Estates General jelentése és történelmi szerepe Franciaországban
A cikk bemutatja az Estates General fogalmát, történetét és jelentőségét a francia történelemben, különös tekintettel az Ancien Régime válságára és a 1789-es összehívására.
Az Estates General fogalma és felépítése
Estates-General, France of the pre-Revolution monarchy, the representative assembly of the three “estates,” or orders of the realm: the clergy (First Estate) and nobility (Second Estate)-which were privileged minorities-and the Third Estate, which represented the majority of the people.
The Estates General brought together delegates elected from each of the three ‘orders’ of French society: the clergy, the nobility and the third estate (which incorporated representatives of the countryside as well as of the towns).
The nobility was represented by noble fief-holders, peasants were assumed to be represented by their lords, while representatives of the third estate consisted of royal officials, members of town councils, lawyers and notaries, doctors of medicine, and occasionally merchants.
The delegations of the clergy consisted of archbishops and bishops, abbots, a large number of canons (chanoines), and a few priests.
A kialakulás és a kezdetek
Estates General were first convoked by King Philip the Fair in 1302, yet the term was not used until the end of the fifteenth century (before then, the word used was just ‘estates’).
The first national assembly of representatives of the three estates met at Notre-Dame in Paris on April 10, 1302, to discuss the conflict between Philip IV (the Fair) and Pope Boniface VIII.
The Estates General were called by royal mandate. The primary function was to ratify the taxes that were to be given to the king - this was, in fact, why the estates were originally instituted.
Also, the Estates General were a means for the king’s subjects to make their voices heard. The Estates representatives wrote and submitted petitions, remonstrances, and grievances, which were transmitted in so-called cahiers from 1484 onwards.
Főbb tulajdonságok és korlátozások
The role of the institution was purely consultative, however. What is more, representatives who were deputised to the Estates General were limited by an imperative mandate: they were bound by the contents of the cahiers and by the instructions that accompanied them.
Each bailiwick or ‘shire’ was supposed to be represented by three deputies, one for each of the three orders of society. Each order chose their representative by a voice vote, by simple majority.
Once these representatives of the Estates came together, the separate cahiers de doléances were bound together in one volume each per order. The associated debates could be initiated either by the king or by these Estates deputies.
Rövid történeti áttekintés a korai évszázadokból
In 1320 the estates gathered at Pontoise and Poitiers, on both occasions refusing to grant Philip V a subsidy to bolster the royal coffers.
The Hundred Years’ War brought representative institutions to the fore on both sides of the English Channel, but by that time it had become clear that the estates were too unwieldy to become an organ of consent for the French monarchy.
In 1355 the Estates-General was convened in Paris by John II to raise funds to continue the war against England. That phase of the war concluded when France suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Poitiers (September 19, 1356), and John was captured by the English.
Éttienne Marcel, a prominent Paris merchant, launched an ill-fated bid to compel Charles to submit to the Estates-General. Marcel’s machinations culminated in the Jacquerie, a peasant uprising that was brutally suppressed in 1358. Marcel was assassinated in July of that year.
Absolutism was in the ascent as the crown resumed complete control. The little power that remained with the estates was wielded at the local level, as provincial assemblies were easier to attend and manage as well as better at adhering to regional custom.
A későbbi évszázadokban
Louis XI convened the Estates-General only once, at Tours in 1468. After his death, the Estates-General met at Tours in 1484. This was an important assembly, comprising more than 250 people and including for the first time representatives of rural areas. It achieved little, however, and the crown failed to keep its promise to assemble the estates again in 1486.
Louis XII summoned the Estates-General just once during his 17-year reign. By the end of the 15th century the Estates-General could be said to have acquired its main characteristics, but it was not, nor would it ever become, an institution. Because the kings had already levied a permanent direct tax throughout France (the taille), they were able to get along without the Estates-General in normal times after 1500.
Francis I, who reigned from 1515 to 1547, never summoned the Estates-General, which thereafter met only in times of crisis, such as during the Wars of Religion in the late 16th century.
The Estates-General of 1614, held during the minority of Louis XIII, revealed one of the body’s major weaknesses-the inability of the three orders to agree because of conflicting interests. The Third Estate refused to consent to the abolition of the sale of offices unless the nobles surrendered some of their privileges, and the meeting ended without action.
1789 és a francia forradalom előkészítése
The next and last meeting of the Estates-General was at the beginning of the French Revolution (1789), in the face of a financial crisis, widespread agitation, and the weakening power of the king. The deputies of the Third Estate, fearing that they would be overruled by the two privileged orders in any attempt at reform, led in the formation of the revolutionary National Assembly (June 17), signaling the end of representation based on the traditional social classes.
The king of France, though an absolute monarch, was no tyrant, but a judge and mediator, his power limited not only by the fundamental laws of the kingdom, but also by representative assemblies and courts of justice. He received petitions and grievances, sent them to be considered by his council and, if he found them reasonable, he put appropriate measures in train. In this way, from the Middle Ages, the king governed ‘through his great council’.
These assemblies might be representative of the whole kingdom (e.g. the Estates General), of one of the orders of society (e.g. assemblies of the clergy), or of a single province or pays (e.g. the provincial estates).
Here, we are mainly concerned with the Estates General - the best known of these assemblies. The Estates General brought together delegates elected from each of the three ‘orders’ of French society: the clergy, the nobility and the third estate. Their duty was to allow the sovereign to exercise power, but also to oversee that he did so in a just way.
Mit jelent az Estates General a modern szemléletben?
The 1593 assembly of the Estates General is the least well-known. This was the only time the Estates were not summoned by the king, but by the head of the League, the Duke de Mayenne, who from 1589 planned to hold a meeting to legitimise the new institutions established by the ultra-Catholics. The Estates General were seen as the only way to find a solution to the major political crisis in which the kingdom of France had been engulfed since Henri III had died without leaving a direct heir.
- When was the Estates-General created?
- What were the three “estates” of the Estates-General?
- What is the Fourth Estate?
- What led to the end of the Estates-General?
In June of 1789, the Estates declared themselves to be unassailable. The 1593 assembly is the least well-known, opened on 26 January 1593 at the Louvre, and ended in confusion following the abjuration of Protestantism by Henri IV.
The Estates General of 1789 (French Revolution: Part 2)
Összefoglaló jegyzetek a lényegről
The Estates General were an occasional institution: they were called by the king just eight times between 1484 and 1614, after which they were not called again until 1789. The cahiers de doléances és a tárgyalások tartóssága mind hozzájárult ahhoz, hogy 1789-ben a Third Estate vezetésével politikai forradalom bontakozzon ki.
tags: #estates #general #jelentese