The Three Orders of Traditional European Society

As the discussion of land implies, traditional early modern society was not based on the principle of all individuals being equal. Rather the opposite as in most cultures, European society was based on a hierarchy of groups, or orders:

A. Clergy: those who pray, the First Estate

B. Nobles: those who fight, the Second Estate (In some countries, such as Spain and in Hungary, there were two levels of nobility, the more important of which being called magnates, who had larger estates and served as higher-ranking officers and direct advisers to the king).

The first two groups, clergy and nobles, made up between 2.5 and 5% of society in Renaissance Europe. They considered themselves the natural leaders of society, responsible for preserving the spiritual and physical safety of the common people. Thus, nobles (and only nobles) served as military officers and held all higher-ranking offices in the Church. During the Renaissance, as kings came to control armies and governments (see next unit), nobles and clergy extended this role to other forms of leadership, serving the kings as judges and magistrates, applying law to the common people.

C. Commoners: those who work (peasants, as well as workers in cities); the Third Estate. (In some places, especially in northern Europe, citizens (i.e., those who lived in cities) made up the Third Estate alone, and peasants and others were in the Fourth Estate).