Estates General

Opening of the Estates General on 5 May 1789 in the Grands Salles des Menus-Plaisirs in Versailles In France under the ancien régime, the Estates General (French: États généraux [eta ʒeneʁo] ) or States-General was a legislative and consultative assembly of the different classes (or estates) of French subjects. It had a separate assembly for each of the three estates (clergy, nobility and commoners), which were called and dismissed by the king. It had no true power in its own right as, unlike the English Parliament, it was not required to approve royal taxation or legislation. It served as an advisory body to the king, primarily by presenting petitions from the various estates and consulting on fiscal policy.

The Estates General first met in 1302 and 1303 in relation to King Philip IV's conflict with the papacy. They met intermittently until 1614 and only once afterward, in 1789, but were not definitively dissolved until after the French Revolution. The Estates General were distinct from the parlements (the most powerful of which was the Parlement of Paris), which started as appellate courts but later used their powers to decide whether to publish laws to claim a legislative role.