House of Beauharnais

Originating in Brittany, the Beauharnais (or Beauharnois) family became established in Orléans in the 14th century. During the Siege of Orléans in 1429, Jehan Beauharnais took part in the city's defence and later witnessed proceedings connected with the rehabilitation of Joan of Arc. Members of the family served the kingdom as soldiers and magistrates and formed alliances in various social and professional circles, including those associated with the study of law in Orléans. By the 16th century, members of the Beauharnais family in Orléans included magistrates, merchants and canons.^{[citation needed]}

From the end of the 16th century to the end of the 17th, the offices of president and of lieutenant général to the bailliage and siège présidial of Orléans were handed down hereditarily through the Beauharnais family. The most eminent of these magistrates was Francis IV de Beauharnais, sieur of la Grillère (at Vouzon, Loir-et-Cher), born in Orléans in 1630, and dying there in 1681.^[2]

At the end of the 17th century, the office of lieutenant général du bailliage d'Orléans was ceded to an allied branch, the Curaults. The most eminent of the Beauharnais thus turned to careers in the navy and the colonial administration in the Americas. Another François de Beauharnais (1665–1746) became intendant of New France (i.e. Canada), where a seigneurie was granted to him in 1707. His nephew, Francis V de Beauharnais, was made chef d'escadre des armées royales, then governor of Martinique.^{[citation needed]}

The Beauharnais of Orléans were also great landholders thanks to their many seigneuries in the region. In the 15th century they were seigneurs of la Chaussée (or Miramion), fief of the parish of Saint-Jean-de-Braye, in the suburbs of Orléans. They also had interests at Sologne until the early 16th century, and Guillaume de Beauharnais held the estate of Villechauve, at Sennely. Some years later, the Beauharnais acquiring the neighbouring seigneurie of la Grillère, at Vouzon, with they held until the beginning of the 18th century (when it passed, by the marriage of a female Beauharnais, to the Choiseul-Gouffier family).^{[citation needed]}

On 20 April 1752, Francis V, marquis de Beauharnais (1714–1800), governor of Martinique, maternal great-grandfather of the future Napoleon III of France, bought the seigneurie of La Ferté-Avrain, in Sologne. He was raised to a marquis by letters patent dated July 1764 with the title of La Ferté-Beauharnais, a name the commune still bears (département of Loir-et-Cher).^{[citation needed]}