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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 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.
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 ...
Unlike the First and Second Estates, the Third Estate were compelled to pay taxes. The bourgeoisie found ways to evade them and become exempt. The major burden of the French government fell upon the poorest in French society: the farmers, peasantry, and working poor. The Third Estate had considerable resentment toward the upper classes.
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. [28]
Their compilation was ordered by Louis XVI, who had convened the Estates General of 1789 to manage the revolutionary situation, to give each of the Estates – the First Estate (the clergy), the Second Estate (the nobility) and the Third Estate, which consisted of everyone else, including the urban working class, the rural peasantry, and middle ...
Also included in the Third Estate were lawyers, merchants, and government officials. Fourth Estate is a term with two relevant meanings: on the one hand, the generally unrepresented poor, nominally part of the Third Estate; on the other, the press, as a fourth powerful entity in addition to the three estates of the realm.