56.] [Footnote 587: L.Drapeyron, _Jeanne d'Arc et Philippe le Bon_, in _Revue de geographie_, November, 1886, p.

331.] His great resource was to convoke the States General.

The nobility gave nothing, alleging that it was beneath their dignity to pay money.
When, notwithstanding their poverty, the clergy did contribute something, it was still, always the third estate that bore more than its share of the financial burden.

That extraordinary tax, the _taille_,[588] became annual.

The King summoned the Estates every year, sometimes twice a year.