Nieformalne elity w Europie nowożytnej

Abstract

The author discusses the important problem concerning non-formal elites in Early Modern France, England and the United Provinces. Non-formal institutions existed outside the formai feudal hierarchy - members of the Parliament of Paris and provincial parliaments, courtiers and officers in the army, regents and Ridderschappen in the Netherlands, and gentry in England. Historians argued whether the regents belonged to the nobility, or not. In England, the 18th century is described as a century of aristocracy from the House of Lords. The difference between the lords and gentry was generally based on the way oflife. The same situation was in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (magnates versus nobility). It was also the problem of noblesse de robe versus the "old" nobility in France by the end of the 17'h century. Rivalry between different groups of nobility did not generate conflicts within the whole group. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, political activity was the main way of stabilising the family's position at the Royal Court and within the group. It was also the main way of stabilisation and growth of the economic position of particular families (in the West and in Poland as weII).