Ancien Régime, literally the “old order”, referring to the period in French history preceding the revolution of July 1789. The term is often synonymous with the reign of Louis XVI up to the French Revolution, but historians also use it to refer to the longer period from approximately 1598 to 1789. Its original use was not historical but political: during the Revolution, which was taken to be the “new order”, it was used as a term of abuse for the preceding era, in which the government had been responsible to the king alone, and not to the people's elected representatives.