11.2: Social Orders Divisions

Nobility

In most countries, the nobility maintained an almost complete monopoly of political power. The higher ranks of the clergy were drawn from noble families, so the church did not represent any kind of check or balance of power. The king was still fundamentally the first among equals, often a member of the richest and most powerful family: the royal dynasty of the kingdom.

Despite the social and political changes of the preceding centuries, European nobles continued to enjoy tremendous legal and social privileges. Nobles owned a disproportionate amount of land. In some kingdoms, such as Russia, only nobles could own land. Generally, nobles would

• serve as officers in the army, reaping the spoils of war and generous salaries in the process
• provide/receive political representation in various parliamentary bodies, with the notable caveat that cities still held privileges of their own. (For example, the parlement of Paris wielded a great deal of meaningful power in French politics)
• have their own courts, be tried by their peers, and be subjected to more humane treatment than were commoners
• pay few taxes, especially in comparison to the taxes, fees, and rents that beleaguered the peasantry

A whole system of status symbols was maintained by both law and custom. Only members of the aristocracy could wear masks at masquerade balls, lead processions in towns, and sit in special places at operas and churches. Further, nobles could wear swords during peacetime. Legal privileges and visible status symbols constantly reminded non-nobles of their inferior status.

By the 18th Century, the nobility actively cultivated learning and social grace, hearkening back to the glory days of the Renaissance courtier and bypassing the relatively uncouth period of the religious wars. As education, music, and art became fashionable in Europe, being witty, well-dressed, musically talented, and well-read became a status symbol almost as important as owning a lavish estate. Thus, the 18th Century was the height of the so-called “polite society” among the nobility: a legally-reinforced elite that fancied themselves possessed of true "good taste."

Common People

Historians classify the rural common people into two general groups: peasants in the west and serfs in the east. Landowning lords had the right to extract financial dues, fees, and rents from peasants in the west. In the east, serfs were required to perform long periods of unpaid labor on behalf of their lords. In its most extreme manifestations, serfdom was essentially the same thing as slavery. Russian estates were even sold according to the number of serfs (“souls”) they contained rather than the physical size of the plot.

Starting in the late 17th Century and culminating in the 18th, some kingdoms gradually eliminated the common lands that had been an essential economic safety net for the peasantry. The nobility reorganized agriculture along more capitalistic lines, which prompted laws of “enclosure", especially in Britain. The result was ongoing, sometimes debilitating, pressure on the peasants. Many peasant families had to sell their small plots of land to rich nobles and became landless agricultural laborers or fled to the cities in search of either work or church charity.

Peasants often fought back, especially when the nobility tried to impose new fees or tried to cut off access to the commons. In rare cases, peasants hired lawyers and took their lords to royal courts. Enormous peasant uprisings occurred in both the Austrian Empire and Russia, which succeeded in killing thousands of nobles, only to be eventually put down by brutal government suppression. Thus, the nobility was in increasing conflict with the peasantry, largely because the former was trying to extract more wealth from the latter.

Another new factor was the rise of the bourgeoisie, the non-noble urban mercantile class. The bourgeoisie became especially important in the west, yet it did not “fit” into the society of orders. Some wealthy members of the bourgeoisie blended in with and sometimes married into the nobility. Others were more distinct, celebrating a life of productive work and serious education over what they saw as the foppery and excess of the aristocracy. This latter self-conscious bourgeoisie would play an important role in the revolutions of the end of the century. The literate and urban members were also among those most keenly interested in Enlightenment ideas.