Events
May 5, 1789 Louis XVI summons Estates-General for its
first meeting since 1614
June 17 Third Estate breaks away from Estates-General, establishes
itself as National Assembly
Key people
-
Jacques Necker
Director
general of finance who returned to office after Calonne’s dismissal
-
Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès
Author of influential “What Is the Third
Estate?” pamphlet, which influenced the Third Estate to break off
from the Estates-General
Necker and the Estates-General
In the wake of Calonne’s dismissal, Louis XVI brought
back Swiss banker Jacques Necker, who had previously
served a ten-year stint as director general of finance. After assessing
the situation, Necker insisted that Louis XVI call together the Estates-General,
a French congress that originated in the medieval period and consisted
of three estates. The First Estate was
the clergy, the Second Estate the nobility, and the Third
Estate effectively the rest of French society.
On May 5, 1789,
Louis XVI convened the Estates-General. Almost immediately,
it became apparent that this archaic arrangement—the group had last
been assembled in 1614—would
not sit well with its present members. Although Louis XVI granted
the Third Estate greater numerical representation, the Parlement
of Paris stepped in and invoked an old rule mandating that
each estate receive one vote, regardless of size. As a result, though
the Third Estate was vastly larger than the clergy and nobility,
each estate had the same representation—one vote. Inevitably, the
Third Estate’s vote was overridden by the combined votes of the
clergy and nobility.
Resentment Against the Church
The fact that the Estates-General hadn’t been summoned
in nearly 200 years
probably says a thing or two about its effectiveness. The First
and Second Estates—clergy and nobility, respectively—were too closely
related in many matters. Both were linked intrinsically to the royalty
and shared many similar privileges. As a result, their votes often
went the same way, automatically neutralizing any effort by the
Third Estate.
Additionally, in a country as secularized as France at
the time, giving the church a full third of the vote was ill-advised:
although France’s citizens would ultimately have their revenge,
at the time the church’s voting power just fostered more animosity.
There were numerous philosophers in France speaking out against
religion and the mindless following that it supposedly demanded,
and many resented being forced to follow the decisions of the church
on a national scale.
Divides in the Third Estate
Beyond the chasm that existed between it and the other
estates, the Third Estate itself varied greatly in socioeconomic
status: some members were peasants and laborers, whereas others
had the occupations, wealth, and lifestyles of nobility. These disparities
between members of the Third Estate made it difficult for the wealthy
members to relate to the peasants with whom they were grouped. Because
of these rifts, the Estates-General, though organized to reach a
peaceful solution, remained in a prolonged internal feud. It was
only through the efforts of men such as Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès (see
below) that the members of the Third Estate finally realized
that fighting among themselves was fruitless and that if they took
advantage of the estate’s massive size, they would be a force that
could not be ignored.
“What Is the Third Estate?”
To add insult to injury, delegates from the Third Estate
were forced to wear traditional black robes and to enter the Estates-General meeting
hall by a side door. Necker tried to placate the Third Estate into
tolerating these slights until some progress could be made, but his
diplomatic efforts accomplished little. Fed up with their mistreatment,
activists and pamphleteers of the Third Estate took to the streets
in protest.
