ANTHROPOLOGISTS SAY THAT IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETIES ALL ASPECTS OF LIFE REINFORCE EACH OTHER, THAT IS, STABILITY AND AUTHORITY
The same applies to the Old Regime where every aspect of life so buttressed nobles that commoners too took their primacy for granted.
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| Philip of France, Duke of Anjou in Costume of Antiquity by Jean Nocret, toward 1650 / zoom |
The prince relates to the Romans.
Nobles held the top posts in the State and Church
and especially the army...
paid no taxes, had the right to particular taxes and tolls, could purchase luxuries reserved to them alone, were judged by a court of their peers and if convicted were ceremoniously beheaded instead of hanged or burned.
They owned gibets, the number of beams for hanging depending on their rank.
So ingrained was belief in position that an insult among commoners was,"Your father was a valet!"
The valet Figaro's question to his noble master,
"What have you done for all that wealth?
You took the trouble to be born!"
signals change.
But the economy had evolved.
Do our societies work in the same way?
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