Old Regime Section I

The Ancien Régime  

• 1301-1800 A.D • French for old order • Political and social system of France prior to the French Revolution

• Under the regime, everyone was a subject of the king of France as well as a member of an estate and province

• There was no national citizenship.

The Estates• “those who pray, those who fight and those who work”

.:Clergy, Nobles, Commoners:.

lettres de cachet• Arbitrary arrests • Critics think it was evidence of royal tyranny • Punching relatives who potentially threatened

status and stability. – Diamond Necklace Scandal • 1780s• Queen Marie Antoinette• Adultery

Villages• Population of :200-500 • Coqs du village- ran the village• The church was a place for all to come together

• Restif de la Bretonne– Wealthy peasent– Father was a coqs du village• Daddy Bretonne did “dignified” task such as plowing• Left humble tasks to women and hired staff

Cities• 25% of the 18th century French population.

• Despite all the economic differences, all the men drank together, the women went to the market together and the children played in the streets.

• 10-20% of the population was beggars, prostitutes and criminals.

• Most of the cities were poor– This was the main residence for bourgeoisie

– On occasion the nobles would reside here

Map of Paris circa 1700

Nobles• Highest level of France’s social pyramid

• Two groups– Nobless d’epp – Noblesse de la robe

• Were 2% of the country’s population• Owned 25% of the land• Fairly well educated and cultured

Clergy • Only males could become preists • 50,000 nuns– Taught in girls school – Acted as nurses

• Cures saw to the spiritual needs of the community– Weddings– Funerals– Birth and death records– Connection to the outside world– Treated poorly by the hierarchy

The Church • "France is the eldest daughter of the church"

• Divine Right• Symbolic power Catholic monarch • The King was believed to be able to cure scrofula by the laying on of his hands– "the king touches you, but god heals you"

New Ideas• Enlightenment– “the rights of humanity”– 1787: widespread

• Began in 1685• Louis XIV sent French Protestants to Dutch Republic, Great Britain and Prussia

• Persian Letters(1721): Charles-Louis de Secondat

• Newton(1720s-1730s)• Letters Concerning the English Nation(1733):Voltaire

• 1750 philosophes had taken up the ideals of the enlightenment

• Challenge the rights of the government and catholic church

• Was known internationally• French Government exiled and imprisoned the writers and banned the literature.

• Neighboring countries took exiles in with open arms

• The thirst for writings of the enlightenment defeted all atempts to ban and censor the works

• By 1770s the king’s minsiters were followers

• Voltaire and Rousseau were two of the biggest writers

• “We will speak against senseless laws until they are reformed; and, while we wait, we will abide by them.”

• Some claim the Enlightenment cause the French Revolution

• Rousseau NEVER advocated for revolution

• Turgot, Louis’ XVI chief minister, secretly wrote for the Encyclopedia

• The DOI was a model for the French DOR (July-Aug 1789)

• The United State did many other things that France followed.

• Assembly of Notables– Parliament of Paris was asked for help

.:The End:.