... far as to invite people of all classes to list their complaints in a series of booklets, known as cahiers. The peasants requested the abolition of the corvée, compulsory labour on the roads. The middle class was dissatisfied with counterproductive economic regulations, and the fact that only the nobility could hold high office in the military, the church and the state. Essentially, the Third Estate, comprising the 25 million non-noble Frenchmen, had presented a unified front to the King.2 They asked the Monarchy for two things: That the taxation immunity enjoyed by the Clergy and Nobles be repudiated, and that France write a constitution ensuring basic rights for its citizens, and the limitation of governmental powers. Although Louis was in favour of minor concessions as a result of listening to his people, he was worried by an increase in incidents of lawlessness in urban France. Though his people had elucidated ...

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