Glossary Terms

France: Area of Study 1

Terms Definition
Ancien Régime Ancien Régime refers primarily to the aristocratic, social, and
political system established in France under the Valois and Bourbon
dynasties (14th century to 18th century). The term is French for
"Former Regime," but rendered in English as "Old (or Ancient)
Regime", "Old Order," or "Old Rule".

A system of government long since supplanted by another;

particularly a state of feudalism with an absolute monarchy
supported by the doctrine of divine right or with the explicit consent
of an established church
Absolutism • dominance through threat of punishment and violence
• dictatorship: a form of government in which the ruler is an
absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or
opposition etc.)
• the principle of complete and unrestricted power in government

• the doctrine of an absolute being

Rule by divine right The doctrine that monarchs derive their right to rule directly from God
and are accountable only to God – appointing his own ministers and
unrestricted by a written constitution
“the power to make the laws belongs only to me” – King Louis XVI
Despotism Despotism is a form of government by a single authority, either an
individual (Despot), or tightly knit group, which rules with absolute
political power
(despot - tyrant: a cruel and oppressive dictator)
Benevolence • disposition to do good
• an inclination to do kind or charitable acts

• an act intending or showing kindness and good will

‘Fabrication ‘ of the The image of the king presented in his so-called 'memoirs' describes
King’s image him as taking every political decision and as being concerned with the
welfare of his subjects in every detail. However, we happen to know that
Louis was not responsible for his own image. He did not even write
these memoirs – they were ghosted by a team of collaborators. As for
the creation of the king's public image, it was supervised by a leading
minister, the previously mentioned Colbert, who functioned for some
twenty years as what we might call a minister for propaganda.
Corporate society These terms refer to a type of society in which various large-scale
corporate organizations with powerful vested interests are involved in
the economic, social and political decision-making process.
Honorific society Privileged noblemen: a material benefit, specifically tax exemption.
Legal privilege Being exempt from or above the law.
Fiscal (tax) privilege Exempt from fiscal tax
Deference • courteous regard for people's feelings; "in deference to your
wishes"; "out of respect for his privacy"

• complaisance: a disposition or tendency to yield to the will of

others
First Estate The clergy: approx. o.6% of the population. The French Catholic Church
 owned about 10% of land. The clergy were exempt from most taxes.
Instead of taxation, the Church gave the don gratuity to the monarchy at
its discretion.
Second Estate The nobility: the nobility formed about .4% of the population, but owned
about 33% of land. Three groups: noblesse de court, noblesse d’epee
and noblesee de robe.
Third Estate Approximately 99% of the population were commoners. In total, they
controlled about 45% of the land. This order contained many different
groups with enormous extremes of wealth and poverty, from the
wealthiest bankers to the poorest metayers or sharecroppers. None had
privilege. All paid taxes and dues to the monarch. The Third Estate bore
the burden of the other two privileged estates. It produced nearly all the
wealth of France and paid nearly all the taxes.
Bourgeoisie The middle class town dwellers. This group consisted of some of the
very wealthiest people in the kingdom (e.g. some of the Atlantic Port
Haute bourgeoisie merchants who had lavish houses in the port cities and vast domains in
the countryside) the haute bourgeoisie, through to small business
Petite bourgeoisie holders, the petite bourgeoisie, whose financial circumstances were very
modest.
Tithe A fraction of the harvest paid (before all other taxes) to the Roman
Catholic Church for the maintenance of the clergy, poor relief, and to
support services. Generally it was between one-fifteenth and one-tenth.
Often paid to higher and nonresident clergy, the tithe was an important
subject of the cahiers de doléances, which often called for its revision or
abolition.
Don gratuit Voluntary annual gift to the King made by the Church
Taille Direct tax on land, from which the Church and most of the towns and the
nobility were exempt
Feudal (seigneurial) 10 percent, up to 25 percent, pf their produce was paid over t the feudal
dues lord, in addition to the rent peasants paid in produce to the seigneurial
lord.
Venal public office Taxes owed to the King were collected through agents called financiers
who paid to hold the position – it was thus called a venal office.
Venality
Ownership and heritability of an office. Sold by the state to raise money,
these offices, mostly in the judicial apparatus and the administration,
were retained in exchange for an annual tax of one-sixtieth of the value
(the Paulette). These offices provided access to power and opportunities
for profit. The more important offices, and thus the most expensive, also
conferred personal noble status on the holder that became hereditary,
generally after three generations. Through venality of office many
bourgeoisie could hope for eventual noble status, which provided an
important avenue of social mobility; yet as a governmental system it was
inefficient because it made it very difficult to administer government
policy consistently. Venal officeholders, treating their posts as property,
could better resist general directives.
Noblesse d’épée The nobility of the sword which had gained privilege through service to
the crown in battle many generations before.
Noblesse de robe Recently ennobled by service to monarch or through purchase of one of
50,000 venal offices from the King, comprsing of magistrates in the
parlements, tax farmers and other administrative positions. These
offices and titles could become hereditary upon further payment.
Curés The parish priest – often served as the author for the whole community
on royal edicts and as the mediator between peasants and nobility on
issues of importance.
Anoblis Same as the noblesse de robe, someone who has been made noble for
a service to the King, or has purchased nobility by the venal office.
Vicaires Roman Catholic priest who acts for another higher-ranking clergyman
(vicar).
Ouvriers Ouvriers are people who lease their services in exchange for a salary for
a working craft , industrial or agricultural. By definition, the notion of
workers based on the concepts of manual labour and wages The
manual nature of the work excludes office employees.
Noblesse oblige Noblesse oblige is a French phrase literally meaning "nobility obliges”. It
can be defined as: whoever claims to be noble must conduct himself
nobly, or one must act in a fashion that conforms to one's position, and
with the reputation that one has earned.
Intendants The royal official in charge of administering the gènèralitè during the old
regime.
Corvée Either 14 days forced labour for the King on the roads, or more
generally, unpaid labour for the feudal lord. It was hated because it took
laboureres away form the fields for substantial periods of the year
Parlements The 13 sovereign courts of appeal in France which had the responsibility
of registering the King’s decrees, having checked them for legal
correctness. They could ‘remonstrate’ with the King by refusing to
register a decree, but the King could override them by imposing a lit de
justice. The parlements also had the right to impose certain local laws
in their areas of jurisdiction which were called ressorts
Plurality 1. In voting, a plurality is the largest number of votes to be
received by any candidate or referendum
2. In religion, the term plurality has been coined to refer to an
alternative system of church government, wherein the local
assembly's decisions are made by a committee
Livres A pound: a unit of french currency, made up of 20 sous
Banalités The peasant often had feudal obligations to grind his corn in the
seigneur’s mill, bake his bread in the seigneur’s oven, press his grapes
in the seigneur’s wine press, making payment – usually in kind, for the
‘privilege’
Vingtième A direct tax of about 20th of an income levied in times of war. One of the
few taxes nobility had to pay as well as commoners.
Gabelle Indirect tax on salt
Capitation Direct tax on each ‘head’ I.e. person – paid by all commoners
Aides Indirect tax on food and drink
Octrois Octrois is a local tax collected on various articles brought into a district
for consumption
Sans-culottes This group is better regarded as a coalition, rather than a class.
Between 1789 and 1792 it took on the consciousness of a group, calling
itself the “sans-culottes” and became a major force in shaping the
revolution in 1793-4. Its composition was very diverse. It was made up
of master craftsmen, independent shopkeepers, dealers, journeymen
(day labourers) and apprentices, and the poor, but it also contained
small proprietors who, the Marxist historian Rude claime, ‘were very
difficult to distinguish from the class of the petite-bourgeoisie.
Champart Champart was a tax in Medieval France levied by landowners on
tenants. Paid as a share of the harvest, the amount due varied between
one sixth and one twelfth, and typically one eighth of the cereal crop.
Regional names for champart included arrage, gerbage, parcière,
tasque, and terrage
Lods et vents These are transfer taxes levied by the lord on the sale or exchange of
land by a commoner census. It usually amounts to one-twelfth of the
 value of land.
Estates-General An old regime representative body that last met in 1614, which grouped
together the three orders or estates of the kingdom: clergy, nobility, and
everybody else. This “Third Estate” made up 95 percent of the
population. Each order had one vote. The powers of the body were
vague, but contemporaries believed they had the right to deny new tax
appropriations.
There were 300 representitives for each Estate, therefore the Third
Estate was always out voted as the other two parties had the same
ideals. Therefore, they demanded their number of representitives to
double.
Aristocratic Revolt The Revolution took shape in France when the controller general of
finances, Charles-Alexandre de Calonne, arranged the summoning of
an assembly of “notables” (prelates, great noblemen, and a few
representatives of the bourgeoisie) in February 1787 to propose reforms
designed to eliminate the budget deficit by increasing the taxation of the
privileged classes. The assembly refused to take responsibility for the
reforms and suggested the calling of the Estates-General, which
represented the clergy, the nobility, and the Third Estate (the
commoners) and which had not met since 1614. The efforts made by
Calonne’s successors to enforce fiscal reforms in spite of resistance by
the privileged classes led to the so-called revolt of the “aristocratic
bodies,” notably that of the parlements (the most important courts of
justice), whose powers were curtailed by the edict of May 1788. During
the spring and summer of 1788, there was unrest among the populace
in Paris, Grenoble, Dijon, Toulouse, Pau, and Rennes. The king, Louis
XVI, had to yield; reappointing reform-minded Jacques Necker as the
finance minister, he promised to convene the Estates-General on May 5,
1789. He also, in practice, granted freedom of the press, and France
was flooded with pamphlets addressing the reconstruction of the state.
The elections to the Estates-General, held between January and April
1789, coincided with further disturbances, as the harvest of 1788 had
been a bad one. There were practically no exclusions from the voting;
and the electors drew up cahiers de doléances, which listed their
grievances and hopes. They elected 600 deputies for the Third Estate,
300 for the nobility, and 300 for the clergy.
Enlightenment A law not made by the people is not a law at all.
Philosophes A group of writers and thinkers of eighteenth century which criticized
many aspects of the old regime. Some philosophes hald conflicting
views but generally this group debated ideas based on principles of
reason derived from close observation of the laws of nature, freedom of
speech and religion, equality before the law and criticized superstition
and the abuses of despotism
Encyclopaedia The Encyclopaedia was the greatest publishing enterprise known until
this time. The aim of the publication was to organize all useful
knowledge known to man.
Laissez-faire An economic theory that commerce should be left as free as possible
from the constraints of governments
Laissez passer Laissez-passers were commonly issued during wartime and at other
periods, literally acting as a pass to allow travel to specific areas, or out
of war zones or countries for various officials, diplomatic agents, other
representatives or citizens of third countries. Frequently including quite
specific and limited freedom of movement. The form and issuing
authority would be more or less standardized, depending on the
circumstances
Physiocrats Group of French intellectuals led by de Quesnay who believed that land
was the only source of wealth and that landowners should therefore pay
the bulk of the taxes
Utility and Merit
Assembly of Notables The principal and most enlightened persons of the kingdom, to whom
the king deigns to communicated his views and whom he invite to
apprise him their reflections, people of weight, worthy of the public’s
confidence and such that their approbation would powerfully influence
general opinion.
Farmers-General Purchased their positions (venal offices) to collect indirect taxes, paid a
lump sum to the government and kept the rest, often lending money to
the Crown at interest, although it was largely the Crown’s own money.
Society of Thirty Also called “conspiracy of well-intentioned men”. The goal was to design
a new constitution for France based on the principles of the
Enlightenment.
Segur Ordinance Restricted recruitment for army officers who could prove four
generations of nobility. This
Compte Rendu Literally an ‘account rendered’, the compte rendu was a public
statement of the kingdom’s finances. The first ever compte rendu
presented by Necker to the King in 1781 was highly significant because
until that time, no public statement of finances had ever been made and
the conept of public financial accountability of the King did not exist.
Patricians The original aristocratic families.
Plebians Plebeians are encouraged to seek out a Noble Household and offer your
services as a "Client" in exchange for their "Patronage".
Journées Literally a ‘day’. Used for the omportant days of action by the sans-
culottes during the Revolution leading to important political change.
Bastille A medieval fortress-prison in eastern Paris. Frequently used for the
subjects/victims of arbitrary royal authority, it held only seven prisoners
in 1789. Yet, the Bastille remained a potent symbol of royal power. It
was seized by the Paris crowd on 14 July 1789; this event marked the
end of the absolute monarchy and the beginning of a new era. The date
of the fall of the Bastille is a French national holiday.
Vanqeuers de la The Storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris on the night of July 14,
Bastille 1789. The medieval fortress and prison in Paris known as the Bastille
represented royal authority in the centre of Paris. While the prison only
contained 7 inmates at the time of its storming, its fall was the flashpoint
of the French Revolution, and it subsequently became an icon of the
French Republic. In France, Le quatorze juillet (14 July) is a public
holiday, formally known as the Fête de la Fédération (Federation
Holiday). It is usually called Bastille Day in English
Departments The territorial and administrative division of some countries. As a
territorial unit, "department" was first used by the French Revolutionary
governments, apparently to emphasize that each territory was simply an
administrative sub-division of the united sovereign nation. (The term
"department", in other contexts, means an administrative sub-division of
a larger organization.) This attempt to de-emphasize local political
identity contrasts strongly with countries which are divided into "states"
(implying local sovereignty).