ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to unravel the impact of geographical anchorage and territorial war on identity formation among noble dynasties in Early Modern Europe. It examines the legal proceedings concerning the French properties within the Chivres legacy. Throughout the Ancien Rgime, lordships and landed property offered nobles clear markers to define their identity, whether on the level of individuals or families. The seigniorial estates provided the social capital for their claim to form a privileged order of society. This evolution triggered a very composite identification process in which a dynastic transregional identity came into being in some cases, as was the situation of the Croÿfamily. In this identity, elements of geographical embedment and its intrinsic princely service were easily reinterpreted according to the circumstances of territorial wars and litigation. Litigation could pay off within the context of the larger identification process of transregional families.
