The legacy of the past: Le Ancien Regime, 1650 - 1789

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The legacy of the past Le Ancien Regime, 1650 -
1789
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In many ways, 18th century Europe still looked
much like medieval Europe

• Economic structure traditional (overwhelmingly
  agrarian)
• Social structure traditional (division of legal
  classes)
• Political structure traditional (monarchies
  dominated)
• Culture and world outlook traditional (parochial
  and narrow)

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European society by the 18th century

• A pyramid with a very broad base
• 3-5 was the landed aristocracy
• 10 was the middle class
• 80 90 were peasants

the aristocracy
The middling orders
Note This graphic is a bit misleading. Think of
the farmers more as wealthy gentry. Also, it
should be obvious that serfdom has been abolished
in Western Europe by 1700. Also, with the advent
of the Protestant Reformation, the pope and
Catholic Church had long since been at the apex
of Western society.
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Aristocracy divided in two groups

• Upper aristocracy ( the Great Titled nobility)

• Lower aristocracy

• Dukes
• Marquises
• Margraves
• Counts (earls in Britain)
• Viscounts
• Barons

• Without titles they included knights (in
  Britain), seigniors (in France), and hidalgos (in
  Spain)
• Some were more wealthy than titled nobility, some
  were relatively impoverished

These titles were hereditary and honorific. They
involved no real duties just status and
privilege.
Theoretically, these are the oldest families in
the country. In reality , they die out and are
replaced from below.
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Aristocratic wealth

• Based on land
• The nature of their wealth was changing around
  1700.
• Some aristocrats diversified, holding office in
  the government or investing in overseas trade and
  finance

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Aristocratic wealth made possible a life of
elegant and opulent display

• Chatsworth was the palace for the Duke of
  Devonshire

• Blenheim was the palace for the Duke of
  Marlborough

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The owners believed The architecture and
landscaping reflected reason, proportion, and a
mans achievement

• Chenoceaux in France was owned by the Dupin family

• Esterhazy Palace in Austria was for the noble of
  that name

Clearly, the greatest of these houses were
palaces, rivaling the royal court itself.
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The Vienna Opera House
Throughout most of the year, aristocrats spent
their time in the great capitals of Europe where
they lived a dizzy life of entertainment and
social obligation. Attending The theatre and
opera were mainstays of their social calendar.
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• In the Salon of Madame Geoffrin in 1755, Château
  de Malmaison (Paris, 1812). a salon is a
  gathering of intellectuals who engage in thought
  provoking discussion with each other and with
  their social and political peers. Salons were
  common in 17th and 18th century France, and the
  ideas and philosophies exchanged then have been
  credited with spurring the Enlightenment.

• Ned Ward, The Coffee House Mob (London, 1710).
  Seated around long trestle tables, a variety of
  men have assembled in the candle-lit room of a
  genteel coffee-house, hung with landscape
  paintings. They are variously occupied some are
  busy with reading the little diurnals or
  newspapers of the day, while some are or have
  been smoking long clay pipes of tobacco. But two
  activities dominate conversation (or debate) and
  coffee-drinking.

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The Middling Orders

• A broad middle class is a hallmark of modern
  society.
• This time period saw the growing numbers and
  influence of the middle class
• The term bourgeoisie refers to urban middle class

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The top of the middling orders

• merchants and financiers
• Made money in overseas and internal trade and
  investment
• Many would imitate the aristocracy
• Some would buy titles

The Syndics of the Clothmaker's Guild (1662) by
Rembrandt illustrate the wealth of the rising
urban merchant class toward the end of the Ancien
Regime.
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The professionals

• Below the merchant-class was the professional
  class
• Made up of lawyers, doctors, military officers,
  clergy, and estate stewards

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The tradesmen

• These are the small businessmen
• They sell the things they make in their shops
• They are master-craftsmen who take on apprentices

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The servant class

• European society was full of servants at every
  rank and status

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Literacy and the Middle Class

• Due to the Protestant emphasis on education,
  literacy was on the rise
• Even in France, by the 1780s, 50 of all men and
  20 of women could read
• The middling orders joined clubs that promoted
  the ideals of the Enlightenment

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The Peasantry

• Life for peasants varied from country to country
• Peasants were small farmers who generally did not
  own land similar to share-cropping
• western European peasants generally fared better
  peasants in the east were mostly serfs
• In England and France peasants could own land in
  England landowning peasants could vote

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The Peasantry were generally poor rural folk

• The vast majority of the population
• Their work was physical
• Holidays were frequent
• Fairs and festivals were sources of entertainment

Cornelis Dusart, Country inn, 1690
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David Teniers the Youngers The Chaff Cutter,
1610-1630 (right), portrays 17th century peasant
life
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Class differences in child rearing

• Aristocrats

• Middle and lower classes

• Children were conceived early and often
• Children raised by wet nurses and tutors

• Fewer children, usually beginning in the parents
  20s
• Raised their own children, often giving them
  chores to help the family or business

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Class differences in education

• Aristocrats

• Middle and lower classes

• Boys were given a tutor early, then sent to
  private school, followed by university, then
  Grand Tour of Europe
• Girls were given an education on how to run an
  aristocratic household

• Sons of wealthy merchants might have same
  education pattern as aristocrats
• Apprenticeship was common for those becoming
  tradesmen
• Middle class girls were sent to other houses to
  learn how to run a household
• Peasants received virtually no education

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Class differences in marriage

• Aristocrats

• Middle and lower classes

• Marriages were arranged by parents, with the
  children holding veto power
• If children happened to make their own match,
  parents also had veto power
• Broken marriages were uncommon

• Children could not marry exactly whoever they
  wanted, but they had more freedom of choice than
  aristocrats
• Their marriage break up rates were about the same
  as ours today

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Health and medicine in 1700

• Europeans were great on diagnosis, still poor
  with cures
• However, hygiene and nutrition were improving
• Population increased from 100 million to 200
  million in the 1700s

Bleeding a patient was commonly done to cure
patients of their ailments.