Cahiers de doléances

The Cahiers de Doléances (complaint issues) are the instructions from the voters to the deputies of the Estates-General.

When the French king on January 24, 1789 his subjects called for the election of their deputies to the Estates General, he asked them simultaneously to give these instructions deputies what problems to solve them. Thus, the deputies had a vital mission.

Theoretically, it was so for each constituency a complaint book, and in fact hundreds of them have been preserved.

The result is the appeal books at meetings in the villages, or they were put together by politically interested - that in any case let the style of language and the structure of various complaint books suggest.

Particularly common were complaints about high taxes, unjust feudal dues and privileges of the lord. Political demands (such as convene the Estates-General regularly), however, were rarely collected and more in urban constituencies.

In the course of the French Revolution, the Cahiers de Doléances did not play a large role.

Its value as a source of historical science is controversial. While there is here the rare case that once almost all members of a state were asked for their opinion and you can learn something about the condition of the lower classes. However, all statements of the most illiterate peasants from other writers had first to be written down, and you can poorly estimate how much these changes first names or even editorial content.