Modern History Sourcebook:
Social Conditions in 17th Century France
From Report of the Estates of Normandy (1651)
Saint-Quentin. Of the 450 sick persons whom the inhabitants
were unable to relieve, 200 were turned out, and these we saw
die one by one as they lay on the roadside. A large number still
remain, and to each of them it is only possible to dole out the
least scrap of bread. We only give bread to those who would otherwise
die. The staple dish here consists of mice, which the inhabitants
hunt, so desperate are they from hunger. They devour roots which
the animals cannot eat; one can, in fact, not put into words the
things one sees.... This narrative, far from exaggerating, rather
understates the horror of the case, for it does not record the
hundredth part of the misery in this district. Those who have
not witnessed it with their own eyes cannot imagine how great
it is. Not a day passes but at least 200 people die of famine
in the two provinces. We certify to having ourselves seen herds,
not of cattle, but of men and women, wandering about the fields
between Rheims and Rhétel, turning up the earth like pigs
to find a few roots; and as they can only find rotten ones, and
not half enough of them, they become so weak that they have not
strength left to seek food. The parish priest at Boult, whose
letter we enclose, tells us he has buried three of his parishioners
who died of hunger. The rest subsisted on chopped straw mixed
with earth, of which they composed a food which cannot be called
bread. Other persons in the same place lived on the bodies of
animals which had died of disease, and which the curé,
otherwise unable to help his people, allowed them to roast at
the presbytery fire.
From Letters of the Abbess of Port-Royal
(1649) This poor country is a horrible sight; it is stripped
of everything. The soldiers take possession of the farms and have
the corn threshed, but will not give a single grain to the owners
who beg it as an alms. It is impossible to plough. There are no
more horses all have been carried off. The peasants are reduced
to sleeping in the woods and are thankful to have them as a refuge
from murderers. And if they only had enough bread to half satisfy
their hunger, they would indeed count themselves happy.
(1652) People massacre each other daily with every sort
of cruelty.... The soldiers steal from one another when they have
denuded every one else, and as they spoil more property than they
carry off, they are themselves often reduced to starvation, and
can find no more to annex. All the armies are equally undisciplined
and vie with one another in lawlessness. The authorities in Paris
are trying to send back the peasants to gather in the corn; but
as soon as it is reaped the marauders come to slay and steal,
and disperse all in a general rout.
From Cecile Augon, Social France in the XVIIthe Century,
(London: Methuen, 1911), pp. 171-172, 189
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(c)Paul Halsall Aug 1997
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