 1973), 205–6.

  24. 24.

    Jean Boissière, “La consommation parisienne de bois et les sidérurgies périphériques,” in Forges et Forêts: Recherches sue la consommation proto-industrielle de bois, ed. Denis Woronoff (Paris, 1990), 29–56, at 29; Buridant, Espaces forestiers, 294–95.

  25. 25.

    Boissière, op. cit., with map at p. 56.

  26. 26.

    Longnon, DCB 3: 105; 106; Buridant, “Du modèle à la pratique;” Warde, “Fear of Wood Shortage,” 36.

  27. 27.

    Longnon, DCB 3: 103; 106.

  28. 28.

    Isambert et al., Recueil general des anciennes lois françaises (Paris, 1822–1833), tome 4, no. 575, pp. 456–71, at p. 462 (article 21).

  29. 29.

    Ordonnances des rois de France. Règne de François Ier, tome 1, 1515–1516 (Paris, 1902), no. 80, pp. 348–81, at p. 360 (article 37).

  30. 30.

    Thus a 1987 history of the bureau of Eaux et Forêts attributed the remarkable legislative continuity of the entire period from 1315 to 1827, when the first scientifically-based Code forestière was issued, to a fundamental lack of both administrative and technical progress: Les Eaux et Forêts, 73. See also Devèze, La vie de la forêt, 2: 64.

  31. 31.

    Baudrillart, Recueil, 1: 74–75.

  32. 32.

    Devèze, Forêt française, 1: 65–7; 2: 64, 82–93.

  33. 33.

    Devèze, La vie de la forêt, 1: 69.

  34. 34.

    Isambert, Recueil, 4: 523, no. 133, article 4.

  35. 35.

    Corvol, L’homme et l’arbre, 163–84.

  36. 36.

    Baudrillart, 1: 73–75 (titles 24–25).

  37. 37.

    Baudrillart, 1: 73–75 (titles 24–25), though this norm too can be found earlier at a local level: see ibid, 1: 18 (1582, concerning Pressigny in the Bailliage of Chaumont); Corvol, L’homme et l’arbre, pp. 131–54.

  38. 38.

    Theodore Evergates, ed., Littere Baronum: The Earliest Cartulary of the Counts of Champagne (Toronto, 2003), 73 (1165); 80 (1165); Baldwin, Registres, 1: 86 (1212); Jean Rauzier, Finances et gestion d’une principauté au XIVe siècle. Le duché de Bourgogne de Philippe le Hardi (1364–1384) (Paris, 1996), 259; Rubner, Forstverfassung, 44–5; Chédeville, Chartres, 204; Devèze, Forêt française, 83–4. On wild apple (Malus sylvestris) and pear (Pyrus spp.), see Rameau, Flore forestière, 502–3, 550–3. On human consumption, see: Marie-Pierre Ruas, “Éléments pour une histoire de la fructiculture en France: Données archéobotaniques de l’Antiquité au XVIIe siècle,” in L’homme et la nature au Moyen Âge, 92–105.

  39. 39.

    Jourdan, Decrusy, and Isambert, eds., Recueil général des anciennes lois françaises depuis l’an 420 jusqu’à la révolution de 1789, 29 vols. (Paris, 1821–1833; reprint Ridgewood, NJ, 1964–1966), 3: 108–9 (1315), paragraph 9. On these species, see Rameau, Flore forestière: 618–41: saulx, marsaulx = willow (Salix spp.); aulne = alder (Alnus glutinosa); 606–15: genévrier = juniper (Juniperus communis); 606–16: ronce = blackberry and raspberry bramble (Rubus spp.). For earlier lists, see: Chédeville, Chartres, 204; Bur, “Forêt du Mans,” 104.

  40. 40.

    An ordonnance of 1376 excluded these species from mort-bois: Jourdan, Recueil général des anciennes lois, 4: 467–9, paragraphs 40, 47. See: Devèze, La vie de la forêt, 84; Rameau, Flore forestière, 358–71: erable = maple (Acer spp.); 392–5: bouleau = birch (Betula spp.); 460–1: frêne = ash (Fraxinus excelsior); 511–34: tremble = poplar (Populus tremula).

  41. 41.

    Whited, Forests and Peasant Politics, 21–6.

  42. 42.

    Rackham, Ancient Woodland; Peter Szabo, Woodland and Forests in Medieval Hungary (British Archeological Reports, International Series, vol. 1348) (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2005).

  43. 43.

    Bloch, French Rural History.

  44. 44.

    See for example: Janet Neeson, Commoners: Common Right, Enclosure and Social Change in England, 1700–1820 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993); Philip Hoffman, Growth in a Traditional Society: The French Countryside, 1450–1815 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996); and Bruce Campbell, English Seigniorial Agriculture, 1250–1450 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000).

  45. 45.

    Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons: the Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990).

  46. 46.

    A point that was impressed on me by Emmanuel Huertas, professor of medieval history at the Université de Toulouse, on the occasion of the École d’été d’histoire rurale à l’abbaye de Flaran, June, 2012.

  47. 47.

    Though her recognition that many local common property regimes are “nested” within regional and larger-scale ones certainly would allow her model to accommodate preindustrial European commons.

  48. 48.

    See for example: Peter Ørebech et al., eds., The Role of Customary Law in Sustainable Development (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005); and, with a focus on European woodlands, Joachim Radkau, “Germany as a Focus of European ‘Particularities’ in Environmental History,” in Germany’s Nature: Cultural Landscapes and Environmental History, ed. Thomas Lekan and Thomas Zeller (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2005), 17–32.

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  1. Legal Studies Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Richard Keyser

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  1. Escola de Ciências, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal

    Estelita Vaz

  2. IHC, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

    Cristina Joanaz de Melo

  3. Universidade do Minho, NIMA, Esola de Economia e Gestao, Braga, Portugal

    Lígia M. Costa Pinto

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Keyser, R. (2017). Wood for Burning: The Continuity of Woodland Management in Medieval and Early Modern France. In: Vaz, E., Joanaz de Melo, C., Costa Pinto, L. (eds) Environmental History in the Making. Environmental History, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41085-2_17

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