Louis XVI called for a meeting of the Estates General in 1789, the first time since 1614, because the French goverment had financial problems.
The Estates General was the legislative assembly that operated in France until the French Revolution in 1789, providing counselling to the king in certain issues when he required so, but it did not have real power. It was constituted by representatives of the three States or groups in which the French society was divided: First State constituted by the clergy, Second State made up by the nobility, and the rest of the population, approximately the 98% constituted the Third State, that comprised peasants, craftspeople, workers, etc.
