The Estates General
Philip IV (1285–1314) joined Champagne, Lyon and other lands to the royal domain and tried to seize Flanders. Short of money, the king demanded taxes even from the church, which held vast estates. Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303) forbade the clergy to pay taxes to lay rulers without the pope’s consent. In reply the king in 1302 gathered representatives of three estates — clergy, nobility and townspeople (the Third Estate) — and asked them to discuss the conflict with the pope; this was the Estates General, the highest estate-representative body in France. The first two estates paid no taxes, and the Third Estate mainly meant rich townspeople. With public support the king won: a French archbishop became pope, and in 1309 the papal seat moved from Rome to Avignon in southern France; the years 1309–1377 are called the “Avignon captivity of the popes”. In 1307 Philip IV had many members of the Order of the Templars and its Grand Master arrested; rumours of the order’s wealth and the king’s own interest played a part, and the Grand Master was executed in 1314. In the 14th century an estate monarchy began to form in France.
“Estates General”: the class splits into three groups and each debates the king’s dispute with the pope on behalf of its estate.