But the opposition of the nobles to the king's reforms forced the king in 1789 to summon the entire Parliament, known as the Estates- General, which had not been active since 1614. He convened it now, after so long a hiatus, to resolve the squabbling over taxation and other economic and administrative problems.
The Estates-General traditionally included three groups of equal size: deputies of the church, the nobility, and the so-called Third Estate, the group that represented the 25 million common people of France. Since the Third Estate comprised the vast majority of the population, there was great debate over whether it should receive more representation in the Estates- General. The king ruled in favor of giving the Third Estate twice as many deputies as each of the other two groups. When the nobility and clergy, outraged by the change, refused to convene with the newly enlarged Third Estate, the Third Estate took power into its own hands and declared itself a National Assembly, swearing an oath to continue meeting until it had drawn up a constitution for France.
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