Assembly of Notables
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An Assembly of Notables was a group of high-ranking nobles, ecclesiastics, and state functionaries convened by the King of France on extraordinary occasions to consult on matters of state. Assemblymen
1822 depiction of the 1596 Assembly of Notables in Rouen
Engraving showing the Assembly of Notables of 1787 in Versailles
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in 1789
Charles Alexandre de Calonne
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Charles Alexandre de Calonne, titled Count of Hannonville in 1759, was a French statesman, best known for being Louis XVI's Controller-General of Finances in the years leading up to the French Revolut
Assembly of Notables
…February to May of 1787, convened by Louis XVI. France's finances were in a desperate situation and the finance ministers of the day (Turgot, Necker, Calonne) all believed that tax reform was vital if France was going to pay off its debt and bring government expenditure back into line with government income…
Portrait of Charles Alexandre de Calonne by Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun (1784, Royal Collection)
Charles Alexandre de Calonne, Count of Hannonville by Johann Ernst Heinsius