Apart from historians and a few passionate believers, how many people from Lorraine remember the date of February 23? However, it marks a decisive turning point in the history of the region. Because it is indeed on February 23 that Lorraine became a French province.
To understand the why and how, you have to take a leap in time. And go back, so to speak, to the year 1737. At that time, many wars had just bloodied Europe. The diplomatic map had been turned upside down and they were trying at all costs to find a strategic balance on the old continent. The case of Lorraine was perhaps the most embarrassing. Still independent, our Duchy was in fact governed by a prince who made no secret of his inclination for Marie-Thérèse of Habsburg, the sole heiress of the Germanic Emperor Charles VI. This meant that if, in time, the two lovebirds ended up getting married, the Duchies of Bar and Lorraine would come under German control. A scenario that was far from unanimous at Versailles. The ministers of the King of France, who did not hesitate to consider Europe as a vast chessboard and in the forefront of which must be mentioned here Cardinal de Fleury, then thought of giving Stanislas Leszczynski, dethroned King of Poland and father of Louis XV, the Duchies of Bar and Lorraine. But a major problem was enough to slow them down in their ambitions: the duchies were, as we have just noted, governed by François-Etienne de Lorraine, the son of the illustrious Duke Leopold.
Through complex and long kept secret arrangements, François-Etienne ended up renouncing, at the beginning of the year 1737, the two duchies. It was, for most of the people of Lorraine, a real heartbreak. In compensation, the Duke inherited the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Subsequently, François-Etienne will indeed marry Marie-Thérèse de Habsbourg, heiress of the Holy Empire. The couple will thus be at the origin of the famous House of Habsburg-Lorraine (or Lorraine-Habsburg), which continues to be embodied today by Charles of Habsburg-Lorraine, direct descendant, ultimately, of our last Duke of Lorraine.
But back to Stanislas. Invested with the Duchies of Bar and Lorraine, the old Pole had recognized that on his death, these duchies would be immediately incorporated into the Kingdom of France. However, the man being endowed with a robust constitution, he took about thirty years to give up the ghost! Thirty years during which Louis XV had to fret and patiently wait for the death of his father-in-law to finally get his hands on our beautiful region. Thirty years during which France nevertheless managed, thanks to the very zealous intendant Antoine Martin Chaumont de la Galaizière, all the Duchies, collecting taxes and proclaiming new laws there. Thirty years finally, during which Stanislas applied himself to improving the condition of his faithful, not hesitating to found works of charity, to create the Library of Nancy or the famous Place Royale, all dedicated to the glory of the King of France and which will become, much later, the famous Place Stanislas.
And then there was the accident. On February 5, 1766, old Stanislas, almost impotent and blind, had approached a little too close to his fireplace. Her dressing gown caught fire and the servants came a little too late. A long agony began for the monarch. A sixteen-day ordeal, recounted by some members of the Court of Lunéville and which therefore ended on February 23, 1766, at 4:00 p.m. and 10 minutes.
The day after Stanislas’ death, Monsieur de la Galaizière, armed with the full powers entrusted to him by the King of France, officially took possession of the Duchies. The old ducal seals were broken. Lorraine and Barrois were not more than a province of the immense Kingdom of France.
But since then, who remembers the tragic event? The date, alas, seems to have fallen into oblivion. In 1866, however, Nancy celebrated the centenary of the annexation of Lorraine to France. For the occasion, parades in historical costume and patriotic speeches were proclaimed. Admittedly, there was a slight resurgence in 1966, but mainly in intellectual circles in Lorraine. And in 2016, we contented ourselves with having a mass celebrated inChurch of Our Lady of Bonsecours and to lay a wreath of flowers at the foot of the Stanislas mausoleum.
Too bad, some would say. Because February 23 could lend itself to a small commemoration, in Nancy or Lunéville around Duke Stanislas who, although he was not of the Lorraine ducal dynasty, nevertheless gratified our region with some beautiful monuments.
But in fact, it would seem that the case of Stanislas is more complex than that. Considered by some as the “gravedigger of the Duchies”, praised by others as an exceptional benefactor, Stanislas can hardly be considered the last Duke of Lorraine, since the last Duke of the dynasty to have effectively reigned is called François-Etienne and that this François-Etienne has a descendant, named Charles de Lorraine-Habsbourg and who, today, can also be considered as the Duke of Lorraine.
Who said that the history of Lorraine was simple and easy? It is precisely because our region is rich with a past that is both long and complex that it is up to everyone to know it and to remember it. February 23 is a date that all good Lorrain should, in any case, know.
