France
The Kingdom of France (French: Royaume de France) was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Western Europe. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe and a great power since the Late Middle Ages and the Hundred Years' War. It was also an early colonial power, with possessions around the world.
Notable Wars
- Nine Years War: 1688–1697
- The War of the Spanish Succession: 1702–1714
Structure
Monarchy
- The King of France - Louis XV
Counseil du Roi
Also known as the Royal Council, is a general term for the administrative and governmental apparatus around the King of France during the Ancien Régime designed to prepare his decisions and give him advice
- the crown prince (the "dauphin") – if he was of age to attend the council
- the "grands" – the most powerful members of the church and of the nobility.
- Minister of Finances
- Foreign Ministers
- Administrative Minister
- Minister of Taxes
- Chancellor of France
The queen and blood relations of the King were excluded from the counsels.
Demography and Population
Peasants made up the vast majority of population, who in many cases had well-established rights that the authorities had to respect. In 1484, about 97% of France's 13 million people lived in rural villages; in 1700, at least 80% of the 20 million people population were peasants.
By 1789 there were between 17,000-25,000 noble families in France but these include all families that has at some point posassed an noble title. But the number of people who were noble and in the first class was 110,000 to 120,000. Which was 0.4% of Frances population which was about 28,000,000.
Religion
The French monarchy was irrevocably linked to the Catholic Church.
Louis XIV supported the Gallican because that gave the government a greater role than the pope in choosing bishops, and gave the government the revenues when a bishopric was vacant. There would be no inquisition in France, and papal decrees could operate only after the government approved them. Louis avoided schism – he wanted more royal power over the French Church but did not want to break free of Rome. The pope likewise recognized the "most Christian king" was a powerful ally who could not be alienated.
The monastic community constituted a central element of the economic, social, and religious life of many localities under the Old Regime.The monks were large landholders and developed a diversified and complex set of links with their neighbors; they received seigniorial rights, provided work to the rural poor, and were in daily contact with notaries public, merchants, and surgeons. While they did not directly manage the religious life of the faithful (parish priests did that), monks did constitute a motivating force in it through their setting up of a parish clergy, providing alms and social services, and playing the role of intercessors.
Communities of nuns in France had, on average, 25 members and a median age of 48 years. Nuns were both entering the profession later and living longer than before. In general, they had little wealth. Recruitment varied from region to region and by convent lifestyle (active or contemplative, austere or opulent, lower class or middle class). The nature of male and female monasticism differed greatly in France both before and during the revolution. Convents tended to be more isolated and less centrally controlled. This made for greater diversity among them than among male monasteries
French Protestantism, which was largely Calvinist, derived its support from the lesser nobles and trading classes. Protestantism in France was considered a grave threat to national unity, as the Huguenot minority felt a closer affinity with German and Dutch Calvinists than with their fellow Frenchmen. The revokation of Prodestant rights in 1598 caused thousands of Huguenots to flee from France to England, Holland, South Africa and the colonies across the Atlantic, ruining commerce, and causing bloodshed.
In addition, there were about 40,000 to 50,000 Jews in France, chiefly centered in Bordeaux, Metz and a few other cities. They had very limited rights and opportunities, apart from the money-lending business, but their status was not illegal
Agriculture & Industry
Montjoie Saint Denis!
The head of the judicial Body of France was the Chancellor
Lower CourtsJustice in seigneurial lands (including those held by the church or within cities) was generally overseen by the seigneur or his delegated officers. Crimes of desertion, highway robbery, and mendicants were under the supervision of the prévôt des maréchaux, who exacted quick and impartial justice. The national judicial system was made-up of tribunals divided into bailliages.
Superior CourtsThe following were cours souveraines, or superior courts, whose decisions could only be revoked by "the king in his consei"
- Parliments
- Conseils souverains - regional parliments of recently conquered lands
- Chambre des comptes - supervised the spending or public funds
- Cours des aides - supervised decisions on taxes on beer, oil, wine, metals, etc.
- Cours des monnaies - oversaw coins, moneys, etc.
- Grand Conseil - eclesiastical
Paris had many prisons of a different variety for different classes of people and types of crimes.
Fortress of the Chatelet was the oldest royal prison. 15 large cells, better cells were on the upper levels where prisoners would pay a high pension to be comfortable and well-fed. While the lower cells, called de la Fosse (the pit) de la Gourdaine, du Puits, and de l'Oubliette , were extremely damp and barely lit by the sun coming through a grate at street level. It was also the place of the city morgue, where bodies found daily in the Seine river where kept until claimed.
The Bastille and the Cateau de Vincennes were both used for high-ranking political prisoners, and had relatively luxurious conditions.
The Bastille never held more than 40 inmates
Priests and other religious figures who committed crimes or other offenses were tried by church courts, and each priory and abbey had its own small prison. The Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pres had small cells as deep as ten meters underground.
There were also prisons which also served as hospitals. La Salpetriere held two to three hundred condemned women, mostly prostitutes. Conditions within were notoriously harsh and had several mutinies by prisoners.
In the first half of the 18th century criminals could be executed by hanging, decapitation, burning, boiling (fun), broken on a wheel, or by drawing and quartering. Robert-Francois Damiens who tried to kill King Louis XV was executed by drawing and quartering, which was the traditional punishment for regicide and parricide.
Drowning was a common form of torture to extract information. But was rarely used as a method of execution. Nobles had the honor of being beheaded with a sword rather than an axe
Lesser crimes, like non-violent theft or fraud was mostly punished with a few hours in the stocks, branding, whipping, and a sentence of several years in the galleys. The brand in this case being 'GAL'. Sometimes rather than being sentenced to the galleys, criminals would be banished from France for several years. If sentenced to the stocks, they would be placed there for several hours during the busiest times, usually on market days, while wearing a placard stating the nature of their crime.
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