In France under the Ancien Régime, the Estates General of the kingdom was an assembly that brought together the three orders of society (also called the three estates), that is to say the clergy, the nobility and the third estate (or third state). The States General are therefore the emanation of the society of orders, this representation of a social world divided into three unequal categories:the oratores, “those who pray”, meaning the clergy; the bellatores, “those who fight”, meaning the nobility; the laboratores, “those who work”, i.e. the third estate.
The Estates General are not permanent and can only meet by order of the king. It is almost always in crisis situations that they are summoned by him. The Estates General have two main powers:they are authorized to decide on reforms of the general taxation of the kingdom, and they are also able to settle a problem of dynastic succession if, on the death of a sovereign, he has not no clear successor. On the other hand, the Estates General have no legislative power and are therefore in no way a “National Assembly” before their time.
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The deputies of the States General are chosen at the level of local constituencies, called "bailliages" rather in the north of the kingdom, or "sénéchaussées" rather in the south. Their mandate is imperative:their task is solely to transmit to the sovereign the grievances of his subjects without taking the slightest personal initiative.
It was Philippe IV le Bel who created the Estates General in 1302, in order to establish his personal power in the kingdom by receiving the support of all his subjects. Their assemblies were quite regular in the Middle Ages and at the beginning of the modern era, but the rise of absolutism led the king to do without them to govern. Gathered in 1614, when Marie de Medici exercises the regency in the name of Louis XIII, the Estates General will then not be convened for 175 years, until the crisis of royal finances forces Louis XVI to call on them one last time. in 1789…