Aristocrats Role In European Culture

Aristocrats were considered as a small group of people that played a major role in European culture. These aristocrats were often people who hold titles, members of the court or were part of some ruling division. It was also a practice in Europe that aristocracy can be gained through marriage or by accruing some lands. Most of the aristocrats lived in big homes with lavish life styles. They owned a lot of lands and gained their earning from these lands. Many aristocrats also give importance to learning and admiration to fine arts. Aristocrats were also greatly involved in political decision and had great control over kingship. Many aristocrats were in powerful position in government institutions. For example, many local courts in England had judges who are mostly aristocrats (Levack et al., 2011, p.591). But towards the
Bourgeoisie were group of diverse people who lived in both cities and towns consisting members from both nobles and middle class working people. They are mainly merchants, government workers, artisans, shopkeepers etc. According to Levack et al. (2011, p. 594), the population of bourgeoisie increased steadily during eighteenth century. Around 15% population in England were Bourgeoisie. Most of them were like nobles. Since not all the people from Bourgeoisie were wealthy or noble, they all had different views on the political and economic matters. They considered aristocrats as people who lived their life in luxury and are mostly unfaithful towards their marriage. They also felt that aristocrats are less patriotic towards their country while Bourgeoisie were more hardworking and did not believed in luxury life. They respected their marriages. Since bourgeoisie were larger in number, they have major participation many political decisions. In fact, the demand for changes majorly by Bourgeoisie led to the movement called the Age of Enlightenment (Levack et al., 2011,