The Estates, also known as the States (, , , Hungarian: Rendek), was the assembly of the representatives of the estates of the realm, the divisions of society in

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...

times, called together for purposes of deliberation,

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred ...

or taxation. A meeting of the estates that covered an entire kingdom was called an estates general.

Overview

The first estate was the clergy, the second the

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...

and the third the

commoner A commoner, also known as the ''common man'', ''commoners'', the ''common people'' or the ''masses'', was in earlier use an ordinary person in a community or nation who did not have any significant social status, especially a member of neither ...

s, although actual membership in the third estate varied from country to country.Gordon Griffiths
"Estates-general"
in Hans J. Hillebrand (ed.), ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation'' (Oxford University Press, 2005 996. Retrieved 29 December 2017. Bourgeoisie, peasants and people with no estate from birth were separated in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

as late as 1905. Representation through estates was the norm in Europe until the advent of popular representation beginning with the French Revolution.Estate or (Latin) ''status'' or (Dutch) ''staat'' or (French) ''état'' or (German) ''Stand'' or (Italian) ''stato''
" in Gordon Campbell (ed.), ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance'' (Oxford University Press, 2005 003. Retrieved 29 December 2017. The Estates General of France were convoked only twice between 1614 and 1789, both times during the Fronde (1648–53), and in neither case did they actually meet. At the final meeting of the Estates in 1789, they voted to join in a single National Assembly, generally seen as marking the start of the French Revolution. Estates continued to meet in Navarre until 1828, in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

until 1848, in Sweden until 1866, and in the Duchy of Mecklenburg until 1918. In some countries, the parliament kept the same name when its feudal organization was replaced with a more modern kind of representation, like census or universal suffrage. In Sweden, the Riksdag of the Estates was replaced with the Riksdag in 1866.

List of estates

* Convention of the Estates of Scotland **

Parliament of Scotland In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, a meeting of the three estates of the realm ** Convention of Estates (1689) * Council of States (Switzerland) ** Landsgemeinde * Estates of the Netherlands Antilles ** Estates of Aruba ** Estates of Curaçao ** Estates of Sint Maarten * Estates General (France) * States Provincial (France) ** Estates of Béarn ** Estates of Brittany ** Estates of Burgundy ** Estates of Languedoc ** Estates of Navarre * Parlement (France) ** Parlement of Paris ** Parlement of Toulouse ** Parlement of Rouen (Normandy) ** Parlement of Aix-en-Provence ** Parlement of Rennes (Britanny) ** Parlement of Pau ** Parlement of Besancon * Cortes (Spain and Portugal) ** Cortes of Castilla ** Cortes of Leon ** Cortes of Aragon ** Catalan Courts ** Valencianes Courts ** Cortes of Navarra ** Portuguese Cortes * Junta (governing body) * Cabildo (Oversea Spanish domains) * Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire) ** Diet (assembly) *'' Landstände'', the territorial estates within the Holy Roman Empire ** Estates of Württemberg ** Prussian estates * Riksdag of the Estates, the former diet of Sweden * Thing (Scandinavian assembly) * Diet of Finland *'' Stamenti'', the former parliament of Sardinia * Bohemian Estates * States of Alderney * States of Guernsey ** States of Election * States of Jersey * States General of the Batavian Republic * States General of the Netherlands * States Provincial (Netherlands) ** States of Brabant ** States of Drenthe ** States of Flanders ** States of Flevoland ** States of Friesland ** States of Gelderland ** States of Groningen ** States of Holland and West Friesland ** States of Limburg ** States of North Brabant ** States of North Holland ** States of Overijssel ** States of South Holland ** States of Utrecht ** States of Zeeland * Zemsky Sobor (Russia) * Veche (Medieval Rus) ** Novgorod veche * Cossack Rada ** Sich Rada ** Black Council * Diet of Hungary ** Transylvanian Diet ** Sabor (Croatia) * Bohemian Diet * Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ** Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland ** Seimas of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ** Sejmik ** Latvian Saeima

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Estates, The Legislatures