WHO WAS ABBE SIEYES?

 Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes [May 3, 1748] widely known as Abbe Sieyes was a
French Roman Catholic Abbe, clergyman.
 He received his education from the Jesuits.
 Was made the vicar general in the diocese of Chartres in 1788.
 Wrote three pamphlets, of which the most influential pamphlet was written in
1788 by the name of “Qu’ est - Ce Que le tiers ‘etat”, [What is the Third Estate?]
 The success of his pamphlet made him the elected’ Deputy of the Third Estate in
Paris.
 He played a leading role in early French Revolution.
 He was involved in the drafting of the ‘Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen’.
 Lost influence as the revolution politics turned radical.
 Also played a role in the coup d’ etat that brought Napoleon to power, but once he
gained power, Abbe Sieyes’s position seemed insignificant.
 Post the Bourbon Restoration in 1814, he was exiled from France and lived in
Brussels.
 He returned to Paris later, and lived there until his death on June 20, 1836.
 ORIGIN:WHAT IS THE THIRD ESTATE?
• The Third Estate as stated by Abbe Sieyes was ‘the nation’ itself’
• The pamphlet ‘What is the Third Estate?’ written by Abbe Sieyes, was a response to the
Finance Minister – Jacques Necker’s invitation to state their thoughts on how Estate-
general’s should be organized.
• The pamphlet was of a slightly argumentative type.
• Sieyes firmly put forward the demands of the third estate to achieve respect, political
representation and societal upliftment.
• Expressed discontent with nobility, they were not the actual face of the nation.
• They kept arms to protect themselves, but didn’t value the life of the third estate.
• They didn’t pay taxes, [profited most from common wealth, but contributed least to it.
• Sieyes believed their behaviour to be degrading
• He used interrogative questions that compelled the audience and the reader to think about
the situation of the members of the Third estate.
• Aimed at instigating the third estate to meet separately and not cooperate with the
nobility.
• He expressed the idea of national unity
• Strongly talked about aspects of a nation
• Nation prior to everything and source of everything
• It is always legal and the law itself –
Some determine organization and function of legislative body
Others determine the organization and legislative body.
• The pamphlet later turned revolutionary in nature.
 EXPLICT MEAning
• 3 questions put forward:
 What is the Third Estate? Everything.
 What has It been until now ? Nothing.
 What does it want to be? Something.

• Private and public activities in the notion across various classes [land owners, industry merchants and
consumers]
• All tasks done by Third Estate, but they weren’t given any credit.
• Third Estate was useful but weren’t given any posts due to inequity and treason, while the nobility inherited
important posts.
• Sieyes saw the nobility as a burden [no caste assignment, seen as foreigners]
• Peasants suffered, they had no privileges whatsoever.
• Nation meant common laws and common representation, but Third Estate faced insult and humiliation.
• New nobles to prove – “Four generations and hundred years in aristocracy”
• The third estate had three demands-
 Representatives chosen from the third estate itself.
 Deputies be equal in number to those of the two privileged orders.
 States general vote not by orders but by heads.
• Nobility tried to hoodwink the Third Estate
• Sieyes states, ‘if no Third Estate, the voice of nation would be mute’.
• If privileged can keep weapons and the third estate can’t then that meant that the third estate’s
value of life was less.
• Way of settling disputes was to not call upon notables but upon nation itself.
• Nation is prior to everything except natural law.
• Power exercised by the government should be constitutional.
• Nation to not subject itself to shackles of procedure, it could lead to losing liberty to tyranny.
• Division of citizens into orders, equity of influence of each other.
• Aristocrats talk of their honour, but pursue their self interest.
• Third Estate i.e. the Nation will develop is virtue.
• Sieyes invites the readers to think this over.
 PERSPECTIVE
• The pamphlet was published during the time on reconvening of the Estates-General in France.
• There was a society called the ‘Society of Thirty’, which wanted mutual cooperation among the
three estates.
• Abbe Sieyes was present at their meetings but didn’t agree with its political ideals, Sieyes wanted
an assembly which was rationally organized.
• This perspective of his was clearly mentioned in the pamphlet –’What is the Third estate?”
• The pamphlet agreed with the idea that the third estate in itself formed the nation, and the nobility
and clergy didn’t deserve the right to represent the third estate.
• Sieyes argued that the the nobility was enemy of the common order.
• The idea of the pamphlet was shocking to the masses, since no one dared to link privileges with
citizenship.
• This pamphlet was a response to those who defended the traditional structure of Estates General,
meaning the nobility in general.
 CONTEX
• T
A number of pamphlets were published, but the pamphlet ‘What is the Third Estate’ written by Abbe Sieyes was superior
in terms of logic and rhetoric.
• It was written towards the end last months of 1788 and published in the beginning of 1789.
• It was written shortly before the outbreak of the French revolution.
• The publishing of the pamphlet led to further agitations which then led to the formation of the French Revolution.
• It focused on the resentment and demands of the third estate, during the period of elections for the Estate-generals.
• When he got angered by the fact that noble clergymen who had mediocre ability were moving quickly up the ranks.
• Under the reign of Louis XVI, France helped thirteen American colonies to gain freedom from their common enemy,
Britain, which made France to further drown in debts.
• And so, to maintain the cost of maintaining the army, the court, running the government, the state was forced to increase
the taxes.
• And in that time, only the third estate paid the tax, and so, the increase in taxes, didn’t do much to clear the debt.
• Also the sudden increase of population in France, in the year 1789, led to a subsistence crisis.
• A convocation of Estate-Generals was held, the third estate had some demands.
• When their demands were rejected by the king and the nobility, they walked out of the assembly in protest.
• On 20 June 1789, they declared themselves as a National Assembly, here they took what is famously known as the ‘Tennis
Court Oath.’
• This period saw the rise of many riots, both in Paris and the countryside, the Bastille was stormed, the prisoners were
released, and the commander of Bastille was killed.
• The Bastille was hated by all as it stood for the despotic power of the king. The fortress was demolished and its stone
fragments was sold in the market to those who wished keep a souvenir of its destruction.
 MOTIVE: FOR WHAT PURPOSE WAS
THE SOURCE MADE?
 In response to his own title, “What is the Third Estate?” he replied, “The Nation”.
 The pamphlet described the widespread feeling in France that the country rightly belonged
to the working crowd, i.e. The Third Estate.
 Sieyes’ pamphlet provoked the crowd to take matters into their own hands if the
aristocracy failed to do the needful.
 The pamphlet stated that since the Third Estate did most of the work and also constituted
the majority of the nation, so they were the nation.
 And thus, the third estate became more convinced of its ‘entitlement to liberty’.
 The pamphlet also attained him certain amount of fame which ensured his election as a
representative of the Third Estate to the States General.
 It is also said that no single document had greater impact on the French revolution more
than the “Qu’est ce Que le Tiers ‘etat”.