TheEstates of the realm were the broad orders of social rank andhierarchy inEurope from the 6th century to the 17th century (up until the 18th century in the case ofFrance under theAncien Regime) that divided the population into a series ofestates, although how many depended on the country and era. Often people who did not own any land were not included at all. Medieval parliaments were generally divided to match.
In pre-revolutionaryFrance,Scotland,Catalonia andPortugal the three estates were
InSweden andRussia, burghers (the urban merchant class) and rural commoners were split into separate estates, so there were four estates.
InRhodesia a similar system was set up in 1961 with voter rolls A and B for people who owned property or had educational qualifications. This was mostly the 230,000 white people. Most of the 4 million black didn't qualify.[2]
Some people refer tojournalism as theFourth Estate.
