Have you ever wondered what inspired your favorite classic novelist to write their stories? What was happening in their lives to inspire their famous works? What was happening in the world at the time that they wrote those stories you love?

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Welcome to Bite at a Time Books Behind the Story, where we answer the questions you have about your favorite classic authors.

What inspired your favorite author to write their novels?

What was going on in the world at the time?

Follow along with us as we we tell you what was happening in the world while your favorite authors wrote your favorite classics.

My name is Brie Carlyle and I love to read and wanted to share my passion with listeners like you.

All of the links for our show are down in the Show notes.

Today we will be talking about the Anthean Regime, which would have been the Regime in place to help inspire the Three Musketeers.

The Ancient Regime Literally Old rule, also known as the old regime, was the political and social system of the Kingdom of France from the late Middle Ages until the French Revolution, starting in 1789, which abolished the feudal system of the French nobility and hereditary monarchy.

The Valois dynasty ruled during the Antean regime up until 1589 and was then replaced by the Bourbon dynasty.

The term is occasionally used to refer to the similar feudal systems of the time elsewhere in Europe, such as that of Switzerland.

The administrative and social structures of the ancient regime in France evolved across years of state building, legislative acts like the ordinance of Villa's coterrates, and internal conflicts.

The Valley dynasty's attempts at reform and at reestablishing control over the scattered political centers of the country were hindered by the Hughnut Wars, also called the wars of religion.

From 1562 to 1598.

During the Bourbon dynasty, much of the reigns of Henry V Ten and Louis XIII and the early years of Louis XIV 1640 317 15 focused on administrative centralization.

Despite the notion of absolute monarchy typified by the King's right to issue orders through letters de cachet and efforts to create a centralized state antsien regime, France remained a country of systemic irregularities.

Administrative, legal, judicial, and ecclesiastic divisions and prerogatives frequently overlapped.

While the French nobility struggled to maintain their rights in the matters of local government and justice, and powerful internal conflicts like the FRAND protested against the centralization.

The drive for centralization related directly to questions of Royal finances and the ability to wage war.

The internal conflicts and dynastic crises of the 16th and 17th centuries between Catholics and Protestants, the Habsburg's internal family conflict, and the territorial expansion of France in the 17th century all demanded great sums, which needed to be raised by taxes such as the land tax and the tax on salt and by contributions of men and service from the nobility.

One key to the centralization was the replacing of personal patronage systems, which had been organized around the King and other nobles by institutional systems that were constructed around the state.

The appointments of intended representatives of Royal power in the provinces greatly undermined the local control by regional nobles.

The same was true of the greater reliance that was shown by the Royal court on the noblestair robe as judges and Royal counselors.

The creation of regional parliaments had the same initial goal of facilitating the introduction of Royal power into the newly assimilated territories, but as the parliaments gained in self assurance, they started to become sources of disunity.

By the end of 1789, the term ancient regime was commonly used in France by journalists and legislators to refer to the institutions of French life before the Revolution.

It first appeared in print in English in 1794, two years after the inauguration of the first French Republic, and was originally pejorative.

Simon Shama has observed that virtually as soon as the term was coined, old regime was automatically freighted with associations of both traditionalism and cinnamon.

It conjured up a society so encrusted with anachronisms that only a shock of great violence could free the living organism within institutionally torpid.

Economically immobile, culturally atrophied and socially stratified, this old regime was incapable of selfmodernisation.

The Nineyears War was a major conflict between France and a coalition of Austria and the Holy Roman Empire, the Dutch Republic, Spain, England and Savoy.

It was fought on continental Europe and the surrounding seas and in Ireland, North America and India.

It was the first truly global war.

Louis XIV had emerged from the Franco Dutch War in 1678 as the most powerful monarch in Europe and an absolute ruler who had won numerous military victories.

Using a combination of aggression, annexation and cross illegal means, he set about extending his gains to stabilize and strengthen France's frontiers, culminating in the brief War of the Reunions.

The resulting truth of Radish Bond guaranteed France's new borders for 20 years, but Louis the 14th subsequent actions, notably his revocation of the Edict of Nandas in 1685, led to the deterioration of his military and political dominance.

Louis XIV's decision to cross the Ring in September 1688 was designed to extend his influence and to pressure the Holy Roman Empire into accepting his territorial and dynastic claims.

But Leopold I and the German Princes resolved to resist, and the States General and William III brought the Dutch and the English into the war against France.

Louis XIV at last faced a powerful coalition aimed at curtailing his ambitions.

The main fighting took place around France's borders in the Spanish Netherlands, the Rhineland, Duchy of Savoy and Catalonia.

The fighting generally favored Louis XIV armies, but by 1696 France was in the grip of an economic crisis.

The Merry Time powers, England and the Dutch Republic were also financially exhausted, and when Savoy defected from the alliance, all of the parties were keen for a negotiated settlement.

By the terms of the Treaty of Risswick, Louis XIV retained the whole of Alice'sys, but he was forced to return the reign to its ruler and give up any gains on the right bank of the Rhine.

Also, Louis XIV accepted William III as the rightful King of England and the Dutch acquired their barrier fortress system in the Spanish Netherlands to help secure their own borders.

However, with the ailing and childless Charles II of Spain approaching his end, a new conflict over the inheritance of the Spanish Empire would soon embroil Louis XIV and the Grand Alliance in a final war, the War of the Spanish Succession.

Spain had a number of major assets.

Apart from its homeland itself, it controlled important territory in Europe and the New World.

Spain's American colonies produced enormous quantities of silver, which were brought to Spain every few years in convoys.

Spain had many weaknesses as well.

Its domestic economy had little business, industry or advanced craftsmanship and was poor.

Spain had to import practically all of its weapons and had a large army, but one that was poorly trained and poorly equipped.

Spain had a surprisingly small Navy, since seamanship was a low priority for the elites.

Local and regional governments and the local nobility controlled most of the decisionmaking.

The central government was quite weak, with a mediocre bureaucracy and few able leaders.

King Charles II reigned 1665 to 1700, but he was in very poor physical and mental health.

As King Charles II had no children.

The question of who would succeed to the Spanish throne unleashed a major war.

The Viennabased Habsburg family, of which Charles II was a member, proposed its own candidate for the throne.

However, the Bourbons, the ruling family of France, instinctively opposed expansions of Habsburg power within Europe and had their own candidate, Philip, the grandson of the powerful Louis XIV.

That was a confrontation between two different styles of antsian regime, the French style and the Spanish style or Habsburg style.

Spain's silver and its inability to protect its assets made it a highly visible target for ambitious Europeans.

For generations, Englishmen had contemplated capturing the Spanish treasure fleet, a feat that had been accomplished only once in 1628 by the Dutchman Piet Hine.

English Mariners Nevertheless seriously pursued the opportunities for privateering and trade in Spain's colonies.

As he neared his death, Charles II bequeathed his throne to the Bourbon candidate, the future Philip the Fifth of Spain.

Philip's grandfather, Louis the 14th, eagerly endorsed the choice and made unilateral aggressive moves to safeguard the viability of his family's new possessions, such as moving the French Army into the Spanish Netherlands and securing exclusive trading rights for the French and Spanish America.

However, a coalition of enemies opposed to that rapid expansion of French power quickly formed, and a major European war broke out from 1701 to 1714.

From the perspective of France's enemies, the notion of France gaining enormous strength by taking over Spain and all its European and overseas possessions was anathema.

Furthermore, the prospect of capturing Spanish territories in the New World proved very attractive.

France's enemies formed a Grand Alliance led by the Holy Roman Empires Leopold I, which included Prussia and most of the other German States, the Dutch Republic, Portugal, Savoy, in Italy and England.

The opposing alliance was primarily France and Spain, but also included a few smaller German Princes and Dukes.

In Italy, extensive back and forth fighting took place in the Netherlands, but the dimensions of the war once again changed when both Emperor Leopold and his son and successor Joseph died.

That left Archduke Charles, the second son of Leopold, younger brother to Joseph, as the alliance candidate for both King of Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor.

Since such a Union between Spain and the Holy Roman Empire would be too powerful in the eyes of Charles VI allies, most of the allies quickly concluded a separate peace with France.

After another year of fruitless campaigning, Charles VI would do the same and abandon his desire to become the King of Spain.

The 1713 Treaty of Utdrect resolved all of the issues.

France gave up Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

Now in Canada, Louis XIV's grandson became King Philip V of Spain and kept all of his overseas colonies but renounced any rights to the French throne.

Spain lost its European Holdings outside the homeland itself.

The former members of the alliance also profited from the war.

The Dutch had maintained their independence in the face of French aggression.

The Habsburgs had picked up territory north of Austria and in Italy, including the Spanish Netherlands and Naples.

However, the greatest beneficiary of the war was Great Britain, since, in addition to extensive extra European territorial gains made at the expense of Spain and France, it established further checks to French expansion within the Continent by moderately strengthening its European allies.

The quarter century after the Treaty of Uttrak was peaceful, with no major wars and only a few secondary military episodes of minor importance.

The main powers had exhausted themselves in warfare, with many deaths, disabled veterans, ruined, navies, high pension costs, heavy loans, and high taxes.

In 1683, indirect taxes had brought in 118,000,000 Livres, but by 1714 they had plunged to only 46 million Livres.

Louis XIV, with his eagerness for warfare, was gone and replaced by a small, sickly child who was the last Bourbon survivor, and his death had the potential to throw France into another round of warfare.

Louis XIV lived until the 1770s.

France's main foreign policy decision maker was Cardinal Flurry, who recognized that France needed to rebuild and so pursued a peaceful policy.

France had a poorly designed taxation system by which tax farmers kept much of the money and the treasury was always short.

The banking system in Paris was undeveloped, and the treasury was forced to borrow at very high interest rates.

London's financial system proved strikingly competent in funding not only the British Army but also its allies.

Queen Anne was dead, and her successor, King George I, was a Hanibarian who moved his court to London but never became fluent in English and surrounded himself with German advisors.

They spent much of their time and most of their attention on Hannah variant affairs.

He, too, was threatened by instability of the throne, since the Stewart pretenders, long supported by Louis XIV threatened repeatedly to invade through Ireland or Scotland and had significant internal support from the Tory faction.

However, Sir Robert Walpole was the dominant decisionmaker from 1722 to 1740, in a role that would later be called Prime Minister.

Walpole strongly rejected militaristic options and promoted a peace program that was agreed to by Florida and both powers signed an alliance.

The Dutch Republic was much reduced in power and so agreed with Britain's idea of peace in Vienna.

The Holy Roman Empire's Habsburg emperors bickered with the new Bourbon King of Spain, Philip V, over Habsburg control of most of Italy, but relations with France were undramatic.

In the mid 15th century, France was significantly smaller than it is today, and numerous border provinces were autonomous or belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, the Crown of Aragon or the Kingdom of Navara.

There was also foreign enclaves like the Comtat Venetian.

In addition, certain provinces within France were ostensibly personal fives of Noble families, notably Bourbonnaz, Forest and Avurn, which were held by the House of Bourbon until the provinces were forcibly integrated into the Royal domain in 1527.

After the fall of Charles III, Duke of Bourbon.

From the late 15th century to the late 17th century and again in the 17th 60s, France underwent a massive territorial expansion and an attempt to better integrate its provinces into the administrative whole.

Despite efforts by the Kings to create a centralized state out of these provinces, France still remained a patchwork of local privileges and historical differences.

The arbitrary power of the monarch, as implied by the expression absolute monarchy, was much limited by historic and regional particularities.

Administrative, including taxation, legal, Parliament, judicial and ecclesiastic divisions and prerogatives frequently overlapped.

Certain provinces and cities had won special privileges, such as lower rates for Gabelle or salt tax.

Southern France was governed by written law adapted from the Roman legal system, but Northern France used common law, which was codified in 1453 into a written form.

The representative of the King and his provinces and cities was the governor Royal officers chosen from the highest nobility.

Provincial and City Governors Oversight of provinces and cities was frequently combined were predominantly military positions in charge of defense and policing.

Provincial governors, also called lieutenants general, also had the ability of convoking provincial parliaments, provincial estates and municipal bodies.

The title governor first appeared under Charles VI.

The Ordinance of Law of 1579 reduced their number to twelve and in Ordinance of 1779 increased their number to 30, 918 firstclass governors and 20 1 second class governors.

Although in principle they were the King's representatives and their charges could be revoked at the King's will, some governors had installed themselves and their heirs as provincial dynasty.

The governors were at the height of their power from the midsixteen th to the mid 17th century.

Their role in provincial unrest during the civil wars led Cardinal Rishelu to create the more tractable positions of intent of finance, policing and justice and in the 18th century, the role of provincial governors was greatly curtailed.

In an attempt to reform the system, new divisions were created.

The Risese generalis, commonly known as generalatase, were initially only taxation districts.

The first 16 were created in 1542.

By edict of Henry II.

Their role steadily increased, and by the mid 17th century the generala Tays were under the authority of an intended and were a vehicle for the expansion of Royal power in matters of justice, taxation and policing.

By the Revolution, there were 36 general Aces, the last two being created in 1784.

The desire for more efficient tax collection was one of the major causes for French administrative and Royal centralization during the early modern period.

Exempted from were clergy and nobles, officers of the Crown, military personnel, Magistrates, University professors, and students.

In certain cities, such as Paris, the provinces were of three sorts, the Pais deselection, the paisdet, and the pays Dean position in the Peace delection, the longestheld possessions of the French Crown.

Some of the provinces had held the equivalent autonomy of a Pais de Tete, but had lost it through the effects of Royal reforms.

The assessment and collection of taxes were trusted to elected officials, at least originally, since later those positions were bought and the tax was generally personal and so is attached to Nonnoble individuals.

In the paisday teenager Brittany, Langada, Burgundy, Avignon, Burn, Doffin province, and portions of Gascony, such as Begorn Commongues and the Quad Villis, recently acquired provinces that have been able to maintain a certain local autonomy.

In terms of taxation, the assessment of the tax was established by local councils, and the tax was generally real, and so it was attached to non Noble lands.

Nobles with such lands were required to pay taxes on them.

Pais d*** position were recently conquered Lance that had their own local historical institutions.

They were similar to the pays d'a Tete, under which they are sometimes grouped, but taxation was overseen by the Royal attendant.

Taxation districts had gone through a variety of mutations since the 14th century.

Before the 14th century, oversight of the collection of Royal taxes had fallen generally to the Balias and sent a shoe in.

Their circumscriptions.

Reforms in the 14th and 15th centuries saw France's Royal financial administration run by two financial boards, which worked in a collegial manner.

The forgener de finance, also called general consular or receiver Generale, oversaw the collection of taxes by tax collecting agents.

In the four tresre de France, treasurers oversaw revenues from Royal lands, the domain Royal.

Together they were the Messiers de finances.

The four members of each board were divided by geographical districts.

Although the term generality appears only in the late 15th century, the areas were named Linguidoldaisien and Yon and Nomadi.

The last was created in 1449.

The other three earlier, with the directors of the Languido region typically having an honorific preeminence.

By 1484, the number of generala tastes had increased to six.

In the 16th century, the Kings of France, in an effort to exert more direct control over Royal finances and circumvent.

The Double board, which was accused of poor oversight, made numerous administrative reforms, including the restructuring of the financial administration and increasing the number of generalities.

In 1542, France was divided into 16 generates.

The number increased to 21 at the end of the 16th century and to 36 at the time of the French Revolution.

The last two were created in 1084.

The administration of the general late of the Renaissance went through a variety of reforms.

In 1577, Henry III established five treasurers in each general Atte, who formed a Bureau of finances in the 17th century.

Oversight of the generalitis was subsumed by the attendance of finance, justice and police.

The expression generality and intendents became roughly synonymous until the late 17th century.

Tax collectors recalled reserve.

In 1680, the system of the firm Generale was established, a franchise, customs and excise operation in which individuals bought the right to collect fatal on behalf of the King through six year ejectocations.

Certain taxes, like the aides and the cabal, had been framed out in this way.

As early as the major tax collectors in that system were known as the fermiers general, the tale was only one of a number of taxes.

There also existed Battalion, a tax for military purposes, a national salt tax, the Gabelle, national tariffs, the aides on various products, wine, beer, oil and other goods, local tariffs on specialty products, the duyanne or levied on products entering the city, the Oct Roy or sold at fairs and local taxes.

Finally, the Church benefited from a mandatory tax or tithe the dime.

Louis XIV created several additional tax systems, including the capitation, which began in 1695 and touched every person, including nobles and the clergy, although exemption could be bought for a large onetime sum and the Diocese name restarted in 1733, which enacted to support the military and was a true tax on income and on property value.

In 1749, under Louis XIV, a new tax based on the dexmi, the Vintagent me, was enacted to reduce the Royal deficit and continued for the rest of the anthean regime.

Another key source of state financing was through charging fees for state positions, such as most members of parliaments, Magistrates and financial officers.

Many of the fees were quite high, but some of the offices conferred nobility and could be financially advantageous.

The use of offices to seek profit had become standard practice as early as the 12th and the 13th centuries.

A law in 1467 made these offices irrevocable except through the death, resignation, or forfeiture of the title holder, and the offices once bought tended to become hereditary charges that were passed on within families with a fee for transfer of title.

In an effort to increase revenue, the state often turns to the creation of new offices.

Before it was made illegal in 1521, it had been possible to leave the date that the transfer of title was to take effect open ended in 1534.

A rule adapted from Church practice made the successors right void if the preceding office holder died within 40 days of the transfer and the office returned to the state.

However, a new fee, the surveyance jusat protected against that rule in four Soli created a new tax, the Paulette, or annual tax of a 60th of the official charge, which permitted the title holder to be free of the 40 day rule.

The Paulette and the vanilla of offices became key concerns in the parliamentary and revolts of the 1640s.

Called the Frond.

The state also demanded a free gift, which the Church collected from holders of ecclesiastic offices through taxes, called the decim, roughly a 20th of the official charge created under Francis I.

State finances also relied heavily on borrowing, both private from the great banking families in Europe and public.

The most important public source for borrowing was through the system of rentes soar Hotel de Phil of Paris, a kind of government bond system offering investors annual interest.

The system first came to youth in 1522 under Frances, the first until 1661.

The head of the financial system in France was generally the surintendent day finances.

That year the Surin tendon Nicolas Fouquet fell from power and the position was replaced by the less powerful country lured General de Finances.

One of the established principles of the French monarchy was that the King could not act without the advice of his Council, and the formula le Roy ENSA concierge expressed that deliberative aspect.

The administration of the French state in the early modern period went through a long evolution as a truly administrative apparatus, relying on old nobility.

Newer Chancellor, nobility and administrative professionals was substituted to the feudal clientist system.

The French monarchy was irrevocably linked to the Catholic Church and French theorists of the divine right of Kings and sadotal power in the Renaissance has made those links explicit.

Henry IV was able to ascend to the throne only after abjuring Protestantism.

The symbolic power of the Catholic monarch was apparent in his crowning.

The King was anointed by blessed oil and Reims, and he was popularly believed to be able to cure scrophula by the laying on of his hands.

Political power was widely dispersed among certain elites.

The law courts, parliaments were powerful, especially that of France.

However, the King had only about 100 officials in Royal service, very few indeed for such a large country and with very slow internal communications over an inadequate road system.

Travel was usually faster by ocean, ship or riverboat.

The different estates of the realm, the clergy, the nobility and commoners occasionally met together in the Estates General, but in practice the Estates General had no power, since it could petition the King but not pass laws itself.

The Catholic Church controlled about 40% of the wealth, which was tied up in longterm endowments that could be added to but not reduced.

The King, not the Pope, nominated bishops but typically had to negotiate with Noble families that had close ties to local monasteries and Church establishments.

The nobility came second in terms of wealth, but there was no unity.

Each Noble had his own lands, his own network of regional connections, and his own military force.

The cities had a quasi independent status and were largely controlled by the leading merchants and guilds.

Paris was by far the largest city, with 2200 people in 1547 and a history of steady growth, lion and ruin.

Each had about 400 population, but Lyon had a powerful banking community and a vibrant culture.

Bourdois was next, with only 200 population in 1500.

In 1789, the antean regime was violently overthrown by the French Revolution.

Although France in 1785 faced economic difficulties that concerned mostly the equitability of taxation, it was one of the richest and most powerful nations of Europe.

The French people also enjoyed more political freedom and a lower incidence of arbitrary punishment than many of their fellow Europeans.

However, Louis XVI, his ministers, and the widespread French nobility had become immensely unpopular because the peasants and to a lesser extent the burglar sue were burdened with ruinously high taxes, which were levied to support wealthy aristocrats and their sumptuous lifestyles.

Historians explain the sudden collapse of the Antsian regime as stemming in part from its rigidity.

Aristocrats were confronted by the rising ambitions of merchants, tradesmen, and prosperous farmers that were allied with aggrieved, peasants, wage earners, and intellectuals influenced by the ideas of Enlightenment philosophers.

As the Revolution proceeded, power devolved from the monarchy and privileged by birth to more representative political bodies like legislative assemblies.

But conflicts among the formerly allied Republican groups became the source of considerable discord and bloodshed.

A growing number of French people had absorbed the ideas of equality and freedom of the individual, as presented by Voltaire, Diderot Turgot, and other philosophers and social theorists of the Enlightenment.

The American Revolution had demonstrated that Enlightenment ideas about the organization of governance could actually be put into practice.

Some American diplomats, like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, had lived in Paris and consorted freely with members of the French intellectual class there.

Furthermore, contact between American revolutionaries and the French soldiers who had provided aid to the Continental Army in North America during the American Revolutionary War helped to spread revolutionary ideals in France.

After a time, many people in France began to attack the Democratic deficit of their own government, push for freedom of speech, challenge the Roman Catholic Church, and decry the prerogatives of the nobles.

The Revolution was caused by not a single event, but a series of events that together irreversibly changed the organization of political power, the nature of society, and the exercise of individual freedoms.

Thank you for joining Bite At A Time books behind the Story Today while we answered some of the questions you have about one of your favorite classic authors, all of the links for our show are down in our show notes.

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