What did the french peasants think of the estates general during the french revolution?
They were originally summoned and dismissed at the king’s pleasure. It was an organ of “…propaganda for royal policy…” that, unlike its English counterpart “…did not fix grants of taxation. … Its function in furthering royal policy was not essential, but, as a forum for giving publicity to the royal intentions in crisis, only useful.” In contrast to the bicameral English parliament, the Estates General had a separate assembly for each of the three estates of the realm, the First Estate (clergy), Second Estate (the nobility), and Third Estate (commoners: all others). At the time of the revolution, the First Estate composed of 10,000 Catholic clergy and owned 5%-10% of the lands in France – the highest per capita of any other estate. All property of the First Estate was tax exempt. The Second Estate was composed of the nobility. At the time of the revolution, they consisted of 400,000 persons, including women and children. Since the death of Louis XIV in 1715, they had enjoyed a resurgen
