People / group
Third Estate
The Third Estate was the order of commoners, peasants and bourgeoisie alike, in the three estates of medieval and early modern Europe; in France under the ancien régime it made up over 98 per cent of the population. Free peasants paid disproportionately high taxes, while nobles were exempt from the taille, France's oldest direct tax. Moving to another estate was extremely rare. In 1789 its deputies to the Estates General, joined by the lower clergy, held out for their right to representation, and on 17 June the assembly was reconstituted as the National Assembly.
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Cite this entry
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Third Estate. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/third-estate
- MLA
- “Third Estate.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/third-estate. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Third Estate.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/third-estate.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Third Estate’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/third-estate (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻