Chapter I – The Estates-General
It was the afternoon of Wednesday, June 17th, 1789. A large crowd was gathered and seated at the great halls of the great palace of Versailles. There, King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette, Serperior and Lilligant respectively, sat side-by-side on their thrones. In front of them was a large table with the representatives of the three estates of French society; people of the First Estate were in the Clergy; the Second Estate were the Nobility; and the Third Estate was rest of the kingdom.
Sir Aurélien Laurentin de Lierre, a Servine (we will call him "Laurence") was also walking in the crowd. As usual in these meetings, nobles, clergy, property owners, and what he guessed were the bourgeoisies surrounded him. What surprised him even more was that the Estates-General had not met in more than a century and a half and that this meeting was just one of many of the Estates-General meetings that started since last month.
A serious problem plagued France and its people for as long as he could remember. Crop harvests failed as great winters and drought swept, upper-class men seeped money from the poor through unfair taxes, and the kingdom was nearly bankrupt from paying the debt from two wars. In addition, throughout the meetings, in spite of the Third Estate vastly outnumbering the First and Second Estates, it was always outvoted. As a result, the common people of France grew angry and demanded that unfair odds be set even.
Last year, a similar legislative body, the Assembly of Notables, tried to solve the financial crisis, but they failed. As a last resort, the king summoned the Estates-General. So far, they found no solution.
Laurence was also a representative of the Second Estate, because he himself was a nobleman, and so he sat with his peers, all of them representatives from all classes. He and the others were presented cahiers (notebooks) which were used to list all their complaints and ideas.
"Gentlemen," the king began, "the Estates-General meeting of the Seventeenth of June, seventeen-eighty-nine, is now in session."
And so they began writing down their lists of grievances, like in the previous meetings. Laurence listed down some of his ideas that he had right off the bat, like lowering taxes on the working class, and raising them for the rich (even himself). But other problems are much more difficult, like the poor crop harvests and the huge bread prices that made life hard. He could just write "lower food prices," but that would just deplete the lacking harvests, as more people would try to buy them and perhaps result in an epidemic. Besides, so few Pokémon in the world could control the elements except in legends, at least not in a wide scale.
Later on, the representatives began discussing about their ideas. Some of them were the same as Laurence's, but others he didn't quite agree with. For example, one noble said "why don't we borrow money from other countries? We could ask England, or Prussia, or Spain, heck even China if we must!"
"But we've been asking to borrow money for years," another noble corrected, "and none of them would be willing to give a single coin!"
"Bah, this is going nowhere fast!" One cleric complained, "At this rate, we'll never come up with a good solution!"
"Very well," Abbé Sieyès, a Breloom who was from the First Estate, but was elected to represent the Third, concluded, "if no solution can be made, then I have a proposition to make."
He stood up on his feet and began.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the assembly of the commons, deliberating on the overture of conciliation proposed by the commissioners of the king, has deemed it incumbent on it to take at the same time into consideration the resolution with the nobility have hastened to adopt respecting the same overture…"
Sieyès went on saying about how nobody was performing their duties as members of their respective Estate, and then declared that the audience vote for a new group, which was simply referred as "the Assembly". The King and Queen, especially the former, looked both intrigued and troubled by this.
"In consequence, and from the necessity which the representatives of the nation are under to proceed to business, the deputies of the commons entreat you anew, gentlemen, and their duty enjoins them to address to you, as well individually as collectively, at last summons to come to the hall of the States, to attend, concur in, and submit, like themselves, to the common verification of powers."
Sieyès pulled out a quill pen, and a small stack of papers lay in front of him. He began to take role.
"For those of you in the First Estate who vote yes for the formation of the Assembly, please stand."
Only a few clergy stood up, and someone gave one standing neighbor a rather dirty look. They sat back down, and Sieyès recorded it on his paper.
"For those, of the First Estate, who vote no for the formation, please stand."
This time, almost the rest of the clergy stood up, much to Laurence's quiet disgust. He was familiar with the stubborn opposition of the First and Second Estates, who see the recent actions of the Third as a threat to their power. Once Sieyès recorded the result, they sat back down.
"For those of you in the Second Estate who vote yes, please stand."
Several nobles and landlords, roughly a quarter of them present, stood up. One of them was Larrouse de Gaulle, a Politoed who owned an estate near the town of Argenteuil, a few miles northwest of Paris. Laurence himself was going to stand up in agreement, but he suddenly had doubts in his mind. While the proposed constitution was promising, what would this Assembly do to solve the problem? If he stood up, would he have to join in? Since there are no perfect people, meaning they can become corrupt, would they become corrupt, too? How will France go without it? He started panicking visibly as he decided whether to stand up or stay seated. Nevertheless, after the nobles sat back down, it was too late. He felt deep regret from missing his chance so clumsily.
"For those in the Second Estate who vote no, please stand."
The rest of the Estate stood up.
"For those of you in the Third Estate who vote yes to the formation of the Assembly, please stand up."
Amazingly, nearly everyone in the room stood up. Sieyès appeared satisfied at this as he smiled.
"And finally, for those in the Third Estate who vote no to the formation, please stand up."
Only a small handful of people stood up, close to the number of clergy who agreed with it.
When the role call was finally over, Sieyès concluded, "the Assembly, deliberating after the verification of powers, ascertains that it is already composed of representatives sent directly by ninety-six hundredths (percent), at least, of the nation…
"Moreover, as it belongs only to the verified representatives to concur in the national will, and as all the verified representatives are to be admitted into this Assembly, it is further indispensable to conclude that it belongs to it, and to it alone, to interpret and to represent the general will of the nation. There cannot exist any veto, any negative power, between the throne and the Assembly…"
Abbé Sieyès continued that it was up to the representatives to work on the "restoration of the nation" without distraction.
"The denomination of 'National Assembly' is the only one suitable to the Assembly in the present state of things, as well because the members who compose it are the only representatives legitimately and publicly known and verified, as because they are sent by nearly the whole of the nation; and lastly because, the representation being one and indivisible, none of the deputies, for whatever order or class he has been elected, has the right to exercise those functions separately from this Assembly.
"The Assembly will never relinquish the hope of recollecting in its bosom all the deputies who are now absent; it will not cease to call them to fulfill the obligation imposed upon them to concur in the holding of the States-General. At whatever moment the absent deputies present themselves during the session that is about to be opened, it declares beforehand that it will be ready to receive them, and to share with them, after the verification of their powers, the series of important labors which are to accomplish the regeneration of France.
"The National Assembly decrees that the reasons for the present resolution be immediately drawn up, to be presented to the king and to the nation."
After Siyès concluded his speech, he cleared his throat and declared, "Vive le roi!"
The crowd followed in a proud chorus.