Estates general: Did you mean...?

Antipater (c. 399-319 BCE) was a Macedonian statesman and loyal lieutenant of both Alexander the Great and his father Philip II of Macedon. As a regent in Alexander's absence, Antipater subdued rebellions and mollified uprisings, proving...

Pausanias (c. 510 - c. 465 BCE) was a Spartan regent and general who won glory by leading a combined Greek force to victory over the Persians at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BCE. Famously immodest regarding his own talent, he was beset by...

Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (l. 1747-1793) was a French noble of royal blood. He was the head of the House of Orléans, a cadet branch of the royal Bourbon dynasty, and was a cousin of King Louis XVI of France (r. 1774-1792). Despite...

The Great Fear (French: la Grande Peur) was a wave of panic that swept the French countryside in late July and early August 1789. Fearful of plots by aristocrats to undermine the budding French Revolution (1789-1799), peasants and townspeople...

Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave (1761-1793) was a French lawyer, politician, and one of the most influential orators of the early stage of the French Revolution (1789-1799). He is notable for being a champion of constitutional monarchy...

What is the Third Estate? was a pamphlet published by Abbè Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès (1748-1836) in January 1789, months before the start of the French Revolution (1789-1799). The pamphlet concerns the place of the Third Estate (commoners) within...

Louis XVI (l. 1754-1793) was the last king of France (r. 1774-1792) before the monarchy was abolished during the French Revolution (1789-99). An indecisive king, his attempts to navigate France through the crises of the 1780s failed, leading...

A photograph of General Richard O'Connor (1889-1981) - on the right - and General Archibald Wavell (1883-1950), the commanders of Operation Compass (9 Dec 40 - 7 Feb 41), the Allied offensive which won several important victories against...

Honoré-Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau (l. 1749-1791) was a French orator and nobleman who rose to prominence as a leader during the early stages of the French Revolution (1789-1799). From the disgraced and scandalized son of a distinguished...

Painting depicting the opening session of the Estates-General of 1789. By Auguste Couder, 1839. Museum of the History of France, Versailles.