ABSTRACT
The Estates-General, or at least the third estate, changed their nam e three times in the two m onths following their opening by the king on 5 May. These changes m arked the transforma tion of a semi-medieval body into a m odern assembly which would rem odel French governm ent and society from top to bottom. First the third estate started calling themselves the ‘com m ons’ - an allusion to the dom inant role played by their counterparts in the British Parliament. They then dem anded that the clergy and nobility should jo in them in their cham ber where voting should take place ‘by head ’. W hen these orders refused, in the knowledge that some 50 liberal nobles and 150 parish priests would vote on the same side as the third estate if voting were by head, the commons declared themselves the National Assembly on 17 June and on 20 June the National Constituent Assembly, arrogating to themselves the sole right to draft a new constitution for France.
