Ancien Régime

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Louis XIV, la "Sun King"

The Ancien Régime (/ˌɒ̃sjæ̃ rˈʒm/; French: [ɑ̃.sjɛ̃ ʁeʒim]; French for "old regime") was the political and social system of the Kingdom of France from the Late Middle Ages (c. 15th century) until 1792, when hereditary monarchy and the feudal system of French nobility were abolished by the French Revolution.[1] The Ancien Régime was ruled by the late Valois and Bourbon dynasties. The term is occasionally used to refer to the similar feudal systems of the time elsewhere in Europe. The administrative and social structures of the Ancien Régime were the result of years of state-building, legislative acts (like the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts), internal conflicts and civil wars, but they remained a patchwork of local privilege and historic differences until the French Revolution ended the system.


The need for centralization in this period 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 Huguenot Wars between Catholics and Protestants and the Habsburg's internal family conflict) and the territorial expansion of France in the 17th century demanded great sums which needed to be raised through taxes, such as the land tax (taille) and the tax on salt (gabelle) and by contributions of men and service from the nobility.

One key to this centralization was the replacing of personal patronage systems organized around the king and other nobles by institutional systems around the state.[2] The creation of intendants - representatives of royal power in the provinces - did much to undermine local control by regional nobles. The same was true of the greater reliance shown by the royal court on the "noblesse de robe" as judges and royal counselors. The creation of regional parlements 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.


The term in French means "old regime" or "former regime". However, most English language books use the French term Ancien Régime. The term first appeared in print in English in 1794, and was originally pejorative in nature: Simon Schama has observed: "virtually as soon as the term was coined, 'old regime' was automatically freighted with associations of both traditionalism and senescence. It conjured up a society so encrusted with anachronisms that only a shock of great violence could free the living organism within. Institutionally torpid, economically immobile, culturally atrophied and socially stratified, this 'old regime' was incapable of self-modernization."[3]


Foreign policy

Nine Years War: 1688-1697

The Nine Years' War (1688-97) was a major conflict between France and a European-wide coalition of Austria and the Holy Roman Empire, the Dutch Republic, Spain, Britain, and Savoy. It was fought on the European continent and the surrounding seas, Ireland, North America and in India. It was the first truly global war.[4]

Louis XIV had emerged from the Franco-Dutch War in 1678 as the most powerful monarch in Europe, an absolute ruler who had won numerous military victories. Using a combination of aggression, annexation, and quasi-legal means, Louis XIV set about extending his gains to stabilize and strengthen France's frontiers, culminating in the brief War of the Reunions (1683-84). The resulting Truce of Ratisbon guaranteed France's new borders for twenty years, but Louis XIV's subsequent actions - notably his revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 - led to the deterioration of his military and political dominance. Louis XIV's decision to cross the Rhine in September 1688 was designed to extend his influence and pressure the Holy Roman Empire into accepting his territorial and dynastic claims. But when Leopold I and the German princes resolved to resist, and when the States General and William III brought the Dutch and the English into the war against France, the French King at last faced a powerful coalition aimed at curtailing his ambitions.


The War of the Spanish Succession: 1702-1714

Spain had a number of major assets, apart from its homeland itself. It controlled important territory in Europe and the New World. Spain's American colonies produced enormous quantities of silver, which were brought to Spain every few years in convoys. Spain had many weaknesses as well. Its domestic economy, possessing was little business, industry, or advanced craftsmanship, was poor. It had to import practically all its weapons. Spain had a large army but it was poorly trained and poorly equipped. It had a surprisingly small navy, for seamanship was a low priority among the Spanish elites. Local and regional governments, and the local nobility, controlled most of the decision-making. The central government was quite weak, with a mediocre bureaucracy, and few able leaders. King Charles II reigned 1665 to 1700, but he was in very poor physical and mental health.[5]

As King Charles II had no children, the question of who would succeed to the Spanish throne unleashed a major war. The Vienna-based Habsburg family, of which Charles II was a member, proposed its own candidate for the throne.[6] However the Bourbons, the ruling family of France, instinctively opposed expansions of Habsburg power within Europe and also had a candidate: Philip, the grandson of powerful King Louis XIV. Spain's silver, and its inability to protect its assets, made it a highly visible target for ambitious Europeans. For generations, Englishmen had contemplated capturing the Spanish treasure fleet, a feat that had only been accomplished once, in 1628, by the Dutch. English mariners nevertheless seriously pursued the opportunities for plunder and trade in Spain's colonies.[7]

As he neared his death, Charles II bequeathed his throne to the Bourbon candidate, the future Philip V of Spain. His grandfather, Louis XIV, eagerly endorsed the choice and made unilateral, aggressive moves to safeguard the viability of his family's new possessions, such as moving the French army into the Spanish Netherlands, and securing exclusive trading rights for the French in Spanish America[8]. However, a coalition of enemies, opposed to this rapid expansion of French power, quickly formed, and a major European war broke out 1701-1714.[9] From the perspective of France's enemies, the notion of France gaining enormous strength by taking over Spain and all its European and overseas possessions was anathema. Furthermore, the prospect of dividing up Spanish holdings, especially its vast colonial possessions in the New World, prove very attractive. France's enemies formed a Grand Alliance, led by the Holy Roman Empire's Leopold I. It included Prussia and most of the other German states, The Netherlands, Portugal, Savoy (in Italy) and--most significantly--England. The opposing alliance, for its part, consisted primarily of France and Spain, but also included a few smaller German princes and dukes in Italy. Extensive, back-and-forth fighting took place in the Netherlands. However, the dimensions of the war once again changed when both Emperor Leopold and his son and successor, Joseph, died, leaving his brother Charles as both the Alliance candidate for king of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor.[10] Given that such a union between Spain and the Holy Roman Empire would, in the eyes of Charles VI's allies, be too powerful, most of the allies quickly concluded a separate peace with France. After another year of fruitless campaigning, Charles VI would do the same, abandoning his desire to become the king of Spain. The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 resolved all of the issues. France gave up Newfoundland and Nova Scotia ( in modern-day Canada). Louis' grandson became Philip V, king of Spain, and kept all its overseas colonies, but renounced any rights to the French throne. Spain lost its European holdings outside the homeland itself [11]. The former members of the alliance, too, profited from the war; the United Provinces had maintained its independence in the face of French aggression; the Habsburgs had picked up territory north of Austria and in Italy, including the erstwhile Spanish Netherlands and Naples; but the greatest beneficiary of the war was Britain, which, in addition to extensive extra-European territorial gains made at the expense of Spain and France, also established further checks to French expansion within the continent by moderately strengthening its European allies. [12]

Peaceful interlude: 1715-1740

The quarter century after the Treaty of Utrecht was a peaceful, with no major wars, and only a few secondary military episodes of minor importance. The main powers had exhausted themselves in warfare, with many deaths, disabled veterans, ruined navies, high pension costs, heavy loans and high taxes. In 1683 indirect taxes had brought in 118,000,000 livres; by 1714 they had plunged to only 46,000,000.[13] Louis XIV, with his eagerness for warfare, was gone, replaced by a small sickly child who was the last Bourbon survivor, and his death had the potential to throw France into another round of warfare. He was Louis XV and he lived until the 1770s. France's main foreign policy decision-maker was Cardinal Fleury. He recognized that France needed to rebuild, so he pursued a peace policy. France had a poorly designed taxation system, whereby tax farmers kept much of the money, and the treasury was always short. The banking system in Paris was undeveloped, and the treasury was forced to borrow at very high interest rates. London's financial system proved strikingly competent in funding not only the English forces, but its allies as well. Queen Anne was dead, and her re-successor King George I was a Hanoverian who moved his court to London, but never learned English and surrounded himself with German advisors. They spent much of their time and most of their attention on Hanoverian affairs. He too was threatened by instability of the throne, for the Stuart pretenders, long supported by King Louis XIV, threatened repeatedly to invade through Ireland or Scotland, and had significant internal support from the Tory faction. However Sir Robert Walpole was the dominant decision-maker, 1822-1840, although the role was not yet called prime minister. Walpole strongly rejected militaristic options, and promoted a peace program. He and Cardinal Fleury agreed, and signed an alliance. The Netherlands was much reduced in power, and followed along with England. In Vienna, Austria (formally the Holy Roman Empire) the Habsburg emperors were bickering with the new Bourbon King of France, Philip V, over Habsburg control of most of Italy. Relations with France therefore were undramatic.[14][15]

Provinces and administrative divisions

Territorial expansion

French territorial expansion from 1552-1798.


In addition, certain provinces within France were ostensibly personal fiefs of noble families (like the Bourbonnais, Marche, Forez and Auvergne provinces held by the House of Bourbon until the provinces were forcibly integrated into the royal domain in 1527 after the fall of Charles III, Duke of Bourbon).

From the late fifteenth century up to the late seventeenth century (and again in the 1760s), France underwent a massive territorial expansion and an attempt to better integrate its provinces into an administrative whole.

French acquisitions from 1461-1768:





The representative of the king in his provinces and cities was the gouverneur. Royal officers chosen from the highest nobility, provincial and city governors (oversight of provinces and cities was frequently combined) were predominantly military positions in charge of defense and policing. Provincial governors - also called "lieutenants généraux" - also had the ability of convoking provincial parlements, provincial estates and municipal bodies.



  1. Île-de-France (Paris)
  2. Berry (Bourges)
  3. Orléanais (Orléans)
  4. Normandy (Rouen)
  5. Languedoc (Toulouse)
  6. Lyonnais (Lyon)
  7. Dauphiné (Grenoble)
  8. Champagne (Troyes)
  9. Aunis (La Rochelle)
  10. Saintonge (Saintes)
  11. Poitou (Poitiers)
  12. Guyenne and Gascony (Bordeaux)
  13. Burgundy (Dijon)
  14. Picardy (Amiens)
  15. Anjou (Angers)
  16. Provence (Aix-en-Provence)
  17. Angoumois (Angoulême)
  18. Bourbonnais (Moulins)
  19. Marche (Guéret)
  20. Brittany (Rennes, parl. briefly at Nantes)
  21. Maine (Le Mans)
  22. Touraine (Tours)
  23. Limousin (Limoges)
  1. Foix (Foix)
  2. Auvergne (Clermont-Ferrand)
  3. Béarn (Pau)
  5. Artois (cons provinc. in Arras)
  6. Roussillon (cons. souv. in Perpignan)
  8. Franche-Comté (Besançon, formerly at Dole)
  9. Lorraine (Nancy)
  11. Nivernais (Nevers)
  12. Comtat Venaissin (Avignon), a Papal fief
  13. Imperial Free City of Mulhouse
  14. Savoy, a Sardinian fief (parl. in Chambéry 1537-59)
  15. Nice, a Sardinian fief
  16. Montbéliard, a fief of Württemberg
  18. (not indicated) Dombes (Trévoux)
  20. (not indicated) Soule (Mauléon)
  21. (not indicated) Bigorre (Tarbes)
  22. (not indicated) Beaujolais (Beaujeu)
  23. (not indicated) Bresse (Bourg)
Provinces of France


  1. Généralité of Bordeaux, (Agen, Guyenne)
  3. Généralité of Amiens (Picardy)
  4. Généralité of Bourges (Berry)
  5. Généralité of Caen (Normandy)
  6. Généralité of Châlons (Champagne)
  7. Généralité of Burgundy, Dijon (Burgundy)
  8. Généralité of Grenoble (Dauphiné)
  9. Généralité of Issoire, later of Riom (Auvergne)
  10. Généralité of Lyon (Lyonnais, Beaujolais and Forez)
  11. Généralité of Montpellier (Languedoc)
  12. Généralité of Paris (Île-de-France)
  13. Généralité of Poitiers (Poitou)
  14. Généralité of Rouen (Normandy)
  15. Généralité of Toulouse (Languedoc)
  16. Généralité of Tours (Touraine, Maine and Anjou)
  1. Généralité of Metz (Trois-Évêchés)
  2. Généralité of Nantes (Brittany)
  3. Généralité of Limoges (divided in two parts: Angoumois & Limousin - Marche)
  4. Généralité of Orléans (Orléanais)
  5. Généralité of Moulins (Bourbonnais)
  6. Généralité of Soissons (Picardy)
  7. Généralité of Montauban (Gascony)
  8. Généralité of Alençon (Perche)
  9. Généralité of Perpignan (Roussillon)
  10. Généralité of Besançon (Franche-Comté)
  11. Généralité of Valenciennes (Hainaut)
  12. Généralité of Strasbourg (Alsace)
  13. (see 18)
  14. Généralité of Lille (Flanders)
  15. Généralité of La Rochelle (Aunis and Saintonge)
  16. Généralité of Nancy (Lorraine)
  17. Généralité of Trévoux (Dombes)
  18. Généralité of Corsica, or Bastia (Corsica)
  19. Généralité of Auch (Gascony)
  20. Généralité of Bayonne (Labourd)
  21. Généralité of Pau (Béarn and Soule)
Généralités in 1789.jpeg

State finances




Taxation history


Together they were the Messieurs des finances. The four members of each board were divided by geographical circumscriptions (although the term généralité isn't found before the end of the 15th century). The areas were named Languedoïl, Languedoc, Outre-Seine-and-Yonne, and Nomandy (the latter was created in 1449; the other three were created earlier), with the directors of the "Languedoïl" region typically having an honorific preeminence. By 1484, the number of généralités had increased to 6.

In the 16th century, the kings of France, in an effort to exert more direct control over royal finances and to circumvent the double-board (accused of poor oversight) - instituted numerous administrative reforms, including the restructuring of the financial administration and an increase in the number of "généralités". In 1542, Henry II, [Francis was still king in 1542]France was divided into 16 "généralités". The number increased to 21 at the end of the 16th century, and to 36 at the time of the French Revolution; the last two were created in 1784.





Fees for holding state positions





Until 1661, the head of the financial system in France was generally the surintendant des finances. In that year, the surintendant Nicolas Fouquet fell from power and the position was replaced by the less powerful contrôleur général des finances.


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 seigneurial dues and duties, and small affairs of local justice. Only certain seigneurs - those with the power of haute justice (seigneurial justice was divided into "high" "middle" and "low" justice) - could enact the death penalty, and only with the consent of the présidiaux.



  • prévôtés supervised by a prévôt;



The most important of these royal tribunals was the prévôté[18] and présidial of Paris, the Châtelet, which was overseen by the prévôt of Paris, civil and criminal lieutenants, and a royal officer in charge of maintaining public order in the capital, the Lieutenant General of Police of Paris.

Superior courts


The head of the judicial system in France was the chancellor.


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.

King's counsel




Governmental Councils:

  • Conseil d'en haut ("High Council", concerning the most important matters of state) - composed of the king, the crown prince (the "dauphin"), the chancellor, the contrôleur général des finances, and the secretary of state in charge of foreign affairs.
  • Conseil des dépêches ("Council of Messages", concerning notices and administrative reports from the provinces) - composed of the king, the chancellor, the secretaries of state, the contrôleur général des finances, and other councillors according to the issues discussed.
  • Conseil de Conscience

Financial Councils:

  • Conseil royal des finances ("Royal Council of Finances") - composed of the king, the "chef du conseil des finances" (an honorary post), the chancellor, the contrôleur général des finances and two of his consellors, and the intendants of finance.
  • Conseil royal de commerce

Judicial and Administrative Councils:

  • Conseil d'État et des Finances or Conseil ordinaire des Finances - by the late 17th century, its functions were largely taken over by the three following sections.
  • Grande Direction des Finances
  • Petite Direction des Finances



17th-century state positions





The Church

Dioceses of France in 1789.













Louis XIV supported the Gallican because that gave the government a greater role than the pope in choosing bishops, and gave the government the revenues when a bishopric was vacant. There would be no inquisition in France, and papal decrees could operate only after the government approved them. Louis avoided schism - he wanted more royal power over the French Church but did not want to break free of Rome. The pope likewise recognized the "most Christian king" was a powerful ally who could not be alienated.[22]





Reformation and the Protestant minority









By the 1780s, Protestants comprised about 700,000 people, or 2% of the population. Theirs was no longer a favorite religion of the elite; most Protestants were peasants. To be a Protestant was still illegal. Although the law was seldom enforced it could be a threat or a nuisance to Protestants. Calvinists lived primarily in the Midi; about 200,000 Lutherans lived in Alsace, where the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia still protected them.[25]




In 1789, the Ancien Régime was violently overthrown by the French Revolution. Although France in 1785 faced economic difficulties, mostly concerning the equitability of taxation, it was one of the richest and most powerful nations of Europe.[27] The French people also enjoyed more political freedom and a lower incidence of arbitrary punishment than many of their fellow Europeans.


Historians explain the sudden collapse of the Ancien Régime as stemming in part from its rigidity. Aristocrats were confronted by the rising ambitions of merchants, tradesmen, and prosperous farmers, who were allied with aggrieved peasants, wage-earners, and intellectuals influenced by the ideas of Enlightenment philosophers. As the revolution proceeded, power devolved from the monarchy and the privileged-by-birth to more-representative political bodies, like legislative assemblies, but conflicts among the formerly allied republican groups became the source of considerable discord and bloodshed.








  1. ^ "Ancien Regime", Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World, The Gale Group Inc., 2004, retrieved 26 February 2017 - via
  2. ^ Major 1994, pp. xx-xxi
  4. ^ John B. Wolf, The Emergence of the Great Powers: 1685-1715 (1951) pp 15-53.
  5. ^ Cathal J. Nolan, Wars of the Age of Louis XIV, 1650-1715 (2008) pp 71, 444-45..
  6. ^ Wolf, The Emergence of the Great Powers: 1685-1715 (1951), pp 59-91.
  7. ^ Shinsuke Satsuma (2013). Britain and Colonial Maritime War in the Early Eighteenth Century: Silver, Seapower and the Atlantic. pp. 1-2.
  8. ^ Kennedy, P. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000. Hyman, 1988.
  9. ^ Henry Kamen, The War of Succession in Spain, 1700-15 (1969).
  10. ^ James Falkner, The War of the Spanish Succession 1701 - 1714 (2015) excerpt
  11. ^ John Lynch, Bourbon Spain 1700-1808 (1989)
  13. ^ William Stearns Davis (1919). A History of France from the Earliest Times to the Treaty of Versailles. p. 193.
  14. ^ Penfield Roberts, The Quest for Security: 1715 - 1740 (1947), pp 1-20
  15. ^ David Ogg, Europe of the Ancien Régime: 1715-1783 (1965), pp 128-50
  17. ^ a b Salmon 1975, p. 77
  19. ^ Salmon 1975, p. 67
  20. ^ a b Bély 1994, p. 50
  21. ^ Viguerie 1995, p. 280
  22. ^ John Wolf, Louis XIV, 388-92
  24. ^ a b c John Wolf, Louis XIV, ch 24; Bertrand Van Ruymbeke, "Escape from Babylon." Christian History 2001 20(3): 38-42. ISSN 0891-9666 Fulltext: Ebsco
  27. ^ Norman Gash, Reflections on the revolution - French Revolution, National Review, July 14, 1790: "Yet in 1789 France was the largest, wealthiest, and most powerful state in Western Europe."[verification needed]

Further reading

  • Behrens, C.B.A. Ancien Regime (1989)
  • Brockliss, Laurence and Colin Jones. The Medical World of Early Modern France (1997) 984pp; highly detailed survey, 1600-1790s excerpt and text search
  • Lindsay, J.O. ed. The New Cambridge Modern History, Vol. 7: The Old Regime, 1713-1763 (1957) online
  • Riley, James C. "French Finances, 1727-1768," Journal of Modern History (1987) 59#2 pp. 209-243 in JSTOR




In French

  • Bély, Lucien (1994). La France moderne: 1498-1789. Collection: Premier Cycle (in French). Paris: PUF. ISBN 2-13-047406-3.
  • Viguerie, Jean de (1995). Histoire et dictionnaire du temps des Lumières 1715-1789. Collection: Bouquins (in French). Paris: Laffont. ISBN 2-221-04810-5.
Preceded by
Hundred Years War
French history
Succeeded by
Revolutionary Period
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