The Estates-General (or States-General) of 1789 (French French is a Romance language spoken as a first language by about 136 million people worldwide. Around 190 million people speak French as a second language, and an additional 200 million speak it as an acquired foreign language. French speaking communities are present in 57 countries and territories. Most native speakers of the language live in: Les États-Généraux de 1789) was the first meeting since 1614 of the French Estates-General In France under the Ancien Régime, the States-General or Estates-General , was a legislative assembly (see The Estates) of the different classes (or estates) of French subjects. It had a separate assembly for each of the three estates, which were called and dismissed by the king. It had no true power in its own right; unlike the English, a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm Estates of the realm were the broad divisions of society, usually distinguishing nobility, clergy, and commoners recognized in the Middle Ages and later, in some parts of Europe. While various realms inverted the order of the first two, commoners were universally tertiary, and often further divided into burghers and peasants; in some regions,, the nobles, the Church and the common people. The independence from the Crown which it displayed paved the way for the French Revolution The French Revolution was a period of radical social and political upheaval in French and European history. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years. French society underwent an epic transformation as feudal, aristocratic, and religious privileges evaporated under a sustained assault from liberal political.

Contents

Background

Main article: Causes of the French Revolution The causes of the French Revolution are a subjective yet significant historical debate. France in 1769, although facing some economic difficulties and simplicities, was one of the richest and most powerful nations in Europe; Additionally, the masses of most other European powers had less freedom and a higher chance of arbitrary punishment. However,

Among the direct causes of the French Revolution was a massive financial crisis caused by France's enormous national debt Government debt is money (or credit) owed by any level of government; either central government, federal government, municipal government or local government. The annual government deficit, however, refers to the difference between government receipts and spending, the lack of food and its outrageous prices, the desire to imitate the American Revolution The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America. They first rejected the authority of the Parliament of Great Britain to govern them from overseas without, the government's lavish spending, and an archaic system of taxation To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law which brought little money to the national coffers though placing the tax burden upon the Third Estate Estates of the realm were the broad divisions of society, usually distinguishing nobility, clergy, and commoners recognized in the Middle Ages and later, in some parts of Europe. While various realms inverted the order of the first two, commoners were universally tertiary, and often further divided into burghers and peasants; in some regions, (in theory, all of the commoners; in practice, the bourgeoisie In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late eighteenth century to now, the bourgeoisie is a social class characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture. A member of the bourgeoisie is a bourgeois or capitalist (plural: bourgeois;), while virtually ignoring the First Estate Estates of the realm were the broad divisions of society, usually distinguishing nobility, clergy, and commoners recognized in the Middle Ages and later, in some parts of Europe. While various realms inverted the order of the first two, commoners were universally tertiary, and often further divided into burghers and peasants; in some regions, (the Clergy) and the Second Estate Estates of the realm were the broad divisions of society, usually distinguishing nobility, clergy, and commoners recognized in the Middle Ages and later, in some parts of Europe. While various realms inverted the order of the first two, commoners were universally tertiary, and often further divided into burghers and peasants; in some regions, (the Nobility). Successive attempts at reforming the system had proven fruitless in the face of opposition from the First and Second Estates. On 22 February 1787, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, the minister of finances, convened an Assembly of Notables to deal with the financial situation. On 13 July, the assembly demanded that Louis XVI Louis XVI of France ruled as King of France and Navarre from 1774 until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792. Suspended and arrested during the Insurrection of 10 August 1792, he was tried by the National Convention, found guilty of treason, and executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793. He was the only king of France to be call the General States, and on 18 December, the king promised to do so within five years. By this time, Calonne had been succeeded as finance minister by his chief critic, Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne; in turn, Brienne was succeeded by Jacques Necker, a former finance minister who was sympathetic to the Third Estate. With Necker once again in charge of the nation's finances, the king, on 8 August 1788, agreed to call the Estates-General on 5 May of 1789.

Preparation

The prospect of an Estates-General highlighted the conflict of interest between the Second and Third Estates. The First Estate Estates of the realm were the broad divisions of society, usually distinguishing nobility, clergy, and commoners recognized in the Middle Ages and later, in some parts of Europe. While various realms inverted the order of the first two, commoners were universally tertiary, and often further divided into burghers and peasants; in some regions, and the Second Estate Estates of the realm were the broad divisions of society, usually distinguishing nobility, clergy, and commoners recognized in the Middle Ages and later, in some parts of Europe. While various realms inverted the order of the first two, commoners were universally tertiary, and often further divided into burghers and peasants; in some regions, together represented only 3% of France's national population. The Third Estate Estates of the realm were the broad divisions of society, usually distinguishing nobility, clergy, and commoners recognized in the Middle Ages and later, in some parts of Europe. While various realms inverted the order of the first two, commoners were universally tertiary, and often further divided into burghers and peasants; in some regions,, theoretically representing the other 97% of the French population, in practice represented an increasing proportion of the country's wealth. But the other two Estates, which historically had often voted with each other, could still outvote it. The Estates General of 1789 was the first time the Third Estate had been allowed to participate in the government. [1] Many of this rising class nonetheless saw the calling of the Estates-General as a chance to gain power Power is a measure of an entity's ability to control the environment around itself, including the behavior of other entities. The term authority is often used for power, perceived as legitimate by the social structure. Power can be seen as evil or unjust, but the exercise of power is accepted as endemic to humans as social beings. Often, the study.

According to the model of 1614, the Estates-General would consist of equal numbers of representatives from each Estate. The Third Estate demanded double representation, which they already had in the provincial assemblies. This became a topic for pamphleteers, the most notable pamphlet What is the Third Estate? coming from the pen of Abbé Sieyès. Necker, hoping to avoid conflict, convened a second assembly of notables on 6 November 1788, but, to his chagrin, they rejected the notion of double representation. By calling the assembly, Necker had merely underlined the nobles' opposition to the inevitable policy.

The royal decree of December 27 1788 announced that the Estates-General would amount to at least a thousand deputies, and granted double representation of the Third Estate. In the further liberalization of the process, mere parish priests A priest or priestess is a person having the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities. Their office or position is the priesthood, a term which may also apply to such persons collectively (curés) could serve as deputies for the First Estate, and Protestants Protestantism is one of the four major divisions within Christianity together with the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and the Roman Catholic Church. The term is most closely tied to those groups that separated from the Roman Catholic Church in the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation could be deputed to the Third Estate.

According to historian François Mignet, after reasonably honest elections, "The deputation of the nobility comprised two hundred and forty-two gentlemen, and twenty-eight members of the Parlement The political institutions of the Parlement (French pronunciation: [paʁləmɑ̃] ) in ancien régime France developed out of the previous council of the king, the Conseil du roi or curia regis, and consequently had ancient and customary rights of consultation and deliberation. In the thirteenth century, judicial functions were added. The; that of the clergy, of forty-eight archbishops or bishops, thirty-five abbés or deans, and two hundred and eight curés; and that of the communes, of two ecclesiastics, twelve noblemen, eighteen magistrates of towns, two hundred county members, two hundred and twelve barristers, sixteen physicians, and two hundred and sixteen merchants and agriculturists." Other sources give slightly different numbers; one French-language source gives the breakdown for the First Estate of "270 representatives of the nobility (90 of them liberals), for the Second Estate: 206 curés and 85 higher clergy, for the Third Estate 578 representatives including 200 lawyers, 3 priests, and 11 nobles.[2]

The Estates-General convenes

Opening of Estates-General of 1789 The meeting of the Estates General, 5 May 1789

When the Estates-General convened in Versailles Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre. Located in the western suburbs of the French capital, 17.1 km (10.6 mi) from the center of on 5 May 1789 amidst general festivities, many in the Third Estate viewed the double representation as a revolution already peacefully accomplished. However, with the etiquette of 1614 strictly enforced, the clergy and nobility in their full regalia, and the physical locations of the deputies from the three estates dictated by the protocol, an immediate impression emerged that less had, in fact, been achieved.

When Louis XVI and Charles Louis François de Paule de Barentin, the Keeper of the Seals, addressed the deputies on 6 May, the Third Estate discovered that 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. Necker had more sympathy for 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 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 vote per deputy ("voting by heads" rather than "by orders"). 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 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 as a concession wrung from the monarchy, rather than a magnanimous gift that would have convinced the populace of the king's good will.[3]

Proceedings and dissolution

The Estates-General reached an impasse. The first item on the agenda involved the verification of powers. Honoré Mirabeau, 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 taxes of the King, the three Estates began to discuss separately the organization of the legislature. Shuttle diplomacy continued without success until 27 May, when the nobles voted to stand firm for separate verification. The following day, Abbé Sieyès (a member of the clergy, but, like Mirabeau, elected to represent the Third Estate) moved 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 in common the powers of the three orders, and invited to this common work those of the clergy and nobles. 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 redefined as the National Assembly During the French Revolution, the National Assembly , which existed from June 17 to July 9 of 1789, was a transitional body between the Estates-General and the National Constituent Assembly, an assembly not of the Estates but of the People. They invited the other orders to join them, but made it clear that they intended to conduct the nation's affairs with or without them.

The King tried to resist. Under the influence of the courtiers of his privy council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation on how to exercise their executive authority, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to, he resolved to go in state to the Assembly, annul its decrees, command the separation of the orders, and dictate the reforms to be effected by the restored Estates-General. On 20 June he ordered the Salle des États, the hall where the National Assembly met, closed. The Assembly moved their deliberations to the King's tennis court ("Jeu de paume"), where they proceeded to swear the Tennis Court Oath The Tennis Court Oath was a pivotal event during the French Revolution. The Oath was a pledge signed by 576 out of the 577 members from the Third Estate and a few members of the First Estate during a meeting of the Estates-General of 20 June 1789 in a tennis court building near the Palace of Versailles (Serment du jeu de paume), under which they agreed not to separate until they had settled the constitution A constitution is a set of laws that a set of people have made and agreed upon for government—often codified as a written document—that enumerates and limits the powers and functions of a political entity. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is. In the case of countries and autonomous regions of federal countries the of France. Two days later, deprived of use of the tennis court as well, the Assembly met in the church of Saint Louis, where the majority of the representatives of the clergy joined them: efforts to restore the old order had served only to accelerate events.[4] The king gave the people more fuel to keep going and make change happen.

In the séance royale of 23 June, the King granted a Charte octroyée, a constitution granted from the royal favour, which affirmed, subject to the traditional limitations, the right of separate deliberation for the three orders, which constitutionally formed three chambers. This move failed; soon, that part of the deputies of the nobles who still stood apart joined the National Assembly at the request of the king. The Estates-General had ceased to exist, having become the National Assembly (and after 9 July 1789, the National Constituent Assembly 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), though these bodies consisted of the same men.

References

  1. ^ Hunt, Lynn et. al. The Making of the West. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. p 592.
  2. ^ "Quid 2006 - Table générale - Quid.fr". http://www.quid.fr/2000/Q017710.htm. Retrieved 10 March 2006.
  3. ^ SparkNotes: the French Revolution (1789–1799): The Estates-General: 1789
  4. ^ French Revolution 2007

Categories: 1789 events of the French Revolution | Historical legislatures | 1789 in France

 

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