the French and criticised the French administration Storming of Bastille Prison Conditions of Peasantry The peasantry made up the bulk of French society. The peasants were serfs. They had to work certain days in the week for their lords without any remuneration. They could not marry or dispose of their lands without the lord’s permission.
Lords claimed certain feudal dues such as the right to levy fees even for using ovens to bake bread, and a toll on sheep and cattle possessed by the peasants. It has been estimated that the peasant paid eighty percent of his earnings to various tax collectors. Carlyle wrote that ‘one third of them had nothing but third-rate potatoes to eat for one-third of the year.’ Three Estates French society had three main divisions or estates : Clergy (the priestly class), Nobility (the landed and aristocratic class), and the rest, the commoners, formed the unprivileged class. The clergy and the nobility enjoyed special privileges and they were exempted from various taxes imposed by the monarchy.
Out of the three divisions, only the third estate bore the brunt of taxation, as other two estates were exempted from tax payment due to the special privileges. The important taxes were tithe , a tax exclusively collected by the church on the laity, Taille , a tax paid by the peasants, gabelle salt tax, and tax on tobacco. The peasants could not fight feudal regulations on their own. They looked for outside help and leadership.
The rising bourgeoisie wanted their political power to match their economic status. They wanted to The Age of Revolutions Tennis Court Oath Abbe Sieyes Mirabeau When this demand by the third estate was not accepted, the representatives formed the National Assembly on June . Then they left the Estates General and assembled at the tennis court on June . They took the ‘tennis court oath’ by which they wanted to limit the power of the monarch and introduce a new constitution.
In this protest, they were led by a noble named