The Crisis of the Nobility at the Twilight of the Monarchy*
The Crisis of the Nobility at the Twilight of the Monarchy*
The history of the French nobility has long been symptomatic with that of the Revolution, and this chapter takes a fresh look at the state of the second estate in the years preceding 1789. Confronted by the problems arising from demographic decline, the pressure of the state, and a certain internal malaise as it sought to cope with internal divisions and to make sense of its own place in the world, the French nobility could be seen as a state of crisis. With some nobles even going so far as to attack the concept of nobility itself, these divisions would have important repercussions in 1789.
Keywords: nobility, revolution, antinobilism, Parlements, American independence, Louis XVI
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