The Catholic Clergy
first estate second estate and third estate.
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.
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 Catholic Clergy made up the First Estate and the Nobles the Second Estate. Everyone else was in the Third Estate.
The French Estates General was made up of three main groups. This first Parliament consisted of the First Estates of clergy, the Second Estate of nobility, and the Third Estate of commoners.
The first estate of the Estate General represented the Clergy (which is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion). The second estate represented the Nobility and the third the Commoners.
The first estate consisted of the members of clergy. The second estate was made of the nobility classes, and the third estate was what contained the peasants, Parisians (or urban workers), and the bourgeoisie who were the upper middle class and were the richest of this estate.
The First Estate, the Clergy made up approximately 1% of the French population.
The French middle class belonged to the Third Estate (commoners) while the peasantry also belonged to the Third Estate. The First Estate was made up of the clergy and the Second Estate was made up of the nobility.
The Catholic Clergy were the First Estate and were tax exempt. The Nobles made up the Second Estate and paid no taxes. Everyone else was in the Third Estate and paid all of the taxes.
The first estate was made up of clergies The second estate was made up of nobilities The third estate was made up of everyone who is not included in the first and second estate (According to Abbe Sieyes "what is the 3rd estate?" - everything)
(Prior to 1789) the First Estate was the aristocracy. The Second Estate was the clergy. The Third Estate was everyone else. The French Parliament was called the Estates General. In more recent times, the media are sometimes referred to as the Fourth Estate.