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93-474: The Sansculottides, named after the sans-culottes , append the twelve, 30-day months of the Republican Calendar with five complementary days in a common year or six complementary days in a leap year , so that the calendar year would approximately match the tropical year . They follow the last day of Fructidor , the last month of the year, and precede the first day of Vendémiaire . Each of

186-503: A military nobility until 1750. The immemorial nobility (also called noblesse de race or noblesse d'extraction ) includes the families recognized for having always lived nobly and never ennobled. Genealogists sometimes make the following distinctions: The ennobled families includes the families ennobled by an office or by letters patent from the King. Different principles of ennoblement can be distinguished: Depending on

279-653: A name, after a request to the Department of Justice. The idea of what it meant to be noble went through a radical transformation from the 16th to the 17th centuries. Through contact with the Italian Renaissance and their concept of the perfect courtier ( Baldassare Castiglione ), the rude warrior class was remodeled into what the 17th century would come to call l'honnête homme ('the honest or upright man'), among whose chief virtues were eloquent speech, skill at dance, refinement of manners, appreciation of

372-507: A new knightly order in 1802, the Légion d'honneur , which still exists but is no longer hereditary. He decreed that after three generations of legionaries created knights by letters patent, they would receive hereditary nobility, but a small number of French families meet the requirement and the decree was abrogated and no longer applied. From 1814 to 1848 ( Bourbon Restoration and July Monarchy ) and from 1852 to 1870 ( Second French Empire )

465-400: A noble lifestyle on seigneurial taxes), these rural nobles ( hobereaux ) often went into debt. A strict etiquette was imposed: a word or glance from the king could make or destroy a career. At the same time, the relocation of the court to Versailles was also a brilliant political move by Louis. By distracting the nobles with court life and the daily intrigue that came with it, he neutralized

558-661: A particle are non-noble and a few authentic "extraction" nobles are without any particle at all. Noble hierarchies were further complicated by the creation of chivalric orders – the Chevaliers du Saint-Esprit (Knights of the Holy Spirit) created by Henry III in 1578; the Ordre de Saint-Michel created by Louis XI in 1469; the Order of Saint Louis created by Louis XIV in 1696 – by official posts, and by positions in

651-524: A powerful threat to his authority and removed the largest obstacle to his ambition to centralize power in France. Much of the power of nobles in these periods of unrest comes from their "clientèle system". Like the king, nobles granted the use of fiefs, and gave gifts and other forms of patronage to other nobles to develop a vast system of noble clients. Lesser families would send their children to be squires and members of these noble houses, and to learn in them

744-507: A sort of proto-proletariat that played a central role in the French Revolution. That view has been sharply attacked by scholars who say the sans-culottes were not a class at all. Indeed, as one historian points out, Soboul's concept has not been used by scholars in any other period of French history. The term "culottes" in more recent French describes women's underpants, an article of clothing that has little or no relation to

837-494: A special tax ( franc-fief ) on the property to the noble liege-lord. Henry IV began to enforce the law against usurpation of nobility, and in 1666–1674 Louis XIV mandated a massive program of verification. Oral testimony maintaining that parents and grandparents had been born noble and lived as such were no longer accepted: written proofs (marriage contracts, land documents) proving noble rank since 1560 were required to substantiate noble status. Many families were put back on

930-460: A total population of 28 million, this would represent merely 0.5%. Historian Gordon Wright gives a figure of 300,000 nobles (of which 80,000 were from the traditional noblesse d'épée , lit.   ' nobility of the sword ' ), which agrees with the estimation of historian Jean de Viguerie, or a little over 1%. At the time of the Revolution, noble estates comprised about one-fifth of

1023-527: A trial was not necessary, and won with a slim majority. Louis XVI was executed on January 21, 1793. The demands of the sans-culottes did not stop with the execution of the King, and the Montagnards worked hard to fulfil their mounting orders. This increased pressure from the radical masses exacerbated the ideological split between the Montagnards and the Girondins, and tensions began to grow within

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1116-630: A very strong Girondin majority, was set up to investigate the anarchy in the communes and the activities of the sans-culottes . On 28 May, the Paris Commune accepted the creation of a sans-culottes army to enforce revolutionary laws. Petitioners from the sections and the Commune appeared at the bar of the Convention at about five o'clock in the afternoon on 31 May. They demanded that a domestic revolutionary army should be raised and that

1209-602: Is to say, without intermediaries such as members of parliament. Though ill-clad and ill-equipped, with little or no support from the middle and upper classes, they made up the bulk of the Revolutionary army and were responsible for many executions during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars . The most fundamental political ideals of the sans-culottes were social equality , economic equality , and popular democracy . They supported

1302-707: Is worn on the little finger of either the right or left hand, depending on the country); French women, however, wore it on their left little finger. Daughters sometimes wore the signet ring of their mother if the father lacked a coat of arms, but a son would not. Originally, its purpose was practical and was worn by nobles and officials in the Middle Ages to press down and seal the hot wax with their coat of arms for identification on official letters , but this function became degraded over time as more non-nobles wore them for perceived status. The chevalière may either be worn facing up ( en baise-main ) or facing toward

1395-710: The sans-culottes a necessary group in implementing the Terror. The popular image of the sans-culotte has gained currency as an enduring symbol for the passion, idealism and patriotism of the common man of the French Revolution . The term sans-culottism , sans-culottisme in French, refers to this idealized image and the themes associated with it. Many public figures and revolutionaries who were not strictly working class styled themselves citoyens sans-culottes in solidarity and recognition. However, in

1488-531: The sans-culottes again invaded the convention. They demanded tougher measures against rising prices and the setting up of a system of terror to root out the counter-revolution. The sans-culottes took an especially active interest in the revolutionary army. A " sans-culotte army" (in a sense, Robespierre's brain-child ) was formed in Paris. Barère voiced the Committee of Public Safety's support for

1581-583: The sans-culottes in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine , was appointed provisional president of the Insurrectionary Commune. In Spring 1793, after the defection of Dumouriez , Robespierre urged the creation of a " sans-culotte army" to sweep away any conspirator. On 1 May, the crowds threatened armed insurrection if the emergency measures demanded (price control) were not adopted. On 8 and 12 May Robespierre repeated in

1674-492: The sans-culottes were a "shapeless, mostly urban movement of the labouring poor, small craftsmen, shopkeepers, artisans, tiny entrepreneurs and the like". He further notes they were organised notably in the local political clubs of Paris and "provided the main striking-force of the revolution". Hobsbawm writes that these were the actual demonstrators, rioters and constructors of the street barricades . However, Hobsbawm maintains, sans-culottism provided no real alternative to

1767-688: The Cordeliers club. The Hébertists hoped that the National Convention would expel Robespierre and his Montagnard supporters. The sans-culottes did not respond, and Hanriot refused to cooperate. On 13 March Hébert, the voice of the sans-culottes , had been using the latest issue of Le Père Duchesne to criticise Robespierre. On 18 March Bourdon attacked the Commune and the sans-culottes army. Jacques Hébert , Ronsin , Vincent , Momoro , Clootz , De Kock were arrested on charges of complicity with foreign powers ( William Pitt

1860-607: The First Empire the Emperor Napoléon bestowed titles that were recognized as a new nobility by the Charter of 4 June 1814 granted by King Louis XVIII of France . From 1814 to 1848 ( Bourbon Restoration in France and July Monarchy ) and from 1852 to 1870 ( Second French Empire ) the French nobility was restored as a hereditary distinction without any privileges and new hereditary titles were granted. Since

1953-584: The French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the Ancien Régime . The word sans-culotte , which is opposed to " aristocrat ", seems to have been used for the first time on 28 February 1791 by Jean-Bernard Gauthier de Murnan in a derogatory sense, speaking about a " sans-culottes army". The word came into vogue during the demonstration of 20 June 1792 . The name sans-culottes refers to their clothing, and through that to their lower-class status: culottes were

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2046-529: The Montagnards expressed concern for the working classes of France. When the National Convention met to discuss the fate of the former king Louis XVI in 1792, the sans-culottes vehemently opposed a proper trial , instead opting for an immediate execution . The moderate Girondin faction voted for a trial, but the radical Montagnards sided with the sans-culottes , deeming that

2139-424: The decree of 5 October 1793 ( le 14 du 1er mois de l'an II ; later: le 14 Vendémiaire de l'an II ) by the National Convention , the days following the last month of the year were named jours complémentaires and numbered serially. Only the leap day ( jour intercalaire ) received a name: The other days, decades, and months were also serially numbered. On 24 October ( le 3 du 2e mois ; later: le 3 Brumaire ) of

2232-453: The ennobled families . Sources differ about the actual number of French families of noble origin, but agree that it was proportionally among the smallest noble classes in Europe. For the year 1789, French historian François Bluche gives a figure of 140,000 nobles (9,000 noble families) and states that about 5% of nobles could claim descent from feudal nobility before the 15th century. With

2325-497: The provinces . The Montagnards were left in control of the Convention, which itself was clearly at the mercy of whoever could command the armed sans-culottes battalions." Now, whoever was in control of France's destiny had to answer to the sans-culottes , who "effectively exercised legislative power" in situations of unrest. Otherwise, they would risk a similar uprising and their own exile, or possibly even execution. This political shift towards radicalism would soon turn into

2418-469: The right to strike . Following the king's veto of the Assembly's efforts to raise a militia of volunteers, the reinstatement of Brissotin ministers and suppression of non-juring priests , the monarchy faced an abortive Demonstration of 20 June 1792 . Sergent-Marceau and Panis  [ fr ] , the administrators of police, urged the sans-culottes to lay down their weapons, telling them it

2511-440: The 16th century the signet ring ( chevalière ) bearing a coat of arms was not a sign or proof of nobility, as many bourgeois families were allowed to register their arms, and they often wore them as a pretense of nobility. However, all noble families did have a registered coat of arms. The ring was traditionally worn by Frenchmen on the ring finger of their left hand, contrary to usage in most other European countries (where it

2604-489: The Assembly on 26 August 1789, but the abolition of nobility did not occur at that time. The Declaration declared in its first article that "Men are born free and equal in rights; social distinctions may be based only upon general usefulness." It was not until 19 June 1790, that hereditary titles of nobility were abolished. The notions of equality and fraternity won over some nobles such as the Marquis de Lafayette who supported

2697-606: The French nobility was restored as an hereditary distinction without privileges, and new hereditary titles were granted. Nobility and titles of nobility were abolished in 1848 during the French Revolution of 1848 , but hereditary titles were restored in 1852 by decree of the emperor Napoleon III . Since the French Third Republic on 4 September 1870 the French nobility is no longer recognized and has no legal existence and status. The former regularly transmitted authentic titles can however be recognized as part of

2790-479: The French royal court to Versailles in the 1680s, Louis XIV further modified the role of the nobles. Versailles became a gilded cage: to leave spelled disaster for a noble, for all official charges and appointments were made there. Provincial nobles who refused to join the Versailles system were locked out of important positions in the military or state offices, and lacking royal subsidies (and unable to keep up

2883-488: The Jacobin club the necessity of founding a revolutionary army consisting of sans-culottes , paid by a tax on the rich, to beat the aristocrats inside France and the convention. Every public square should be used to produce arms and pikes. On 18 May, Marguerite-Élie Guadet proposed to examine the "exactions" and to replace municipal authorities. As rioting persisted, a commission of inquiry of twelve members , with

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2976-465: The National Guard and restrict its membership to active citizens , largely property owners. He demanded the reconstitution of the army on a democratic basis to allow passive citizens . He felt that the army had to become the instrument of defence of the Revolution and no longer be a threat to it. On 28 April, despite Robespierre's intensive campaign, the principle of an armed bourgeois militia

3069-492: The Provinces. The rank of noble was forfeitable: certain activities could cause dérogeance (loss of nobility), within certain limits and exceptions. Most commercial and manual activities, such as tilling land, were strictly prohibited, although nobles could profit from their lands by operating mines , glassworks and forges . A nobleman could emancipate a male heir early, and take on derogatory activities without losing

3162-523: The Reign of Terror. The mass violence of the sans-culottes created a lasting impact during the Reign of Terror . These revolutionaries allied themselves most readily with those in power who promised radical change. The sans-culottes believed in a complete upheaval of the government, pushing for the execution of any that were considered corrupt by the leaders, even going as far as wanting "the enemies of

3255-660: The Royal House (the Great Officers of the Crown of France ), such as grand maître de la garde-robe ('grand master of the wardrobe', the royal dresser) or grand panetier (royal bread server), which had long ceased to be actual functions and had become nominal and formal positions with their own privileges. The 17th and 18th centuries saw nobles and the noblesse de robe compete with each other for these positions and any other signs of royal favor. In France, by

3348-541: The Sansculottides were assigned as one of the ten days of the week . Even though the five or six days were less than a full week, the following 1 Vendémiaire would still be a primidi , skipping four or five days of the week. The Sansculottides belong to the summer quarter. They begin on 17 or 18 September and approximately the end on the autumn equinox , on 22 or 23 September on the Gregorian calendar . In

3441-479: The Year III (1795) and substituted the name jours complémentaires ("additional days"). According to Sally Waller, part of the sans-culottes mantra was "permanent anticipation of betrayal and treachery". The members of the sans-culottes were constantly on edge and fearing betrayal, which can be attributed to their violent and radical rebellion tactics. Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm observes that

3534-610: The Younger ) and guillotined on 24 March. On 27 March the infantry and cavalry of the revolutionary army, for eight months active in Paris and surroundings, were finally disbanded, except their artillery. (Hanriot was denounced by the Revolutionary Tribunal as an accomplice of Hébert, but seems to have been protected by Robespierre.) The working class was especially hurt by a hail storm which damaged grain crops in 1788, which caused bread prices to skyrocket. While

3627-443: The abolition of all the authority and privileges of the monarchy , nobility, and Roman Catholic clergy , the establishment of fixed wages, the implementation of price controls to ensure affordable food and other essentials, and vigilance against counter-revolutionaries . The sans-culottes ... campaigned for a more democratic constitution, price controls, harsh laws against political enemies, and economic legislation to assist

3720-429: The abolition of legal recognition of nobility, but other liberal nobles who had happily sacrificed their fiscal privileges saw this as an attack on the culture of honor. From 1808 to 1815 during the First Empire the Emperor Napoléon bestowed titles, which the ensuing Bourbon Restoration acknowledged as a new nobility by the Charter of 4 June 1814 granted by King Louis XVIII of France . Napoleon also established

3813-459: The arts of court society and arms. The elaboration of the ancien régime state was made possible only by redirecting these clientèle systems to a new focal point (the king and the state), and by creating countervailing powers (the bourgeoisie, the noblesse de robe ). By the late 17th century, any act of explicit or implicit protest was treated as a form of lèse-majesté and harshly repressed. Economic studies of nobility in France at

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3906-465: The arts, intellectual curiosity, wit, a spiritual or platonic attitude in love, and the ability to write poetry. Most notable of noble values are the aristocratic obsession with glory ( la gloire ) and majesty ( la grandeur ) and the spectacle of power, prestige, and luxury. For example, Pierre Corneille 's noble heroes have been criticised by modern readers who have seen their actions as vainglorious, criminal, or hubristic; aristocratic spectators of

3999-474: The arts. Conversely, social parvenus who took on the external trappings of the noble classes (such as the wearing of a sword) were severely criticised, sometimes by legal action; laws on sumptuous clothing worn by the bourgeois existed since the Middle Ages . Traditional aristocratic values began to be criticised in the mid-17th century: Blaise Pascal , for example, offered a ferocious analysis of

4092-681: The beginning of the French Revolution , on 4 August 1789, the dozens of small dues that a commoner had to pay to the lord, such as the banalités of manorialism , were abolished by the National Constituent Assembly ; noble lands were stripped of their special status as fiefs; the nobility were subjected to the same taxation as their co-nationals, and lost their privileges (the hunt, seigneurial justice, funeral honors). The nobles were, however, allowed to retain their titles. This did not happen immediately. Decrees of application had to be drafted, signed, promulgated and published in

4185-402: The beginning of the French Third Republic on 4 September 1870 the French nobility has no legal existence and status. However, the former authentic titles transmitted regularly can be recognized as part of the name after a request to the Department of Justice. Families of the French nobility could have two origins as to their principle of nobility: the families of immemorial nobility and

4278-466: The bourgeois radicalism of the Jacobins ; from Hobsbawm's Marxist perspective, the ideal of the sans-culottes , which sought to express the interests of the "little men" who existed between the poles of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat , was contradictory and ultimately unrealizable. The Marxist historian Albert Soboul emphasized the importance of the sans-culottes as a social class,

4371-435: The calendar for 1799 simply names the bethagail-egunak as bethagail-legun , bethagail-bigun ,... ("complementary primidi ", "complementary duodi ",...). Sans-culottes The sans-culottes ( French: [sɑ̃kylɔt] ; lit.   ' without breeches ' ) were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France , a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of

4464-525: The carrying out of executions against perceived enemies of the revolution. During the peak of their influence, the sans-culottes were seen as the truest and most authentic sons of the French Revolution, held up as living representations of the revolutionary spirit. During the height of revolutionary fervor, such as during the Reign of Terror when it was dangerous to be associated with anything counter-revolutionary, even public functionaries and officials actually from middle or upper-class backgrounds adopted

4557-474: The century and the inability of nobles to participate in most fields without losing their nobility contributed to their relative poverty. Guy Chaussinand-Nogaret divides the nobility of France into five distinct wealth categories, based on research into the capitation tax, which nobles were also subject to. The first category includes those paying over 500 livres in capitation and enjoying at least 50,000₶ in annual income. 250 families in total comprised this group,

4650-410: The clothing and label of the sans-culottes as a demonstration of solidarity with the working class and patriotism for the new French Republic . But by early 1794, as the bourgeois and middle-class elements of the revolution began to gain more political influence, the fervent working-class radicalism of the sans-culottes rapidly began falling out of favour within the National Convention. It

4743-523: The conquered Gallo-Romans and subdued Germanic tribes that had also attempted to seize Gaul before the Franks, such as the Alemanni and Visigoths . The theory had no proven basis, but offered a comforting myth for an increasingly impoverished noble class. The French historian Guy Chaussinand-Nogaret, specialist of the French nobility in the 18th century, writes that some historians mistakenly confused

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4836-518: The convention. Eventually, by May 1793, the Montagnards worked with the National Guard —which was, at this time, mostly sans-culottes —to depose many of the Girondin deputies. Jeremy Popkin writes, "[the Montagnards and the sans-culottes ] surrounded the Convention, and two days later the intimidated assembly suspended twenty-nine Girondin deputies. The defeated Girondin leaders fled to

4929-552: The countryside to supervise the requisition of grain, to prevent the manoeuvres of rich égoistes and deliver them up to the vengeance of the laws)". ) For that reason, twelve travelling tribunals (with moveable guillotines) were set up. Three months later, on 4 December, the departmental revolutionary armies (except in Paris) were banned on proposal of Tallien. The sections lost all rights to control their delegates and officials. On 4 March 1794, there were rumours of uprising in

5022-724: The decline of the sans-culottes , and with the successive rise of even more conservative governments, the Thermidorian Convention and the French Directory , they were definitively silenced as a political force. After the defeat of the 1795 popular revolt in Paris , the sans-culottes ceased to play any effective political role in France until the July Revolution of 1830 . The distinctive costume of typical sans-culottes featured: On 27 April 1791, Robespierre opposed plans to reorganize

5115-419: The end of the 18th century, reveal great differences in financial status at this time. A well-off family could earn 100,000–150,000 livres (₶) per year, although the most prestigious families could gain two or three times that much. For provincial nobility, yearly earnings of 10,000 livres permitted a minimum of provincial luxury, but most earned far less. The ethics of noble expenditure, the financial crises of

5208-549: The expression noblesse oblige – and without expecting financial or political gain), and to master their own emotions, especially fear, jealousy, and the desire for vengeance. One's status in the world demanded appropriate externalisation (or conspicuous consumption ). Nobles indebted themselves to build prestigious urban mansions ( hôtels particuliers ) and to buy clothes, paintings, silverware, dishes, and other furnishings befitting their rank. They were also required to show liberality by hosting sumptuous parties and by funding

5301-479: The family's nobility. If nobility was lost through prohibited activities, it could be recovered as soon as the said activities were stopped, by obtaining letters of relief. Finally, certain regions such as Brittany applied loosely these rules allowing poor nobles to plough their own land. From feudal times to the abolition of the privileges in 1789, the French nobility had specific legal and financial rights and prerogatives. The first official list of these prerogatives

5394-401: The fashionable silk knee-breeches of the 18th-century nobility and bourgeoisie , and the working class sans-culottes wore pantaloons , or long trousers, instead. The sans-culottes , most of them urban labourers, served as the driving popular force behind the revolution. They were judged by the other revolutionaries as "radicals" because they advocated a direct democracy , that

5487-427: The following names: According to the proposal by Fabre d'Églantine: On 24 November 1793 these proposals were accepted with slight modifications. It was decided that the name should be written fêtes Sansculotides (one 't'). The alternate spellings Sans-culotides and Sans-culottides were also used. The fête des actions was shifted to the first place and named fête de la vertu . The fête des récompenses went to

5580-440: The fourth group, 11,000 noble families had between 1,000 and 4,000₶ per year. They could still lead a comfortable life provided they were frugal and did not tend toward lavish expenditures. Finally in the fifth group were those with less than 1,000₶ per year; over 5,000 noble families lived at this level. Some of them had less than 500₶, and some others had 100 or even 50₶. This group paid either no or very little capitation tax. At

5673-560: The hand of a centralizing royal power. Before and immediately after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 , many Protestant noble families emigrated and by doing so lost their lands in France. In certain regions of France a majority of the nobility had turned to Protestantism and their departure significantly depleted the ranks of the nobility. Some were incorporated into the nobility of their countries of adoption. By relocating

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5766-446: The historical culottes, but now also refers to apparent skirts that are actually split with two legs. The term sans-culottes has been used colloquially to mean not wearing underpants. French nobility The French nobility ( French : la noblesse française ) was an aristocratic social class in France from the Middle Ages until its abolition on 23 June 1790 during the French Revolution . From 1808 to 1815 during

5859-551: The king. They were required to go to war and fight and die in the service of the king, so called impôt du sang ("blood tax"). Before Louis XIV imposed his will on the nobility, the great families of France often claimed a fundamental right to rebel against unacceptable royal abuse. The Wars of Religion , the Fronde , the civil unrest during the minority of Charles VIII and the regencies of Anne of Austria and Marie de' Medici are all linked to these perceived loss of rights at

5952-416: The knightly nobility (noblesse chevaleresque) with the sword nobility (noblesse d'épée) that they opposed the robe nobility. He reminds that sword nobility and robe nobility are states, professions and not social classes within the French nobility and that they often merge within the same family. He writes that the notion of sword nobility means nothing and he reminds us that the King of France did not establish

6045-449: The land. In 2016, it was estimated that roughly 4,000 families could claim to be French nobility, totaling around 50,000–100,000 individuals, or roughly the same number as they were in the 1780s. Among the French nobility, two classes were distinguished: In the 18th century, the comte de Boulainvilliers , a rural noble, posited the belief that French nobility had descended from the victorious Franks , while non-nobles descended from

6138-419: The last place and the leap year day regained its old name: On 24 August 1795 ( le 7 Fructidor de l'an III ), the Sansculottides were renamed again to jours complémentaires (Complementary Days). The fête du travail was also known as the fête du labour . The fête de l'opinion was also termed fête de l'option (Celebration of Choice) or fête de la raison (Celebration of Reason). The Basque translation of

6231-400: The lists of the taille and/or forced to pay fines for usurping nobility. Many documents such as notary deeds and contracts were forged, scratched or overwritten resulting in rejections by the crown officers and more fines. During the same period Louis XIV, in dire need of money for wars, issued blank letters- patent of nobility and urged crown officers to sell them to aspiring squires in

6324-406: The majority living in Paris or at court. The second group numbered around 3,500 families with incomes between 10,000₶ and 50,000₶. These were the rich provincial nobility. In the provinces, their incomes allowed them a lavish lifestyle, and they made up 13% of the nobility. The third group were the 7,000 families whose income was between 4,000 and 10,000₶ per annum, which allowed a comfortable life. In

6417-412: The measures desired by the assembly: he presented a decree that was passed immediately, establishing a paid armed force of 6,000 men and 1,000 gunners "designed to crush the counter-revolutionaries, to execute wherever the need arises the revolutionary laws and the measures of public safety that are decreed by the National Convention, and to protect provisions (A force of citizen-soldiers which could go into

6510-750: The monarchy in 1792 to the Thermidorian Reaction in 1794. Throughout the revolution, the sans-culottes provided the principal support behind the more radical and anti-bourgeoisie factions of the Paris Commune , such as the Enragés and the Hébertists , and were led by populist revolutionaries such as Jacques Roux and Jacques Hébert . In the summer of 1793 the sans-culottes , the Parisian enragés especially, accused even

6603-437: The most radical Jacobins of being too tolerant of greed and insufficiently universalist. From this far-left point of view, all Jacobins were at fault because all of them tolerated existing civil life and social structures. The sans-culottes also populated the ranks of paramilitary forces charged with physically enforcing the policies and legislation of the revolutionary government, a task that commonly included violence and

6696-480: The needy. They expressed their demands through petitions of the sections presented to the assemblies (the Legislative, and Convention) by the delegates. The sans-culottes had a third way of applying pressure to achieve their demands: the police and the courts received thousands of denunciations of traitors and supposed conspirators. The height of their influence spanned roughly from the original overthrow of

6789-430: The nobility: although nobility itself could not, legally, be purchased, lands to which noble rights and/or title were attached could be and often were bought by commoners who adopted use of the property's name or title and were henceforth assumed to be noble if they could find a way to be exempted from paying the taille to which only commoners were subject. Moreover, non-nobles who owned noble fiefs were obliged to pay

6882-415: The office, the acquisition of nobility could be done in one generation or gradually over several generations: Once acquired, nobility was hereditary in the legitimate male line for all male and female descendants, with some exceptions of noblesse uterine (through the female line) recognized as valid in the provinces of Champagne and Lorraine . Wealthy families found ready opportunities to pass into

6975-516: The past thirty years. No system of credit was established for small farmers, and only well-off individuals could take advantage of the ruling. This created a massive land grab by well-off peasants and members of the middle-class, who became absentee landowners and had their land worked by sharecroppers and poor tenants. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen had adopted by vote of

7068-416: The peasants of rural France could sustain themselves with their farms, and the wealthy aristocracy could still afford bread, the urban workers of France, the group that comprised the sans-culottes , suffered. In the city, the division grew between the sans-culottes and these wealthy aristocrats; the former had a particular hostility "towards those with large private incomes." The faction known as

7161-521: The period immediately following the Thermidorian Reaction , the sans-culottes and other far-left political factions were heavily persecuted and repressed by the likes of the Muscadins . The French Republican Calendar at first termed the complementary days at the end of the year Sansculottides ; however, the National Convention suppressed the name when adopting the Constitution of

7254-632: The period would have seen many of these same actions as representative of their noble station. The château of Versailles , court ballets, noble portraits, and triumphal arches were all representations of glory and prestige. The notion of glory (military, artistic, etc.) was seen in the context of the Roman Imperial model; it was not seen as vain or boastful, but as a moral imperative to the aristocratic classes. Nobles were required to be "generous" and " magnanimous ", to perform great deeds disinterestedly (i.e. because their status demanded it – whence

7347-452: The price of bread should be fixed at three sous a pound, that nobles holding senior rank in the army should be dismissed, that armouries should be created for arming the sans-culottes , the departments of State purged, suspects arrested, the right to vote provisionally reserved to sans-culottes only, and a fund set apart for the relatives of those defending their country and for the relief of aged and infirm. According to Hampson,

7440-420: The provinces, such that certain noble rights were still being applied well into 1791. Nevertheless, it was decided that certain annual financial payments which were owed the nobility and which were considered "contractual" (i.e. not stemming from a usurpation of feudal power, but from a contract between a landowner and a tenant) such as annual rents (the cens and the champart ) needed to be bought back by

7533-600: The republic [to] hang-main and the guillotine to stand like the first patriots, the finisher of the law." The support of the sans-culottes could be used as a political weapon to get rid of enemies of the Revolution. The key to Robespierre's Terror lay in their willingness and ability to mobilize. Thus, the Committee leaders used speeches to gain their support. In a speech On the Principles of Political Morality. Robespierre proclaimed: "It has been said that terror

7626-519: The royal court was based on the family's ancienneté , its alliances (marriages), its hommages (dignities and offices held) and, lastly, its illustrations (record of deeds and achievements). Note: The use of the nobiliary particle de in a name is not a sign of nobility. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the de was adopted by large numbers of non-nobles (like Honoré de Balzac or Gérard de Nerval ) in an attempt to appear noble. It has been estimated that today 90% of names with

7719-419: The same year, the poet Philippe-François-Nazaire Fabre, known as Fabre d'Églantine , made public his dislike of this naming convention ( "le premier jour de la première décade du premier mois de la première année" ). He suggested proper names for the months, the days of the months, and the days of the decades. For the jours complémentaires , he introduced the name Sansculottides . The individual days should have

7812-473: The sovereign. If a title was not created or recognized by the sovereign it was a courtesy title without legal status or rank. Generally the titles were hereditary but could sometimes be personal. Under the Ancien Régime (before the French Revolution of 1789) titles were linked to a land called fiefs de dignité . During the Ancien Régime , there was no distinction of rank by title (except for

7905-409: The spectacle of power and François de La Rochefoucauld posited that no human act – however generous it pretended to be – could be considered disinterested. Nobility and hereditary titles were distinct: while all hereditary titleholders were noble, most nobles were untitled, although many assumed courtesy titles . The authentic titles of nobility would be created or recognized by letters patent of

7998-485: The subject is quite extraordinarily complicated and obscure. The next day all Paris was in arms. Hanriot was ordered to march his National Guard, by this time mostly consisting of sans-culottes , from the town hall to the Palais National . On 2 June 1793, a large force of supposedly 80,000 sans-culottes and National Guards led by Hanriot, surrounded the convention with 160–172 guns. On 4 September,

8091-440: The tenant for the tenant to have clear title to his land. Since the feudal privileges of the nobles had been termed droits de feodalité dominante , these were called droits de féodalité contractante . The rate set (3 May 1790) for purchase of these contractual debts was 20 times the annual monetary amount (or 25 times the annual amount if given in crops or goods); peasants were also required to pay back any unpaid dues over

8184-399: The title of duke, which was often associated with the strictly regulated privileges of the peerage , including precedence above other titled nobles). The hierarchy within the French nobility below peers was initially based on seniority; a count whose family had been noble since the 14th century was higher ranked than a marquis whose title only dated to the 18th century. Precedence at

8277-446: Was definitively enacted in the Assembly. Along with other Jacobins, he urged in his magazine the creation of a revolutionary army in Paris, consisting of 20,000 men, with the goal to defend "liberty" (the revolution), maintain order in the sections, and educate the members in democratic principles; an idea he borrowed from Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Machiavelli . According to Jean Jaures , he considered this even more important than

8370-548: Was established relatively late, under Louis XI after 1440, and included the right to hunt , to wear a sword and to possess a seigneurie (land to which certain feudal rights and dues were attached). Nobles were also granted an exemption from paying the taille , except for non-noble lands they might possess in some regions of France. Furthermore, certain ecclesiastic, civic, and military positions were reserved for nobles. These feudal privileges are often termed droits de féodalité dominante . Nobles were required to serve

8463-514: Was illegal to present a petition in arms, although their march to the Tuileries was not banned. They invited the officials to join the procession and march along with them. Early in the morning ( 10 August 1792 ) 30,000 Fédérés, and sans-culottes militants from the sections led a successful assault upon the Tuileries; according to Robespierre a triumph for the "passive" (non-voting) citizens. Sulpice Huguenin  [ fr ] , head of

8556-588: Was not long before Maximilien de Robespierre and the now dominant Jacobin Club turned against the radical factions of the National Convention, including the sans-culottes , despite their having previously been the strongest supporters of the revolution and its government. Several important leaders of the Enragés and Hébertists were imprisoned and executed by the very revolutionary tribunals they had supported. The execution of radical leader Jacques Hébert spelled

8649-467: Was the mainspring of despotic government. Does your government, then, resemble a despotism? Yes, as the sword which glitters in the hands of liberty's heroes resembles the one with which tyranny's lackeys are armed." Robespierre expressed a desire for liberty that the sans-culottes admired. They pushed the committee for radical changes and often found a voice with Robespierre. Their desperate desire for immediate changes and their aptitude for violence made

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