8. Many of the Court’s Residents Were Formerly Rural
Several years in the mid 16th century saw poor crop yields and bitter winters. This devastation left many farms destitute, having had to use their seed grain as food. With no way of securing the money to purchase new seed crops, many fled the countryside assuming they could find work and income in Paris. The rural migration was exacerbated by constant warfare under Louis XIV’s command, which would have left the countryside with too few able-bodied men for farm labor as well as leaving it defenseless against vagabonds.
Due to the shortage of grain from the reduced crop years, bread, the staple of the French diet in the 17th century, became incredibly expensive. For the average day laborer, purchasing enough food to feed their family would have eaten up over 60% of their wages. Sadly even that level of earning was out of reach for most of the rural refugees to Paris, as little work was available.
The ranks of the various societies in the Court would have been filled with countless rural refugees who fled the failing farms in the countryside. While Henri Savaul carefully documented much of the daily interactions in the lives of residents of the Court, it is not clear if there was any lower status afforded to those refugees versus native denizens of Paris. Given the highly hierarchical nature of the Court’s society, one has to wonder how the rural refugees fared when they arrived pennilessly.