HISTORY
Subject
:
History
(For under graduate student)
Paper No.
:
Paper-VI
History of Modern Europe
Unit No. & Title
:
Unit-1
Europe between 1780 & 1871
Lecture No. & Title
:
Lecture-1
Crisis of the 'Ancien Regime' in
France
FAQs
1.
Mention the three estates of the French society.
The French society was divided into three corporate
structures. The first estate comprised the clergy, the
second the nobility and the third the rest of the
population, which consisted of the bourgeoisie, the
peasants and the urban poor.
2.
Why was the clergy a heterogeneous class?
The clergy was a heterogeneous class as it included
everyone – from the archbishops, the bishops, the
higher clergy to the parish priests and the poor lower
clergy. The upper clergy came from the aristocracy
while the lower clergy in terms of social origin hailed
from the third estate. There was thus no cohesion
within the clergy though they represented one
estate.
3.
Describe the two classes of nobility.
There
were
two
broad
differences
among
the
nobility. One was the Noblesse d’epee or the nobility
of the sword and the other was the Noblesse de
Robe or the nobility of Robe. The first was the
hereditary aristocracy, who could trace their lineage
to the medieval times, whereas the Noblesse de
Robe were the officials who rose to the ranks of
aristocracy due to the munificence of the king.
4.
Why were the ordinary citizens of France angry
with the First Estate ?
The members of the First Estate ran the Catholic
Church in France. But the higher levels of priests
were quite oblivious to the requirements of their
respective diocese, and led lives of luxury and
comfort. The Church had huge amounts of land for
which they were not taxed. They also received the
proceeds of the church-tax or tithe, which made
them fabulously wealthy, and totally against the
ideals of humility, piety and sacrifice that they were
supposed to exemplify.
5.
How did Louis XIV curtail the powers of the
clergy and the nobility?
Louis XIV had made royal power absolute and some
of the institutions of noble power like the Parlement,
were kept virtually in disuse. As a result the
aristocracy
wanted
to
have
their
own
position redefined and reassigned to them
political
6.
Define the nature of the bourgeoisie.
The bourgeoisie were those sections of the people
who were associated with the world of commerce,
industry and finance. They were associated with a
new kind of production namely the capitalist mode of
production. Bourgeois by definition was a town
dweller and therefore they were associated with
urban economic activities, within the urban mode of
production.
7.
Why did the lower bourgeoisie initiate a revolt?
The lower bourgeoisie were educated, talented, and
many of them had money. But they were dissatisfied
by the irrational inequality that prevailed in society.
They desired change as the avenues of progress
were blocked to them as status and privilege
depended on birth. The hollowness of the Ancien
regime, the unreasonableness of the existing society
and political system, that had been laid bare by the
philosophers,
further
contributed
thoughts, amongst the bourgeoisie.
to
rebellious
8.
What were the grievance of the peasants?
The peasants were aggrieved by the demands of
feudalism. The seigniorial dues that they were
obliged to meet, such as corvee or forced labour, the
host of taxes that they were required to pay,
including the system whereby they were forced to
use the bakeries and winepresses of their landlords
even though they proved to be costlier, made them
extremely dissatisfied and angry. .
9.
Why did absolutist monarchy fail in France?
A successful absolutist state depends on the quality
of the monarch. Louis XIV was able to establish and
exercise control, but he angered the nobility. His
successor, Louis XV was more interested in pleasures
than in the business of governance. When Louis XVI
became the king in 1774, he was inexperienced, and
young, and did not prove to be a particularly capable
leader either. Thus the absolutist political structure
in France was thoroughly inefficient.
10. How did the uneducated get imbibed with the
ideas of enlightenment?
There was dissemination of revolutionary ideas in the
coffee houses, salons, pubs, and political clubs,
where there were opportunities for contacts between
the literate and the uneducated. The prevalence of
low
life
literature
of
the
libelists,
and
the
pamphleteers who popularized ideas in a vulgarized,
cruder fashion, also served to influence them.