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In France of the ancien régime and the age of the French Revolution, the term Third Estate (tiers état) indicated the generality of people which were not part of the clergy (the First Estate) nor of the nobility (the Second Estate). From these terms came the name of the medieval French national assembly: the Estates-General (Fr. Etats-Généraux), the analogue to the British Parliament but with no constitutional tradition of vested powers: the French monarchy remained absolute.
The Third Estate comprised all those who were not members of the aristocracy or the clergy, including peasants, working people and the bourgeoisie. In 1789, the Third Estate made up 98% of the population in France. Due in part to a limited franchise, the representatives of the Third Estate actually came from the wealthy upper bourgeoisie; sometimes the term's meaning has been restricted to the middle class, as opposed to the working class.
Main article French States-General
The first Estates-General was called by Philip IVPhilippe IV, the Fair ( French Philippe le Bel ( 1268 November 29, 1314) was King of France from 1285 to 1314. A member of the Capetian Dynasty, he was born at the Royal Palace of Fontainebleau, Seine-et-Marne the son of King Philippe III and Isabella of in 1302, in order to obtain national approval for his anticlerical policy. Philip organized the assembly into three divisions, and every following Estates-General down to 1789 maintained the division.
The Estates-General of France dwindled in importance, and after 1614Events April 5 In Virginia, Native American Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe. October 11 Adriaen Block and a group of Amsterdam merchants petition the States General for exclusive trading rights in the area he explored and named " New Nether it was not called again for 175 years.
Main article Estates-General of 1789The Estates-General of 1789 was the first meeting of the French Estates-General, a general assembly consisting of representatives from all but the poorest segment of the French citizenry, since 1614; the independence which it displayed from the crown pave
In May 1789, Louis XVI convened the Estates-General in order to address the financial crisis of the kingdom, which was effectively bankrupt. By this point, however, the French aristocracy has declined in power and influence, while the bourgeoisie had become much more important and conscious of itself as a class. The Third Estate, containing representatives of the bourgeois, asked for greater share of representation than it had possessed in earlier centuries; they were given twice as many representatives, but since voting was to be by the three Estates rather than by individual representatives, this gave them no immediately meaningful advantage. The Third Estate then asked for all estates to meet together as a single body.
When Louis XVI did not respond, the Third Estate declared itself ( June 17June 17 is the 168th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (169th in leap years), with 197 days remaining. Events 1497 Battle of Deptford Bridge Forces under King Henry VII soundly defeat troops led by Michael An Gof. 1565 Matsunaga Hisahide assasinat, 1789) the National AssemblyThe National Assembly is the name of either a legislature, or the lower house of a bicameral legislature in some countries. The best known, if not first, National Assembly, was that established following the French Revolution in 1789, known as the Assembl, invited representatives of the other two estates to join them, and signed the Tennis Court Oath demanding a constitution for France. The Third Estate, along with the support of sympathetic clergy and aristocrats, managed to win support of both the popular mobs of Paris and of much of the national military, and thus found itself in a position to reorganize the French state as it saw fit.