AUBAINE, the name of the preroga tive by which the kings of France formerly claimed the property of a stranger who died within their kingdom, not having been naturalized. It also extended to the property of a foreigner who had been naturalized, if he died without a will, and had not left an heir ; as likewise to the succession to any re maining property of a person who had been invested with the privileges of a native subject, but who had quitted, and established himself in a foreign country. (Merlin, Repertoire de Jurisprudence, tom. i. p. 523.) It is called, in the French laws, the Droit d'Aubaine. Au thors have varied as to its etymology.
Nieot ( Threaor de la Longue Francois', tact endemic que moderne, fol. Paris, 1606) says it was anciently written Hobaine, from the verb hober, which sig nifies to remove from one place to another; Cojacius (Opera, fol. Neap. 1758, tom. ix. col. 1719) derives the word from advena, a foreigner or stranger ; and Du Cange (Glossar. v. a Aubain") from beaus, the name formerly given to the Scotch,who were great travellers. Menage (Did. Etym. fol. Paris, 1694) says, some have derived the word from the Latin alibi tiaras, a person born else where, which seems the best explanation, (See also Walafridns Strabo, De Vita S. Galli, 1. ii. c. 47.) This practice of confiscating the effects of strangers upon their death is men tioned, though obscurely, in one of the laws of Charlemagne, A.D. 813. (Capi tularia Regain Francorum, eurante P. de Chiniac, fol. Paris, 1780, col. 507, § 6.) The Droit d'Aubaine was originally a seignorial right in the provinces of France. Brussel, in his Nouvel Examen de l' Usage general des Fiefs en France pendant le 4., le xii., le mill ., et is xiv, Siecle, 4to. Paris, 1727, tom. ii. p. 944, has an express chapter, "Des Aubains," in which he shows that the barons of France, more particularly in the twelfth century, exercised this right upon their lands. He especially instances Raoul, Comte de Vermandois, A.D. 1151.
Subsequently, however, it was annexed to the crown only, inasmuch as the king alone could give the exemption from it, by granting letters of naturalization.
Various edicts, declarations, and letters patent relating to the Droit d'Aubaine, between the years 1301 and 1702, are referred to in the Dietionnaire Universel de Justice' of M. Chasles, 2 tom. fol. Paris, 1725 ; others, to the latest time, are given or referred to in the Code Diplo matique des Aubains,' par J. B. Gaschon, 8vo. Paris, 1818. The Due de Levis, in his speech in the Chamber of Peers, when proposing its final abolition, 14th of April, 1818, mentioned St. Louis as the first King of France who had relaxed the severity of the law (compare Etablisse stens de S. Louis, 1. i. e. 3), and Louis is Hutin as having abolished it entirely in 1315 (compare the Remelt des Ordow sauces du Losers, tom. i. p. 610), but, as it turned out, for his own reign only. Exemption from the operation of the Droit d'Aubaine was granted in 1364 by Charms V. in favour of persons born within the states of the Roman Church. Louis XI., in 1472, granted a similar exemption to strangers dwelling at Tou louse ; and Francis I., in 1543, to stran era resident in Dauphirg. Charles IX., m 1569, allowed exemption from it to merchant-strangers frequenting the fairs at Lyon. Henry IV., in 1608, granted exemption to the subjects of the republic of Geneva. Louis XIV., in 1702, to the subjects of the Duke of Lorraine. (Chasles, Diet. tom. 1. pp. 265, 267.) The Swiss and the Scotch of the king's guard had been exempted by King Henry II. (Bacquet, Trate' de Droit Aubaine, p. 1. c. 7.) Partial exemptions from the Droit d'Aubaine were frequently conventional, and formed clauses in treaties, which sti pulated for reciprocal relief to the subjects of the contracting parties ; these exemp tions, it is probable, continued no longer than the peace which the treaty had pro cured, and some related to moveable goods only.