The land of Lorges, located in Lorges (Loir-et-Cher) in the Canton of La Beauce, was, under the "Ancien régime", a seigneury then a county and a duchy, having belonged to the Montgomery family then to the House of Durfort.
History.
Lyonne de Lodes, heiress of Lorges, daughter of Guillaume de Lodes (d. 1464), Lord of Vez, and Huguette de Jaye, brought the lordship of Lorges-en-Beauce to her 1481 marriage to Robert de Montgomery. Their youngest son, Jacques, was given the right to continue the line of the new Lords of Lorges. He had Lorges erected as a "châtelain" in February 1551. Eventually, the Lordship passed to the Durfort family.
The barony of Quintin, in Brittany, was erected into a simple duchy by letters of creation of 1691, registered on 31 March and 12 October of the same year. The "transmutation" of the title of Duke of Quintin into that of Duke of Lorges, in Orléanais, took place by letters of 1706.
By letters patent of 25 March 1773, Adélaïde Philippine de Durfort de Lorges, as heiress of her branch, was allowed to pass on the Duchy of Lorges to her husband, Jean-Laurent de Durfort-Civrac (1746–1826).
The succession of Guy Louis de Durfort de Lorges gave rise to a trial which ended with a decree of the King dated 29 September 1778. Quintin, which ceased to be a duchy to become a barony again, remained with the Choiseul-Praslin, while the land of Lorges, located in Orléanais, and created into the Duchy of Lorges, was entrusted to the descendants of Adélaïde Philippine and Jean-Laurent.
Jean-Laurent de Durfort-Civrac was called to the House of Peers on 4 June 1814 (peer "for life"). He was made duke and hereditary peer on 31 August 1817.