Avaray

French commune
nomcommune=Avaray
région=Centre
département=Loir-et-Cher
arrondissement=Blois
canton=Mer
insee=41008
cp=41500
maire=
mandat=
intercomm=
longitude=1.56527777778
latitude=47.7233333333
alt moy=106 m
alt mini=75
alt maxi=118 m
hectares=1388
km²=13.88
sans=577
date-sans=1999
dens=41
date-dens=1999

Avaray is a commune in the Loir-et-Cher department in north-central France.

History

Avaray is a French territorial title belonging to a family some of whose members have been conspicuous in history. The Béarnaise family named Besiade moved into the province of Orléanais in the 17th century, and there acquired the estate of Avaray. In 1667 Theophile de Besiade, marquis d'Avaray, obtained the office of grand bailiff of Orleans, which was held by several of his descendants after him.

Claude Antoine de Besiade, marquis d'Avaray, was deputy for the bailliage of Orleans in the states-general of 1789, and proposed a Declaration of the Duties of Man as a pendant to the Declaration of the Rights of Man; he subsequently became a lieutenant-general in 1814, a peer of France in 1815, and duc d'Avaray in 1818. Antoine Louis Francois de Besiade, comte d'Avaray, son of the above, distinguished himself during the Revolution by his devotion to the comte de Provence, afterwards Louis XVIII, whose emigration he assisted. Having nominally become king in 1799, that prince created the estate of Ile-Jourdain a duchy, under the title of Avaray, in favour of the comte d'Avaray, whom he termed his "liberator."

References

*1911