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Early Modern France is the portion of French History that falls in the Early Modern Period from the end of the 15th Century to the end of the 18th Century (or from the French Renaissance to the eve of the French Revolution ). During this period France evolved from a Feudal country to an increasingly centralized state (albeit with many regional differences) organized around a powerful Absolute Monarchy which relied on the doctrine of the Divine Right Of Kings and the explicit support of the Established Church . EARLY MODERN FRANCE AND THE FRENCH Geography During this period, France expanded to nearly its modern territorial form through the acquisition of Picardy , Burgundy , Anjou , Maine , Provence , Brittany , Franche-Comté , Flanders , Navarre , Roussillon , the Duchy Of Lorraine , Alsace and Corsica . Only the Duchy of Savoy , the city of Nice and some other small papal (like Avignon ) and foreign possessions would be acquired later. (For a map of historic French provinces, see Provinces Of France ). France also embarked on exploration, colonization and mercantile exchanges with the Americas ( New France , Louisiana , Martinique , Guadeloupe , Haiti , Guyane ), India ( Pondichery ), the Indian ocean ( Réunion ), the Far East and portions of Africa. The administrative and legal system in France in this period is generally called the Ancien Régime (see below). Demographics The Black Death had killed an estimated one-third of the population of France from its appearance in 1348 . The concurrent Hundred Years' War slowed recovery. It would be the early sixteenth century before the population recovered to mid-fourteenth century levels. With an estimated population of 17 million in 1400, 20 million in the 1600s, and 28 million in 1789, until 1795 France was the most populated country in Europe (above even Russia and twice the size of Britain and the Netherlands ) and the third most populous country in the world, behind only China and India (see Demographics Of France ). These demographic changes also lead to a massive increase in urban populations, although on the whole France remained a profoundly rural country. Paris was one of the most populated cities in Europe (estimated at 400,000 inhabitants in 1550; 650,000 at the end of the 18th century). Other major French cities include Lyons , Rouen , Bordeaux , Toulouse , Marseille . These centuries saw a number of periods of epidemics and crop failures due to wars and climatic changes (historians speak of the period 1550-1850 as the " Little Ice Age "): in 1693-1694, France lost 6% of its population; in the extremely harsh winter of 1709, France lost 3.5% of its population (in the past 300 years, no period has been so proportionally deadly for the French, both World Wars included). Language Linguistically, the differences in France were extreme. Before the Renaissance, the language spoken in the north of France was a collection of different dialects called Oïl Languages . By the 16th century there had developed a generalized form of French (called Middle French ) which would be the basis of the standardized "modern" French of the 17th and 18th century (in 1539, with the Ordinance Of Villers-Cotterêts , Francis I made French alone the language for legal and juridical acts). Nevertheless, in 1790, perhaps 50% of the French population ''did not speak or understand'' this modern French ; the southern half of the country continued to speak one of the Occitan Language s (such as Provençal ) and other inhabitants spoke Breton , Catalan , Basque , Flemish , and Franco-provençal . In the north of France, regional dialects of the various Langues D'oïl continued to be spoken in rural communities. France would only become a linguistically unified country by the end of the 19th century. HISTORY OF EARLY MODERN FRANCE The Treaty Of Étaples ( 1492 ) marks the begin of Early Modern Times in France. After the so-called Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) and the Treaty Of Picquigny ( 1475 ) – its official date of end – now in 1492 and 1493 Charles VIII Of France signed up three treaties as well as with Henry VII Of England and with Maximilian I Of Habsbourg and with Ferdinand II Of Aragon respectively at Étaples ( 1492 ), Senlis ( 1493 ) and in Barcelona ( 1493 ). These three treaties gave the possibility to France for engaging the long Italian Wars ( 1494 - 1559 ) which marked the beginning of Early Modern France. ''After Charles VIII the Affable, the last Valois Direct , three other branchs reigned in France till the fall of the Ancien Régime in 1792 :'' Valois-Orléans ( 1498 - 1515 )
Valois-Angoulême ( 1515 - 1589 )
House Of Bourbon ( 1589 - 1792 )
French Renaissance ''For the Cultural and Artistic Movement in France from the late 15th Century to the early 17th Century , see French Renaissance .'' Despite the beginnings of rapid demographic and economic recovery after the Black Death of the 14th century, the gains of the previous half-century were to be jeopardised by a further protracted series of conflicts, this time in Italy ( 1494 - 1559 ), where French efforts to gain dominance ended in the increased power of the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperors of Germany. Barely were the Italian Wars over, when France was plunged into a domestic crisis with far-reaching consequences. Despite the conclusion of a Concordat between France and the Papacy ( 1516 ), granting the crown unrivalled power in senior ecclesiastical appointments, France was deeply affected by the Protestant Reformation 's attempt to break the unity of Roman Catholic Europe. A growing urban-based Protestant minority (later dubbed '' Huguenots '') faced ever harsher repression under the rule of King Henry II . After Henry II's unfortunate death in a joust, the country was ruled by his widow Catherine De Medici and her sons Francis II , Charles IX and Henry III . Renewed Catholic reaction headed by the powerful dukes of Guise culminated in a massacre of Huguenots ( 1562 ), starting the first of the French Wars Of Religion , during which English, German and Spanish forces intervened on the side of rival Protestant and Catholic forces. See Also: French Wars of Religion After the assassination of both Henry Of Guise ( 1588 ) and Henry III ( 1589 ), the conflict was ended by the accession of the Protestant king of Navarre as Henry IV (first king of the Bourbon dynasty) and his subsequent abandonment of Protestantism ( Expedient Of 1592 ) effectiv in 1593 , his acceptance by most of the Catholic establishment ( 1594 ) and by the Pope ( 1595 ), and his issue of the toleration decree known as the Edict Of Nantes ( 1598 ), which guaranteed freedom of private worship and civil equality. France in the 17th and 18th centuries France's pacification under Henry IV laid much of the ground for the beginnings of France's rise to European hegemony, although at his death in 1610, the Regency of his wife Marie De Medici suffered from internal conflicts with the noble families. Henry IV's son Louis XIII and his minister ( 1624 - 1642 ) Cardinal Richelieu , elaborated a policy against Spain and the German emperor during the Thirty Years' War ( 1618 - 1648 ) which had broken out among the lands of Germany's Holy Roman Empire. An English-backed Huguenot rebellion ( 1625 - 1628 ) defeated, France intervened directly ( 1635 ) in the wider European conflict following her ally (Protestant) Sweden 's failure to build upon initial success. After the death of both king and cardinal, the Peace Of Westphalia ( 1648 ) secured universal acceptance of Germany's political and religious fragmentation, but the Regency of Anne Of Austria and her minister Cardinal Mazarin experienced a civil uprising known as the Fronde (1648-1653) which expanded into a Franco-Spanish War (1653-1659). The Treaty Of The Pyrenees ( 1659 ) formalised France's seizure (1642) of the Spanish territory of Roussillon after the crushing of the ephemeral Catalan Republic and ushered a short period of peace. During the reign of Louis XIV ( 1643 - 1715 ), France was the dominant power in Europe, aided by the diplomacy of Richelieu's successor ( 1642 - 1661 ) Cardinal Mazarin and the economic policies ( 1661 - 1683 ) of Colbert . Renewed war (the War Of Devolution 1667 - 1668 and the Franco-Dutch War 1672 - 1678 ) brought further territorial gains ( Artois and western Flanders and the free County Of Burgundy , left to the Empire in 1482 ), but at the cost of the increasingly concerted opposition of rival powers. Following the seizure of the (then separate) English, Irish and Scottish thrones by the Dutch prince William Of Orange in 1688 , the anti-French " Grand Alliance " of 1689 inaugurated more than a century of intermittent European conflict in which Britain would play an ever more important role, seeking in particular to keep France out of the Netherlands (the Dutch provinces and the future Belgium, then under Spanish rule). The Battle Of La Hougue ( 1692 ) was the decisive naval battle in the Nine Years War ( 1689 - 1697 ) and confirmed the durable dominance of the Royal Navy . After the and in 1709 , as well as by the revocation ( 1685 ) of the Edict of Nantes and the consequent loss of Huguenot support and manpower. The reign ( 1715 - 1774 ) of Louis XV saw an initial return to peace and prosperity under the regency ( 1715 - 1723 ) of Philip II, Duke Of Orléans , whose policies were largely continued ( 1726 - 1743 ) by Cardinal Fleury , prime minister in all but name, renewed war with the Empire ( 1733 - 1735 and 1740 - 1748 ) being fought largely in the East. But alliance with the traditional Habsburg enemy (the " Diplomatic Revolution " of 1756 ) against the rising power of Britain and Prussia led to costly failure in the Seven Years' War ( 1756 - 1763 ). With the country deeply in debt, Louis XVI permitted the radical reforms of Turgot and Malesherbes , but noble disaffection led to Turgot's dismissal and Malesherbes' resignation 1776 . They were replaced by Jacques Necker . Louis supported the American Revolution in 1778 , but in the Treaty Of Paris (1783) , the French gained little except an addition to the country's enormous debt. Necker had resigned in 1781 to be replaced by Calonne and Brienne , before being restored in 1788 . On the eve of the French Revolution of 1789 , France was in a profound institutional and financial crisis, but the ideas of The Enlightenment had begun to permeate the educated classes of society. On 1792 September 21 the French Monarchy was effectively abolished by the proclamation of the French First Republic STRUCTURE OF THE ANCIEN RéGIME Overview The political structure of the early modern period in France is often referred to as the Ancien Régime . It was the result of centuries of nation-building, legislative acts (like the Ordinance Of Villers-Cotterêts ), internal conflicts and civil wars. Much of the medieval political centralization of France had been lost in the Hundred Years' War and the Valois Dynasty's attempts at re-establishing control over the scattered political centers of the country were hindered by the Wars Of Religion . Much of the reigns of Henry IV , Louis XIII and the early years of Louis XIV were shaped by powerful internal conflicts which protested against this centralization. The need for centralization was directly linked to the question of royal finances and the ability to wage war. The internal conflicts and dynastic crises of the 16th and 17th centuries (the Wars of Religion, the conflict with the Habsburgs ) and the territorial expansion of France in the 17th century demanded great sums which needed to be raised through taxes, such as the Taille and the Gabelle and by contributions of men and service from the nobility. One key to this centralization was the replacing of personal " Clientel " systems organized around the king and other Nobles by institutional systems around the state. The creation of the Intendant s -- representatives of royal power in the provinces -- would do much to undermine local control by regional nobles. The same was true with the greater reliance shown by the royal court on the " Noblesse De Robe " as judges and royal counselors. The creation of regional Parlement s had initially the same goal of facilitating the introduction of royal power into newly assimilated territories, but as the parlements gained in self-assurance, they began to be sources of disunity. Despite efforts by the kings to create a centralized state, France in this period remained a patchwork of local privileges and historical differences, and the arbitrary power of the monarch (as implied by the expression "absolute monarchy") was in fact much limited by historic and regional particularities (the most notable exception to these limitations being the king's right to issue Lettres De Cachet ). The south of France was governed by written law adapted from the Roman legal system, the north of France by Common Law (in 1453 these common laws were codified into a written form). Administrative (including taxation), legal ( Parlement ), judicial, and ecclesiastic divisions and prerogatives overlapped. Certain provinces and cities had won special privileges (such as lower rates in the Gabelle or salt tax). The French Nobility struggled to maintain their own rights in the matters of local government and justice. Many of these irregularities would continue until the French Revolution imposed a radical suppression of administrative incoherence. Lower courts Justice in seigneurial lands (including those held by the church or within cities) was generally overseen by the seigneur or his delegated officers. Since the 15th century, much of the seigneur's legal purview had been given to the ''bailliages'' or ''sénéchaussées'' and the ''présidiaux'' (see below), leaving only affairs concerning seigeurial dues and duties, and small affairs of local justice. Only certain seigneurs -- those with the power of ''haute justice'' (seigeurial justice was divided into "high" "middle" and "low" justice) -- could enact the death penalty, and only with the consent of the ''présidiaux''. Crimes of desertion, highway robbery, and mendicants (so-called ''cas prévôtaux'') were under the supervision of the '' Prévôt des maréchaux'', who exacted quick and impartial justice. In 1670, their purview was overseen by the ''présidiaux'' (see below). The national judicial system was made-up of tribunals divided into '' Bailliages '' (in northern France) and '''''sénéchaussées''''' (in southern France); these tribunals (numbering around 90 in the 16th century, and far more at the end of the 18th) were supervised by a ''lieutenant général'' and were subdivided into:
In an effort to reduce the case load in the parlements, certain ''bailliages'' were given extended powers by Henri II Of France : these were called ''présidiaux''. The prévôts or their equivalent were the first-level judges for non-nobles and ecclesiastics. In the exercise of their legal functions, they sat alone, but had to consult with certain lawyers (''avocats'' or ''procureurs'') chosen by themselves, whom, to use the technical phrase, they "summoned to their council". The appeals from their sentences went to the ''bailliages'', who also had jurisdiction in the first instance over actions brought against , Kidnapping , Rape , Heresy , alteration of money, sedition, insurrections, and the illegal carrying of arms. To appeal a ''bailliage's'' decisions, one turned to the regional Parlement s. The most important of these royal tribunals was the prévôté and présidial of Paris, the ''Châtelet'', which was overseen by the ''prévôt'' of Paris, civil and criminal lientenants, and a royal officer in charge of maintaining public order in the capital, the ''lieutenant-général de police''. Superior courts The following were ''cours souveraines'', or superior courts, whose decisions could only be revoked by "the king in his conseil" (see administration section below).
The head of the judicial system in France was the Chancellor . State finances Efficient tax collection was one of the major causes for French administrative and royal centralization in the early modern period. The Taille became a major source of royal income. Exempted from the taille were clergy and nobles (except for non-noble lands they held in "pays d'état", see below), officers of the crown, military personnel, magistrates, university professors and students, and certain cities ("villes franches") such as Paris. The provinces were of two sorts, the "pays d'élection" and the "pays d'état" ( Brittany , Languedoc , Burgundy , Auvergne , Normandy , Béarn , Dauphiné and Provence ). In the "pays d'élection", the assessment and collection of taxes were trusted to elected (at least originally, later these positions were bought) officials (generally wealthy individuals), and the tax was "personal", meaning it was attached to non-noble individuals. In the pays d'état, the assessment of the tax was established by local councils and the tax was "real", meaning that it was attached to non-noble lands (meaning that nobles possessing such lands were required to pay taxes on them). Until the late 17th century, tax collectors were called ''receveurs royaux''. In 1680, the system of the Ferme Générale was established, a franchised customs and excise operation in which individuals bought the right to collect the taille on behalf of the king, through 6-years adjudications (certain taxes like the ''aides'' and the ''gabelle'' had been farmed out in this way as early as 1604). The major tax collectors in that system were known as the ''fermiers généraux'' (farmers-general in English). The taille was only one of a number of taxes. There also existed the "taillon" (a tax for military purposes), a national salt tax (the Gabelle ), national tarifs (the "aides") on various products (wine, beer, oil, and other goods), local tarifs on speciality products (the "douane") or levied on products entering the city (the "octroi") or sold at fairs, and local taxes. Finally, the church benefited from a mandatory tax or tithe called the "dîme". Louis XIV Of France created several additional tax systems, including the "captation" (begun in 1695) which touched every person including nobles and the clergy (although exemption could be bought for a large one-time sum) and the "dixième" (1710-1717, restarted in 1733), enacted to support the military, which was a true tax on income and on property value. In 1749, under Louis XV Of France , a new tax based on the "dixième", the "vingtième" (or "one-twentieth"), was enacted to reduce the royal deficit, and this tax continued through the ancien régime Another key source of state financing was through charging fees for state positions (such as most members of parlement, magistrates, created an new tax, the " Paulette " or "annual tax" (1/60 of the amount of the official charge), which permitted the title-holder to be free of the 40 day rule. The "paulette" and the venality of offices would become key concerns in the parlementarian revolts of the 1640s ( La Fronde ). The state also demanded of the church a "free gift", which the church collected from holders of eccleciastic offices through taxes called the "décime" (roughly 1/20th of the official charge, created under François I). State finances also relied heavily on borrowing, both private (from the great banking families in Europe) and public. The most important public source for borrowing was through the system of ''rentes sur l'Hôtel de Ville'' of Paris, a kind of savings bank offerring investers annual interest. This system first came to use in 1523 under François I. Until 1661, the head of the financial system in France was the ''surintendant''; with the fall of Fouquet , this was replaced by the position of ''contrôleur général'' of finances. Administration One of the established principles of the French monarchy was that the king could not act without the advice of his counsel; the formula "le roi en son conseil" expressed this deliberative aspect. The administration of the French state in the early modern period went through a long evolution, as a truly administrative apparatus -- relying on old nobility, newer chancellor nobility ("noblesse de robe") and administrative professionals -- was substituted to the feudal clientel system. Under Charles VIII and Louis XII the king's counsel was dominated by members of twenty or so noble or rich families; under François I the number of counsellors increased to roughly 70 individuals (although the old nobility was proportionally more important than in the previous century). The most important positions in the court were those of the Great Officers Of The Crown Of France , headed by the Connétable (chief military officer of the realm; position eliminated in 1627) and the Chancellor . The royal administration in the Renaissance was divided between a small counsel (the "secret" and later "high" counsel) of 6 or fewer members (3 members in 1535, 4 in 1554) for important matters of state; and a larger counsel for judicial or financial affairs. François I was sometimes criticized for relying too heavily on a small number of advisors, while Henri II , Catherine De Medici and their sons found themselves frequently unable to negotiate between the opposing Guise and Montmorency families in their counsel. Under Henry IV and Louis XIII this administrative apparatus was expanded and the proportion of the "noblesse de robe" increased, culminating in the following positions during the reign of Louis XIV:
Ministers and secretaries of state exerted a powerful control over state administration in the 17th and 18th century: Sully , Concini (who was also gouverneur of several provinces), Richelieu , Mazarin , Jean-Baptiste Colbert , Cardinal De Fleury , Turgot , etc. The title "principal ministre de l'état" ( Prime Minister ) was however only given six times in this period and Louis XIV himself refused to chose a "prime minister" after the death of Mazarin. The decision-making apparatus was further divided into several royal counsels:
In addition to the above administrative institutions, the king was also surrounded by an extensive personal and court retinue (royal family, valets, guards, honorific officers). Royal administration in the provinces had been the role of the ''bailliages'' and ''sénéchaussées'' in the Middle Ages, but this declined in the early modern period, and by the end of the 18th century, the ''bailliages'' served only a judicial function. The main source of royal administrative power in the provinces in the 16th and early 17th centuries fell to the ''gouverneurs'' (who represented "the presence of the king in his province"), positions which had long been held by only the highest ranked families in the realm. With the civil wars of the early modern period, the king increasing turned to more tractable and subservient emissaries, and this was the reason for the growth of the ''''' Intendant s''''' under Louis XIV (they were first created by Henri II of France). Indendants were chosen from among the Maître Des Requêtes and were of three types: indendants attached to a province, intendants of finances, and intendants of commerce. By the 18th century, royal administrative power was firmly established in the provinces, despite protestations by local parlements. In addition to their role as appellate courts, regional Parlement s had gained the privilege to register the edicts of the king and to present the king with official complaints concerning the edicts; in this way, they had acquired a limited role as the representative voice of (predominantly) the magistrate class. In case of refusal on parlement's part to register the edicts (frequently concerning fiscal matters), the king could impose registration through a royal assize ("lit de justice"). The other traditional representatives bodies in the realm were the Etats Généraux (created in 1302) which reunited the three Estates Of The Realm (clergy, nobility, the third estate) and the "États provinciaux" (Provincial Estates). The "Etats généraux" (convoked in this period in 1484, 1560-1, 1576-7, 1588-9, 1593, 1614, and 1789) had been reunited in times of fiscal crisis or convoked by parties malcontent with royal prerogatives (the Ligue, the Hugenots), but they had no true power, the dissensions between the three orders rendered them weak and they were dissolved before having completed their work. As a sign of French absolutism, they ceased to be convoked from 1614 to 1789. The provincial estates proved more effective, and were convoked by the king to respond to fiscal and tax policies. The Church The French monarchy was irrevocably linked to the was able to ascend to the thrown only after abjuring protestantism. The symbolic power of the catholic monarch was apparent in his crowning (the king was annoited by blessed oil in Rheims ) and he was popularly believed to be able to cure Scrofula by the laying on of his hands (accompanied by the formula "the king touches you, but god heals you"). In 1500, France had 14 archibishoprics (Lyon, Rouen, Tours, Sens, Bourges, Bordeaux, Auch, Toulouse, Narbonne, Aix-en-Provence, Embrun, Vienne, Arles, and Rheins) and 100 bishoprics; by the eighteenth century, archbishoprics and bishoprics had expanded to a total of 139. The upper levels of the French church were made up predominantly of old nobility, both from provincial families and from royal court families, and many of the offices had become ''de facto'' hereditary possessions, with some members possessing mutiple offices. In addition to fiefs that church members possessed as seigneurs, the church also possessed seigneurial lands in its own right and enacted justice upon them. Other temporal powers of the church included playing a political role as the First Estate in the "États Généraux" and the "États Provinciaux" (Provincial Assemblies) and in Provincial Conciles or Synods convoked by the king to discuss religious issues. The church also claimed a prerogative to judge certain crimes, most notably heresy, although the Wars of Religion did much to place this crime in the purview of the royal courts and parlement. Finally, abbots, cardinals and other prelates were frequently employed by the kings as ambassadors, members of his councils (such as Richelieu and Mazarin ) and in other administrative positions. The faculty of theology of Paris (often called the Sorbonne ), maintained a censor board which reviewed publications for their religious orthodoxy. The church was the primary provider of schools (primary schools and "colleges") and hospitals ("hôtel-Dieu", the Sisters Of Charity ) and distributor of relief to the poor in pre-revolutionary France The Pragmatic Sanction Of Bourges (1438, suppressed by Louis XI but brought back by the États Généraux of Tours in 1484) gave the election of bishops and abbots to the cathedral chapter houses and abbeys of France, thus stripping the pope of effective control of the French church and permitting the beginning of a Gallican Church . However, in 1515, François I signed a new agreement with Pope Leo X , the Concordat Of Bologna , which gave the king the right to nominate candidates and the pope the right of investiture; this agreement infuriated gallicans, but gave the king control over important ecclesiastical offices with which to benefit nobles. Although exempted from the taille, the church was required to pay the crown a tax called the "free gift" ("don gratuit"), which it collected from its office holders, at roughly 1/20 the price of the office (this was the "décime", reapportioned every five years). In its turn, the church exacted a mandatory tithe from its parishoners, called the " Dîme ". : ''For church history in the 16th century, see Reformation and French Wars Of Religion .'' The Counter-Reformation saw the French church create numerous relgious orders (such as the Jesuits ) and make great improvements on the quality of its parish priests; the first decades of the 17th century were characterized by a massive outpouring of devotional texts and religious fervor (exemplified in Saint Francis Of Sales , Saint Vincent De Paul , etc.). Although the Edict Of Nantes (1598) permitted the existance of prostestant churches in the realm (characterized as "a state within a state"), the next eighty years saw the rights of the Huguenots slowly stripped away, until Louis XIV finally Revoked The Edict in 1685 , producing a massive emmigration of Huguenots to other countries. Religious practices which veered too close to protestantism (like Jansenism ) or to the mystical (like Quietism ) were also severly suppressed, as too Libertinage or overt Atheism . Although the church would come under attack in the 18th century by the philosophers of the Enlightenment and recruitment of clergy and monastic orders would drop after 1750, figures show that, on the whole, the population remained a profoundly catholic country (absenteism from services did not exceed 1% in the middle of the century). At the eve of the revolution, the church possessed upwards of 7% of the country's land (figures vary) and generated yearly revenues of 150 million livres. ECONOMY OF EARLY MODERN FRANCE See Also: Economic history of France FRENCH EXPLORATION AND COLONIES LITERATURE
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