the estates of the realm

Examples of the estates of the realm in the following topics:

• Calling the Estates-General

  • The Estates-General of 1789 was a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm summoned by Louis XVI to propose solutions to France's financial problems but it ended when the Third Estate formed into a National Assembly, signaling the outbreak of the French Revolution.
  • The Estates-General (or States-General) of 1789 was the first meeting since 1614 of the French Estates-General, a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm: the clergy (First Estate), the nobles (Second Estate), and the common people (Third Estate).
  • Unlike the States-General, whose members were elected by the subjects of the realm, the assemblymen were selected by the king  and they were prominent men, usually of the aristocracy.
  • On June 17, with the failure of efforts to reconcile the three estates, the Communes - or the Commons, as the Third Estate called itself now - declared themselves redefined as the National Assembly, an assembly not of the estates, but of the people.
  • After a failed attempt to keep the three estates separate, that part of the deputies of the nobles who still stood apart joined the National Assembly at the request of the King.

• The Pragmatic Sanction

  • The Head of the House of Habsburg ruled the Archduchy of Austria, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of Croatia, the Kingdom of Bohemia, the Italian territories awarded to Austria by the Treaty of Utrecht (Duchy of Milan, Kingdom of Naples and Kingdom of Sicily), and the Austrian Netherlands.
  • In 1700, the senior (oldest, first-in-line) branch of the House of Habsburg became extinct with the death of Charles II of Spain.
  • The Pragmatic Sanction was the first such document to be publicly announced and as such required formal acceptance by the estates of the realms it concerned.
  • In accordance with the tradition, Maria Theresa held the title of the Holy Roman Empress as wife of the Emperor.
  • Despite the promulgation of the Pragmatic Sanction, however, her accession in 1740 resulted in the outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession.

• The Ancien Regime

  • The estates of the realm were the broad orders of social hierarchy used in Christendom (Christian Europe) from the medieval period to early modern Europe.
  • The best known system is a three-estate system of the  French Ancien Régime used until the French Revolution (1789–1799).
  • The Second Estate was the French nobility and (technically, although not in common use) royalty, other than the monarch himself, who stood outside of the system of estates.
  • It was extremely rare for individuals of this status to advance onto another estate.
  • The king was considered part of no estate.

• Establishment of the National Assembly

  • Its members had been elected to represent the estates of the realm: the First Estate (the clergy), the Second Estate (the nobility) and the Third Estate (the commoners) but the Third Estate had been granted "double representation" (twice as many delegates as each of the other estates).
  • On June 17, with the failure of efforts to reconcile the three estates, the Third Estate declared themselves redefined as the National Assembly, an assembly not of the estates, but of the people.
  • After Louis XVI's failed attempts to sabotage the Assembly and to keep the three estates separate, the Estates-General ceased to exist, becoming the National Assembly.
  • Following the storming of the Bastille on July 14, the National Assembly became the effective government of France.
  • On August 26, 1789, the Assembly published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which comprised a statement of principles rather than a constitution with legal effect.

• Taxes and the Three Estates

  • France under the Ancien Régime (before the French Revolution) divided society into three estates: the First Estate (clergy); the Second Estate (nobility); and the Third Estate (commoners).
  • The king was considered part of no estate.
  • One critical difference between the estates of the realm was the burden of taxation.
  • In the "pays d'état" (provinces with provincial estates), the assessment of the tax was established by local councils and the tax was generally "real," which meant that it was attached to non-noble lands (nobles possessing such lands were required to pay taxes on them).
  • All paid a tax on the number of people in the family (capitation), depending on the status of the taxpayer (from poor to prince).

• Administration of the Empire

  • Without the presence of the king, the old institution of the Hoftag, the assembly of the realm's leading men, deteriorated.
  • The first class, the Council of Electors, consisted of the electors, or the princes who could vote for King of the Romans.
  • The precise role and function of the Imperial Diet changed over the centuries, as did the empire itself, in that the estates and separate territories gained more and more control of their own affairs at the expense of imperial power.
  • An entity was considered a Reichsstand (imperial estate) if, according to feudal law, it had no authority above it except the Holy Roman Emperor himself.
  • The imperial estates comprised:

• Lagash and the Third Dynasty of Ur

  • Lagash was one of the oldest cities of the Ancient Near East.
  • After the collapse of Sargon's state, Lagash again thrived under its independent kings (ensis), Ur-Bau and Gudea, and had extensive commercial communications with distant realms.
  • The Third Dynasty of Ur arose some time after the fall of the Akkad Dynasty.
  • One salient feature of Ur III is its establishment of one of the earliest known law-codes, the Code of Ur-Nammu.
  • Plan indicating the real estate of the city of Umma, with indications of the surfaces of the parts.

• Joseph II and Domestic Reform

  • As a proponent of enlightened absolutism, Joseph II introduced a series of reforms that affected nearly every realm of life in his empire, but his commitment to modernization engendered significant opposition, which eventually led to a failure to fully implement his programs.
  • He was the eldest son of Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I and thus the first ruler in the Austrian dominions of the House of Lorraine, styled Habsburg-Lorraine.
  • When Maria Theresa died in 1780, Joseph became the absolute ruler over the most extensive realm of Central Europe.
  • To equalize the incidence of taxation, Joseph ordered a fresh appraisal of the value of all properties in the empire.
  • The Hungarian estates claimed that their peasants were not serfs, but “tenants in fee simple, who were fully informed as to their rights and duties by precise contracts” and continued to restrict these “tenants.”

• Culture Under the Song Dynasty

  • In rural areas, farming peasants either owned their own plots of land, paid rents as tenant farmers, or were serfs on large estates.
  • The mother of the scientist, general, diplomat, and statesman Shen Kuo taught him essentials of military strategy.
  • Many people believed that spirits and deities of the spirit realm regularly interacted with the realm of the living.
  • People also believed in mischievous demons and malevolent spirits who had the capability to extort sacrificial offerings meant for ancestors—in essence these were bullies of the spiritual realm.
  • Official court portrait painting of the empress and wife of Zhenzong.

• Team Selling

  • Team selling is a group of people representing the sales department and other areas in a firm, all sharing a common goal of increased sales.
  • Team selling is sometimes used in real estate.
  • After the housing collapse, many real estate agents lost their jobs and thus team selling didn't make sense.
  • The idea behind the concept is that teamwork and sharing knowledge can benefit the bottom line of a firm.
  • Effective team selling will lower the cost of sales calls, while the number of people assigned to each sales call will double.