Alberta Social Studies 20-1 Practice Exam

The Estates-General is the historical term for an assembly in France that brought together representatives from all three social groups—the clergy (First Estate), the nobility (Second Estate), and the common people (Third Estate). It was the formal body the king could summon to seek agreement on taxes and policy, and its very name signals that all three estates were represented.

Understanding the others helps place this in context: the National Assembly was a new body formed in 1789 when members of the Third Estate (and some others) broke away from the Estates-General and proclaimed a separate legislative group during the early stages of the French Revolution. The Parliament of Paris was a royal court and judicial body, not an elected assembly representing the estates. A supposed “Third Estate Assembly” would imply only one estate, not the collective three. So, Estates-General is the correct historical term.