"People under the Old Regime" This image shows "the people" as a chained and blindfolded man being crushed under the weight of the rich, including both clergy and nobility. Such a perspective on the period before 1789 purposely exaggerates social divisions and would have found few proponents before the Revolution, but the image does reveal the social clash felt so intensely by the revolutionaries.
The Old Regime ancien régime: the patterns of social, political, and economic relationships in Europe France before 1789 Society organized into three groups—each with their own set of rights
The Church (1st Estate) Less than 1% of population Church owned 20% of land in France, but paid no taxes to state Closely associated with gov’t and aristocracy Functioned as a branch of gov’tcollected agricultural taxes (tithe), operated schools, registered births, marriages, and deaths
The Aristocracy(2nd Estate) 1–5 % of population Traditional land-owning elite (25-33%) Exempt from most taxes, BUT collected dues from peasant farmers Held most high offices in gov’t army, and Church most social, political, economic power wealth based on land and inherited privilege Exclusive rights to hunt and fish
Ch. 19 Aristocratic Privileges and Resurgence Define the qualities of the different rights and privileges of nobility in Britain and France. Describe the “aristocratic resurgence” and how they tried to maintain status Answer RQ #1 on p. 614
The Aristocracy (cont.) British nobility—smallest, wealthiest, best defined, most socially responsible about 400 families, eldest males of each in House of Lords owned about ¼ of all arable land French nobility—less clear-cut; about 400,000 nobles “nobles of the sword”—nobility derived from military service “nobles of the robe”—from service in bureaucracy, or purchased some wealthy, some poor, but all shared certain hereditary privileges Eastern European nobilities—military traditions important; extensive repressive power over serfs
Aristocratic Resurgence Europe-wide reaction to threat from expanding power of monarchies tried to preserve privileges by making nobility harder to attain pushed to reserve high-ranking military/government/church appointments for nobles sought to leverage existing noble-controlled institutions (British Parliament, French parlements, German provincial diets, etc.) tried to shore up wealth through new tax exemptions, raising rents
The Third Estate (95%) Members included the middle-class (bourgeoisie), urban artisans, and peasants (majority) Third Estate owned about 40% of land Had the most obligations or taxes: taille (agricultural), tithes (Church), gabelle (salt), vingtieme (income), banalites (feudal dues), corvee (forced labor) 50% of their income went to taxes Between 1730 and 1780, prices rose 65%, while wages increased only 22%
TE were denied good jobs and wanted to reform an outdated system that gave the majority of the population no political or social rights As France’s financial system worsened, King Louis XIV increased taxes on TE The letter de cachet used by the king to put his political opponents into jail without charges, bail, or trial.
“What is the Third Estate? Everything” “What has it been until now in the political order? Nothing” “What does it want to be? Something” Emmanuel Sieyes, Bourgeois Disdain for Special Privileges of the Aristocracy
Peasant Rebellions Russia: Pugachev’s Rebellion (1773–1775)—all of southern Russia; eventually crushed; largest 18th c. uprising Eastern Europe: smaller revolts in Bohemia, Transylvania, Moravia, Austria Western Europe: almost no revolts, but rural riots in England; usually attempts to assert traditional rights against innovations—thus conservative
Peasants & Serfs lives of economic and social dependency, exploitation, vulnerability power of European landlords increased from west to east French peasants: banalitiés (feudal dues); corveé (annual forced labor) Habsburg serfs: near-slavery; robot (compulsory service to lord) Russian serfs: worst off; noble wealth measured by number of serfs, not acres Ottoman Empire (SE Europe): peasants nominally free; marginally empowered by scarcity of labor
An Aristocratic Couple Portraits, such as this one of the English landowner, Robert Andrews and His Wife, by Thomas Gainsborough (1728–1788), contain many clues to the aristocratic dominance of landed society. © National Gallery, London