Illegitimacy in France at the time of the Revolution

Tommaso D'Amelio

No 2026-28, Working Papers ECARES from ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles

Abstract: The French Revolution disrupted local inheritance practices by mandating equal division ofassets among all offspring, including illegitimate children—a historically marginalized group.I compare children born before and after the inclusion in 1793 of illegitimate children inthe inheritance, across bailliages where the reform had a transformative impact and thosewhere local practices remained unaltered. The analysis employs three novel datasets: oneon inheritance rights for out-of-wedlock children in pre-revolutionary France, one built fromgenealogical sources, and one digitizing a demographic survey on illegitimacy prevalence in18th–19th century France. My findings reveal that the reform led to a significant decline inillegitimate births by two thirds.

Keywords: Illegitimacy; Inheritance law; French Revolution; Fertility; Customary law (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 K36 N33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 p.
Date: 2026-08-26
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