ESTATES

Estates: translation

The Estates (États, Staten) comprised the governing institution ofBrabantunder the ancien régime. It consisted of three bodies: the First Estate, the high clergy; the Second Estate, the nobility; and the Third Estate, the urban magistrates andguildleaders of Brussels and other provincial cities and towns. They met in the Assembly Hall of theHôtel de Ville, in which the first two estates occupied chairs in the center of the hall and the members of the Third were seated on benches under the windows. The sovereign, in the person of the governor-general, convened the Estates twice a year (March and October), whose approval was needed, most especially, for tax levies. The institution was abolished during theFrench regime.