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The Old Regime During The Middle Ages

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In 18th century France, the political and social structure was called The Old Regime. The Old Regime began during the Middle Ages, in about the 11th or 12th century, and divided the French people into three estates. Members of the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church made up the First Estate, who owned 10% of the land in France, and made up 1% of the population. The two groups in the estate were the upper clergy and the lower clergy. The upper clergy contained church leaders such as bishops, archbishops, and cardinals. The lower clergy consisted of parish priests. Furthermore, members of the First Estate did not have to pay taxes and had certain privileges such as access to high offices; the Second Estate members also maintained these …show more content…

The few jobs that existed among the nobles included military officials, church workers, or government workers. Members of the Second Estate were also exempted from paying taxes and encompassed the same privileges as the French clergy; also, many employed peasants as servants, farmers, etc. Similar to the clergy, the nobles viewed ideas from the Enlightenment with disapproval and felt the notions threatened their status and power as favored people in France. The rest of the population in France (97%) fell into the Third Estate. This estate was comprised of three groups, all differing greatly in their economic conditions: the bourgeoisie, the urban workers, and the peasants. The bourgeoisie (upper middles class) included bankers, merchants, professionals, skilled artisans, teachers and judges; plus, they often received good educations and strongly supported the morals of liberty and equality that were introduced during the Enlightenment. There were even bourgeoisies who had as much money or even more money than the nobles, but they had to paid high taxes and they didn’t have access to the advantages of the other estates. A lot of members of the French upper middle class wanted greater social status and power; on rare occasions, a member of the bourgeoisie bought their way into the Second Estate with the purchase of a noble title. The urban workers of France were poverty-stricken; this subgroup consisted of

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