Estates General of 1789

Assembly of Notables As a result of the financial support given to the Americans during the war against Great Britain, the amount totaled 1.25 billion livres, France was heavily in debt. For a total income of 475 million livres the annual defict was some 150 million. In 1786, Calonne informed the king that increasing taxes would be impossible, that continued borrowing would be disastrous, and that merely cutting expenses would be inadequate. He added that the only way to bring real order to the finances would be to revitalise the entire state by reforming everything that was defective in its constitution. Calonne did not want the Parlements involved due to their opposing stance. He preferred an assembly of notables as they were only the most important and enlightened magnates of the realm to whom the king could communicate his views and from whom he sought their opinions. Calonne received little cooperation from the assembly as his reforms included a land-tax which was rejected by the nobility within the assembly. Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne, president of the Assembly of Notables, succeeded Calonne as the Controller-General of Finances. Frustrated by his inability to obtain money, the king ordered Brienne on 25 May to dissolve the Assembly. Their proposals reverted to the Parlement. Rebellion of the parlements Turning again to the parlements, the king found that they were inclined to continue the issues that had been raised in the Assembly of Notables. The proper legal function of the parlements, besides giving advice to the king, was only to register or record the king's edicts as law unless the registered edicts were not lawful. The king's antecessors had been able to command this matter of simple obedience, sometimes by sternness, threats, and losses of temper. On 6 July 1787, Loménie forwarded the Subvention Territoriale and another tax, the edit du timbre, or "stamp act", based on the British model, for registration. The parlement refused to register an illegal act, demanding accounting statements, or "States," as a prior condition. It was the king's turn to refuse. The members of the parlement insisted that they required either the accounting States or a meeting of the Estates General. The king would not let this slight to his authority pass and commanded the parlement to assemble at Versailles, where on 6 August he ordered them in person to register the taxes. On 7 August back in Paris, parlement declared in earnest this time the order to be null and void, repudiating all previous registrations of taxes. Only the Estates General, they said, could register taxes. For the second time, the king summoned the parlement away from Paris, where crowds of people cheered their every action from the street, this time to meet at Troyes, Champagne on 15 August. He did not personally appear. By messenger he and the parlement negotiated an agreement: the king withdrew the stamp tax and modified the land tax to exclude the lands of people of title in return for the assured registration of further loans. The parlement was allowed to return on 20 September. Encouraged, Loménie, with the support of the king, went beyond what was agreed by parlement—the granting of specific loans. He proposed an emprunt successif (successive loan) until 1792 giving the king a blank cheque. When parlement delayed, the king resorted to a ruse; he scheduled a royal hunt for 19 November. On that day at 11:00 am the king and his peers noisily entered the session of parlement dressed in hunting clothes. They would confer with each other and have the decisions registered immediately, they said. Nearly the entire government was now face-to-face. They argued the problems and issues concerned until dusk, some six hours later. Parlement believed that the problem had gone beyond the government and needed the decisions of the Estates General which did not correspond to the king's concept of monarchy. At the end of the day, the king demanded the registration of the successive loan. The Duc d'Orléans (a previous Notable, a relative of the king, and an ardent revolutionary), later known as Philippe Égalité, asked if this were a royal session of the peers or a session of parlement. On being told it was a royal session, he replied that edicts were not registered at royal sessions. The king retorted, "Vous êtes bien le maître (do as you will)," with some sarcasm as the king's will was legally required, and strode angrily from the session with a retinue. Lettres de Cachet, or arbitrary arrest warrants, followed on 20 November for D'Orleans and two others. They were taken into custody and held under comfortable conditions away from Paris; D'Orleans on his country estate. Parlement began a debate on the legality of lettres de cachet. The men being held became a cause célèbre. As the king and parlement could accomplish no more together, over the winter Brienne pressed for an alternative plan: to resurrect even more archaic institutions. The Grand Bailliages, or larger legal jurisdictions that once had existed, would assume parlements' legal functions, while the Plenary Court, last known under Louis IX when it had the power to register edicts, would assume the registration duties of the parlements, leaving them with no duties to perform. The king planned a sudden revelation and dismissal of parlement. However, Jean-Jacques Duval d'Eprémesnil heard the government presses running and bribed the printer to give him the proofs of the edict. Hearing it read the next day, 3 May 1788, parlement swore an oath not to be disbanded and defined a manifesto of their rights. Warrants were issued for d'Eprémesnil and another, but they escaped from their homes to seek refuge in parlement. The king sent his guards to arrest them, and they surrendered. Parlement filed silently out between a line of guards. The commander gave the key to the building to the king. == Convening ==

Edict of 24 January 1789 The Estates-General were summoned by a royal edict dated to 24 January 1789. Elections The electoral system used in the 1789 was complex. Basic constituencies were to be the ancient bailliage and sénéchaussée judicial districts. In order to ensure rough parity of size and population, however, smaller bailliages and sénéchaussées were amalgamated while Bordeaux, Marseille, Nantes Amiens, Lille, Lyon, Rouen and Paris, were granted separate representation. With these exceptions, there was to be an electoral assembly for each order in each of the 234 constituencies. Nobles with full transmissible titles were eligible to participate in the noble assemblies, whilst beneficed clergymen were entitled to participate in their own assemblies. Due to the sheer size of the third estate indirect representation was required. Thus, every male taxpayer over the age of 25 had the right to attend a primary assembly. Two delegates were chosen from every hundred households to sit in the assembly that elected the final third-estate deputies. The First Estate represented 100,000 Catholic clergy; the Church owned about 10 percent of the land and collected its own taxes (the tithe) from peasants. The lands were controlled by bishops and abbots of monasteries, but two-thirds of the 303 delegates from the First Estate were ordinary parish priests; only 51 were bishops. The Second Estate represented the nobility, about 400,000 men and women who owned about 25 percent of the land and collected seigneurial dues and rents from their peasant tenants. About a third of the 282 deputies representing the Second Estate were landed, mostly with minor holdings. The Third Estate representation was doubled to 578 men, representing about 98 percent of the population of roughly 28 million. Half were well-educated lawyers or local officials. Nearly a third were in trades or industry; 51 were wealthy land owners. The Règlement that went out by post in January thus specified separate voting for delegates of each estate. Each tax district (cities, boroughs, and parishes) would elect their own delegates to the Third Estate. The Bailliages, or judicial districts, would elect delegates to the First and Second Estates in separate ballots. Each voting assembly would also collect a cahier de doléances (notebook of grievances) to be considered by the convocation. The election rules differed somewhat depending on the type of voting unit, whether city, parish or some other. Generally, the distribution of delegates was by population: the most populous locations had the greatest number of delegates. Paris was thus dominant. The electorate consisted of males 25 years and older, property owners, and registered taxpayers. They could be native or naturalized citizens. The number of deputies was 1,219 in total: 302 for the First Estate, 289 for the Second Estate and 611 for the Third estate. But French society had changed since 1614, and these Estates General were dissimilar to those of 1614. Members of the nobility were not required to stand for election to the Second Estate, and many of them were elected to the Third Estate. The total number of nobles in the three estates was about 400. Noble representatives of the Third Estate were among the most passionate revolutionaries in attendance, including Jean Joseph Mounier and the comte de Mirabeau. Some clergy were also elected as Third Estate delegates, most notably the abbé Sieyès. Despite their status as elected representatives of the Third Estate, many of these nobles were executed by guillotine during the Reign of Terror. The grievances returned were mainly about taxes, which the people considered a crushing burden. Consequently, the people and the king were at odds from the beginning. Aristocratic privilege was also attacked. The people resented the fact that nobles could excuse themselves from most of the burden of taxation and service that fell on the ordinary people. Many complained that the ubiquitous tolls and duties levied by the nobility hindered internal commerce. Opening of the convention (1839) shows the inauguration of the Estates-General in Versailles After a grand procession on 4 May, the deputies met all together at the Menus Plaisirs next day to for the king to arrive. Louis XVI arrived at midday taking his seat at one end of the hall, already occupied the deputies, on a dais carpeted in violet interspersed with gold fleurs-de-lys. He was followed by the queen, Marie Antoinette, the other members of the royal family, the principal officers of the royal household and the keeper of the seals, who arranged themselves around the steps of the throne. The king then turned to the deputies for his opening speech: When the king had finished his speech the Minister of Finance followed suit. In his speech that would last 2 hours he mentioned a 56 million deficit which actually was three times that sum but made no remark of the floating debt. The only remedy he proposed was a new tax. Necker made clear to the deputies that the convening of the Estates General was by no means a consequence of the deficit, but rather a result of the king’s goodwill. He then advised the representatives of the nobility and the clergy to willingly renounce their financial privileges, but not but not to collaborate with the Third Estate. He neither mentioned to Constitution nor gave the assembly any guidelines or a work plan. == Proceedings and dissolution ==

The deputies expressed disappointment, feeling that the Crown was treating them just like their predecessors of 1614 ignoring the very nature of the mandate they had received from their electors. Necker, found himself in a difficult position; his attempt to maintain a neutral stance ultimately backfired. By failing to take a firm side, he alienated the nobility and clergy while simultaneously frustrating the Third Estate, which had previously viewed him as their primary advocate. Consequently, his motives became a subject of suspicion for all parties involved. Paralysed with no guidelines or a work plan the First and Second Estates proceeded to the Chambre du Clergé and the Chambre de la Noblesse respectively whilst the Third Estate due to its size remained where it was. This physical separation mirrored a political divide; on 6 May, the Second Estate voted 188 to 46 to refuse to join the Third Estate for a common verification of credentials. Influenced by delegates from Dauphiné and Brittany, the Third Estate refused to organize as a separate order. Instead, they began to call themselves the “Commons” (les communes), asserting that they represented the French nation as a whole. The stalemate continued until 12 June, when the Third Estate formally invited the upper orders to join them. Following a motion by the Abbé Sieyès on 17 June, the deputies voted 491 to 89 to adopt the title National Assembly. They also proclaimed that the interpretation and presentation of the general will would be its responsibility. They confirmed that the power to consent to taxation would also belong to it, thereby provisionally approving existing taxes. They then invited the other orders to join them but made it clear that they intended to conduct the nation's affairs with or without them. The king attempted to resist this reorganization of the Estates General. On the advice of the courtiers of his privy council, he resolved to go in state to the assembly, annul its decrees, command the separation of the orders, and dictate the reforms to be effected by the restored Estates General. On 20 June he ordered the hall where the National Assembly met to be closed. The assembly then went in search of a building large enough to hold them, taking their deliberations to the nearby tennis court, where they proceeded to swear the "Tennis Court Oath", agreeing not to disband until they had settled the constitution of France. Two days later, deprived of the use of the tennis court as well, the assembly met in the Church of Saint Louis, where the majority of the representatives of the clergy joined them: efforts to restore the old order had served only to accelerate events. Louis had no intention of approving them. The Dauphin had died on June 4, and the king had withdrawn to Marly, where the queen and royal princes instructed him. The nobility asked the king to intervene, while the clergy voted to join the other orders. Necker advised a royal session and suggested reforms such as equal taxation and opening public offices to all citizens. He also recommended a legislative system with two houses where the king held a veto. Louis postponed the session until June 23. On June 20, the Third Estate found their hall closed and moved to a tennis court. There, they swore an oath to stay united until they created a constitution. On June 21, Louis included his brothers in his council and rejected Necker's proposals. At the session on June 23, soldiers surrounded the meeting place. The king announced that the Estates-General would have the power to approve taxes and that individual liberties and press freedom would be protected. He allowed the orders to deliberate together on general matters but kept the three-order system for issues related to social hierarchy and religious organization. Louis ordered the groups to separate and threatened to end the assembly if they did not comply. The Third Estate stayed in the hall after the king and the nobility departed. Members like Bailly and Sieyes stated that the assembly did not take orders, and Mirabeau declared they would stay unless removed by force. By June 27, the king told the nobility and clergy to join the Third Estate as opposition to the Commons decreased. ==Notes==