Estates General

We have the real...

And what happened before this was that the king actually called a meeting of the Estates General, which hadn't met since 1614.

A sort of parliament.

A sort of

Many French men and women like Robespierre were also increasingly opposed to aiding the crown in relieving the fiscal crisis without political representation.

The Estates General, the early modern French equivalent of Parliament, had not been convened since 1614.

Robespierre's views in this respect were solidified through his interactions with like-minded professionals of the Academy of Arras, which he eventually became director of, and membership of the exclusive Rosati Society in 1787.

Although he had gained a reputation as a lawyer within Arras by 1787, there was nothing to suggest that Maximilien would become anything more than a prominent local regional official there had it not been for the events which began on the national stage in the late 1780s.

By 1787, the fiscal crisis was spiraling out of control and Louis XVI began appointing a series of emergency finance ministers to head his government from the vast royal palace at Versailles outside Paris.

When these ministers failed to remedy the situation, it was decided that there was no option but to convene the Estates General at Versailles in the summer of 1789 for the first time in 175 years.

Representatives would come from all three estates of French society, the aristocracy, church, and common people.

The goal, from the king and his ministers' perspective, was to convene the parliament for a short period of time and have them vote through a parliamentary subsidy, a one-time payment from the estates to the crown to deal with the financial emergencies.

The real leader of Paris was the provost of the merchants, who, from a simple director of the trade upon the Seine, had become the chief official of the town and head of all the burgesses.

In 1355, this office was filled by Étienne Marcel, a man respected by all and chosen on several occasions as leader of the Tiers État, as the representatives of the towns were called in the States-General.

Both Philip VI and John had recourse to the States-General in the hope of getting more money by their help.

The spirit of growing independence is shown in the words addressed to the king by the towns as early as 1347.

Most powerful sire, you must know by what means you have conducted your wars in which you have lost all and gained nothing.

When the capture of King John had put the government in the hands of his eldest son, Charles, a boy of eighteen, an opportunity seemed to present itself, and on March 3, 1357, a sort of charter of liberties was drawn up chiefly through the agency of Marcel, which was the first real attempt to check the royal power and to give the people a voice in government.

According to this document, a commission of thirty-six, twelve chosen by each estate, was to superintend every branch of the administration.

The States-General were to meet several times in the year and to be consulted on all matters of importance.

And then bang, summer of 1789, France convulsed by political and economic crisis.

Louis XVI runs out of money, gets into a mess politically, recalling the Estates General.

Mob storms the Bastille and this disorder escalates into what we would call the French Revolution.

And Marat seizes his chance.

Either on purpose or by accident this bull was burnt and it was a very short and not very exact abstract of the same which Philip made public to the people of France to whom doubtless he did not care to offer the whole recital of the not altogether untrue accusations.

Great indignation was excited in France by the publication of this sham bull and a states general being summoned 1302 representatives that is of nobles clergy and people a joint message of remonstrance was sent to the pope.

The clergy were afraid to say much and merely begged for unity and friendship but nobles and burghers were hotly on the side of the king and vowed that they would support his independence to the death.

The pope received the French ambassador at Anagni and made fierce reply heaping abuse on the king's minister Pierre Flotte.

Philip IV fixed this Parlement of Paris, divided it into three sections and made it meet regularly twice a year.

Very shortly after it was changed into a permanent body, and its members were appointed for life.

Besides strengthening the central and local machinery of administration, Philip has also made himself famous by summoning what has been called the first States General, that meeting in 1302 of which we have already spoken as sending a message to Boniface VIII.

National assemblies of some sort had been held in past times under the Carolingians.