States Provincial (France)
Encyclopedia
In France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 under the Ancien Régime, an estate provincial (État provincial) was an assembly of the three estates
Estates of the realm
The Estates of the realm were the broad social orders of the hierarchically conceived society, recognized in the Middle Ages and Early Modern period in Christian Europe; they are sometimes distinguished as the three estates: the clergy, the nobility, and commoners, and are often referred to by...

 of a province, "regularly constituted, periodically convoked and possessing certain political and administrative functions, of which the main one was to vote on the impôt". Examples include the Estates of Brittany
Estates of Brittany
The Estates of Brittany was the States Provincial for the province of Brittany in ancien regime France. It gathered members of the high clergy, a large number of nobles and delegates from the 42 towns and cities of Brittany...

, Estates of Burgundy
Estates of Burgundy
In Burgundy, under the Ancien Régime, impôts, aides and subsides as well as the provincial economic administration were, at least in theory, put under a general assembly which occurred every three years - the Estates of Burgundy...

 and Estates of Languedoc
Estates of Languedoc
The Estates of Languedoc was the provincial assembly for the province of Languedoc during the ancien regime, during which time it was a pays d'états....

.

In France their official name was 'estates general of [province]' (to distinguish them from the 'états particuliers' and States-General
French States-General
In France under the Old Regime, the States-General or Estates-General , was a legislative assembly of the different classes of French subjects. It had a separate assembly for each of the three estates, which were called and dismissed by the king...

) or simply 'the estates
The States
The States or the Estates signifies the assembly of the representatives of the estates of the realm, called together for purposes of legislation or deliberation...

'. Without reducing it simply to this question, impôts were the provincial estates' preoccupation and main raison d'être throughout the ancien régime - their formal assent was generally accompanied by the drafting of complaints to send to the king or his councils. A province qualified to have an estates provincial was known as a pays d'états
Pays d'états
Under the Ancien Régime, a pays d'états was a type of province which had held onto its estates provincial or representative assembly of the three orders, whose main role was to negotiate the raising of taxes with the royal commissaires or intendants, its division by diocese and parish, and...

, whereas an area where impôts were fixed by the king's representatives (known as the élus) were known as pays d'élection
Pays d'élection
A pays d'élection was a généralité, in fiscal and financial matters, in France under the Ancien Régime. The representative of the royal government, the intendant, split up the impôts in such an area at a local level with the aid of the élus A pays d'élection was a généralité, in fiscal and...

.
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