“Workers, workers”: when she began her speeches with her ritual formula, Arlette Laguiller was not primarily targeting the second order. As Eric Mension-Rigau reminds us in the introduction to Staying Noble in Business : “Since the Middle Ages, the image of the nobleman living off his landed fortune and not his work has been established in France. Transgressing the ban on engaging in commercial activities reserved for the third estate entailed derogation, that is to say the loss of one’s noble privileges.” Unfortunately for those nostalgic for the sweetness of life dear to Talleyrand and for the most stubborn dilettantes, the job market no longer spares (almost) anyone. If the cliché of an idle nobility has taken its toll, the descendants of the crusaders have been struggling in the professional world for three generations. Some have replaced hunting with hounds with headhunting. Both a historian and sociologist (“attentive entomologist”, he says), Mension-Rigau interviewed nearly 100 aristocrats of today, sometimes high-flying (Henri de Castries, Jean-Dominique Senard, Augustin de Romanet or Nicolas de Tavernost), who told him about their journey, and the specificity that their genealogy and education give them.
The book is naturally rich in offbeat remarks. Let us cite for example the stylist Jean-Charles de Castelbajac: “I remember my aunt Diane telling me: “But Jean-Charles, we won our name at the point of the sword, not at the point of the pencil” and I replied: “My aunt, I will prove to you that my pencil will have the strength of the sword.” In a less dandy, more pragmatic way, Augustin de Romanet (president of the ADP group) sums up the crux of the matter in one sentence: “I can no longer count the number of sons of penniless colonels who are now working in private equity.” Castles are financial sinkholes, especially as they have often been poorly managed by previous generations and taxation does not simplify inheritance. To save their heritage, active castellans must therefore roll up their sleeves and turn to remunerative professions, often investment banking, where old names and good manners remain appreciated.
The desire to stand out remains
Having worked for almost forty years on the nobility niche, its permanence and its developments, Mension-Rigau notes that the level of language has dropped significantly – the Duke of Saint-Simon and the Viscount of Chateaubriand would pass out hearing these young people express yourself in Macronian Franglais. Certain traditions nevertheless resist. The nobility is not completely soluble in the other elites. Thus chokes up a future marquise whose identity we will keep secret: “The biggest insult you can give me is to call me bourgeois. We are not bourgeois, it is ingrained in me.” It is striking to see that many people interviewed still evoke chivalry and the Christian values that go with it, including a certain simplicity – Nicolas de Tavernost, boss of M6, is the only channel president not to have a driver (he travel by metro). The elders often talk about service to the homeland, inherited from their sometimes thousand-year-old military roots, while those in their thirties see entrepreneurship as the place of modern adventure and panache. Whatever the age, the desire to stand out remains. We thus meet the unclassifiable deputy Charles de Courson, who holds the record for longevity in the National Assembly (he has been there since 1993) and was the fiercest opponent of the recent pension reform.
“How can a nobleman escape the hatred of the elites?” Mension-Rigau asks in one chapter. Drawing on the work of Christophe Guilluy and Jérôme Fourquet, it shows that in our fractured France, this historically landed nobility still embodies a “local elite”, less criticized than the globalized bourgeoisie – it would therefore have a future! Concluding his investigation, the historian writes: “To those who want to continue the collective history of their social group by reinventing a new excellence, the business world offers broad horizons. The economy and technological innovation are their battlefield: this is where today’s epics are written.” The French nobility has not finished restoring its image.
Stay noble in the business world. On the usefulness of the old elites, by Eric Mension-Rigau. Passés/Composites, 285 p., €22.