query: who represented the third estate in the estates general

pos: Estates General (France) summoning the assembly of 1302 are published by M. Georges Picot in his collection of "Documents inédits pour servir à l'histoire de France". During the same reign they were subsequently assembled several times to give him aid by granting subsidies. Over time subsidies came to be the most frequent motive for their convocation. In one sense, the composition and powers of the Estates General always remained the same. They always included representatives of the First Estate (clergy), Second Estate (the nobility), and Third Estate (commoners: all others), and monarchs always summoned them either to grant subsidies or to advise the

pos: France in the Middle Ages Third Estate (commoners: all others), and monarchs always summoned them either to grant subsidies or to advise the Crown, to give aid and counsel. In their primitive form in the 14th and the first half of the 15th centuries, the Estates-General had only a limited elective element. The lay lords and the ecclesiastical lords (bishops and other high clergy) who made up the Estates-General were not elected by their peers, but directly chosen and summoned by the king. In the order of the clergy, however, since certain ecclesiastical bodies, e.g. abbeys and chapters of cathedrals, were also summoned to the

neg: French Revolution people. The Estates-General was organised into three estates: the clergy, the nobility, and the rest of France. It had last met in 1614. Elections were held in the spring of 1789; suffrage requirements for the Third Estate were for French-born or naturalised males, aged 25 years or more, who resided where the vote was to take place and who paid taxes. Strong turnout produced 1,201 delegates, including 303 clergy, 291 nobles and 610 members of the Third Estate. The First Estate represented 100,000 Catholic clergy; the Church owned about 10% of the land and collected its own taxes (the tithe)

neg: Louis XII of France more accurately his regent and oldest sister, Anne of France) would take in leading the kingdom. Accordingly, on 24 October 1483, a call went out for a convocation of the Estates General of the French kingdom. In January 1484, deputies of the Estates General began to arrive in Tours, France. The deputies represented three different "estates" in society. The First Estate was the Church; in France this meant the Roman Catholic Church. The Second Estate was composed of the nobility and the royalty of France. The Third Estate was generally composed of commoners and the class of traders and merchants

neg: Burgundian Netherlands Duke only maintained ties with each of the provincial States separately. In principle, the provincial Estates were composed of representatives of the three traditional estates: clergy, nobility and the Third Estate, but the exact composition and influence of each estate (within the provincial Estates) could differ. Convening an Estates General in which all provincial Estates were represented was part of Philip the Good's policy of centralisation. From 1441, Philip based his ducal court in Brussels, but Bruges was the world center of commerce, though by the 1480s the inevitable silting of its harbor was bringing its economic hegemony to a

neg: Estates General of 1789 Estate represented the nobility, about 400,000 men and women who owned about 25 percent of the land and collected seigneurial dues and rents from their peasant tenants. About a third of the 282 deputies representing the Second Estate were nobles, mostly with minor holdings. The Third Estate representation was doubled to 578 men, representing 95 percent of the population of roughly 25 million. Half were well-educated lawyers or local officials. Nearly a third were in trades or industry; 51 were wealthy land owners. The "Réglement" that went out by post in January thus specified separate voting for delegates of each

neg: Estates General of 1789 Estates General of 1789 The Estates General of 1789 was a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm: the clergy (First Estate), the nobility (Second Estate), and the commoners (Third Estate). Summoned by King Louis XVI, it was brought to an end when the Third Estate formed into a National Assembly, inviting the other two to join, against the wishes of the King. This signaled the outbreak of the French Revolution. The suggestion to summon the Estates General came from the Assembly of Notables installed by the King on 22 February 1787. It had not met since 1614.

neg: French Wars of Religion the Estates-General, there was only one Huguenot delegate present among all of the three estates; the rest of the delegates were Catholics with the Catholic League heavily represented. Accordingly, the Estates-General pressured Henry III into conducting a war against the Huguenots. In response Henry said he would reopen hostilities with the Huguenots but wanted the Estates-General to vote him the funds to carry out the war. Yet, the Third Estate refused to vote for the necessary taxes to fund this war. The situation degenerated into open warfare even without the King having the necessary funds. Henry of Navarre again sought

neg: Club Breton estates, only the Third Estate and the Minor orders were represented in the Estates General. The Britany nobility sent delegates to Versailles to obtain that the election would conform to the old Brittany constitution electoral rules, which stipulated that the delegates would be nominated by the 47 representatives of the 42 towns of the province, excluding small cities and rural areas, without any representatives for the Minor orders. However, the Brittany Third Estate sent its own delegation and was allowed to send its own delegates. The nobility and the Major orders answer was to refuse to elect representatives on 16

neg: Joseph Martin-Dauch Estates-General ended, Martin-Dauch retired to Toulouse. He was thrown in prison during the Reign of Terror, but was afterwards released. He was saved from the guillotine when he gave a false name to revolutionary authorities. He survived at least one assassination attempt. Joseph Martin-Dauch Joseph Martin-Dauch, (26 May 1741 – 5 July 1801) was a French politician who represented Castelnaudary as a member of the Third Estate in the Estates-General of 1789. He is remembered as the only member not to vote in favor of the Tennis Court Oath on the grounds that he could not faithfully execute any decisions

neg: Estates General (France) the Estates General session. According to the model of 1614, the Estates General would consist of equal numbers of representatives of each Estate, but the Third Estate demanded, and ultimately received, double representation, which they already had in the provincial assemblies. When the Estates General convened in Versailles on 5 May 1789, however, it became clear that the double representation was something of a sham: voting was to occur "by orders", which meant that the collective vote of the 578 representatives of the Third Estate would be weighed the same as that of each of the other Estates. Royal efforts

neg: Tennis Court Oath oath "". The only person who did not join was Joseph Martin-Dauch from Castelnaudary, who would only execute decisions made by the king. Before the Revolution, French society—aside from royalty—was divided into three estates. The First Estate comprised the clergy; the Second Estate was the nobility. The entire rest of France—some 98% of the population—was the Third Estate, which ranged from very wealthy city merchants to impoverished rural farmers. The three estates met from time to time in the Estates General, a legislative assembly. Although the Third Estate was the overwhelming majority of the French population, the makeup of the

neg: Nobles of the Sword because in troubled times military strength was at a premium. There were three “estates” of the Estates General, France's parliament; each represented a different class. The First Estate was the clergy, and the Second Estate was the nobility. The nobles of the sword traditionally had more power than the nobles of the robe. Their inherent position was derived from the military service they owed to the king in return for possession of their land-holdings, which were passed from father to son; but they also held official positions in provincial and national government and at court. The Third Estate was the

neg: Estates General of 1789 25 years and older, property owners, and registered taxpayers. They could be native or naturalized citizens. The number of delegates elected was about 1,200, half of whom formed the Third Estate. The First and Second Estates had 300 each. But French society had changed since 1614, and these Estates-General were not identical to those of 1614. Members of the nobility were not required to stand for election to the Second Estate, and many of them were elected to the Third Estate. The total number of nobles in the three Estates was about 400. Noble representatives of the Third Estate were

neg: Estates General (France) as these bodies, being persons in the moral but not in the physical sense, could not appear in person, their representative had to be chosen by the monks of the convent or the canons of the chapter. It was only the representation of the Third Estate which was furnished by election. Originally, the latter was not called upon as a whole to seek representation in the estates. It was only the "bonnes villes", the privileged towns, which were called upon. They were represented by elected "procureurs", who were frequently the municipal officials of the town, but deputies were often elected

neg: States of Friesland by duk George to Charles V in 1515), became part of the Habsburg Netherlands, its government followed the general Habsburg model of a stadtholder with a Council (in this case the Court of Friesland). But as in other provinces of the Netherlands a States was periodically convened to send representatives to the States General of the Netherlands to deliberate about the granting of extraordinary subsidies to the central government (called "Beden"), and as in other provinces the three Estates: Clergy, Nobility, and Third Estate were represented in that body. In Friesland the Third Estate was formed by representatives of the

neg: Estates General of 1789 that the Commons be allocated twice as many delegates as each of the other two Estates. In an attempt to bolster his failing popularity the King acceded to this measure of "doubling the Third." He was confident of his influence over the Nobility and Clergy. The First Estate represented 100,000 Catholic clergy; the Church owned about 10 percent of the land and collected its own taxes (the tithe) on peasants. The lands were controlled by bishops and abbots of monasteries, but two-thirds of the 303 delegates from the First Estate were ordinary parish priests; only 51 were bishops. The Second

neg: James Ferguson (major-general) sold the estates of Balmakelly and Kirtonhill and bought those of Kinmundy and Coynach, (now part of the settlement of Clola), Aberdeenshire (Burke, Landed Gentry, 1886, vol. i.), now held by his descendants. The Kinmundy estate was listed as extending to 4,068 acres with an annual income valued at £3,900 in 1883. James Ferguson (major-general) James Ferguson (before 1677–1705) of Balmakelly and Kirtonhill, Kincardineshire, was a Scottish major-general, colonel of the Cameronian regiment. Ferguson was the third son of William Ferguson, laird of Badifurrow, who represented Inverurie in the first Scottish parliament after the Restoration, remembered for its demonstrative loyalty

neg: Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau of the Second Estate), but was rejected. He appealed instead to the Third Estate and was elected to the Estates-General in both Aix and Marseilles. He chose to accept the seat for the former city, and was present at the opening of the Estates-General on 4 May 1789. From this time onward, Mirabeau took a very prominent role in the deliberations of the National Constituent Assembly. Among a large crowd of unfamiliar politicians in the Estates General, Mirabeau was one figure who stood out. He was widely known to the French public, and not only did the people place great

neg: The Estates The Estates The Estates or the States (, , ) was the assembly of the representatives of the estates of the realm, the divisions of society in feudal times, called together for purposes of deliberation, legislation or taxation. A meeting of the estates that covered an entire kingdom was called an estates general. The first estate was the clergy, the second the nobility and the third the commoners, although actual membership in the third estate varied from country to country. Bourgeoisie, peasants and people with no estate from birth were separated in Sweden and Finland as late as in 1905.

neg: Estates General of 1789 the Third Estate, but on this occasion he spoke only about the fiscal situation, leaving it to Barentin to speak on how the Estates-General was to operate. Trying to avoid the issue of representation and to focus solely on taxes, the King and his ministers had gravely misjudged the situation. The Third Estate wanted the estates to meet as one body and for each delegate to have one vote. The other two estates, while having their own grievances against royal absolutism, believed – correctly, as history was to prove – that they stood to lose more power to the Third

neg: Tennis Court Oath Estates General was such that the Third Estate comprised a bare majority of the delegates. A simple majority was sufficient—as long as the delegates' votes were cast altogether. The First and Second Estates preferred to divide the vote in some way. A proposal might need to receive approval from each Estate, or there might be two "houses" of the Estates General (one for the first two Estates, and one for the Third), and a bill would need to be passed by both houses. Either way, the First and Second Estates could exercise veto power over proposals enjoying widespread support among

neg: National Assembly (French Revolution) Estate (the clergy), the 2nd Estate (the nobility) and the 3rd Estate (which, in theory, represented all of the commoners and, in practice, represented the bourgeoisie). The Third Estate had been granted "double representation"—that is, twice as many delegates as each of the other estates—but at the opening session on 5 May 1789 they were informed that all voting would be "by power" not "by head", so their double representation was to be meaningless in terms of power. They refused this and proceeded to meet separately. Shuttle diplomacy among the estates continued without success until 27 May on 28 May

neg: Estates General of 1789 that the representatives of the Third Estate, who now called themselves the "Communes" ("Commons"), proceed with verification and invite the other two estates to take part, but not to wait for them. On 13 June 1789, the Third Estate had arrived at a resolution to examine and settle the powers of the three orders. They invited the clergy and nobles to work with them on this endeavor. On 17 June, with the failure of efforts to reconcile the three estates, the "Communes" completed their own process of verification and almost immediately voted a measure far more radical: they declared themselves

neg: French Revolution He asserted: "What is the Third Estate? Everything. What has it been until now in the political order? Nothing. What does it want to be? Something." The Estates-General convened in the Grands Salles des Menus-Plaisirs in Versailles on 5 May 1789 and opened with a three-hour speech by Necker. The Third Estate demanded that the credentials of deputies should be verified by all deputies, rather than each estate verifying the credentials of its own members, but negotiations with the other estates failed to achieve this. The commoners appealed to the clergy, who asked for more time. Necker then stated that

neg: 1792 Imperial election crisis. In order to resolve the crisis, the king, Louis XVI of France, called the Estates General of 1789 on January 24. The Estates General quickly became mired in disputes over the representation of the various estates. On June 17, after months of such disputes, the Third Estate, representing the common people, declared itself the National Assembly. On June 20, the National Assembly swore not to disperse until they had established a constitution. The dismissal of the Controller-General of Finances Jacques Necker, seen as sympathetic to the Third Estate, and the gathering of the army outside Paris led to fears

neg: Joseph Martin-Dauch Joseph Martin-Dauch Joseph Martin-Dauch, (26 May 1741 – 5 July 1801) was a French politician who represented Castelnaudary as a member of the Third Estate in the Estates-General of 1789. He is remembered as the only member not to vote in favor of the Tennis Court Oath on the grounds that he could not faithfully execute any decisions that were not sanctioned by the king. Joseph Martin-Dauch was born in Castelnaudary, the son of Antoine Martin Dauch, a counselor to the king, who owned a vineyard, and Marie Barbe Latour. He was educated at Toulouse, where he graduated with a

neg: Maximilien Robespierre the Third Estate. Although the leading members of the established provincial estates of Artois were elected to the Estates-General, Robespierre succeeded in getting elected with them – even though he was their chief opponent. In the assembly of the "bailliage", rivalry ran still higher, but Robespierre had begun to make his mark in politics with the of 1789. With this, he secured the support of the country electors. Although he was only thirty, comparatively poor, and lacking patronage, he was elected as the fifth deputy of the Third Estate of Artois to the Estates-General. When Robespierre arrived at Versailles few

neg: Estates General of 1789 Estate than they stood to gain from the King. Necker sympathized with the Third Estate in this matter, but the astute financier lacked equal astuteness as a politician. He decided to let the "impasse" play out to the point of stalemate before he would enter the fray. As a result, by the time the King yielded to the demand of the Third Estate, it seemed to all to be a concession wrung from the monarchy, rather than a magnanimous gift that would have convinced the populace of the King's goodwill. The Estates-General reached an impasse. The Second Estate pushed for

neg: Estates of the realm goals of Finance Minister Jacques Necker, but very much against the wishes of Louis XVI's court and many of the hereditary nobles forming his Second Estate allies (at least allies against taking more taxes upon themselves and keeping the unequal taxation on the commoners). When he could not persuade them to rubber-stamp his 'ideal program', Louis XVI sought to dissolve the Estates-General, but the Third Estate held out for their right to representation. The lower clergy (and some nobles and upper clergy) eventually sided with the Third Estate, and the King was forced to yield. Thus, the Estate-General meeting was

neg: Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès resentment and agitation that united the third estate against the feudalistic traditions of the Ancien Régime. As a result, the Third Estate demanded the reorganization of the Estates General, but the two other orders proved unable or unwilling to provide a solution. Sieyès proposed that the members of the First and Second order join the Third Estate and become a united body to represent the nation as a whole. He not only suggested an invitation, however, but also stated that the Third Estate had the right to consider those who denied this invitation to be in default of their national

neg: Estates General (France) bourgeoisie, the peasants, and everyone else in France. Unlike the First and Second Estates, the Third Estate were compelled to pay taxes, but the bourgeoisie found one way or another to be exempt from them. The heavy burden of the French government therefore fell upon the poorest in French society—the peasantry, the working poor, and the farmers. There was much resentment from the Third Estate towards its superiors. In 1789, the Estates General was summoned for the first time since 1614. As Fénelon had wished in former days, an Assembly of Notables in 1787 (which already displayed great independence) preceded

neg: History of France was granted "double representation" so as to balance the First and Second Estate, voting was to occur "by orders" – votes of the Third Estate were to be weighted – effectively canceling double representation. This eventually led to the Third Estate breaking away from the Estates-General and, joined by members of the other estates, proclaiming the creation of the National Assembly, an assembly not of the Estates but of "the People." In an attempt to keep control of the process and prevent the Assembly from convening, Louis XVI ordered the closure of the Salle des États where the Assembly met.

neg: What Is the Third Estate? estates of the clergy and aristocracy. Sieyès stated that the people wanted genuine representatives in the Estates-General, equal representation to the other two orders taken together, and votes taken by heads and not by orders. These ideas came to have an immense influence on the course of the French Revolution. The pamphlet is organized around three hypothetical questions and Sieyès' responses. The questions and responses are: Throughout the pamphlet, Sieyès argues that the first and second estates are simply unnecessary, and that the Third Estate is in truth France's only legitimate estate, representing as it does the entire population. Thus,

neg: Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette Louis XVI called an Assembly of Notables, in response to France's fiscal crisis. The king appointed Lafayette to the body, which convened on 22 February 1787. In speeches, Lafayette decried those with connections at court who had profited from advance knowledge of government land purchases; he advocated reform. He called for a "truly national assembly", which represented the whole of France. Instead, the king chose to summon an Estates General, to convene in 1789. Lafayette was elected as a representative of the nobility (the Second Estate) from Riom. The Estates General, traditionally, cast one vote for each of the three

neg: Estates General (France) prelates of the same district chose the same procureur to represent them. On the other hand, the Crown seems at that time to have felt the need of having the consent of representatives really expressing the will and feelings of all the orders, and especially of the Third Estate as a whole. The letters of summons to the Estates General of 1484 invited the ecclesiastics, nobles, and Third Estate to meet at the chief town of their "bailliage" or "sénéchaussé" and elect deputies. An intermediate form had been employed in 1468 when the prelates and lords had still been summoned

neg: Fourth Estate powers of regency to "a fourth estate: the queen". This was reported by Burke, who, as noted above, went on to use the phrase with the meaning of "press". In his novel "The Fourth Estate", Jeffrey Archer wrote: "In May 1789, Louis XVI summoned to Versailles a full meeting of the 'Estates General'. The First Estate consisted of three hundred clergy. The Second Estate, three hundred nobles. The Third Estate, six hundred commoners." The book is a fictionalization from episodes in the lives of two real-life Press Barons, Robert Maxwell and Rupert Murdoch. Fourth Estate The term Fourth Estate (or

neg: Cahiers de doléances may not leave during the times of planting and harvest." The cahiers of the Third Estate spoke out mainly against the financial privileges held by the two other Estates. They were both exempt from most taxes such as the church tithe and the taille (the main direct tax). They also wanted to have a fair voting system in the Estates-General. At the moment, they would be outvoted by the other two orders, who would combine their votes on any issue that suited them. They had double representation (600, rather than 300 members representing them), but each estate had a single

neg: Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans the "birthplace of the Revolution." Philippe's goal was to create a place where people could meet, which he argued was a crucial part of democracy and a "physical need for civil life." Philippe d'Orléans was elected to the Estates-General by three districts: by the nobility of Paris, Villers-Cotterêts, and Crépy-en-Valois. As a noble in the Second Estate, he was the head of the liberal minority under the guidance of Adrien Duport. Although he was a member of the Second Estate, he felt a strong connection to the Third Estate, as they comprised the majority of the members in the Estates-General,

neg: Antoine Balthazar Joachim d'André Antoine Balthazar Joachim d'André Antoine Balthazar Joachim, baron d'André (2 July 1759 – 16 July 1825) was a French royalist politician. He was born in Aix-en-Provence on 2 July 1759. At the onset of the French Revolution he was a "conseiller" at the Parliament of Aix-en-Provence. Elected by the Second Estate as a representative of the sénéchaussée of Aix-en-Provence to the Estates-General of 1789 (also elected from Aix was the comte de Mirabeau, who though he was a nobleman was elected by the Third Estate). Following the example of Philippe, duc d'Orléans, he joined the Third Estate which became the

neg: Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi ran the Manufacture des Gobelins, the Manufacture de la Savonnerie and the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres. The Secretary also oversaw (either directly or through the service of the Bâtiments du Roi) cultural and scientific institutions such as the Bibliothèque du Roi, the Paris Observatory, the Jardin des Plantes, the Collège royal, French academies and royal entertainment. He was also in charge of buildings chosen for the États généraux/States-General or Estates-General (early medieval-"Old Regime" era national parliament), with three "estates" (houses) - "First Estate" (bishops/clergy), "Second Estate" (nobility), and "Third Estate" (commoners/tradesmen), later abolished after beginning of the French Revolution in

neg: French Revolution a tithe—a 10% tax on income, often collected in the form of crops—on the general population, only a fraction of which it then redistributed to the poor. Resentment towards the Church weakened its power during the opening of the Estates General in May 1789. The Church composed the First Estate with 130,000 members of the clergy. When the National Assembly was later created in June 1789 by the Third Estate, the clergy voted to join them, which perpetuated the destruction of the Estates General as a governing body. The National Assembly began to enact social and economic reform. Legislation sanctioned

neg: Balcarres House grounds. The estate is represented by East Neuk Estates, a joint venture of six local landed families who continue to live on and run their estates, some of which date back to the Medieval era and are still largely agricultural. The other estates are Balcaskie (Anstruther family), Elie House (Nairn baronets), Gilston Estate (Baxter family), Kilconquhar Estate (Lindesay-Bethune family) and Strathtyrum (Cheape family). Balcarres House Balcarres House is just north of the village of Colinsburgh, in the East Neuk of Fife, eastern Scotland. It is based on a mansion built in 1595 by John Lindsay (1552–1598), second son of David,

neg: Estates General (France) to focus solely on taxes failed totally. The Estates General reached an immediate impasse, debating (with each of the three estates meeting separately) its own structure rather than the nation's finances. On 28 May 1789, Abbé Sieyès moved that the Third Estate, now meeting as the "Communes" (), proceed with verification of its own powers and invite the other two estates to take part, but not to wait for them. They proceeded to do so, completing the process on June 17. Then they voted a measure far more radical, declaring themselves the National Assembly, an assembly not of the Estates

neg: Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette Estates: clergy, nobility, and commons, meaning the much larger commons was generally outvoted. The Estates General convened on 5 May 1789; debate began on whether the delegates should vote by head or by Estate. If by Estate, then the nobility and clergy would be able to outvote the commons; if by head, then the larger Third Estate could dominate. Before the meeting, as a member of the "Committee of Thirty", Lafayette agitated for voting by head, rather than estate. He could not get a majority of his own Estate to agree, but the clergy was willing to join with the

neg: Henri Evrard, marquis de Dreux-Brézé Henri Evrard, marquis de Dreux-Brézé Henri Evrard, marquis de Dreux-Brézé (17621829) was a member of the French nobility who at the age of twenty-seven played a role in the meeting of the states-general in 1789. Brézé had succeeded his father Thomas as court master of the ceremonies to Louis XVI in 1781. During the opening stages of the Estates-General of 1789 it fell to Brézé to regulate the questions of etiquette and precedence between the three estates. That as the immediate representative of the crown he would offend the susceptibilities of the deputies of the Third Estate was perhaps inevitable,

neg: François Antoine de Boissy d'Anglas François Antoine de Boissy d'Anglas François-Antoine, Count of the Empire (1756–1828) was a French writer, lawyer and politician during the Revolution and the Empire. Born to a Protestant family in Saint-Jean-Chambre, Ardèche, he studied Law and, after literary attempts, became a lawyer to the "parlement" of Paris. In 1789 he was elected by the Third Estate of the "sénéchaussee" of Annonay as deputy to the Estates-General. He was one of those who induced the Estates-General to proclaim itself a National Assembly on 17 June 1789, and approved, in several speeches, of the storming of the Bastille and of the taking

neg: 1562 Riots of Toulouse the execution of this decision was in question." Though the Council edict was not viewed as a success, they did decide that there would be conference between Catholic bishops and reformed ministers (who would be granted safe conduct) to meet at Poissy. Originally scheduled for August 18 the Colloquy at Poissy would be postponed until October due to a meeting of the Estates General on the state of French finances. At the meeting of General Estates on August 26 the third estate continued to deride the cost the upkeep of the Catholic clergy was having on the merchants and bourgeoisie.

neg: Joseph-Henri baron de Jessé Estates-General by the sénéchaussée Béziers, to serve as a deputy of the nobility. The Estates-General soon reached a deadlock. The Third Estate, or Commoners, broke away during June and formed its own assembly. Jessé was amongst those who helped persuade the three orders of Clergy, Nobility and Commoners to eventually reunite and form the National Constituent Assembly, which was declared on 9 July 1789. The Bastille was stormed, and fell on 14 July 1789. The people of Paris believed that weapons and gunpowder were being stored in the Bastille, and fearing the city was about to be placed under military

neg: What Is the Third Estate? What Is the Third Estate? What Is the Third Estate? () is a political pamphlet written in January 1789, shortly before the outbreak of the French Revolution, by the French thinker and clergyman Abbé Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (1748–1836). The pamphlet was Sieyès' response to finance minister Jacques Necker's invitation for writers to state how they thought the Estates-General should be organized. In the pamphlet, Sieyès argues that the third estate – the common people of France – constituted a complete nation within itself and had no need of the "dead weight" of the two other orders, the first and second

neg: Louis XVIII of France and was replaced by the Swiss magnate Jacques Necker. In November 1788, a second Assembly of Notables was convened by Jacques Necker, to consider the makeup of the next Estates-General. The "Parlement de Paris" recommended that the Estates should be the same as they were at the last assembly, in 1614 (this would mean that the clergy and nobility would have more representation than the Third Estate). The notables rejected the "dual representation" proposal. Louis Stanislas was the only notable to vote to increase the size of the Third Estate. Necker disregarded the notables' judgment, and convinced Louis XVI to

neg: Estates General of 1789 meetings that were to transpire in three separate locations, as they had traditionally. The Comte de Mirabeau, a noble himself but elected to represent the Third Estate, tried but failed to keep all three orders in a single room for this discussion. Instead of discussing the King's taxes, the three estates began to discuss separately the organization of the legislature. These efforts continued without success until 27 May, when the nobles voted to stand firm for separate verification. The following day, the Abbé Sieyès (a senior member of the clergy, but, like Mirabeau, elected to represent the Third Estate) moved

neg: Louis XVIII of France grant the extra representation – Louis duly obliged on 27 December. The Estates-General were convened in May 1789 to ratify financial reforms. The Count of Provence favoured a stalwart position against the Third Estate and its demands for tax reform. On 17 June, the Third Estate declared itself a National Assembly, an Assembly not of the Estates, but of the people. Provence urged the King to act strongly against the declaration, while the King's popular minister Jacques Necker intended to compromise with the new assembly. Louis XVI was characteristically indecisive. On 9 July, the assembly declared itself a National Constituent

neg: Louis XVI of France "all traditional observances should be carefully maintained to avoid the impression that the Estates-General could make things up as it went along." Under this decision, the king agreed to retain many of the divisive customs which had been the norm in 1614 and before, but which was intolerable to a Third Estate buoyed by the recent proclamations of equality. For example, the First and Second Estates proceeded into the assembly wearing their finest garments, while the Third Estate was required to wear plain, oppressively somber black, an act of alienation that Louis XVI would likely have not condoned. He seemed

neg: Louis-Jérôme Gohier Louis-Jérôme Gohier Louis-Jérôme Gohier (27 February 1746 – 29 May 1830) was a French politician of the Revolutionary period. Louis-Jérôme Gohier was born in Semblançay, in the Indre-et-Loire department of France. The son of a notary, he practiced law in Rennes. In 1789, he was one of the deputies of the "tiers état" (Third Estate, representing the "Commoners") elected to represent the town in the Estates-general. In the Legislative Assembly, he represented Ille-et-Vilaine, taking a prominent part in the deliberations. He protested against the exaction of a new oath from priests (22 November 1791), and demanded the sequestration of the

neg: Bon-Albert Briois de Beaumetz Campan, a lady-in-waiting for Marie Antoinette. Each week, he entertained at his home the most important figures of the bar of Arras. It was to one of these meetings, in which the election campaign for the Estates General of 1789 was planned, that Maximilien Robespierre, member of the Artesian bar, was not invited. It revived an animosity between the erstwhile friends. In the elections to the Estates General, Bon Albert de Beaumetz was elected as a member by the Second Estate of the Artois, while Maximilien Robespierre managed to get elected by the Third Estate. In the subsequent National Constituent

neg: Estates General of 1789 people. A third type complained that the ubiquitous tolls and duties levied by the nobility hindered internal commerce. On 5 May 1789, amidst general festivities, the Estates-General convened in an elaborate but temporary "Île des États" set up in one of the courtyards of the official Hôtel des Menus Plaisirs in the town of Versailles near the royal château. With the "étiquette" of 1614 strictly enforced, the clergy and nobility ranged in tiered seating in their full regalia, while the physical locations of the deputies from the Third Estate were at the far end, as dictated by the protocol. When

neg: Tennis Court Oath Tennis Court Oath On 20 June 1789, the members of the French Third Estate, who had begun to call themselves the National Assembly, took the Tennis Court Oath (), vowing "not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established". It was a pivotal event in the French Revolution. The Estates-General had been called to address the country's fiscal and agricultural crisis, but immediately after convening in May 1789, they had become bogged down in issues of representation—particularly, whether they would vote by head (which would increase the power of the Third Estate,

neg: Roman Catholic Diocese of Mende (nobility) were represented by the eight Barons who were Peers of Gévaudon (d'Apchier, de Peyre, de Cenaret, du Tournel, de Randon, de Florac, de Mercoeur, de Canilhac), twelve gentlemen (the Seigneurs d'Allene, de Montauroux, de Saint-Alban, de Montrodat, de Mirandol, de Séverac, de Barre, de Gabriac, de Portes, de Servières, d'Arpajon, and the Consuls of la Garde-Guérin); the Third Estate were represented by the three Consuls of Mende, the three Consuls of Marvejols (when the meeting took place at Marvejols), and a Consul (or deputy) from each of sixteen communities. The Estates met annually, alternately at Mende and at Marvejols.

neg: Fête de la Fédération It was also a symbol of the reunification of the Three Estates, after the heated Estates-General of 1789, with the Bishop (First Estate) and the King (Second Estate) blessing the people (Third Estate). In the gardens of the Château de La Muette, a meal was offered to more than 20,000 participants, followed by much singing, dancing, and drinking. The feast ended on the 18 July. Fête de la Fédération The (Festival of the Federation) was a massive holiday festival held throughout France in honour of the French Revolution. It is the precursor of the 14 juillet French National Day which

neg: Estates General of 1789 Louis XVI and Charles Louis François de Paule de Barentin, the Keeper of the Seals of France, addressed the deputies on 6 May, the Third Estate discovered that the royal decree granting double representation also upheld the traditional voting "by orders", i.e. that the collective vote of each estate would be weighed equally. The apparent intent of the King and of Barentin was for everyone to get directly to the matter of taxes. The larger representation of the Third Estate would remain merely a symbol while giving them no extra power. Director-General of Finance Jacques Necker had more sympathy for

neg: Estate satire could collect taxes from the Third Estate, and had other special privileges. The Third Estate, the Commons, is the largest, consisting of around 96% of the population (UCL). The commons included everyone who did not belong to the first two estates, primarily rural peasants and the urban bourgeois or middle class. They had none of the privileges or luxuries that the first two estates enjoyed, although the rise of capitalism in the late 14th Century resulted in the bourgeois having relatively more power. Among 14th-century English authors, John Gower, William Langland, and Chaucer were three of the most prominent writers

neg: Marie Antoinette radical aristocrats) and the conservative nobility of the Second Estate widened, and Marie Antoinette knew that her rival, the duc d'Orléans, who had given money and bread to the people during the winter, would be acclaimed by the crowd, much to her detriment. The death of the Dauphin on 4 June, which deeply affected his parents, was virtually ignored by the French people, who were instead preparing for the next meeting of the Estates General and hoping for a resolution to the bread crisis. As the Third Estate declared itself a National Assembly and took the Tennis Court Oath, and

neg: Right-wing politics anti-capitalist sentiments including conservatives and fascists who opposed what they saw as the selfishness and excessive materialism inherent in contemporary capitalism. The political term right-wing was first used during the French Revolution, when liberal deputies of the Third Estate generally sat to the left of the president's chair, a custom that began in the Estates General of 1789. The nobility, members of the Second Estate, generally sat to the right. In the successive legislative assemblies, monarchists who supported the Old Regime were commonly referred to as rightists because they sat on the right side. A major figure on the right

neg: National Constituent Assembly (France) National Constituent Assembly (France) The National Constituent Assembly () was formed from the National Assembly on 9 July 1789 during the first stages of the French Revolution. It dissolved on 30 September 1791 and was succeeded by the Legislative Assembly. The Estates-General of 1789, "(Etats Généraux)" made up of representatives of the three estates (clergy, aristocracy, and commoners), which had not been convoked since 1614, convened on 5 May 1789. The Estates-General reached a deadlock in its deliberations by 6 May. The representatives of the Third Estate attempted to make the whole body more effective and so met separately from

neg: Estates of the realm who succeeded Rome after the 4th century. France under the "Ancien Régime" (before the French Revolution) divided society into three estates: the First Estate (clergy); the Second Estate (nobility); and the Third Estate (commoners). The king was considered part of no estate. The First Estate comprised the entire clergy, traditionally divided into "higher" and "lower" clergy. Although there was no formal demarcation between the two categories, the upper clergy were, effectively, clerical nobility, from the families of the Second Estate. In the time of Louis XVI, every bishop in France was a nobleman, a situation that had not existed before

neg: National Assembly (French Revolution) National Assembly (French Revolution) During the French Revolution, the National Assembly (), which existed from 14 June 1789 to 9 July 1789, was a revolutionary assembly formed by the representatives of the Third Estate of the Estates-General; thereafter (until replaced by the Legislative Assembly on 30 Sept 1791) it was known as the National Constituent Assembly (), though popularly the shorter form persisted. The Estates-General had been called on 4 May 1789 to deal with France's financial crisis, but promptly fell to squabbling over its own structure. Its members been elected to represent the estates of the realm: the 1st

neg: Estates of the realm In Scotland, the Three Estates were the Clergy (First Estate), Nobility (Second Estate), and Shire Commissioners, or "burghers" (Third Estate), representing the bourgeois, middle class, and lower class. The Estates made up a Scottish Parliament. Today the terms "three estates" and "estates of the realm" may sometimes be re-interpreted to refer to the modern separation of powers in government into the legislature, administration, and the judiciary. Additionally the term "fourth estate" usually refers to forces outside the established power structure (evoking medieval three-estate systems), most commonly in reference to the independent press or media. Historically, in Northern and Eastern Europe,

neg: Estates General (France) de doléances" (statement of grievances), which they requested the deputies to present. This even appeared to be the most important feature of an election. The deputies of each order in every "bailliage" also brought with them a "cahier des doléances", arrived at, for the third estate, by a combination of statements drawn up by the primary or secondary electors. On the assembly of the estates the "cahiers" of the "bailliages" were incorporated into a "cahier" for each "gouvernement", and these again into a "cahier general" or general statement, which was presented to the king, and which he answered in his

neg: French Revolution 51 were wealthy land owners. To assist delegates, "Books of grievances" ("cahiers de doléances") were compiled to list problems. The books articulated ideas which would have seemed radical only months before; however, most supported the monarchical system in general. Many assumed the Estates-General would approve future taxes, and Enlightenment ideals were relatively rare. Pamphlets by liberal nobles and clergy became widespread after the lifting of press censorship. The Abbé Sieyès, a theorist and Catholic clergyman, argued the paramount importance of the Third Estate in the pamphlet "Qu'est-ce que le tiers état?" ("What is the Third Estate?") published in January, 1789.

neg: Estates of Brittany the third estate to be represented. The marquise de Sévigné participated in its meetings at Rennes and Vitré between 1670 and 1690, writing: I did not want to see the opening, it was too early. The Estates do not have to be long. It only needed to ask what the King wanted. He need not say a word; and, voilà, it is done. For the Governor, he found there, I don't know how, over 40,000 écus which returned to him. An infinity of other presents, pensions, road and town repairs, 15 or 20 grandes tables, continual gaming, eternal balls, comedies

neg: Louis XII of France cathedrals and monastery chapters themselves. All church prelates within France would be appointed by the King of France without reference to the pope. The deputies representing the Second Estate (the nobility) at the Estates General of 1484 wanted all foreigners to be prohibited from command positions in the military. The deputies of the Third Estate (the merchants and traders) wanted taxes to be drastically reduced and that the revenue needs of the crown be met by reducing royal pensions and the number offices. All three of the estates were in agreement on the demand for an end to the sale

neg: Estates General of 1789 Estate. Each tax district (cities, boroughs, and parishes) would elect their own delegates to the Third Estate. The "Bailliages", or judicial districts, would elect delegates to the First and Second Estates in separate ballots. Each voting assembly would also collect a "Cahier", or "Notebook", of grievances to be considered by the Convocation. The election rules differed somewhat depending on the type of voting unit, whether city, parish or some other. Generally, the distribution of delegates was by population: the most populous locations had the greatest number of delegates. The City of Paris was thus dominant. The electorate consisted of males

neg: French Wars of Religion led to the Edict of Union, in which the crown accepted almost all the League's demands: reaffirming the Treaty of Nemours, recognizing Cardinal de Bourbon as heir, and making Henry of Guise Lieutenant-General. Refusing to return to Paris, Henry III called for an Estates-General at Blois in September 1588. During the Estates-General, Henry III suspected that the members of the third estate were being manipulated by the League and became convinced that Guise had encouraged the duke of Savoy's invasion of Saluzzo in October 1588. Viewing the House of Guise as a dangerous threat to the power of the Crown,

neg: Estates General (France) for the purpose. The country districts, the "plat pays", were not represented. Even within the "bonnes villes", the franchise was quite narrow. It was during the last thirty years of the 15th century that the Estates General became an entirely elective body and really representative of the whole nation as divided into three parts. This came about through various causes. On the one hand, the nobles and prelates who were summoned were not always inclined to attend the estates, so had themselves represented by an envoy, a "procureur", as they had the right to do, and frequently the lords or

neg: Estates of the realm Estates of the realm The estates of the realm, or three estates, were the broad orders of social hierarchy used in Christendom (Christian Europe) from the medieval period to early modern Europe. Different systems for dividing society members into estates developed and evolved over time. The best known system is the French "Ancien Régime" (Old Regime), a three-estate system used until the French Revolution (1789–1799). Monarchy was for the king and the queen and this system was made up of clergy (the First Estate), nobles (the Second Estate), and peasants and bourgeoisie (the Third Estate). In some regions, notably Scandinavia

neg: Stanislas Marie Adélaïde, comte de Clermont-Tonnerre He was elected to the Estates-General of 1789 by the Second Estate of Paris, and was the spokesman of the minority of Liberal nobles (including the duc d'Orléans and the marquis de Lafayette) who joined the Third Estate on the 25th of June. In July 1789, Stanislas wrote and shared two propositions based on varying cahiers from across the Assembly, one known as the "Rapport du Comité de Constitution". Both liberals and conservatives alike felt the proposals were not rooted in the best interest of either faction. He was chiefly concerned with keeping the kingdom intact, yet he voted for

neg: Storming of the Bastille Louis XVI, France faced a major economic crisis, caused in part by the cost of intervening in the American Revolution, and exacerbated by a regressive system of taxation. On 5 May 1789, the Estates General of 1789 convened to deal with this issue, but were held back by archaic protocols and the conservatism of the second estate: representing the nobility who made up less than 2% of France's population. On 17 June 1789, the third estate, with its representatives drawn from the commoners, reconstituted themselves as the National Assembly, a body whose purpose was the creation of a French constitution.

neg: Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans yet were the most underrepresented. When the Third Estate decided to take the Tennis Court Oath and break away from the Estates-General to form the National Assembly, Philippe was one of the very first to join them and was a very important figure in the unification of the nobility and the Third Estate. In fact, he led his minority group of 47 nobles to secede from their estate and join the National Assembly. One of the main accusations thrown at Philippe d'Orléans was the initiation of the Women's March on Versailles on 5 October 1789, which people believed was done

neg: National Constituent Assembly (France) 11 May as the "Communes". On 12 June, the "Communes" invited the other Estates to join them: some members of the First Estate did so the following day. On 17 June 1789, the "Communes" approved the motion made by Sieyès that declared themselves the National Assembly by a vote of 490 to 90. The Third Estate now believed themselves to be a legitimate authority equal to that of the King. Elements of the First Estate, primarily parish priests who were closer in wealth to the Third Estate compared to the bishops who were closer in wealth to the Second Estate,

neg: Swedish Pomerania of the Governor-General, who always was a Swedish Privy Councillor, as chairman and five Councillors of the Royal Government, among them the President of the Appellate Court, the Chancellor and the Castle Captain of Stettin, over inspector of the Royal Amts. When circumstances demanded, the estates, nobility, burgesses, and — until the 1690s — the clergy could be summoned for meetings of a local parliament called the "Landtag". The nobility was represented by one deputy per district, and these deputies were in turn mandated by their respective district convents of nobles. The estate of the burgesses consisted of one deputy

neg: Antoine Barnave explained his political position in a pamphlet entitled "Esprit des édits, Enregistrés militairement, le 20 mai 1788". He was immediately elected deputy, with his father, to the Estates General of Dauphiné, and played a prominent role in their debates. A few months later he became better known, when the Estates-General of 1789 convened in Versailles on 5 May 1789, and Barnave was chosen to be a deputy of the Third Estate for his native province of Dauphiné. He soon rose to prominence in the National Assembly, becoming the friend of most of the leaders of the party originating in the

neg: Étienne Marcel Notre Dame" in 1350. In 1354 he succeeded Jean de Pacy as provost of the Parisian merchants, representing the mercantile leaders of the Third Estate of the Estates General, at a time of great change; one of his earliest assemblies - that of 1355 - aimed at controlling the kingdom's finances. In 1356, King John was taken prisoner by the English after the Battle of Poitiers. On 17 October, his heir, the Dauphin Charles, called together the Estates General. In conjunction with Robert le Coq, Bishop of Laon, Marcel played a leading part; a committee of eighty members, formed by

neg: Tricameralism and Third (consisting of commoners). (The term "fourth estate", referring to the press, derives from this system, but was coined long after the revolution that abolished it.) There are two distinct problems with regarding the States-General as a tricameral legislature, however. First, the States-General never had any formal powers to legislate, although at times, it played a major role in the King's legislative activity. Second, the division between the three estates was not always maintainedthe estates sometimes deliberated separately, but at other times, they deliberated as a single body, undermining the idea of tricameralism. The French Consulate (and later First

neg: Estates of the realm The rural included free peasants (who owned their own land) who could be prosperous and villeins (serfs, or peasants working on a noble's land). The free peasants paid disproportionately high taxes compared to the other Estates and were unhappy because they wanted more rights. In addition, the First and Second Estates relied on the labour of the Third, which made the latter's unequal status all the more glaring. There were an estimated 27 million people in the Third Estate when the French Revolution started. They had the hard life of physical labour and food shortages. Most were born within this

neg: Parliament parliament of the feudal Estates type, in the 16th and 17th centuries. The term roughly means assembly of the land. It could be summoned either by tsar, or patriarch, or the Boyar Duma. Three categories of population, comparable to the Estates-General of France but with the numbering of the first two Estates reversed, participated in the assembly: Nobility and high bureaucracy, including the Boyar Duma The Holy Sobor of high Orthodox clergy Representatives of merchants and townspeople (third estate) The name of the parliament of nowadays Russian Federation is the Federal Assembly of Russia. The term for its lower house,

neg: France in the Middle Ages assembly, and as these bodies, being persons in the moral but not in the physical sense, could not appear in person, their representative had to be chosen by the monks of the convent or the canons of the chapter. It was only the representation of the Third Estate which was furnished by election. Originally, moreover, the latter was not called upon as a whole to seek representation in the estates. It was only the "bonnes villes", the privileged towns, which were called upon. They were represented by elected "procureurs", who were frequently the municipal officials of the town, but deputies

neg: Cahiers de doléances Cahiers de doléances The Cahiers de doléances (or simply Cahiers as they were often known) were the lists of grievances drawn up by each of the three Estates in France, between March and April 1789, the year in which a revolutionary situation began. Their compilation was ordered by King Louis XVI, to give each of the Estates – the First Estate (the clergy), the Second Estate (the nobility) and the Third Estate, which consisted of everyone else, including the urban working class, the rural peasantry, and middle class and professional people, who were the only ones in the group likely

neg: François Laborde de Méreville Revolutionary War under the command of Rochambeau. He was a cousin of the prince de Poix and thus related - via his sister Nathalie - to La Fayette. He was procurator general and special procurator for his father before living on Saint-Domingue. In 1789 he became a member of the Committee of Thirty which gathered in the home of Adrien Duport to prepare for the elction of the deputies to the Estates General. He was elected a deputy of the third estate for Étampes. He entered a relationship with Madamoiselle Cabarrus, who later became the marquise of Fontenay - she

neg: Estates General (France) France—the highest per capita of any estate. All property of the First Estate was tax exempt. The Second Estate comprised the nobility, which consisted of 400,000 people at the time, including women and children. Since the death of Louis XIV in 1715, the nobles had enjoyed a resurgence in power. They had almost a monopoly over distinguished government service, higher church offices, army parliaments, and most other public and semipublic honors by the time of the revolution. Like the First Estate, they were not taxed by the principle of feudal precedent. The Third Estate comprised about 25 million people: the

neg: Estonia under Swedish rule west Estonia who formed the Estonian nobility were represented by its general assembly, convened regularly every third year ("Landtag"), and its executive body — the college of magistrates ("Landratscollegium"). The Swedish monarchy was represented by the lord lieutenant, later governor, and the area was governed with the help of the nobility. Crown properties consisted of the lands formerly owned by the Livonian Order, monasteries and bishops, and deserted manorial estates; part of the lands that had been deserted in the war came under the control of the local aristocracy. For administration, these lands were divided into fiefdoms, subdivided into crown

neg: Andrew Grant (MP) estate at Forteviot, Perthshire, for his first country seat. Invermay was one of the many country estates of Lord Clinton, Baron Fortescue. Grant was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. In 1878, Grant was invited to stand as Liberal candidate for Leith Burghs. He was elected Member of Parliament for Leith Burghs at a by-election in 1878, holding the seat for the Liberals, with a majority of 3141. In the General Election of 1880 he was returned unopposed. He represented the constituency until he retired in 1885. He was a highly respected politician, who much considered the well being

neg: Estates of the realm group and died as a part of it, too. It was extremely rare for people of this ascribed status to make it out into another estate. Those who did so managed as a result of either being recognized for their extraordinary bravery in a battle or entering religious life. A few commoners were able to marry into the second estate, but this was a rare occurrence. The first Estates General (not to be confused with a "class of citizen") was actually a general citizen assembly that was called by Philip IV in 1302. In the period leading up to the

neg: John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute estate managers personally, helped by Onesipherus Bruce, a barrister-agent and close friend. As early as 1815, Bute had his Glamorgan estates fully surveyed, which highlighted that the estates had been neglected for many years and were now in a poor condition. Edward Richards became the senior official in charge of the estates by 1824 and represented Bute on both estate and political affairs across the region. Despite this, Bute retained the final authority over even quite minor issues on the estates, including making decisions on the buttons to be used on local school uniforms or the reuse of a broken

neg: Louis XVI of France to regard the deputies of the Estates-General with at least respect: in a wave of self-important patriotism, members of the Estates refused to remove their hats in the King's presence, so Louis removed his to them. This convocation was one of the events that transformed the general economic and political "malaise" of the country into the French Revolution. In June 1789, the Third Estate unilaterally declared itself the National Assembly. Louis XVI's attempts to control it resulted in the Tennis Court Oath ("serment du jeu de paume"), on 20 June, the declaration of the National Constituent Assembly on 9 July,

neg: History of France isolated from, and indifferent to, their hardships. In February 1787, the king's finance minister, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, convened an Assembly of Notables, a group of nobles, clergy, bourgeoisie, and bureaucrats selected in order to bypass the local parliaments. This group was asked to approve a new land tax that would, for the first time, include a tax on the property of nobles and clergy. The assembly did not approve the tax, and instead demanded that Louis XVI call the Estates-General. In August 1788 the King agreed to convene the Estates-General in May 1789. While the Third Estate demanded and

neg: Estates of the realm Estates General of 1789, France was in the grip of an unmanageable public debt (nearly 3.56 million livres). In May 1776, finance minister Turgot was dismissed, after failing to enact reforms. The next year, Jacques Necker, a foreigner, was appointed Comptroller-General of Finance. He could not be made an official minister because he was a Protestant.), terrible inflation and widespread food scarcity (a huge famine in the winter of 1788-89). This led to widespread popular discontent and produced a group of Third Estate representatives (612 exactly) pressing a comparatively radical set of reforms, much of it in alignment with the

neg: Jacques Guillaume Thouret the Estates-General. Thouret was elected deputy to the Estates-General by the third estate of Rouen, and was instrumental in composing the local cahiers de doléances. In the Constituent Assembly (beginning 17 June 1789) his eloquence gained him great influence. Like so many lawyers of his time, he was violently opposed to the clergy, and strongly supported the secularization of church property. He also advocated the suppression of the religious orders and of all ecclesiastical privileges, and actively contributed to the change of the judiciary and administrative system; in particular, he demanded the writing of a uniform civil code. He was

neg: Estates General of 1789 Commons. The Third Estate elections returned predominantly magistrates and lawyers. The lower levels of society, the landless, working men, though present in large numbers in street gangs, were totally absent from the Estates-General, as the King had called for "the most notable persons". The grievances returned were mainly about taxes, which the people considered a crushing burden. Consequently, the people and the King were totally at odds from the very beginning. Aristocratic privilege was also attacked. The people resented the fact that nobles could excuse themselves from most of the burden of taxation and service that fell on the ordinary

neg: Pierre Louis Roederer of the economist Adam Smith, and helped make his works known in France. His 1787 work "Suppression des douanes intérieures" advocated the suppression of internal customs houses; the 1911 "Encyclopædia Britannica" describes it as "an elaborate treatise on the laws of commerce and on the theory of customs imposts". In 1788 he published the boldly liberal pamphlet "Députation aux États généraux" ("Deputation to the Estates-General"). Partly on the strength of this he was elected deputy to the Estates-General by the Third Estate of the bailliage of Metz. Although not present at the event of June 1789, Roederer was sketched by