What was life like for the second estate before during and after the french revolution?

Answer 1

The second Estate was, of course, the Nobility, and its situation was interesting.

Unlike the English peerage, where only the eldest son is noble and inherits, in France all the sons of a noble were also noble, and inherited a share in the estate. This had the result of creating a large class of noble, some of whom (the ones from families which had historically produced few sons) were immensely rich, and many of whom were quite poor, the family estates having been whittled down by subdivision. Of course, they had privileges; fewer taxes. the right to keep pigeons (but only in proportion to their landholding), the right to own a mill and to force the locals to use it (a duty constantly evaded); but they also had duties to perform which - especially in time of war - could be costly and sometimes ruinous. It is not surprising that many nobles were ready to join the National Assembly; their situation in many cases was much worse than that of the prosperous bourgeois.