First Estate

In France of the ancien régime and the age of the French Revolution, the term First Estate (Fr. premier état) indicated the clergy; the Second Estate were the nobility, and the rest of the population constituted the Third Estate. From these terms came the name of the medieval French national assembly: the Estates-General (Fr. Etats-Généraux), the analogue to the British Parliament but with no constitutional tradition of vested powers: the French monarchy remained absolute.

Use of this term outside of France

The notion of Estates of the realm also exists in Britain, where the closest analogue to the French First Estate would be the Lords Spiritual, corresponding to the highest reaches of the French higher clergy.

Related Topics:
Estates of the realm - Britain - Lords Spiritual

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This notion also applied in Sweden and Finland at one time.

Related Topics:
Sweden - Finland

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