abstract:The Cahiers de Doléances (or simply Cahiers as they were often known) were the lists of grievances drawn up by each of the three Estates in France, between March and April 1789, the year in which the French Revolution began. Their compilation was ordered by King Louis XVI, to give each of the Estates – the First Estate (the clergy), the Second Estate (the nobility) and the Third Estate, which consisted of the bourgeois (the middle class), the urban workers, and the peasants – the chance to express their hopes and grievances directly to the King.