French Rev Key Terms Section 1 Flashcards
Royal levée
Kings waking for intimacy & accessibility to monarch
Letters de Cachet
Letters bearing royal seal by which king could order imprisonment
Intendants responsibilities
King appointed royal agents for: taxation, edicts, policing, conscription & presiding over local courts
Remonstrance
Parlement could question & criticise king’s edicts & force him to reconsider
Lit de justice
King could overrule his Parlements & force acceptance of an edict; to do so would seem despotic!
What was the problems w/ law across Paris?
It differed geographically
First estate
Clergy - 150,000 members
Tithes
Church tax everyone had to pay
Taille
Main French direct tax; clergy (1st estate) exempt BUT many nobles (2nd estate) also managed to avoid it!
Don gratuit
Contribution made by the church to the government as they didn’t pay taxes; paid every 5 years; 2% of total revenue
Second estate
Nobility - 200,000-400,000 members ; lived off rents of their landed estates
Noblesse de court
Heredity nobles who live in Versailles; acted as ambassadors & council
Noblesse de robe
Noble status due to venal jobs or marriage
Noblesse d’epee
Hereditary nobles living less royal life
Privileges of Second estate
Exempt from taille (found way to avoid it), from military service, from gabelle (salt tax), corvée royale (manual labour duty to king)
Gabelle
Salt tax
Corvée royale
Manual labour duty to king; usually built roads etc
Third estate
Everyone else (bourgeoisie, commoners, peasants etc (but many wanted social advancement)
Peasantry
Part of 3rd estate - 85% of population; 21 of 27 million people involved in agriculture; bound to the land under feudal dues
Taxes on the Third estate
Direct: taille, vingtieme, capitation
Indirect: gabelle, aides (on drinks), tobacco, tithe
Conscription
Corvée royale: unpaid manual labour service on king’s roads
Enlightenement
Intellectual & cultural movement which spread during 18th century; challenged tradition of absolute monarchy, church & structure of society
Key areas of Enlightenment thought
Church, Divine Right, Civil Liberty, Economic Freedom
Vingtième
Direct tax- 5% levy on all possessions (but clergy exempt)
Cost of French involvement in Seven Years War
1.3billion livres
Cost of French involvement in American Revolution
3.3billion livres
Name the 4 Controller-Generals in order w/ dates
Turgot (1774-76), Necker (1777-81), Calonne (1783-87), Brienne (1787-88) back to Necker (1788-89)
Six Edicts under Turgot
Aim to abolish privilege & instead tax all estates; met by 2 remonstrance from Paris Parlement BUT registered via lit de justice (Mar 1776)
Compte Rendu au Roi under Necker
Aka. Report to the king (1781); first ever ‘budget-system” realised to public; sold 100,000 copies in a week; v inaccurate statement as suggested France had surplus of 10million livres rather than financial deficit
May Edicts
May 1788 - KL attempt to remove Paris Parlements powers
Day of Tiles
June 1788 - Royal officials pelted with roof slates; intendantes attacked; taxes not paid
When was France declared bankrupt?
August 1788
What did 3rd estate want in Estates-General?
Double representation aka. Voting by head; this was denied by Paris Parlement who established equal representation for all estates :(
Politicisation of 3rd Estate
- Activities of The Society of Thirty (encourage 3rd to fight for rights via pamphlets & meetings
- Publication of pamphlet ‘What is the third estate?’ Sieyes (Jan 1789) arguing they represented the nation
- Poor economic sit e.g. poor harvest 1788 & rising bread prices & unemployment
- France increasingly secular e.g. (giving Church 1/3rd of vote was unfair!)
- Cahiers de doleances = documented grievances encouraged people to focus on issues
Fundamental Laws
May 1788 issued by Paris Parlement stating right to vote such fundamental taxes belong solely to Estates-General (some laws stressed couldn’t be changed even by royal demand) & consent of E-G was needed to approve Louis’ changes
