SOCIETY OF THE OLD REGIME

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SOCIETY OF THE OLD REGIME

• Society of the Old Regime was organized in a
  hierarchy of estates
• Estate was a social group defined by the
  possession of status
• Not by the possession of wealth per se
• Estates defined by the degree of honor, dignity,
  and respect that society-at-large gave the group

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ESTATES

• Estates arranged on strict hierarchical order
• Place in hierarchy carried a specific set of
  privileges, obligations, functions, symbols, a
  certain income, education and even a specific
  style of life
• Ideas of equality and rights that applied to all
  were alien to this system
• Ironclad etiquette governed social relations
• Show deference and respect to those above demand
  deference and respect from those below

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SOCIAL DISTINCTIONS

• Primary distinction was how honorable you were
• Not how rich you were
• Wealth was held to be a function of nobility
• They were wealthy because they noble not noble
  because they were wealthy
• Society was unequal but most saw it as just
• Every man got what he deserved and every man
  deserved what he got

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GREAT CHAIN OF BEING

• Powerful religious myth
• Every living thing had a specified place on a
  huge cosmic ladder
• God
• Angels
• Man
• Animals
• And so forth
• Each rung also had its own hierarchy
• Superior and inferior angels
• Noble and base men
• Social hierarchy of estates was seen as part of a
  great cosmic hierarchy that included God himself
• Anyone who criticized or attempted to disrupt
  this system was attacking the natural order of
  the universe and defying God

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IDEOLOGICAL HEGEMONY

• Some at the bottom of the hierarchy never
  completely accepted the official view of the
  universe
• But there was little they could do to change it
• Due to repression
• Due to the complete belief by upper estates of
  their authority
• Never doubted their right to be on top
• Left no room for self-doubt or contrary ideas
• Herein lies the importance of the Enlightenment
• It broke this old intellectual consensus and
  introduced new ideas and doubt about the existing
  order among those at the top of the hierarchy
• Until that time, the complete and universal
  belief among upper classes that everything was
  the way it was supposed to be did not allow
  alternatives to be proposed
• Deprived the lower estates of a counter-ideology
  that they could use to change things to their
  advantage

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MONARCHY

• At the very top of the hierarchy
• The natural form of government for most people in
  18th century Europe
• Rested on two assumptions
• Legitimacy
• Concept of divine right

Peter the Great of Russia
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LEGITIMACY

• Crown would pass to nearest kin when a reigning
  monarch died
• Only a prince of the royal blood could rule
• Quite often could a kingdom in trouble when a
  child inherited the throne
• Led to scramble for power by nobles, an upsurge
  of local independence, weakness in foreign
  affairs, and often civil war
• Juvenile monarchs seen as an act of God and no
  one suggested that throne should be given to
  someone else

Young Louis VIV
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DIVINE RIGHT I

• King was appointed servant of God on earth and
  therefore had absolute power over everyone else
• King was also humble servant of God
• His power over others was based on his absolute
  obedience to God
• The power and authority of kings was justified
  because the king was the humble and obedient
  servant of God himself

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DIVINE RIGHT II

• It was not up to the subject to judge or question
  the actions of a king
• Only God could judge a king and everyone else had
  to shut up and do as they were told
• To criticize a king was not only treason, it was
  a crime against God
• Because the individual presumed to do something
  that only God had the right and power to do

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THE BURDEN OF BEING GODS SERVANT

• Being Gods servant on earth made king directly
  responsible for the welfare of all the people
  under him
• Most kings took this responsibility seriously and
  were, in general, sober and serious
• Worked long hours
• Never retired
• Worked until they died
• Under constant public scrutiny
• Subject to relentless gossip
• Had no private life

Louis XIV
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ARISTOCRACY

• Contained huge diversity of wealth, prestige,
  interests, and power
• Included large landowners as well as impoverished
  gentlemen
• Some noble families could trace their lineage
  back to the days of Charlemagne others had just
  recently received their title
• Relatively numerous in some countries relatively
  rare in others
• Spain 500,000
• England 200 peers

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TYPES OF ARISTOCRATS

• Two types of aristocrats
• Major
• Minor
• Distinction corresponded partly to prestige of
  title
• Duke
• Marquis
• Earl or count
• Viscount
• Baron
• Also corresponded to such factors as antiquity of
  title and degree of access to the king

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FRENCH ARISTOCRACY

• In France, there was a distinction made between
• Nobility of the sword
• Inherited nobility
• Nobility of the robe
• Earned noble title by obtaining a position in the
  bureaucracy that granted nobility to its holder
• Intermarriage was common between the two groups
  and they had started to blend together by the
  time of the French Revolution

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IMPORTANT TRANSFORMATION

• The nobility of the sword had lost their
  traditional function as warriors by the 18th
  century but they continued to demand their
  traditional privileges and status that had
  originally been based on their military function
  in society

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PRIVILEGES

• Sole right to carry weapons
• Exemption from taxation
• Exclusive right to hunt
• Because these privileges could no longer be
  justified by the military service of nobles, they
  began to claim that they were justified simply
  because of their noble blood
• Nobles came to believe that their privileges
  automatically came with being noble
• Believed that they were a special and elevated
  race that required special treatment

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LOOMING CRISIS

• At the same time that nobility of the sword were
  claiming privileges on the basis of their noble
  blood, they were diluting that blood by
  intermarrying with the nobility of the robe
• During the 18th century, the claim of the
  nobility for special status and treatment became
  increasingly dubious
• They no longer served society in a military sense
• The argument that they deserved pre-eminence
  because of their noble blood became shaky as
  they intermarried with people whose titles were
  not based on blood but on the jobs they had
  obtained
• Function and purpose of nobility became
  increasingly superfluous but they continued to
  insist that they be placed over the rest of
  society

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LANDOWNERSHIP

• Landownership was the only acceptable economic
  activity for aristocrats
• Primary source of noble wealth was the estate
• Income came from agricultural or extractive
  activities of the estate
• Also from various rents and fees that nobles
  charged their tenant farmers
• Average European peasant had to pay at least ½
  his annual income to his noble landlord

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INHERITANCE

• Primogeniture
• Eldest son inherited family title and estate
• Younger sons and daughters given a cash
  settlement and found careers elsewhere
• Second sons usually went into the army, third
  sons into the Church
• Daughters married
• These jobs were viewed as gifts and no one
  expected good performance
• Example Prince Louis de Bourbon Condé

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PARASITES

• Nobles did not work
• Hired others to work and just sat back and
  enjoyed the income that their estate or position
  generated
• Ideal was refined idleness
• To be a gentleman
• Had become a social parasite by the 18th century
• Justified themselves by merely existing
• Saw privileges as their birthright
• Did not give anything back to society in return

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CLERGY

• Church had ceased to exist as an independent
  force in European society and had become a branch
  of government
• Most high officials were appointed by kings and
  most theologians devoted themselves to providing
  religious justification for monarchy and nobility

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SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS

• Church mirrored inequalities of Old Regime
• Upper echelons reserved for sons of nobility
• Actual work of Church performed by a mass of
  overworked and underpaid parish priests
• Church hierarchy could care less about spiritual
  and moral mission of Church
• Church had ceased to provide a moral alternative
  to secular society and was doomed to share the
  same fate as that society