STATES-GENERAL (Fr. etats generaux). The name given to the convocation of the repre sentative body of the three orders of the French kingdom, representing the nobility, clergy, and bourgeoisie or tiers etat (Third Estate). As far back as the time of Charlemagne, there were as semblies of clergy and nobles held twice a year to deliberate on matters of public importance, and in these assemblies the extensive body of laws bearing the name of the Capitularies of Charlemagne was enacted. These national con vocations seem to have ceased to be held at the time of the final disruption of the Carlovimiian realm, about seventy years after Charlemagne's death. From that time forward there is no trace of any national assembly in France till 1302, when the etats generaux, including the three orders of clergy, nobles, and citizens, were convoked by Philip the Fair. with the view of giving greater weight to the course adopted by the King in his quarrel with Pope Boniface VDT. In 1308 Philip obtained from the states-general a condemnation of the Knights Templars. Dur ing the period of the Hundred Years' War ( 1337 1453) the states-general were frequently con voked, and the exigencies of the Court enabled them to play an important role in connection with the revenue and taxation. But they were not a law-making body, although they enabled the voice of the nation to assert itself against abuses of the royal power. As the royal author
ity became more and more absolute, and a stand ing army made the sovereign less dependent upon financial grants made by his subjects, the sum moning of the states-general gradually ceased to be regarded as indispensable. The advisers of Louis XIII. convoked the states-general, after a long interval, in 1614, but the body was soon dismissed for looking too closely into the finances: and from that time there was no convocation of the states-general till the memorable meeting in 1789, which initiated the French Revolution. The states-general voted by orders, but in 17S9 the Third Estate refused to abide by a regulation which enabled the other two orders to combine against it and to thwart its purposes. They insisted that the vote should be by members in a single body (with the Third Es tate as numerous as the other two orders com bined), and they achieved their object by consti tuting themselves the National Assembly. See FRENCH REVOLUTION.
The name States-General is also applied to the existing legislative body of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (q.v.), as was formerly the case in the Republic of the Netherlands from 1593 to 1795..