The Old Régime in France: Estates and Social Structure

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering the social structure, privileges, grievances, and divisions of the Three Estates in pre-revolutionary Old Régime France.

Estate

A formal social class into which French society was divided for centuries under the Old Régime.

Old Régime

The traditional feudal, political, economic, and social system of France that existed prior to the French Revolution of $1789$.

Social Mobility (Old Régime)

The strict lack of movement between social classes; individuals were born into their estate and could not change it.

The First Estate

The social order comprised of the Roman Catholic clergy (the Church), which owned $10\%$ of the land despite making up only about $0.5\%$ of the French population.

First Estate Privileges

Special advantages held by the clergy, including complete exemption from direct state taxes, immense wealth, and control of $10\%$ of all land.

Parish Priests vs. Bishops

The severe economic divide within the First Estate between wealthy, high-ranking bishops and impoverished parish priests who lived much like members of the Third Estate.

First Estate Social Services

Community welfare institutions funded and administered by the Roman Catholic Church, including schools, hospitals, and orphanages.

Enlightenment Criticisms of the Clergy

Critiques by Enlightenment philosophers attacking the First Estate for its idle wealth, perceived greed and laziness, political interference, and resistance to reforms.

The Second Estate

The social class consisting of the French nobility, which made up approximately $1.5\%$ of the population and owned $20\%$ of the land.

Second Estate Privileges

Exclusive advantages of the nobility, including exemption from taxes, reservations for top government positions, ownership of $20\%$ of the land, and the ability to live off royal funds at the court of Versailles without debt.

Second Estate Disadvantages

Challenges faced by nobles, including a frequent lack of cash ($$), loss of traditional government posts to close middle-class allies of the king, and strict dependence on land ownership.

Tax-Free Status

The legal exemption from paying taxes enjoyed by the Second Estate, which nobles feared losing above all other privileges.

Nobility's Resentment of the Middle Class

The deep fear and hostility nobles held toward educated middle-class men who were taking royal jobs and threatening traditional aristocratic rights.

Bourgeoisie

The prosperous, educated upper layer of the Third Estate, also known as the French middle class.

Bourgeoisie Professions

High-skilled occupations pursued by educated middle-class individuals who attended college, such as bankers, merchants, manufacturers, lawyers, doctors, journalists, and professors.

Bourgeoisie Discontent

The deep frustration felt by middle-class citizens who, despite their education, wealth, and hard work, were denied the social respect, status, and privileges granted to the nobility.

Rural Peasants

The agricultural population living in the countryside, representing the largest demographic group within the Third Estate.

Peasantry Subgroups

The economic strata within the rural peasantry, encompassing prosperous landowning farmers, tenant farmers, peasant farmers, and day-laboring farmers at the very bottom.

Peasant Tax Grievances

Outrage caused by the fact that the First and Second Estates paid almost no taxes, forcing impoverished rural peasants to shoulder nearly the entire national tax burden amid bad harvests and soaring food prices.

Corvée

An unpaid, mandatory labor tax enforced by the French government that required rural peasants to perform uncompensated physical labor, such as road construction and maintenance.

Flour War

A series of violent riots and attacks on nobles' homes by desperate rural peasants reacting to extreme grain shortages, rising bread costs, and starvation.

Urban Workers

The poorest group within the Third Estate, consisting of city dwellers employed as servants, construction laborers, street vendors, and apprentices.

Survival Strategies of Unemployed Urban Workers

Desperate means of survival used by unemployed city workers in the Old Régime, primarily consisting of begging and turning to crime.

Urban Worker Grievances

Extreme unrest among city workers stemming from severe poverty, hunger, miserably low wages, high taxes, and exorbitant living costs.

Urban Bread Riots (Late 1780s)

Violent street demonstrations carried out by city workers in the late $1780\text{s}$ in response to skyrocketing bread prices and the constant, everyday threat of starvation.

Tithe

A mandatory church tax requiring French subjects to pay $10\%$ of their income or agricultural produce to support the clergy.

The Third Estate

The massive social category comprising approximately $98\%$ of the French population, consisting of the bourgeoisie, rural peasants, and urban workers who bore nearly the entire national tax burden.