<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The Ancien Régime (/ ˌɒ̃sjæ̃ reɪˈʒiːm /; French: (ɑ̃. sjɛ̃ ʁeʒim); French for "old regime") was the political and social system of the Kingdom of France from the Late Middle Ages (circa 15th century) until 1789, when hereditary monarchy and the feudal system of French nobility were abolished by the French Revolution . The Ancien Régime was ruled by the late Valois and Bourbon dynasties . The term is occasionally used to refer to the similar feudal systems of the time elsewhere in Europe . The administrative and social structures of the Ancien Régime were the result of years of state - building, legislative acts (like the Ordinance of Villers - Cotterêts), internal conflicts and civil wars, but they remained and the Valois Dynasty's attempts at re-establishing control over the scattered political centres of the country were hindered by the Huguenot Wars (or Wars of Religion). Much of the reigns of 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 Fronde) protested against this centralization . </P> <P> 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 Huguenot 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 (taille) and the tax on salt (gabelle) and by contributions of men and service from the nobility . </P>

The political and social system that existed in france before the french revolution was called the