The fuedal system and Estates structure of French society on the eve of the Revolution
The graphic at the top of this page gives an example of the structure of the feudal system. Behind the feudal pyramids is the Palace of Versailles – the home of the King of France before the Revolution. In France, it was the beginning of the French Revolution that officially and legally wiped out the last remaining vestiges of feudalism, or Estates system, as it was known there.
Europe in the Middle Ages
The feudal system was a structural hierarchy in Europe throughout the Middle Ages that worked on the premise of land owned by the king, given to men (along with titles and money) in return for service to the country. These new lords in turn “allowed” peasants to live on their land, in return for them working the land and providing the lord with a percentage of the product of the land and/or rent or taxes. Each tier provided something to the other tiers but the lower down the chain the less they gained. So, the king provided protection and land, and received money and loyalty – a promise to die for king and country if required. With their loyalty, the lords gave fighting skills and financial payments to the king and provided protection and land to knights who in turn swore to fight for their lord, and king, if required. The knights gave their service and financial payments to their lords, and protection to the peasants and serf who worked their land.
For the most part, feudalism began to die out after the Black Death (plague) although it continued to some extent in many countries for a while after. The rise of merchant towns and cities also helped destroy the feudal society as serfs (the poor “slaves” who worked the land), could become free if they managed to escape and live in a town for over a year. The last known feudal state in Europe was in fact a tiny island called Sark in the English Channel, where feudalism was alive until as recently as 2008.
Absolute Monarchy in France
In France, things became complicated when Louis XIV, also known as the Sun King, created a more centralised monarchy where he, the King, was the absolute ruler of the land, giving less power to the lords, taking taxes directly from the peasants, and creating a more modern-style, wage-earning military instead of relying on feudal dues. However, in order to not upset the land-owning, wealthy nobility, he allowed them to keep a level of feudal control within their own lands. He also did not require them to pay taxes. This ultimately created a problematic paradox by the time we arrive at the reign of Louis XVI, a king known for his gluttonous excess, with a queen in Marie Antoinette who with a love of fashion and a tendancy towards shopping therapy to ease her lonliness, adopted the lavish lifestyle befitting French royalty with relish.
By adopting a centralised, absolute monarchy, without removing the feudal ties between the nobility and the peasants, the French kings had created a society where only the lowest, poorest rung of society contributed financially to the country’s wealth while the highest, richest rung spent at a rate faster than these working men could possibly keep up with, all while continuing to demand additional taxes to line their own pockets, On top of this, the Church also expected them to pay tithes (a 10th of their income for the upkeep of religious buildings etc) – a tradition that had been in practice for centuries.
The Estates
With these developments, the feudal pyramid dropped the idea of knights, since the army was now a paid levy, and the feudal tiers divided into just three below the King – Church, Nobility, and Everyone Else. These tiers, in France, were called Estates and I have discussed them in more detail in my previous blog post on the French bourgeoisie. As towns expanded, the rise of merchants, bankers, lawyers and other rich businessmen dominated the urban landscape. These men made their fortune, not through favour to the king and generational wealth, but through hard work and determination, and probably still a certain degree of exploitation of the poor! As they grew rich enough to buy property of their own, they believed they had as much right to a vote on how the country was run as their land-owning noble counter-parts. They also resented having to pay taxes when they knew that the lords of the Second Estate did not.
Basis of the Revolution
I discuss all of this in detail in my blog post on the bourgeoisie but suffice to say that, whilst there were those bourgeoisie who found ways to evade tax, and aspired to either earn the king’s favour or buy their way into titles of nobility that would give them noble privileges, there were others who wanted to even the score by removing the privileges of the nobles altogether. It was this ambition, coupled with the starvation of the poor that created the perfect storm for a revolution.
When calls for reform reached breaking point, Louis XVI called the Estates General – an Assembly that brought together representatives of all Estates around the country – for the first time in over a hundred years. This Estates General in May 1789 was the catalyst for a string of events that culminated in the Tennis Court Oath of June 20th, the Storming of the Bastille on July 14th and ultimately the abolition of the final vestiges of feudalism on August 4th 1789.