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the first estate of prelates (bishops and abbots) the second estate of lairds (dukes, earls, parliamentary peers (after 1437) and lay tenants-in-chief) the third estate of burgh commissioners (representatives chosen by the royal burghs) The First Estate was overthrown during the Glorious Revolution and the accession of William III. [17]
The Third Estate balked at this traditional arrangement, because the clergy and nobility were more conservative than the commoners and could overrule the Third Estate on any matter 2–1. The Third Estate had initially demanded to be granted double weight, allowing them to match the power of the First and Second Estates, but those estates had ...
The first estate was the clergy, the second the nobility and the third the commoners, although actual membership in the third estate varied from country to country. [1] Bourgeoisie, peasants and people with no estate from birth were separated in Sweden and Finland as late as 1905.
Caricature from 1789 with the Third Estate carrying the First Estate and Second Estate on its back. At the time of the revolution, the First Estate comprised 100,000 Catholic clergy and owned 5–10% of the lands in France—the highest per capita of any estate. All property of the First Estate was tax exempt.
The Estates-General had been called on 5 May 1789 to manage France's financial crisis, but promptly fell to squabbling over its own structure. Its members had been elected to represent the estates of the realm: the 1st Estate (the clergy), the 2nd Estate (the nobility) and the 3rd Estate (which, in theory, represented all of the commoners and, in practice, represented the bourgeoisie).
The Estates-General contained three separate bodies, the First Estate representing 100,000 clergy, the Second the nobility, and the Third the "commons". [33] Since each met separately, and any proposals had to be approved by at least two, the First and Second Estates could outvote the Third despite representing less than 5% of the population.
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The second estate consisted of the nobility. The third estate consisted of the commoners. It included businessmen, merchants, court officials, lawyers, peasants, landless labourers and servants. The first two estates together were 2% of the population. The third estate was 98%. [1] All of the many types of taxes were paid by the third estate.