The Ancien Regime
France in the 18th Century
The 1%
Royal Family
Clergy (First Estate)
Nobility (Second Estate)
Louis XVI (1775 – 1792)
Absolute Monarchy
Appointed the
Intendants, the “petty
tyrants” who governed
France’s 30 districts
Appointed the people
who would collect his
taxes and carry out his
laws
Controlled justice by
appointing judges
Controlled the military
Could imprison anyone
at any time for any
reason (blank warrants
of arrest were called
lettres de cachet)
Levied all taxes and
decided how to spend
the money
Made all laws
Made decisions
regarding war and
peace
Divine Right
• Monarch ruled by divine right
– God put the world in motion
– God put some people in positions of power
– Power is given by God
– No one can question God
– No one can question someone put in power by
God
– Questioning the monarchy was blasphemy because
it meant questioning God
Comparison with King George III &
President Washington
Parlements
• Hereditary law courts
- All laws had to be registered in the parlements
- Power to remonstrate with the king if there
were errors or inconsistencies in the
legislation
- Could not initiate legislation or policy
Palace of Versailles
Hall of Mirrors
Louis XIV
The First Estate: The Clergy
- .6% of the population (169,500)
- Church owned about 10% of the land
- tithe: tax between 8 – 10% of people’s income
- Exempt from royal taxes
- 1000 high clergy: bishops; archbishops (also
noble)
- impossible for a commoner to rise to the top of
the hierarchy
(Adcock 2009: 19)
The Second Estate: The Nobility
The 99%
Commoners (The Third Estate):
- bourgeoisie (2 million)
- artisans (2 million)
- Landowning farmers (5 million)
- Sharecropping farmers (11 million)
- Day labourers (5 million)
- Serfs (1 million)
The Three Estates
Estate
First
Population
Privileges
Exemptions
•Collected the tithe
•Censorship of the press
•Control of education
•Kept records of births, deaths,
marriages, etc.
•Catholic faith held honored
position of being the state religion
(practiced by monarch and
nobility)
•Owned 20% of the land
•Paid no taxes
•Subject to Church
law rather than civil
law
•Moral obligation (rather than legal
obligation) to assist the poor and
needy
•Support the monarchy and Old
Regime
•Paid only some
taxes
•Support the monarchy and Old
Regime
•Nobles
•Collected taxes in the form of
feudal dues
•Monopolized military and state
appointments
•Owned 20% of the land
•Circa 25,000,000
•None
•None
•Paid all taxes
•Tithe (Church tax)
•Octrot (tax on goods brought into
cities)
•Corvée (forced road work)
•Capitation (poll tax)
•Vingtiéme (income tax)
•Gabelle (salt tax)
•Taille (land tax)
•Feudal dues for use of local manor’s
winepress, oven, etc.
•Circa 130,000
•High-ranking
clergy
Second
Third
•Circa 110,000
•Everyone else:
artisans,
bourgeoisie, city
workers,
merchants,
peasants, etc.,
along with many
parish priests
Burdens
What does this contemporary political cartoon say about conditions
in France under the Old Regime?