Western Civilization II / Unit 4 WC2 0318 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Three Estates and Noble Privilege
Captions available
The idea
Those who pray, fight and work: the First Estate the clergy, the Second the nobility, at most four percent by the anchor's count, the Third everyone else. Nobles monopolized office, sat in their own courts, and hunted where peasants starved.
In practice
The witness: France's nobles one and a half percent, largely untaxed.
Where people slip
Mercier's orderly future of seventeen eighty-one is the anchor's illustration.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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