So, for instance, there's going to be a huge fight in France,
between about 1770 and 1774, between
the king, Louis XV, versus the
intermediaries of the constituted
Order: the parlements, in other
words, the nobility. What's the fight over?
Mainly it's about money.
Louis XV wants to raise a lot more money, because he's just come out of a big war
with Britain, the Seven Years� War; he needs a
lot more money to build up his fiscal- military state.
He wants it from the people from whom he collects taxes, the nobles.
The nobles are saying, you can't force us to pay these taxes.
We have our rights and privileges. Which you have to respect because that's
part of the constituted order. You need to respect our
liberties, the nobles claim. And,
indeed in 1774, the nobles win this fight.
Louis XV dies, and he is replaced by a man who will be hailed as the �restorer
of French liberty.� Who is this Restorer of French Liberty?
Why it's the new young king,
Louis the XVI, who gives up the fight against the nobility, gives up the
attempt to collect those taxes from them, and restores their privileges.
So in 1774, this is the man who is the symbol of the restorer of French liberty,
the savior of privilege, the new king, Louis the XVI.
So these arguments over the constituted order: who are the intermediaries?
Who has the rights to levy taxes that will be paid by citizens?
At the same time these arguments are
happening in France, these arguments are also happening
on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, in the British colonies of North America.