<P> The first Estates General (not to be confused with a "class of citizen") was actually a general citizen assembly that was called by Philip IV in 1302 . </P> <P> In the period leading up to the Estates General of 1789, France was in the grip of an unmanageable public debt (nearly 3.56 million livres). In May 1776, finance minister Turgot was dismissed, after failing to enact reforms . The next year, Jacques Necker, a foreigner, was appointed Comptroller - General of Finance . He could not be made an official minister because he was a Protestant .), terrible inflation and widespread food scarcity (a huge famine in the winter of 1788 - 89). This led to widespread popular discontent and produced a group of Third Estate representatives (612 exactly) pressing a comparatively radical set of reforms, much of it in alignment with the goals of Finance Minister Jacques Necker, but very much against the wishes of Louis XVI's court and many of the hereditary nobles forming his Second Estate allies (at least allies against taking more taxes upon themselves and keeping the unequal taxation on the commoners). </P> <P> When he could not persuade them to rubber - stamp his' ideal program', Louis XVI sought to dissolve the Estates - General, but the Third Estate held out for their right to representation . The lower clergy (and some nobles and upper clergy) eventually sided with the Third Estate, and the King was forced to yield . Thus, the Estate - General meeting was an invitation to revolution . </P> <P> By June, when continued impasses led to further deterioration in relations, the Estates - General was reconstituted first as the National Assembly (June 17, 1789) seeking a solution for the realm independent of the King's management of the meetings of the Estates General which occasionally continued to meet . These self - organized meetings are today defined as the epoch event beginning the historical epoch (era) of the French Revolution, during which--after several more weeks of civil unrest--the body assumed a new status as a revolutionary legislature, the National Constituent Assembly (July 9, 1789). </P>

Define the relationship between monastic orders nobility and peasants