Editing Early modern Europe (section)

=== France ===
{{Further|History of France|Early modern France|Kingdom of France|Ancien Régime}}
The [[Ancien Régime]] (French for "old regime") was the political and social system of the [[Kingdom of France]] from about 1450 until the [[French Revolution]] that started in  1789.<ref>{{citation|title=Ancien Regime|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/modern-europe/ancient-history-middle-ages-and-feudalism/ancien-regime|encyclopedia=Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World|publisher=The Gale Group Inc.|access-date=26 February 2017|language=en|date=2004|via=Encyclopedia.com}}</ref> The Ancien Régime was ruled by the [[House of Valois|late Valois]] and [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]] dynasties.  Much of the medieval political centralization of France had been lost in the [[Hundred Years' War]], and the Valois Dynasty's attempts at re-establishing control over the scattered political centres of the country were hindered by the [[French Wars of Religion|Wars of Religion]]). Much of the reigns of [[Henry IV of France|Henry IV]], [[Louis XIII]] and the early years of [[Louis XIV]] were focused on administrative centralisation. Despite, however, the notion of "[[absolute monarchy]]" (typified by the king's right to issue ''[[lettres de cachet]]'') and the efforts by the kings to create a centralized state, Ancien Régime France remained a country of systemic irregularities: administrative (including taxation), legal, judicial, and ecclesiastic divisions and prerogatives frequently overlapped, while the French nobility struggled to maintain their own rights in the matters of local government and justice, and powerful internal conflicts (like the [[The Fronde|Fronde]]) protested against this centralization.<ref>See William Doyle, ed. ''The Oxford Handbook of the Ancien Régime'' (2012) 656 pp. [https://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Handbook-Ancien-Handbooks-History/dp/0199291209/ excerpt and text search].</ref>

The need for centralization in this period was directly linked to the question of royal finances and the ability to wage war. The internal conflicts and dynastic crises of the 16th and 17th centuries (the wars between Catholics and Protestants and the [[Habsburg]]'s internal family conflict) and the territorial expansion of France in the 17th century demanded great sums which needed to be raised through taxes, such as the land tax (''{{lang|fr|[[taille]]}}'') and the tax on salt (''{{lang|fr|[[gabelle]]}}'') and by contributions of men and service from the nobility. The key to this centralization was the replacing of personal [[patronage]] systems organized around the king and other nobles by institutional systems around the state.<ref>{{harvnb|Major|1994|pp=xx–xxi}}</ref> The creation of [[intendant]]s—representatives of royal power in the provinces—did much to undermine local control by regional nobles. The same was true of the greater reliance shown by the royal court on the "noblesse de robe" as judges and royal counselors. The creation of regional [[parlement]]s had initially the same goal of facilitating the introduction of royal power into newly assimilated territories, but as the parlements gained in self-assurance, they began to be sources of disunity.<ref>Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, ''The Ancien Regime: A History of France 1610–1774'' (1999), political survey [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0631211969 excerpt and text search].</ref>