.webp)
One of the central events of the French Revolution was the abolition of feudalism, and the old rules, taxes, and privileges left over from the ancien régime.
The National Constituent Assembly, after deliberating on the night of 4 August 1789, announced, The National Assembly abolishes the feudal system entirely.
It abolished both the seigneurial rights of the Second Estate (the nobility) and the tithes gathered by the First Estate (the Catholic clergy). The old judicial system, founded on the 13 regional parlements, was suspended in November 1789 and finally abolished in 1790.
The fall of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 was followed by a mass uproar spreading from Paris to the countryside. Noble families were attacked, and many aristocratic manors were burned. Abbeys and castles were also attacked and destroyed. The season of La Grande Peur -the Great Fear- was characterised by social hysteria and anxiety over who was going to be the next victim. In many cases, the violence was begun not by homeless people or hunger-driven peasants but by settled countrymen who took this opportunity to further their own cause.
The Great Fear opened up the vulnerability of the French government -there was a lack of authority at the very center of it. The prolonged riots and massacres led to a general anxiety that things might get out of control, and they did. It was an experience that the country had never undergone before. By late July 1789, as the peasant revolt reports poured into Paris from every part of the country, the National Constituent Assembly decided to reform the social pattern of the country in order to pacify the outraged peasants and encourage them towards peace and harmony.
On 4 August the Duke of Aiguillon proposed in the Club Breton the abolition of feudal rights and the suppression of personal servitude.
On the evening of 4 August, the Viscount de Noailles proposed to abolish the privileges of the nobility to restore calm in French provinces. Members of the First Estate were at first reluctant to enter into the patriotic fervour of the night, but eventually Anne Louis Henri de La Fare (Bishop of Nancy) and the Bishop of Chartres sacrificed their titles. Guy Le Guen de Kerangal, the Viscount de Beauharnais, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph de Lubersac, and de La Fare proposed to suppress the banalités, seigneurial jurisdictions, game-laws and ecclesiastic privileges.
The discussion continued through the night of 4 August, and on the morning of 5 August the Assembly abolished the feudal system and eliminated many clerical and noble rights and privileges.
The August Decrees were 19 decrees made on 4-11 August. There were 18 decrees or articles adopted concerning the abolition of feudalism, other privileges of the nobility, and seigneurial rights.
The August Decrees were declared with the idea of calming the populace and encouraging them towards civility. However, the August Decrees were revised numerous times over the next two years. King Louis XVI, in a letter, on the one hand expressed deep satisfaction with the noble and generous demarche of the first two orders of the state who, according to him had made great sacrifices for the general reconciliation, for their patrie and for their king. On the other hand, he went on to say that though the sacrifices were fine, I cannot admire it; I will never consent to the despoliation of my clergy and my nobility... I will never give my sanction to the decrees that despoil them, for then the French people one day could accuse me of injustice or weakness. What Louis was concerned with was not with the loss of position of the French nobility and clergy, but with adequate reparation for this loss. Meanwhile, the August Decrees paved the way for the Assembly to make the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
Originally, the peasants were supposed to pay for the release of seigneurial dues; these dues affected more than a quarter of the farmland in France and provided most of the income of the large landowners. The majority refused to pay, and in 1793 the obligation was cancelled. Thus the peasants were awarded the land for free and also no longer paid the tithe to the church.
More information: Revolution
are merely the most vigorous kinds of rule,
The progress from these is in all cases the same
Herbert Spencer
No comments:
Post a Comment