States-General: Origins

The French States-General owes its fame less to its importance than to the mode of its creation and the manner of its demise. The first French assembly known by that name was summoned in 1302 at Paris, by King Philip IV, in order to obtain national approval for his anticlerical policy. Philip may be said to have created the body only in the sense that he assembled a larger and more regular council than had before been assembled. From 1302 to 1789 its constitution retained the same division into the first, second, and third estates, i.e., the clergy, nobles, and commons. Its powers, never clearly defined, tended to vary inversely with those of the royal authority. The States-General of 1302 and 1308 dutifully approved, respectively, Philip's measures against Pope Boniface VIII and those against the Knights Templars; that of 1314 granted the king subsidies, but the grant was more or less nominal, with the king dictating his orders.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• The French Revolution
• An Ineffective Counterweight to Royal Power
• Origins
• Bibliography

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