This is a fancy way of saying “old government”. Pre-French revolution, France was under the control and leadership of a King or a Feudal Lord. This system of rulership had France broken up into estates – one’s estate determines their access to land and wealth.
First Estate | Second Estate | The Third Estate |
First Estate: This class of people consisted of mainly religious people as at the time, the church was superior (some of the gold from Brazil were taken specifically to adorn the church and make other church props). These religious people included the clergy: monks, nuns, priests’ etcetera. The church was (still is) tax-exempt even though they owned 6% of the land, however, they were allowed to collect tithes (as commanded by the bible) from people. Tithes are one-tenth of one’s income and were not optional. The first estate was approximately 0.5% of the population.
Second Estate: This class of people included the nobles, who owned 20% of land and were exempt from a lot of taxes. Like the First estate, the second estate could also impose taxes on the peasants using their Feudal rights. The second estate was approximately 1.5% of the population.
The Third Estate: This included the rest of the population of peasants who had no land ownership. They paid tithes to the church and taxes to the governments, and they generally resented the church and the noble. The only way of getting out of the third estate was through marriage to the second estate (which was extremely rare) or entry into the religious life. The third estate was approximately 98% of the population.
