Estates-General of 1789: The Assembly That Sparked a Revolution

The Estates-General of 1789 was a national assembly of the clergy, nobility and commoners of France that opened at Versailles on 5 May 1789. Louis XVI summoned it to solve a financial crisis, but within six weeks the deputies of the Third Estate had broken away and declared themselves the National Assembly. Its meeting is generally seen as the starting point of the French Revolution.

Background: a kingdom near bankruptcy

By the late 1780s the French monarchy was deep in debt. Wars, especially French support for the American War of Independence, had been paid for mainly by borrowing, and by 1788 interest on the debt consumed around half of royal spending. The tax system was riddled with exemptions for the nobility, the clergy and many towns and provinces.

Successive finance ministers proposed reforms. In 1787 Charles-Alexandre de Calonne put a plan for a new land tax to an Assembly of Notables, who rejected it. His successor, Loménie de Brienne, clashed with the Parlement of Paris, which declared that only the Estates-General could approve new permanent taxes. During 1788 resistance spread to the provinces, and the government could no longer borrow.

On 8 August 1788 Louis XVI announced that the Estates-General would meet on 1 May 1789, a date later moved to 5 May. Brienne resigned, and the popular Genevan banker Jacques Necker was recalled as director-general of finance.

An institution revived after 175 years

The Estates-General was a medieval assembly representing the three orders of French society. It had last met in 1614–1615, and nobody alive knew exactly how it should work. In September 1788 the Parlement of Paris ruled that it should follow the forms of 1614, with equal numbers of deputies for each estate and voting by order. That ruling destroyed the Parlement’s popularity overnight.

A fierce pamphlet debate followed. The most famous contribution, published in January 1789, was What Is the Third Estate? by the Abbé Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès. He argued that the Third Estate was the nation itself, that it had been nothing in the political order, and that it wanted to become something.

In December 1788 the royal council agreed to double the number of Third Estate deputies, so that it would have as many as the clergy and nobility combined. Crucially, it said nothing about whether votes would be counted by head or by order.

Elections and the cahiers de doléances

The elections of early 1789 were among the broadest in European history up to that time. Almost all adult male taxpayers could take part in the Third Estate’s assemblies, which chose electors who in turn chose deputies. Parish priests had a strong voice in the clergy’s elections, which produced many deputies sympathetic to reform.

Each local assembly drew up a cahier de doléances, or list of grievances. Tens of thousands were written. Many called for regular meetings of the Estates-General, consent to taxation, fairer taxes, an end to certain feudal dues and reform of justice. Most still expressed loyalty to the king.

In total about 1,200 deputies were elected: roughly 300 for the clergy, about 290 for the nobility and some 600 for the Third Estate. The Third Estate’s deputies were mostly lawyers, officials and other educated professionals rather than peasants or artisans.

The opening and the deadlock

The Estates-General opened on 5 May 1789 in a hall built for the occasion at the Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs in Versailles. Ceremonial details emphasised social rank: the Third Estate’s deputies had to wear plain black and enter by a side door, while nobles wore rich costume.

The king spoke briefly, and Necker gave a long speech on the finances that said little about the political questions deputies cared about. The next day the Third Estate refused to verify its members’ credentials separately, insisting that all three orders should verify together, as a sign that the assembly would vote by head. For more than a month neither side gave way.

The birth of the National Assembly

On 10 June, on a motion by Sieyès, the Third Estate invited the other orders to join it and began verifying credentials alone. A few parish priests crossed over on 13 June, followed by more in the following days.

On 17 June the Third Estate voted, by 490 votes to 90 according to the usual figures, to call itself the National Assembly. It claimed the right to represent the nation and declared that existing taxes would continue only while it sat. On 19 June a narrow majority of the clergy voted to join it.

When the deputies found their meeting hall locked on 20 June, they gathered in a nearby indoor tennis court. There they swore the Tennis Court Oath, promising not to separate until they had given France a constitution. On 23 June the king held a royal session, offering some reforms but ordering the orders to meet separately. The Third Estate refused to leave the hall, and the Comte de Mirabeau declared that only force would remove them. On 27 June Louis XVI ordered the remaining clergy and nobles to join the Assembly.

Consequences

The king’s concession on 27 June looked like a victory for the Assembly, but the court was also bringing troops towards Paris and Versailles. Many deputies and Parisians feared that the king meant to dissolve the Assembly by force. When Louis dismissed Necker on 11 July, crowds in Paris armed themselves, and on 14 July they stormed the Bastille.

The National Assembly survived and, renamed the National Constituent Assembly, set about writing a constitution. In the night of 4 August 1789 it voted to abolish feudal privileges, and on 26 August it adopted a declaration of rights. The Estates-General as an institution never met again: the idea of a nation divided into legally separate orders had been replaced by a single body of citizens.

Historians continue to debate how inevitable this outcome was. Some stress the king’s indecision and the poor preparation of the meeting, while others emphasise the deep conflict between privilege and the aspirations of educated commoners that the elections and cahiers had brought into the open.

Key people

• Louis XVI (1754–1793): King of France, who called the assembly but failed to guide it.
• Jacques Necker (1732–1804): Finance minister whose recall raised hopes of reform. His dismissal on 11 July 1789 helped trigger the storming of the Bastille.
• Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès (1748–1836): Clergyman elected for the Third Estate of Paris and author of its most influential pamphlet.
• Comte de Mirabeau (1749–1791): Nobleman elected by the Third Estate of Aix, the Assembly’s most powerful orator.
• Jean-Sylvain Bailly (1736–1793): Astronomer who presided over the new National Assembly and led the Tennis Court Oath.

Timeline

• 1788, 8 August: Louis XVI announces that the Estates-General will meet in 1789.
• 1788, 25 September: The Parlement of Paris calls for the forms of 1614.
• 1788, 27 December: The royal council doubles the Third Estate’s representation.
• 1789, January: Sieyès publishes What Is the Third Estate?
• 1789, 5 May: The Estates-General opens at Versailles.
• 1789, 17 June: The Third Estate proclaims itself the National Assembly.
• 1789, 20 June: The Tennis Court Oath.
• 1789, 27 June: The king orders all three orders to join the Assembly.
• 1789, 9 July: The Assembly takes the title National Constituent Assembly.

Why it matters

The meeting of the Estates-General transformed a financial crisis into a political revolution. By claiming to speak for the whole nation, the Third Estate replaced a society of privileged orders with the principle of national sovereignty, a step that led within weeks to the fall of the Bastille and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.