The Catholic Clergy.
The First Estate during the French Revolution was the nobility.
The third estate held 97% [of which held 80% peasants] the Second estate held 1% and the First estate held 2%.
First Estate
first estate
The Third Estate.
The First Estate which was the Catholic Clergy. The Second Estate which consisted of the Nobles. Everyone else was in the Third Estate.
The third estate
The three Estates were the First Estate which included the Catholic Clergy, the Second Estate which consisted of the French Nobles and the Third Estate which was the commoners who represented 95 to 97% of the population.
Just before the French revolution, the 3 estates of French society were the first estate made up of the Clergy, the second estate made up of nobles and the third estate made up of the peasants. During this time, the first estate made up 0.5% of the population, the second estate made up 1.5% and the third estate made up the remaining 98%.
The First Estate was Catholic clergy, so essentially, the Pope.
Pope John Paul II
The third estate. The first estate was made up of the clergy, the second estate was made up of the nobles and the peasants made up the third estate.