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Ancien Régime
ANCIEN RÉGIMEANCIEN RÉGIME. The term ancien régime (Old Regime) came into use in the late summer of 1789 as participants in the French Revolution realized how great a rupture they had made from the recent past. "Ancien régime" therefore came into existence only after the ancien régime was finished. No one was ever very specific about when it began. Sometimes revolutionaries implied that the term referred to the entire past of France at least from medieval times onward. At other times, it meant simply the recent pre-revolutionary past. The term itself evolved during the Revolution. According to the preamble to the Constitution of 1791, the Revolution had abolished hereditary and feudal nobility, venality of office, the guilds, monastic vows, and all privileges. The text says nothing about the monarchy, the abolition of the tithe, and the ending of the church's corporate existence, and it mentions seigneurialism only by allusion. Undoubtedly, the reason was that when the Constitution was promulgated, these issues were not entirely settled. When the monarchy was abolished and the Republic founded (September 1792), the term took on a much more aggressive meaning; republican politicians portrayed the ancien régime as uniformly oppressive and claimed that the Revolution had liberated the countryside from noble domination, clerical superstition, and a cruel monarchy. Early revolutionaries believed that they had reestablished liberty and equality before the law. For the Jacobins, escaping the ancien régime was a physical and spiritual emancipation. Historians like Alexis de Tocqueville in the nineteenth century questioned this assumption that the Revolution was a violent break in national history. Instead, said Tocqueville, it witnessed the culmination of the construction of the centralized state. For modern historians, ancien régime is a convenient shorthand. It generally means the period in French history from about 1650 to 1789. It defines a France ruled by divine-right absolute monarchy, accompanied by a society based upon privileges for individuals, groups, corporations, provinces, towns, and so on; and capped by a monopoly of public worship reserved for the Catholic Church. The new regime, by contrast, was a constitutional monarchy based upon the rule of law, religious toleration, and equality of rights. See also Divine Right Kingship ; France ; Monarchy ; Revolutions, Age of. BIBLIOGRAPHYBaker, Keith Michael, ed. The Old Regime and the French Revolution. Chicago, 1987. Doyle, William. The Old European Order, 1660–1800. 2nd ed. New York and Oxford, 1992. Tocqueville, Alexis de. The Old Regime and the French Revolution. Translated by Stuart Gilbert. Garden City, N.Y., 1955. Donald Sutherland |
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SUTHERLAND, DONALD. "Ancien Régime." Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. SUTHERLAND, DONALD. "Ancien Régime." Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404900037.html SUTHERLAND, DONALD. "Ancien Régime." Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. 2004. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404900037.html |
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ancien régime
ancien régime The political and administrative systems in France in the 17th and 18th centuries under the Bourbon kings, before the FRENCH REVOLUTION; it is also applied more widely to much of the rest of Europe. The monarch had (in theory) unlimited authority, including the right to imprison individuals without trial. There was no representative assembly. Privilege, above all, was the hallmark of the ancien régime: the nobility were privileged before the law, in matters of taxation, and in the holding of high offices. The French Revolution was an uprising by the underprivileged.
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"ancien régime." A Dictionary of World History. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "ancien régime." A Dictionary of World History. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O48-ancienrgime.html "ancien régime." A Dictionary of World History. 2000. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O48-ancienrgime.html |
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ancien régime
ancien régime Term used to describe the political, legal, and social system in France before the French Revolution of 1789. It was characterized by a rigid social order, a fiscal system weighted in favour of the rich, and an absolutist monarchy.
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"ancien régime." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "ancien régime." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-ancienrgime.html "ancien régime." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-ancienrgime.html |
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Ancien Régime
Ancien Régime the political and social system in France (the ‘old rule’) before the Revolution of 1789.
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ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Ancien Régime." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Ancien Régime." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-AncienRgime.html ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Ancien Régime." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-AncienRgime.html |
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