Le lignage en question : femmes, alliances et filiations chez les Craon

In his book, Fabrice Lachaud strongly calls into question the previous theses about lineage, and his thorough and innovative investigation sheds a new perspective on family monograph. Readers will particularly appreciate the remarkable documents and the high quality of the research, as well as the diversity of topics developed and the balance achieved between synthesis and analysis. This work is a great contribution to the knowledge of French aristocracy in the Middle Ages. It both satisfies the historian researcher’s curiosity and quench the medievalist’s cultural thirst. Fabrice Lachaud provides a significant input into the history of lineage and kinship in the Middle Ages. The author gives an acute study of a large number of works from other medievalists, anthropologists, and sociologists. He dives not only into diplomatic documents, architecture and funerary sculpture, but also into seal and heraldry iconography. He uses literary sources to bring back to life fascinating characters. The prosopography regarding women is a gripping one, and his examination of matrimonial strategies is of high quality. The topic of doubled alliances is the identifying and deeply interesting item giving coherency to the unit. The author depicts a family thanks to the analysis of the practical acts they committed, the alliances they made and how they regarded filiation. Thus, The Dame of Craon comes to the fore, unsettling an entirely male lineage.