Introducing
Prezi AI.
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
Loading…
Social Structure of The Old Regime
4
Transcript
The End
Social Structure of the Old Regime
The Estates of the realm were the broad social orders of the hierarchically conceived society, recognized in the Middle Ages and Early Modern period in Christian Europe; they are sometimes distinguished as the three estates: the clergy, the nobility, and commoners, and are often referred to by medieval ranking of importance as the First, Second, and Third Estates respectively.
The urban included the bourgeoisie, as well as wage-laborers (such as craftsmen). The rural had no wealth and yet were forced to pay disproportionately high taxes compared to the other Estates and were unhappy because they wanted more rights.
Second Estate
The Second Estate was the French nobility and (technically, though not in common use) royalty, other than the monarch himself, who stood outside of the system of estates.
Individuals were born into their class, and change in social position was slow, if possible at all. The exception was the Medieval Church, which was the only institution where competent men (and women) of merit could reach, in one lifetime, the highest positions in society.
In France, under the Ancien Régime the First Estate comprised the entire clergy, traditionally divided into "higher" and "lower" clergy. Although there was no formal demarcation between the two categories, the upper clergy were, effectively, clerical nobility, from the families of the Second Estate.
In the time of Louis XVI, every bishop in France was a nobleman, a situation that had not existed before the 18th century. At the other extreme, the "lower clergy" constituted about 90 percent of the First Estate, which in 1789 numbered around 130,000 (about 0.5% of the population).
The Second Estate is traditionally divided in to "noblesse de robe" ("nobility of the robe"), the magisterial class that administered royal justice and civil government, and "noblesse d'épée" ("nobility of the sword").
The Second Estate constituted approximately 2% of France's population. Under the ancien régime, the Second Estate were exempt from the corvée royale (forced labor on the roads) and from most other forms of taxation such as the gabelle (salt tax) and most important, the taille (the oldest form of direct taxation). This exemption from paying taxes led to their reluctance to reform.
Third Estate
The Third Estate comprised all those not members of the above and can be divided into two groups, urban and rural, together making up 98% of France's population.
In addition, the First and Second Estates lived off the labor of the Third, which made the latter's unequal status all the more glaring.
Choose a template
Presentations from around the world
Learn more about creating dynamic, engaging presentations with Prezi