Prior to 1789 France was ruled under the Ancien Regime social system, ancien regime means “old order”. At this time Louis XIV was in power. He ruled an Absolute Monarchy. This meant that only the king ruled the country and the first and second estate had no say. France was ruled this way from 1643 – 1715.

Frances social system was divided into three estates. The king of course was considered closest to god and beneath him was the clergy otherwise known as the first estate. The Roman Catholic Church had many privileges, for example they did not have to pay taxes. In addition, they lived handsomely off the taxes paid by the third estate. The only people in the church who did not live well were the parish priests. This is because the parish priests had made a vow to live in

To replace Colonne Marie Antoinette employed Brienne, he was a Bishop at the time. Brienne’s first act was to promote himself to Arch Bishop. Brienne was power hungry, he was employed my Marie Antoinette because Brienne wanted the same as the Aristocracy, money and power. Brienne was replace again by Necker when he failed to do nothing. King Louis tried to take control of his country, however, the first and second estate (whom made up the parliament) by now had a strong hold on the power to govern. Therefore a meeting was called, the Estates General.

It was the privilege of the aristocracy to be exempt from paying taxes, and to live in luxury. The aristocracy had become so accustomed to the privileges that they were completely against any type of reform. Ti was because of the aristocracy’s privileges that the bourgeoisie started to take action wanting a reform. The French revolution was called a bourgeoisie revolution because they were the educated of the third estate and could see what was going on political wise.

The second estate was made up of the nobility. The nobles like the clergy owned land and did not have to pay taxes. The peasants worked for the nobles by working on their land providing produce. Most of the produce would be given to the nobility instead of paying money.

Some topics in this essay:
Catholic Church, Louis XVI, King Louis, Marie Antoinette, Rousseau Montesquie, Absolute Monarchy, , Estates Estates, Colonne Brienne, America France, king louis, third estate, marie antoinette, louis xvi, american war independence, paying taxes, parish priests, pay taxes, country estate, social system, ancien regime,