Professor Brophy
History 102

Society in the Age of Absolutism
-The 17th Century: The
Splendid Century?  The
Age of Reason?  The Age of
Famine, War, and Epidemic?
-social structures that shaped
the early  modern period

The Three Estates: Corporatist Society of Rank and Order
-the Three Estates: those who pray, fight, and work— ‘timeless and God-given’
-liberties, rights, and identity bound to rank
-hierarchy within rank: a complex society
-political representation of estates: Diets, Estates, Parlements
-royalty and corporatist society; ancient customs and right to tax
-Estates’ rights and state power

II. Population
-1620-1720, Eur. pop.:  95 to 105 million; world, 460-600 million
-extremely slow pop. growth:  high death rate outstrips high birth rate; pop. losses in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands
-famine, epidemic & war; agricultural fragility

III  Absolutism’s Military Revolution,1555-1770
-new tactics in infantry and calvary
-greater need for trained, standing army
-new scale of warfare: tenfold increase, 1550-1770
-greater impact of war on society
-amplifies authority of state

IV.  Life Expectancy, Marriage, Reproduction
-short life expectancy: avg. of 40 years
-late age in marriage for peasants; earlier for elites; avg. length of marriage: 15 years
-births in marriage: peasantry, 5-7; aristocracy, 12
-infant mortality: 1 of 3 before age 10; 1 of 2 before 20; better rates among nobility
-remarriage, 1 in 4: many stepparents

V.  Agricultural Life
-80 percent of Europe lived on the land
-predominance of three-field system (wheats, oat, fallow): ½ to one-third uncultivated
-poor average yield ratios; absolute famines
-common field system; village as integral unit
-village tied by custom & common ownership
-world-views of peasants and elites

VI. Two Predominant Forms of Peasant Servitude
1. western Europe:  land tenancy.
-leasing of lands by lords to peasants/villages for rent, dues, monopolies, privileges, and harvest
2. eastern Europe: legal serfdom.
-peasants stripped of  liberty, property, security; sold as chattel
-4-5 days of labor services for lord

VII.  Town Life
-centers of handicrafts and commerce
-medieval city charters of independence
-burghers and residents: restricted citizenship
-guilds and their privileges
-erosion of guilds’ power through merchant capitalism
-early modern urban hygiene and epidemics
-conclusions
Conclusions