Claude Perier played an important role in the onset of the French Revolution by supporting resistance in Grenoble (Assembly of Vizille) by the Parlement of Dauphiny against the centralizing and fiscal abuses of the monarchy of Louis XVI. His eldest son Augustin would write later: "His travels in England had given him a proper idea of the benefits of a free government. Associating himself readily with all the opinions and all of the hopes of that period, he made hurriedly all the preparations necessary for such a large gathering, and his eagerness, which was not without danger, was worthy of the tokens of public gratitude." Almost 500 persons gathered at the Château de Vizille (21 July 1788) where Claude provided a large banquet for the deputies of the province. Mostly, although also with popular support, it was an assemblage of well-to-do "notables": churchmen, landed nobility, lawyers, notaries, municipal officials, businessmen and doctors. Their famous demand was for the convocation in Paris of an Estates-General wherein the Third Estate would have double-representation and votes would be by head rather than by order. Thus was precipitated a revolutionary movement in France more inclusive, complex and disruptive than anyone could have anticipated.