<P> In one sense, the composition and powers of the Estates General always remained the same . They always included representatives of the First Estate (clergy), Second Estate (the nobility), and Third Estate (commoners: all others), and monarchs always summoned them either to grant subsidies or to advise the Crown, to give aid and counsel . Their composition, however, as well as their effective powers, varied greatly at different times . </P> <P> In their primitive form in the 14th and the first half of the 15th centuries, the Estates General had only a limited elective element . The lay lords and the ecclesiastical lords (bishops and other high clergy) who made up the Estates General were not elected by their peers, but directly chosen and summoned by the king . In the order of the clergy, however, since certain ecclesiastical bodies, e.g. abbeys and chapters of cathedrals, were also summoned to the assembly, and as these bodies, being persons in the moral but not in the physical sense, could not appear in person, their representative had to be chosen by the monks of the convent or the canons of the chapter . </P> <P> It was only the representation of the Third Estate which was furnished by election . Originally, the latter was not called upon as a whole to seek representation in the estates . It was only the bonnes villes, the privileged towns, which were called upon . They were represented by elected procureurs, who were frequently the municipal officials of the town, but deputies were often elected for the purpose . The country districts, the plat pays, were not represented . Even within the bonnes villes, the franchise was quite narrow . </P> <P> It was during the last thirty years of the 15th century that the Estates General became an entirely elective body and really representative of the whole nation as divided into three parts . This came about through various causes . On the one hand, the nobles and prelates who were summoned were not always inclined to attend the estates, so had themselves represented by an envoy, a procureur, as they had the right to do, and frequently the lords or prelates of the same district chose the same procureur to represent them . On the other hand, the Crown seems at that time to have felt the need of having the consent of representatives really expressing the will and feelings of all the orders, and especially of the Third Estate as a whole . The letters of summons to the Estates General of 1484 invited the ecclesiastics, nobles, and Third Estate to meet at the chief town of their bailliage or sénéchaussé and elect deputies . An intermediate form had been employed in 1468 when the prelates and lords had still been summoned personally, but the towns had each elected three deputies, an ecclesiastic, a noble and a burgess . </P>

Describe any one feature of third state in france
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