Summoning the Estates-General

Once the crown agreed to summon the Estates-General, everything depended on how it would be organised, and that question split the opposition. In September 1788 the Parlement of Paris ruled that the assembly should follow the forms of 1614, when each estate met separately and had one vote. Since the clergy and nobility could then outvote the Third Estate two to one, many commoners concluded that the parlements had defended privilege, not liberty, and their popularity collapsed.

In December 1788 the royal council agreed to double the number of Third Estate deputies, but left unresolved whether voting would be by order or by head. The elections in spring 1789 were remarkably broad for the time: most adult male taxpayers could take part in electing Third Estate deputies, usually through several stages. The unresolved voting question set up the confrontation of June 1789.