States General en · PROPN
Pronunciation
- /steɪts ˈdʒɛn(ə)ɹəl/ (UK)
Etymology
From states, plural of state + general, after Dutch Staten-Generaal, Middle French etats generaux.
Meanings
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(historical) A representative assembly in the Habsburg Netherlands (until 1581) and subsequently in the Dutch Republic (until 1795), representing the three estates of clergy, nobles and commons.
Early letters by the Malay rulers are addressed to the “king of Holland” whom they affectionately call their “brother”, in other words as their imagined royal counterpart. In practice such letters were received and read by the stadtholder, the States General, or both.
2017, Peter Borschberg, “Lost in Translation? The Languages of Euro-Southeast Asian Diplomacy in the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries”, in Susan Richter, Michael Roth, Sebastian Meurer, editors, Konstruktionen Europas in der Frühen Neuzeit, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, →DOI, pages 291-292:J[ohn] A[dams] was fully aware that the States General would not accept a memorial from the minister of a nation as yet unrecognized, but he nevertheless went through the motions of presenting it.
2003, “Memorial to the States General, 19 April 1781”, in Gregg L. Lint, Richard Alan Ryerson, Anne Decker Cecere, Celeste Walker, Jennifer Shea, C. James Taylor., editors, The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, volume 11, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pages 272–282, footnote 2:Had the States General, early after the discovery by Hudson, directed their attention to this western field […] a basis would have been laid securing probably a long and prosperous continuance.
1845, Thomas De Witt, “Sketches of New Netherland”, in Proceedings of the New York Historical Society for the Year 1844, page 57:Sovereignty, it was affirmed, lay with the States General, whose bidding the Stadholder was to do as once he had done the king’s.
1988, Simon Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches: an Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age, Berkeley: University of California Press, pages 64-65:It ſhall be Lawful for his Royal Majeſty of Great-Britain, and the States-General, by common Advice, and for the Benefit and Enlargement of the Navigation and Commerce of their Subjects, to ſeize by their Forces, what Lands and Cities they can, belonging to the Spaniſh Dominions in the Indies; (…).
1712, Francis Hare, The Treaty Between Her Majesty and the States-General for Securing the Succession to the Crown of Great-Britain, and for Settling the Barrier for the States-General Against France, Consider'd, page 8:
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(historical) A similar assembly in prerevolutionary France, occasionally convened by the King as a consultive body; it was first convened in 1392 and last in 1789, when its dissolution led to the Revolution.
In 1789, with bankruptcy staring the government in the face, Louis XVI took the momentous decision to summon the States-General.
1932, Duff Cooper, Talleyrand, Folio Society, published 2010, page 18:
- The bicameral parliament of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1815 onwards.
Synonyms
Estates General (French assembly)
Translations (9)
fr états généraux (French assembly) · nl Staten-Generaal (French assembly) · de Generalstaaten (Dutch assembly) · nl Staten-Generaal (Dutch assembly) · pl Stany Generalne (Dutch assembly) · pl Stany Generalne (French assembly) · cmn 三級會議 /三级会议 (French assembly) · cmn 三級會議 /三级会议 (Dutch assembly) · de Generalstände (French assembly)