The First Stages of the Revolution^443

(Left) The Marquis de Lafayette. (Right) The Abbe Sieves.

and monastic orders. Some of the younger noble representatives elected to
the second estate were relatively liberal. They wanted institutional reforms
in the organization of the French monarchy that would permit them to
check the power of the king, in much the same way as the Parliament in
England served as a check on the English crown. In December 1788, the
king agreed to double the number of representatives of the third estate but
declined to give all members an individual vote.
The king asked the local assemblies, along with the first two estates, to
draw up lists of grievances (cahiers de doleances)y which the Estates-General
would discuss. Thousands of grievances offered the monarchy a wide variety
of opinions, ranging from concrete suggestions for reform to the considered
opinion that the foul breath of sheep was ruining pastureland in Lorraine.
More important, cahiers criticized monarchical absolutism and the intransi­
gence of seigneurs, asked for a more consistent and equitable tax structure,
and called for the creation of a new national representative body. A few of
the cahiers denounced as an abuse of royal power the so-called lettres de
cachety documents issued in the name of the king that allowed a person to be
arrested for any reason and imprisoned indefinitely. For example, one cahier
demanded “that no citizen lose his liberty except according to law.” However,
some cahiers also reflected continued reverence for the king, while denounc­
ing the rapacity and bad faith of his advisers and ministers. Most cahiers
never reached the king.
On May 5, 1789, the nearly 1,200 members of the Estates-General (about
600 of whom represented the third estate) assembled at Versailles. The king
greeted the first two estates, but kept the commoners waiting for two hours.
When he finished his speech, members of the third estate violated protocol
by boldly putting their hats back on, a right reserved for the two privileged
orders. On June 17, the third estate overwhelmingly approved a motion by
Sieyes that declared the third estate to be the “National Assembly” and the