The Estates, also known as the States (French: États, German: Landstände, Dutch: Staten, Hungarian: Rendek), was the assembly of the representatives of the estates of the realm, the divisions of society in feudal times, called together for purposes of deliberation, legislation or taxation. A meeting of the estates that covered an entire kingdom was called an estates general.
Overview
The first estate was the clergy, the second the nobility and the third the commoners, although actual membership in the third estate varied from country to country. Bourgeoisie, peasants and people with no estate from birth were separated in Sweden and Finland as late as 1905.
Representation through estates was the norm in Europe until the advent of popular representation beginning with the French Revolution. The Estates General of France were convoked only twice between 1614 and 1789, both times during the Fronde (1648–53), and in neither case did they actually meet. At the final meeting of the Estates in 1789, they voted to join in a single National Assembly, generally seen as marking the start of the French Revolution. Estates continued to meet in Navarre until 1828, in Hungary until 1848, in Sweden until 1866, and in the Duchy of Mecklenburg until 1918.
In some countries, the parliament kept the same name when its feudal organization was replaced with a more modern kind of representation, like census or universal suffrage. In Sweden, the Riksdag of the Estates was replaced with the Riksdag in 1866.
List of estates
Convention of the Estates of Scotland
Parliament of Scotland, a meeting of the three estates of the realm
Convention of Estates (1689)
Council of States (Switzerland)
Landsgemeinde
Estates of the Netherlands Antilles
Estates of Aruba
Estates of Curaçao
Estates of Sint Maarten
Estates General (France)
States Provincial (France)
Estates of Béarn
Estates of Brittany
Estates of Burgundy
Estates of Languedoc
Estates of Navarre
Parlement (France)
Parlement of Paris
Parlement of Toulouse
Parlement of Rouen (Normandy)
Parlement of Aix-en-Provence
Parlement of Rennes (Brittany)
Parlement of Pau
Parlement of Besancon
Cortes (Spain and Portugal)
Cortes of Castilla
Cortes of Leon
Cortes of Aragon
Catalan Courts
Valencianes Courts
Cortes of Navarra
Portuguese Cortes
Junta (governing body)
Cabildo (Oversea Spanish domains)
Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire)
Diet (assembly)
Landstände, the territorial estates within the Holy Roman Empire
Estates of Württemberg
Prussian estates
Riksdag of the Estates, the former diet of Sweden
Thing (Scandinavian assembly)
Diet of Finland
Stamenti, the former parliament of Sardinia
Bohemian Estates
States of Alderney
States of Guernsey
States of Election
States of Jersey
States General of the Batavian Republic
States General of the Netherlands
States Provincial (Netherlands)
States of Brabant
States of Drenthe
States of Flanders