Nobility Lost: French and Canadian Martial Cultures, Indians, and the End of New France

by Christian Ayne Crouch

Overview

Nobility Lost is a cultural history of the Seven Years' War in French-claimed North America, focused on the meanings of wartime violence and the profound impact of the encounter between Canadian, Indian, and French cultures of war and diplomacy. This narrative highlights the relationship between events in France and events in America and frames them dialogically, as the actors themselves experienced them at the time. Christian Ayne Crouch examines how codes of martial valor were enacted and challenged by metropolitan and colonial leaders to consider how those acts affected French-Indian relations, the culture of French military elites, ideas of male valor, and the trajectory of French colonial enterprises afterwards, in the second half of the eighteenth century. At Versailles, the conflict pertaining to the means used to prosecute war in New France would result in political and cultural crises over what constituted legitimate violence in defense of the empire. These arguments helped frame the basis for the formal French cession of its North American claims to the British in the Treaty of Paris of 1763.

While the French regular army, the troupes de terre (a late-arriving contingent to the conflict), framed warfare within highly ritualized contexts and performances of royal and personal honor that had evolved in Europe, the troupes de la marine (colonial forces with economic stakes in New France) fought to maintain colonial land and trade. A demographic disadvantage forced marines and Canadian colonial officials to accommodate Indian practices of gift giving and feasting in preparation for battle, adopt irregular methods of violence, and often work in cooperation with allied indigenous peoples, such as Abenakis, Hurons, and Nipissings.

Drawing on Native and European perspectives, Crouch shows the period of the Seven Years' War to be one of decisive transformation for all American communities. Ultimately the augmented strife between metropolitan and colonial elites over the aims and means of warfare, Crouch argues, raised questions about the meaning and cost of empire not just in North America but in the French Atlantic and, later, resonated in France's approach to empire-building around the globe. The French government examined the cause of the colonial debacle in New France at a corruption trial in Paris (known as l'affaire du Canada), and assigned blame. Only colonial officers were tried, and even those who were acquitted found themselves shut out of participation in new imperial projects in the Caribbean and in the Pacific.

By tracing the subsequent global circumnavigation of Louis Antoine de Bougainville, a decorated veteran of the French regulars, 1766–1769, Crouch shows how the lessons of New France were assimilated and new colonial enterprises were constructed based on a heightened jealousy of French honor and a corresponding fear of its loss in engagement with Native enemies and allies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501778971
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	01/15/2025
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

Christian Ayne Crouch is Dean of Graduate Studies, Director of the Center for Indigenous Studies, and Associate Professor of Historical and American and Indigenous Studies at Bard College.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Glory beyond the Water
1. Onontio's War, Louis XV’s Peace
2. Interpreting Landscapes of Violence
3. Culture Wars in the Woods
4. Assigning a Value to Valor
5. The Losing Face of France
6. Paradise
Epilogue: Mon Frère Sauvage

What People are Saying About This

Colin Calloway

In Nobility Lost Christian Ayne Crouch demonstrates how the experiences of eighteenth-century French military and imperial elites in Europe and New France—and particularly their interactions with Indian peoples—shaped their conduct of war and their understanding of violence, and she highlights the impact on France of the war fought in America. This is a well-written, thoroughly researched, and informative book.

Sophie White

With Nobility Lost, Christian Ayne Crouch offers a radical reconsideration of the significance of the Seven Years' War for Atlantic history and memory. Deftly drawing on a sweeping range of archival and literary sources, she has crafted a compelling account of clashing martial cultures and in so doing, has reinterpreted the war's legacy in indigenous consciousness as well as its erasure from France's national and imperial narrati

Rafe Blaufarb

Nobility Lost is an important book for many fields because it delivers (in shining prose) exactly what it promises: important new insights into several Atlantic cultures of war and violence. Christian Ayne Crouch offers a fresh perspective on the cultural frictions of eighteenth-century New France and suggests a promising new way of approaching Old Regime French imperial thinking.

Editorial Reviews

Christian Crouch's valuable study 'triangulates' its sources to construct a combined narrative that also functions as an enthnohistory of the multiple military cultures engaged, as traditional American historians would say, in 'winning' or 'losing' America. Her 'cultural history' of the war affords the reader a comprehensive history of the European encounter with indigenous peoples that presents new materials and deeper contemporary analysis than previously available in French or English. Many excellent campaign, national, or imperial accounts exist, but none so seamlessly and thoroughly discuss the war, the Native American cultures of war and diplomacy, Canadian military elites, and French military and court cultures.

The Sixteenth Century Journal

In this new world, 'honour' still mattered, although not exactly the kind cultivated by French nobles. As Crouch indicates in her illuminating book, a man's reputation counted for everything in the borderlands of North America. Valour and intelligence did receive their reward in flourishing communities of mixed French and Native American communities—until these communities were destroyed by land-hungry American settlers in the 19th century.

Literary Review of Canada

This excellent book examines both the defeat of New France during the Seven Years' War and the impact of the military disaster on French imperialism. Christian Ayne Crouch views the conquest through the lens of the 'culture war' between French and Canadian officers over the rules governing warfare. While Canadians accepted the need to engage in diplomacy and warfare on Native terms, French elites demanded Native subjugation and rejected indigenous martial practices. This is a solid work of scholarship which I highly recommend to anyone with an interst in France's first Atlantic empire.

American Historical Review

Crouch's nuanced treatment of military, economic, and political considerations of the French and their allies are among the book's strengths. So, too, is her treatment of the Native Americans as diplomatic and military partners, even if the French did not always see them as equal partners. Nobility Lost provides a promising model for other Franco-American explorations of the Seven Years' War.

H-War

Christian Crouch's Nobility Lost is a delightfully creative book about the Seven Years War, frequently entertaining and invariably well written. In clearly explaining the importance of the days, weeks, and months between more frequently studied battles and campaigns and by shifting the discussion of the Seven Years War beyond important but familiar battles and the Treaty of Paris, Crouch has written an excellent and important book.

New England Quarterly

Violence is often described and too easily dismissed as senseless. In Nobility Lost, Christian Ayne Crouch insists that violence is, in fact, full of meaning. For historical actors and historians alike, warfare is 'a text to be read,' a 'landscape' to be interpreted. This insight is by no means a new one in the field of early American history, but with this richly textured and engaging book, Crouch becomes one of the few scholars to bring it to bear beyond the Anglophone world and on the less well-trodden ground of mid-eighteenth-century New France.

William and Mary Quarterly

Crouch offers an interesting approach to the military history of New France by examining French, colonial, and First Nations martial cultures and traditions of honor. French regulars fought within the European tradition but the colonial troops had been forced for decades to deal with their Indian allies and accommodate their practices and traditions. The lessons of the war affected the French colonial experience elsewhere in the coming decades, and by tracing the subsequent career of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, a veteran of the New France war, Crouch convincingly examines the arc of empire. The prose is good, and the research in French and North American archives is extensive, the bibliography complete.

CHOICE

Christian Crouch's valuable study 'triangulates' [multiple] sources to construct a combined narrative that also functions as an enthnohistory of the multiple military cultures engaged, as traditional American historians would say, in 'winning' or 'losing' America. Her 'cultural history' of the war affords the reader a comprehensive history of the European encounter with indigenous peoples that presents new materials and deeper contemporary analysis than previously available in French or English. Many excellent campaign, national, or imperial accounts exist, but none so seamlessly and thoroughly discuss the war, the Native American cultures of war and diplomacy, Canadian military elites, and French military and court cultures.

The Sixteenth Century Journal - Janine Hartman

Crouch's nuanced treatment of military, economic, and political considerations of the French and their allies are among the book's strengths.... So, too, is her treatment of the Native Americans as diplomatic and military partners, even if the French did not always see them as equal partners. Nobility Lost provides a promising model for other Franco-American explorations of the Seven Years' War.

H-War - Jessica M. Parr

Christian Crouch's Nobility Lost is a delightfully creative book about the Seven Years War, frequently entertaining and invariably well written.... In clearly explaining the importance of the days, weeks, and months between more frequently studied battles and campaigns and by shifting the discussion of the Seven Years War beyond important but familiar battles and the Treaty of Paris, Crouch has written an excellent and important book.

New England Quarterly - Christopher M. Parsons

In this new world, 'honour' still mattered, although not exactly the kind cultivated by French nobles. As Crouch indicates in her illuminating book, a man's reputation counted for everything in the borderlands of North America.... Valour and intelligence did receive their reward in flourishing communities of mixed French and Native American communities—until these communities were destroyed by land-hungry American settlers in the 19th century.

Literary Review of Canada - Philip Marchand

Violence is often described and too easily dismissed as senseless. In Nobility Lost, Christian Ayne Crouch insists that violence is, in fact, full of meaning. For historical actors and historians alike, warfare is 'a text to be read,' a 'landscape' to be interpreted. This insight is by no means a new one in the field of early American history, but with this richly textured and engaging book, Crouch becomes one of the few scholars to bring it to bear beyond the Anglophone world and on the less well-trodden ground of mid-eighteenth-century New France.

William and Mary Quarterly - Jean-François Lozier

Crouch (Bard College) offers an interesting approach to the military history of New France by examining French, colonial, and First Nations martial cultures and traditions of honor. French regulars fought within the European traditionbut the colonial troops had been forced for decades to deal with their Indian allies and accommodate their practices and traditions.... [T]he lessons of the war affected the French colonial experience elsewhere in the coming decades, and by tracing the subsequent career of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, a veteran of the New France war, Crouch convincingly examines the arc of empire. The prose is good, and the research in French and North American archives is extensive, the bibliography complete.Summing Up: Recommended. All academic levels/libraries.

CHOICE - J. L. Granatstein

"Violence is often described and too easily dismissed as senseless. In Nobility Lost, Christian Ayne Crouch insists that violence is, in fact, full of meaning. For historical actors and historians alike, warfare is 'a text to be read,' a 'landscape' to be interpreted. This insight is by no means a new one in the field of early American history, but with this richly textured and engaging book, Crouch becomes one of the few scholars to bring it to bear beyond the Anglophone world and on the less well-trodden ground of mid-eighteenth-century New France."

William and Mary Quarterly - Jean-François Lozier

"With Nobility Lost, Christian Ayne Crouch offers a radical reconsideration of the significance of the Seven Years' War for Atlantic history and memory. Deftly drawing on a sweeping range of archival and literary sources, she has crafted a compelling account of clashing martial cultures and in so doing, has reinterpreted the war’s legacy in indigenous consciousness as well as its erasure from France’s national and imperial narratives."

Sophie White

"In Nobility Lost Christian Ayne Crouch demonstrates how the experiences of eighteenth-century French military and imperial elites in Europe and New France—and particularly their interactions with Indian peoples—shaped their conduct of war and their understanding of violence, and she highlights the impact on France of the war fought in America. This is a well-written, thoroughly researched, and informative book."

Colin Calloway

"Nobility Lost is an important book for many fields because it delivers (in shining prose) exactly what it promises: important new insights into several Atlantic cultures of war and violence. Christian Ayne Crouch offers a fresh perspective on the cultural frictions of eighteenth-century New France and suggests a promising new way of approaching Old Regime French imperial thinking."

Rafe Blaufarb

"This excellent book examines both the defeat of New France during the Seven Years' War and the impact of the military disaster on French imperialism. Christian Ayne Crouch views the conquest through the lens of the 'culture war' between French and Canadian officers over the rules governing warfare. While Canadians accepted the need to engage in diplomacy and warfare on Native terms, French elites demanded Native subjugation and rejected indigenous martial practices. This is a solid work of scholarship which I highly recommend to anyone with an interst in France's first Atlantic empire."

From the Publisher