Family ties are at the heart of the nobility phenomenon of the 15th-16th centuries in France, marked by wars and crises of dynastic succession. What are the profiles of France's noble families? How are lineage and kinship defined? How are matrimonial alliances combined? The social structures specific to nobility framed, and partly determined, the history of the kingdom and principalities. In order to understand the political evolution and culture of modern Europe, the methods of historical demography – a contribution to global history – must be linked to those of anthropology.