France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

under the

ancien régime ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for " ancient, old" ** Société des anciens textes français * the French for "former, senior" ** Virelai ancien ** Ancien Régime ** Ancien Régime in France {{disambig ...

, a states (or estates) provincial (''états provinciaux'' ) or estates particular (''états particuliers'' ) (to distinguish them from the Estates General; but see below) was an assembly of the three estates of a province, "regularly constituted, periodically convoked and possessing certain political and administrative functions, of which the main one was to vote on the '' impôt''". Only the ''

pays d'état In France, a ''pays'' () is an area whose inhabitants share common geographical, economic, cultural, or social interests, who have a right to enter into communal planning contracts under a law known as the Loi Pasqua or LOADT (''Loi d'Orientation ...

'' had rights to such estates.

A right reserved to the ''pays d'état''

This arose from the specific legal conditions of their historical incorporation into the

royal domain Crown land, also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. Today, in Commonwealth realm ...

(e.g., Burgundy, Foix, Languedoc) or into France itself (e.g., Béarn, Corsica, Dauphiné). In contrast to the ''pays d'état'', any area where ''impôts'' were fixed by the king's representatives (known as the ''élus'') were known as ''

pays d'élection A ''pays d'élection'' () was one of the three types of ''généralité'', or fiscal administrative region, in France under the Ancien Régime. The representative of the royal government, the intendant, split up the ''impôts'' in each region wit ...

''. This distinction was abolished during the French Revolution in 1789. A third category, "pays d'imposition" was used for recently conquered lands which had their own local institutions (they were similar to the "pays d'état" under which they are sometimes grouped), although taxation was overseen by the royal intendant.

''États particuliers''

While ''états provinciaux'' and ''états particuliers'' were mostly used interchangeably, in some ''pays d'état'', the term ''états particuliers'' was reserved to the estates of regions within these provinces. For example, in Burgundy the counties (''comtés'') of

Auxerre Auxerre ( , , Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Auchoirre'') is the capital (Prefectures in France, prefecture) of the Yonne Departments of France, department and the fourth-largest city in the Burgundy historical region southeast of Par ...

Bar-sur-Seine Bar-sur-Seine (, literally ''Bar on Seine'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Aube Departments of France, department in the Grand Est region of north-central France. In the middle ages it constituted the Châtellenie de Bar-sur-Seine (). ...

, Charolais and the

Mâconnais The Mâconnais () district is located in the south of the Burgundy wine region in France, west of the Saône river. It takes its name from the town of Mâcon. It is best known as a source of good value white wines made from the Chardonnay grape; t ...

each had their own ''états particuliers'' in the early modern period. These would send representatives to the Burgundian ''états provinciaux'' in Dijon. Only the Mâconnais retained its own ''états'' in 1789; the rest had been absorbed into the Burgundian estates general.Julian Swann, ''Provincial Power and Absolute Monarchy: The Estates General of Burgundy, 1661–1790'' (Cambridge, 2003), pp. 27–28. The ''impôts'' were the provincial estates' main preoccupation and ''raison d'être'' throughout the ''

''. Their formal assent to the ''impôts'' was generally accompanied by the drafting of complaints to send to the king or his councils.

List of states-provincial and -particular in 1789

* Estates of Artois * Estates of Béarn * Estates of Bigorre * Estates of Bresse * Estates of Brittany * Estates of Bugey * Estates of Burgundy * Estates of Cambrésis * Estates of Charolais * Estates of Corsica * Estates of Dauphiné * Estates of Flanders * Estates of Foix * Estates of Gévaudan * Estates of Hainaut * Estates of Labourd * Estates of Languedoc * Estates of Marsan * Estates of Navarre * Estates of Nébouzan * Estates of Provence * Estates of Quatre-Vallées * Estates of Soule * Estates of Velay * Estates of Vivarais

Notes

* {{France-hist-stub