The Estates-
General were certainly not a revolutionary body. Though for a hundred
and seventy-five years the French monarchs had been able to do without
them, they were in theory still a legitimate part of the old-time
government. Summoned by King Philip the Fair in 1302, they had been
thenceforth convoked at irregular intervals until 1614. Their
organization had been in three separate bodies, representing by
election the three estates of the realm--clergy, nobility, and
commoners (Third Estate). Each estate voted as a unit, and two out of
the three estates were sufficient to carry a measure. It usually
happened that the clergy and nobility joined forces to outvote the
commoners. The powers of the Estates-General had always been advisory
rather than legislative, and the kings had frequently ignored or
violated the enactments of the assembly. In its powers as well as in
its organization, the Estates-General differed essentially from the
Parliament of England. By the Estates-General the ultimate supremacy of
the royal authority had never been seriously questioned.
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