<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (May 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (May 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> The estates general was a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm: the clergy (First Estate), the nobility (Second Estate), and the commoners (Third Estate). Summoned by King Louis XVI, it was brought to an end when the Third Estate formed into a National Assembly, inviting the other two to join, against the wishes of the King . This signals the outbreak of the French Revolution . </P> <P> The suggestion to summon the Estates General came from the Assembly of Notables installed by the King on 22 February 1787 . It had not met since 1626 . The usual business of registering the King's edicts as law was performed by the Parlement of Paris . In this year it was refusing to cooperate with Charles Alexandre de Calonne's program of badly needed financial reform, due to the special interests of its noble members . Calonne was the Controller - General of Finances, appointed by the King to address the state deficit . As a last measure, Calonne was hoping to bypass them by reviving an archaic institution . The initial roster of Notables included 137 nobles, among them many future revolutionaries, such as the Comte de Mirabeau and the Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the American Revolution . Lafayette had served in George Washington's army . Much of the debt had been incurred on behalf of the Americans . The final defeat of Lord Cornwallis at the Battle of Yorktown was due in large part to the participation of the French army and navy . If Calonne thought he would find more cooperation by changing the assembly, he was mistaken . He proposed a "land tax," Subvention Territoriale, to be imposed on all land - holders, rich or poor . A storm of protest arose . Charges of mismanagement were made . Calonne was dismissed on 8 April 1787 and then was exiled . He commented on the French political scene from London . </P>

Who called a meeting of the estates general in 1789