A Very Brief Look At The Estates Of France

In the last few years of the French monarchy, many radical voices of the time attempted to bring equality and equal privileges to all corners of society. However, France and its legislative body, The Estates General, was divided into three Estates which were the clergy, the nobility, and the common people. The Estates General heavily favored the nobility and clergy as their two votes would overrule the one vote of the common people, even though they held a larger part of the population. A voice to challenge this system was, Abbe Sieyes, who was a middle class clergyman that demanded more rights for the Third Estate. In his pamphlet, he described that the nation is made up of average hard working people who are forced to do the hard work of

This cartoon which can be understood by the common people depicts King Louis XVI using a whip while riding on a working class man. With him, there is a bishop who carries inquisitional documents and the church tax that are meant to suppress the Third Estate. Then the last person is a judge who represents the nobility’s influence over the regional courts, known as the parlements. These three figure are shown to treat this average man as something like an animal in that they can control and force to do whatever they want with. This cartoon tells of what Sieyes has described in his pamphlet, in which the nobles and clergy can bypass the legal code and laws that are put forth because they have the special privileges and titles that allow them to do so. This cartoon also echoes of the description and duty of the Third Estate, by saying that the common man is strong, robust, and the source of the wealth of the nation since they does all the work. Furthermore, once the working man is unshackled then the wealth of the nation can go towards the betterment and improvement of the society and not just make one group superior over another. Thus in doing so the nation can advance and not be hindered by a monopoly of the higher classes that only reap the rewards of the working class. This cartoon nevertheless critiques the old system as flawed and insufficient in the long run as the privileged