Nobility In The 16th Century

The ascendency of nobility at the beginning and end of the sixteenth century combined and ushered with the two series of wars, the Italian wars and the wars of Religion. The right of nobles in accessing to land remained intact during the 16th century but monarchy recognized the possibility of non-nobles (roturier) to acquire a seigneurie by reimbursing its fee (droit de franc-fief). The franc-fief provided access to noble status for significant numbers of bourgeois families. At least, they had to pay fees for 40 years or held a fief for three generations. The other method for acquiring a noble status was by buying one rank with an immense payment. These new noble (anoblis) were called noblesse de robe for differentiating them from the noblesse
The seigneurial lands divided into two parts, domaine proche, which was immediate land of the seigneur and subject of direct exploit by hiring laborers, leasing to sharecroppers or farming it out to someone depends on interests of the seigneurs, and domaine utile, which consisted of rights to exploit, rent, sell, and bequeath. The principle of nulle terre sans seigneur was still very accepted idea. In most of the regions in France the right of mainmorte had not practiced anymore, however, was common in some areas in the center, the south, and the east. The seigneurial revenues were the banalities or fees on mills and barns for the storage of cereals, corvées or labor service owed to the seigneurs as dues on seigneurial grounds and forests, lakes, jurisdictional incomes and the péages or tolls on markets. All tenants had to pay dues in cash (cens) or kind and it did not depend on their social status. The peasantry had to pay the ecclesiastical tithe or dime which was a fixed proportion of his grain
They preferred to offer low accensement to attract the peasantry because hundred years war broadly destroyed the northern France and also there was scarce of agricultural labors and it meant the end of serfdom in many regions in France. Because not only their profits diminished but also the costs of management also rose. The decline of population, scarcity of labor, and demand for agricultural and industrial goods raised prices and reduced the fixed rents. Altogether, it was called by Marc Bloch as “momentary impoverishment of the seigniorial class”. One century before, during the reigns of Charles VIII and Louis XII, peasants were master of the soil which accompanied with the expansion of agricultural markets. Nonetheless, the economic power of the noble seigneurs declined but it did not mean they lost their economic dominance. During the crise de classe of the late sixteen century and seventeenth century, the problems became acuter. From the 1550s the nobility experienced severe discomfort. Economic crisis, mostly in the second half of the century, brought huge dislocation. The economic disaster brought by Inflation, uprooting of them by the Italian wars which detached them from their lands and involved them into the expenses of military equipment and new extravagant lifestyle, were reasons for