Paréage

In Medieval France a "paréage" or pariage was a feudal treaty recognising joint sovereignty over a territory by two rulers, who were on an equal footing, "pari passu"; compare peer. [Georges Duby, "Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval West" (translated by C. Postan, University of South Carolina Press, 1990:79) provides a working definition of "paréage": "According to these agreements each party contracted to contribute a share. One provided the land and exclusive rights ("bans") over it. The other contributed the influence or connections which permitted recruitment or the money with which to instal men. Profits from the undertaking, and especially the product of the exclusive monopolies ("taxes banales") were then equally divided." Typical monopolies would be a water mill or a communal oven..] On a familial scale, "paréage" could also refer to the equal division of lands and the titles they brought between sons of an inheritance. Such a power-sharing contract could be signed between two secular rulers or, most usually, by a secular and an ecclesiastic ruler, as in the case of the most famous, the "Acte de paréage" of 1278 that founded a legal basis for the Principality of Andorra, signed by the comte de Foix and viscomte de Castellbo and the Bishop of Urgel. The Count and the Bishop were to receive taxes in alternate years, to appoint local representatives to administer justice jointly, and should forbear to make war within Andorra, where each might levy soldiers, nevertheless. [Derwent Whittlesey, "Andorra's Autonomy" "The Journal of Modern History" 6.2 (June 1934:147-155) p149, 152f.] The wording of a "paréage", an exercise in defining reciprocity without sacrificing suzerainty, was the special domain of ministerial lawyers, being produced in the universities from the late eleventh century.

Contracts of "paréage" were very numerous in the regions of intensely-protected local rights, Languedoc and Catalonia, during the high and late Middle Ages, especially between lay and clerical interests. Erecting new towns called "bastides" repopulated "desert" or uninhabited lands: "in an effort to colonize the wooded wilderness of southwest France, almost seven hundred towns were founded during the two centuries between 1200 and 1400". [Adrian Randolph, "The Bastides of Southwest France" "The Art Bulletin" 77.2 (June 1995:290-307), P. 290 and "passim".] A formal agreement of "paréage" was often necessary. By the terms of several "paréages" agreed upon between the Cistercian abbey of Bonnefont on the one hand and the local "seigneur" or the king on the other, [Charles Samaran and Charles Higounet, eds. "Recueil des Actes de l'Abbaye Cistercienne de Bonnefont en Comminges" (Collection de Documents Inédits sur l'histoire de France 8), Paris 1970.] the Abbey granted the land from one of its outlying granges, the king granted certain liberties, such as market privileges, that made the new village attractive, [These were often drawn up in an ancillary document, a "charte des franchises" or a "chartes des coutumes" (Randolf 1995:292), though the "customs" were newly inaugurated.] and the two agreed to split tax revenues. An example of a "paréage" that was settled through the arbitration of William Durant the Younger, established the "paréage" of Mende" (1307), between the bishop of Mende in the Lozère and Philip IV of France; it remained in effect until 1789. [See Constantin Fasolt, "Council and Hierarchy: The Political Thought of William Durant the Younger" (Cambridge University Press) 1991.]

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