Third Estate separates from the Estates General to form a National assembly. Yesterday, in Paris, the king Louis XVI called a meeting of the Estates General. The Third Estate asked for a new voting system, but the rest of the Estates didn´t approve it, so the Third Estate has formed a National Assembly. They dropped out because it wanted a constitution and a new voting system where the voting was “by head” and not “by power”, because of this voting system, their double representation was meaningless. The National Assembly had to meet somewhere although the king didn´t let them to do that. Therefore, they met at the Tennis Court Oath illegally. They had a motto, which said: “Never to separate and to meet wherever circumstances demand, until the constitution had been written, despite the royal prohibition”. Meantime, people are generating problems to the king so Louis has surrounded Versailles with troops and dismissed Jacques Necker( a popular minister of state who supports these reforms) in order to take control of the situation. #FrenchRevolution
The political and financial situation in France had grown rather bleak, forcing Louis XVI to summon the Estates General. This assembly was composed of three estates – the clergy, nobility and commoners – who had the power to decide on the levying of new taxes and to undertake reforms in the country. The opening of the Estates General, on 5 May 1789 in Versailles, also marked the start of the French Revolution.
On 4 May 1789 the last grand ceremony of the Ancien Régime was held in Versailles: the procession of the Estates General. From all over France, 1,200 deputies had arrived for the event. The deputies of the Third Estate (the Commoners) were the greatest in number, dressed in black with a gold and black overcoat. They were all holding a candle in their hand, except for those carrying the banners and the King’s Falconers. The king himself was wearing an overcoat of golden fabric and was surrounded by the most important Officers to the Crown. On his hat he wore the Regent Diamond, which was the largest diamond in the kingdom. The queen was wearing a gold and silver dress. The king was cheered, but not the queen. The procession started at Notre-Dame, crossed the Place d’Armes, and finished at the church of Saint-Louis, where Monseigneur de La Fare, bishop of Nancy, stood at the pulpit and gave his famous speech in which he severely rebuked the luxury of the Court. For the first time in history a bishop was applauded in a church.
Louis XVI opened the session with a speech in which he reviewed the circumstances that had led to the convocation, and what he expected from the Estates General. As a peaceful king, he declared himself “the people’s greatest friend”. The solemn opening ceremony began on 5 May. The convocation had been sent out on 5 July the previous year, assembling the Estates General for the first time since 1614. A temporary hall with columns had been built behind the Menus-Plaisirs building on Avenue de Paris. However, contrary to the depiction in the famous engraving, the hall was very small. The king officiated from his position at the end of the hall beneath a majestic baldachin, with the queen and the princes of the blood around him. The deputies were seated in rows around the edge. The members of the Third Estate and a few of the Clergy and the Nobility would later constitute the first National Assembly. Louis XVI opened the session with a speech in which he reviewed the circumstances that had led to the convocation, and what he expected from the Estates General. As a peaceful king, he declared himself “the people’s greatest friend”. This was followed by speeches by Barentin, the Keeper of the Seals, and Necker, the Minister of Finances, concerning the economic situation in the kingdom. The budget deficit was 56 million. Necker claimed that new taxes would be enough to make up for the deficit, but the Commoners, who were only too aware of the country’s expectations, were dissatisfied with such a mediocre discourse, and decided to take things into their own hands. The Revolution had begun…
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The free application of the Palace offers audio tours to accompany your visit to the Estate (Palace, Gardens, Trianon Estate, etc.) as well as an interactive map. More informationAware of the injustices of the French tax policy, King Louis XVI tried to pass some reforms. He wanted to reform the tax code to make it more fair, but he was repeatedly thwarted by the greedy nobles and clergy. The nobles and clergy did not want to change the tax code, because under the current tax policy the nobles and clergy were not required to pay taxes, where the peasants were. They didn’t want to change it. King Louis XVI realized that was unfair and tried to change it, but because the nobles and clergy made up two thirds of the vote in the Estates General, he kept being overruled. The third estate, which was made up of the lower-class citizens, the common people, middle-lower class peasants, anyone that wasn’t a noble or a clergyman, was furious. This third estate was furious and refused to vote in the Estates General anymore. That makes sense, since the nobles and clergy are almost always going to outvote you, because what the third estate wants is not probably going to be in the best interest of the nobles and clergy. The nobles and clergy would always band together and outvote the third estate. Finally, the third estate said, “We’re not even going to vote in the Estates General anymore.” Instead, prominent members of the middle class who would have been members of the third estate, they banded together to form the National Assembly, which claimed to represent this interest of common Frenchmen. The National Assembly was supposed to represent the interests of common Frenchmen. Anyone who would have been in the third estate. Supposed to represent the interests of the middle and lower classes. At the same time that all this is going on within the Estates General, the peasants were in full revolt. You have members of the middle class revolting against the Estates General and saying, “We’re going to form the National Assembly and we’re going to form our own little government here, because we don’t like the way that all this is working.” The peasants were also in full revolt. On July 14th, 1789, they stormed the Parisian prison known as the Bastille, and they were successful. The success of this riot inspired more peasants to clamor for representation. Peasants wanted to be represented. They wanted to not be the ones forced to pay all the taxes for the country. More peasants joined onto this bandwagon. They wanted to be a part of this revolt and try to reform the government. The diversion that it caused kept the government from dealing with the National Assembly. Middle class citizens banded together who would have been in the third estate to form the National Assembly. Peasants who also would’ve been from the third estate went into full revolt and actually attacked a Parisian prison. Since they were successful, this inspired and more peasants to join the revolt and it diverted the government’s attention, so they didn’t try to deal with the National Assembly right away. That gave them a longer chance to gain a foothold. After the storming of the Bastille and the formation of the National Assembly in 1789, the French middle and lower classes, who would have both been part of the third estate of this Estates General, they joined together and established a new government with the slogan “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” This is still a form of the National Assembly, but now it includes the lower classes as well. The peasants and the lower class citizens joined with those middle class citizens who originally started the National Assembly and they came up with their own government whose slogan was “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” This government quickly reformed the tax code. They wanted it to be fair for everybody and they declared that government offices would be filled based on merit only from then on. Instead of government offices being given based on if you were friends with people in politics or based on if they were paying money for that office, that wouldn’t happen anymore. Now the people filling the government offices were going to be people who were qualified for the job and were only getting the job based on their merit and not on how much money or land they could pay to the government to have that position. The National Assembly also eliminated serfdom, which was when people would have to work for lords of a manner. You had people working for the lord and they didn’t actually own any land of their own. They would be considered serfs and they would be made to work that land in exchange for protection from the lord of that manor. They didn’t actually have any land for themselves and they were required to work that land. There wasn’t another option for them. The National Assembly eliminated that, saying that these people were free to go where they wanted. They didn’t have to work that land anymore. They also drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Men, which was similar to the American Bill of Rights. It was basically just a list of the rights that every man was born with. These are natural rights that people are born with and that everyone should get. The Declaration of the Rights of Man just basically declared what the rights were that every man was entitled to just based on being alive in France. The National Assembly then seized the lands that belonged to the church. The clergy, who had been warned of their somewhat enemies in the Estates General, they seized the land that belong to the church, a lot of which had been gained with the church saying, “Okay, we’ll give you a position in the church office or we’ll knock some time off your time in Purgatory or let you go straight to heaven if you pay us money or you give us some land.” A lot of that land had come to the church through some shady ways. Now the National Assembly just seized that land for its new government and it eliminated the feudal rights of the aristocracy. The nobles were your aristocracy. They were the ones who were the lords, who had these serfs working for them. If you take away their serfs and you told them the feudalism policy isn’t going to be in place anymore, you’ve basically taken away their power. You took away the land from the church, and that took away a lot of power from them. This all was going to make the National Assembly a little bit stronger and give them an actual voice against the rest of the Estates General. However, there was soon dissension with the third estate, which was what the National Assembly was made up of. The revolution became more radical and violent. You had problems in the Estates General. The first two estates, the nobles and the clergy, ganged up against the third estate, made up of the middle and lower classes, and would always outvote them, made them pay all the taxes, and they just weren’t listened to. The third estate broke off and formed the National Assembly. Peasants joined in. Then, they had their own government, but eventually the National Assembly, which is made up of the third estate, began to have dissension within itself, which was going to weaken them. This revolution just became more radical and more violent after this point. |