Essay On The Three Estates Of The French Revolution

There were three estates of the Ancien Regime that made up the French society. The three estates that made up the French society was the Clergy, the Nobles, and the commoners or everyone else. Each estate had an important role in the French society, but one estate was treated very unfairly. The estate that was treated the most unfair was the third estate of the commoners. They weren’t given privileges like the other estates and this caused many problems for the French society. The first estate was the Clergy, they made up about 0.6% of the total population in France. The clergy owned about 10% of the land in France. If you owned your own land in the French society you were considered wealthy. The more land you own the wealthier you would be. Only the members of the church were considered part of the clergy, that includes priests, bishops and etc. Some of the privileges that this estate received was that they were tax exempt. Which means that they didn’t have to pay any taxes. Another privilege that the Clergy received was that the church would receive about 10% from everyone’s wealth from the Tithe. The whole Clergy estate had to share a total of one vote. The second estate was the Nobles, this estate made up of about 0.4% of the total population in France. The nobles owned about 25% of the land in France. Some of the

The third estate made up of about 99% of the total population in France. The third estate had people such as artisans, bourgeoisie, land owning peasants, share cropping peasants, day laborers, and serfs. Some of the people made good livings such as the artisans and the bourgeoisie. Other than the artisans and the bourgeoisie most of the people in the third estate were pretty poor and they didn’t receive any privileges like the ones the first and second estates received. This made the third estate pay all of the taxes for France. Also the whole third estate had to share one