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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Drunkenness in Early Modern France (XVI - XVIIIth century)

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description

From the 16th to the 18th century, a deeply rooted tradition of open and celebrative inebriation existed in the kingdom of France. Society permitted collective, festive and social drinking. But many opposed drunkenness. In France at that time, absolute monarchy from divine right was developing, and the fundamental opposition came from religious and civic powers. Drunkenness was seen either as a sin or as a vice of variable severity that drove others to commit it as well. From 1536, a connection was made between sin and crime: inebriation became an auxiliary crime. However, in face of the culture of inebriation, religious and political authorities acted pragmatically and did not really attempt to eradicate drunkenness from the kingdom. Even with the parallel development of moral, economic and medical arguments that painted drunkenness as a vice that led to bankruptcy and illness, sobriety did not triumph during this epoch. On the contrary, from the 16th to the 18th century, it became more and more common to become inebriated. Drinking in the Ancien Régime took place usually on Sunday, from the afternoon through the night, in the cabarets. The participants were mostly men from twenty to thirty-four years of age, peasants and artisans. But all social classes were involved. The number and the overlap of norms, religious, legal, moral, economic, medical and social, which were sometimes contradictory and often changing, complicated opposition and favored compromise.