Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès

The radical clergyman Emmanuel Joseph Sieyèe, commonly known as Abbé Sieyèe, was elected to the Estates-General in 1789. In the same year, he published the pamphlet Qu'est-ce que le tiers état? (What Is the Third Estate?), which was very influential in the beginnings of the French Revolution. In the pamphlet he argued for the establishment of a National Assembly and an end to all privileges for clerics and nobles. A constitutional expert, he later wrote the revolutionary manifesto Declaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen (Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen).

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Sieyès, Emmanuel Joseph

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