STATES-GENERAL, the name given in France 611 1789 to the general assemblies of the deputies of the three orders of the nation, the clergy, nobility and the third estate (bour geoisie). When peers were present it was not as forming a separate body but as the representatives of their order. The right of convoking the states, belonged to the king, to the regent, or the lieutenant-general of the kingdom. There was nothing fixed as to the number of electors or deputies, nor as to the conditions entitling one to vote or to be elected. As far back as the time of Charlemagne, and probably earlier, clergy and nobles assembled twice a year to deliberate on matters of public interest and importance. After about 100 years of active life these assemblies seem to have died, or to have been suspended; and it was not until 1302 that the States-General were first convoked by Philip the Fair to sup port the quarrel of the king with Pope Boni face VIII. Six years later the States-General,
at the instance of the king, condemned the Knights Templars. The States-General had no power of making laws, but they served as a check on the arbitrary power of the sovereigns through their ability to give ex pression to the will or displeasure of the peo ple. But as the States-General became more exacting of the sovereign, and the latter, through his increasing military power, more and more independent of the popular will, the States-General were less and less frequently called together. In 200 years they assembled only twice at the call of the king, once in 1614, and again in 1789. On this latter date they assumed to themselves the title of National Assembly, and that of States-General was never afterward revived in France. See