22. ESTATES
22.1 Country Estates
Gentlemen and ladies with cash on their hands (and the required SL) can invest it in country estates in the provinces, others will be granted an estate when given a title. Such estates will generate a regular income (rents from the peasants working them).
Buying an estate is a weekly action and must be conducted in the province in which the estate is located. The purchaser need not travel to the province personally, however, but can engage a (PC) agent to travel to the province to purchase the estate on his or her behalf. (An ideal mission for aides, secretaries or hard up characters working for a fee).
Adjacent estates can be combined to form larger ones. For example, a Comte with a Rich estate could purchase an adjacent Generous (Vicomte's) estate for 6.000 livres and combine the two to make a Very Rich estate worth 18.000 livres - and then enjoy the Marquis title which went with it.
Selling an estate can be done as a pre-monthly action, either to the market for 50% of the purchase price (or 75% if advertised for a month previously) or to another player character for any terms agreed upon by both parties. (Both players must order the sale/purchase for the same agreed price).
Estates don't usually garner any SPs for the owners - they are too far away from Paris for anyone to see them. Estates in the Isle de France, a short journey from the capital, do bestow SPs however, but are twice as expensive as estates in the provinces (even though they generate no more in rents).
A character can purchase as many estates as he has the cash/SL for - though estates are lumped in amongst other property if the owner is subject to a trial result of 'All Property Confiscated'. (In such cases the Préfect de Police gets half the quick sale market sell price of the estates - the estates themselves are retained by the Crown to be used as pensions for deserving Nobles: see below).
22.2 Mortgaging Estates
Estates can be mortgaged to the Shylocks on the Pont au Change (in Paris) as a weekly action. The estate owner receives 50% of the value of the estate and still retains title to it. He or she can still stay in the estate residence when visiting the province and entertain there etc., but all income from the estate goes to the holder of the mortgage. (It can be assumed that this is what has happened to the family estates of impoverished nobles and gentlemen, with the cash from the mortgage having been steadily frittered away).
The mortgage on an estate can be redeemed at any time by repaying 60% of the estate's buy price to the Shylocks (as a premonthly action).
Mortgaged estates can be sold to the market for 10% of the estate's buy price (or to other player characters for whatever sum is agreed between them).
22.3 Inheriting Estates
The orphaned first sons of Gentlemen now receive a small country estate (owning land is prerequisite of being considered a gentleman of course) as part their inheritance, receiving cash for the balance of the sum they are due. (Such estates are valued at 1.200 livres). For example, rather than receive 1.500 livres, the orphaned first son of a well-to-do gentleman now receives the small family estate in the province of his birth and 300 livres in cash (to take the total value to 1.500 livres).
The orphaned first sons of impoverished gentlemen receive the small mortgaged family estate instead of the former cash sum. This can be sold for 120 livres (or be redeemed if the character can raise the 750 livres needed to pay off the Shylocks).
The orphaned first sons of nobles receive the family estate as (part of) their inheritance as above, but also receive the title which goes with it. (See Below). Mortgaged noble estates can be sold for 10% of their value, but the vendors lose the titles attached to them.
22.4 Titles and Estates
Titles in Seventeenth Century France were inextricably linked to the estates which went with them. If an estate was lost, so was the title which went alongside it.
If a character has the cash, and Social Level, to buy an estate which carries a title, then he or she receives the title once he or she has spent a week at the Louvre office of the Grand Chamberlain to get it ratified - even if no title was held previously. For example, a SL 7 character who raises 3.000 can travel to the provinces, buy a (sizeable) Baronial estate, get it ratified upon their return to Paris, becoming a Baron(ess) - even though they have never held a knighthood.
Titles gained in this way do not bestow any SPs (which get increasingly difficult to get hold of at higher SLs), however, and the character misses out on the free lands they would have received if the title had been bestowed by the King. For this reason it is generally counterproductive to buy anything bigger than a Baronial Estate (which allows access to Court and provides eligibility for government appointments) unless already in possession of a higher title than the new estate bestows.
Rather than award pensions with titles, His Majesty will instead award estates of suitable size generating incomes in line with the pensions formerly bestowed. If a character already has a title then the King will add extra lands to the character's (largest) original titled estate to bring it up to the size required by the new title PROVIDED the original estate is free of any mortgage. If the original estate is subject to a mortgage, and the owner can't clear the mortgage before the Court event at which the new title is to be bestowed, then the new title is lost.
Selling titled estates which have been given directly by the King (rather than bought or inherited) is considered to be a personal insult to His Majesty. Anyone doing so will be disgraced for 6 months and suffer a -1 DM concerning all interactions with the King thereafter. Character's losing an estate (and title) are noted as 'lapsed X' where X is the title lost. Characters must regain their lapsed title by their own efforts before being eligible to receive a higher one at the hands of the King.
All estates bestowed by the King will be in the Provinces rather than in the Isle de France (region surrounding Paris) - with the exception of any provinces bestowed on a Female PC who is a Maitresse en Titre, which will be in the Isle de France for convenience's sake.
22.5 Estates in the Isle de France
Estates in the Isle de France are treated in exactly the same way as are houses in Paris - except that income accrues from them rather than expenses. Owners of estates in the IdF get SPs according to the size of the attached house. If a character owns 2 or more estates in the IdF, he or she gains SPs only from the highest class of house attached to an estate. Owners of these IdF estates can host parties or Fetes in their estate residences. These are handled exactly as though the house attached to the estate was located in Paris.
Characters can receive SPs from both their largest Parisian Residence and their largest IdF estate only. Any smaller residences or IdF estates bestow no SP benefit.
22.6 Provincial Estates Table
* Double if in Isle de France
** Unless a character enobled to Chevalier already has a small estate, the King will bestow a small estate in the Province of the new Chevlier's birth. The estate itself is independent of the title. (Titles are not attached to small estate's, otherwise every gentleman in France would be a Chevalier).
Last edited by Puckohue, September 03 2019 10:58:46. Secured game article. You most log in to contribute.