Final answer:
The privileged class containing the nobility in pre-revolutionary France was known as the Second Estate, which comprised a small percentage of the population yet held a large portion of the wealth and were tax-exempt.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Second Estate was a privileged class, containing the nobility of France prior to the French Revolution. This estate represented roughly 3-4 percent of the population but controlled a significant portion of the country's lands and were exempt from taxes. Members of the nobility occupied prestigious positions in the royal bureaucracy and enjoyed various privileges that other classes did not, which included exemption from several taxes that the other estates had to bear, particularly the Third Estate, which was made up of commoners, peasants, and the emerging bourgeoisie.