| Exasperated by the burden of all these taxes, the third estate had a single idea in mind: destroy the Ancien Régime, which had refused to carry out any reforms. |
| Besides, petty judges and advocates were the only members of the third estate with wide experience of public life, and the confidence to speak out which it bred. |
| After a six-week deadlock, the third estate proclaimed itself a National Assembly with sole power to legislate taxation. |
| Next to the corves, the monster grievance of the third estate was the system of enrolments for the militia. |
| The remainder of the population belonged to the third estate, whose social and economic status varied considerably. |
| The first two estates being the nobility and clergy and everybody else comprising the third estate. |
