The Ancien Régime (, Old or Former Regime) was the aristocratic, social and political system established in pre-modern France from approximately the 15th century until the later 18th century under the late Valois and Bourbon dynasties. The administrative and social structures of the Ancien Régime were the result of years of state-building, legislative acts (like the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts), internal conflicts and civil wars, but they remained a confusing patchwork of local privilege and historic differences until the French Revolution ended the system.