The Three Orders

  The First Estate The Second Estate The Third Estate
Who Were They? The clergy: anyone in Holy Orders The Nobility:
  • Nobility of the Sword
  • Nobility of the Robe
     
 Everybody else:
  • Bourgeoisie
    • merchants and lawyers
    • urban artisans and day laborers
  • Peasants
Population 100,000 400,000 24.5 million
Land Ownership 10% of total 25% of total 65%
Obligations Taxes owed to king:
  • voluntary gift every 5 years
 none Upper bourgeoisie often obtained immunities

Peasants:

  • owed to king
    • taille (direct),
    • gabelle (indirect)
    • corvée (forced labor)
  • owed to church:
    • tithe
  • owed to nobility:
    • banalités
Privileges collected tithe Useful privileges:
  • right to hold office
  • right to hunt and fish
  • Banalités:
    • monopolies on milling flour and baking bread

Honorific privileges:

  • precedence on public occasions
  • right to wear a sword
 NONE

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Site created by Teresa Rupp, Mount St. Mary's University
This page was last updated January 04, 2005