Social Classes
- Royalty – House of Bourbon, After the Empire was established.
- Nobility (noblesse) – Those with explicit noble title. These are traditionally divided into
- "noblesse d'épée" ("nobility of the sword")
- and "noblesse de robe" ("nobility of the gown"), the magisterial class that administered royal justice and civil government, often referring to those who bought a title of nobility (rich merchants).
- Ci-devant nobility – Literally "from before": nobility of the ancien régime (the Bourbon kingdom) after it had lost its titles and privileges.
- Bourgeoisie – Roughly, the non-noble wealthy, typically merchants, investors, and professionals such as lawyers.
- Active and passive citizens – During the period of the Legislative Assembly, approximately half of the men of France were disfranchised as "passive citizens". Only "active citizens", a category based on taxes paid, could vote; they also formed the basis of the National Guard.
- Sans-culottes – literally "those without breeches", the masses of Paris.
- Peasants, who represent 90 percent of the French nation's population.
Read more about this topic: Glossary Of The French Revolution
Famous quotes containing the words social and/or classes:
“The things women find rewarding about work are, by and large ,the same things that men find rewarding and include both the inherent nature of the work and the social relationships.”
—Grace Baruch (20th century)
“Intellectuals can tell themselves anything, sell themselves any bill of goods, which is why they were so often patsies for the ruling classes in nineteenth-century France and England, or twentieth-century Russia and America.”
—Lillian Hellman (1907–1984)