In April 1789, with the government in financial crisis, the French parliament (States General) was summoned for the first time since 1614 in order to come up with ideas for solving the government's cash shortage. As matters turned out, delegates arrived with their own agendas and the French revolution broke out a couple of months later. The parliament was divided into three classes (estates): Church, Nobility and Commoners. The Marquis of Beauchamps, by now a cavalry colonel, had been elected in March to the Second Estate and proved a passionate supporter of the threatened Ancien Régime. Mindful that his skills were better suited to fighting with a sword than with words, he persuaded his friend Michel-Louis-Étienne Regnaud de Saint-Jean d'Angély to present a powerful protest on his behalf against the actions of the States General, which d'Angély duly did, even though Beauchamps's conservative views were contrary to his own position.