On 20 June 1789, the members of the French Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath (french: Serment du Jeu de Paume) in the tennis court which had been built in 1686 for the use of the Versailles palace. Their vow "not to separate and to reassemble wherever necessary until the Constitution of the kingdom is establishe

became a pivotal event in the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

. The Estates-General had been called to address the country's fiscal and agricultural crisis, but they had become bogged down in issues of representation immediately after convening in May 1789, particularly whether they would vote by order or by head (which would increase the power of the Third Estate, as they outnumbered the other two estates by a large margin). On 17 June, the Third Estate began to call themselves the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the r ...

, led by

Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Count of Mirabeau (; 9 March 17492 April 1791) was a leader of the early stages of the French Revolution. A noble, he had been involved in numerous scandals before the start of the Revolution in 1789 that had left his re ...

. On the morning of 20 June, the deputies were shocked to discover that the chamber door was locked and guarded by soldiers. They immediately feared the worst and were anxious that a royal attack was imminent from King Louis XVI, so upon the suggestion of one of their members Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, the deputies congregated in a nearby indoor royal tennis court near the

Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

. There 576 of the 577 members from the Third Estate took the oath — the only person who did not join was Joseph Martin-Dauch from Castelnaudary, who would only execute decisions that were made by the monarch.

Background

Before the Revolution, French society—aside from royalty—was divided into three

estates Estate or The Estate may refer to: Law * Estate (law), a term in common law for a person's property, entitlements and obligations * Estates of the realm, a broad social category in the histories of certain countries. ** The Estates, representati ...

. The First Estate comprised the clergy; the Second Estate was the nobility. The rest of France—some 97 per cent of the population—was the Third Estate, which ranged from very wealthy city merchants to impoverished rural farmers. The three estates had historically met in the Estates General, a legislative assembly, but this had not happened since 1614. The Estates General of 1789 was a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm: the clergy (First Estate), the Nobility (Second Estate), and the commoners (Third Estate). It was the last of the Estates General of the Kingdom of France. Summoned by King Louis XVI, the Estates General of 1789 ended when the Third Estate formed the National Assembly and, against the wishes of the King, invited the other two estates to join. This signaled the outbreak of the French Revolution. Estatesgeneral

The Third Estate comprised the overwhelming majority of the French population but the structure of the Estates-General was such that the Third Estate comprised a bare majority of the delegates. A simple majority was sufficient—as long as delegate votes were cast together. The First and Second Estates preferred to divide the vote; a proposal might need to receive approval from each Estate or there might be two "houses" of the Estates-General (one for the first two Estates, and one for the Third) and a bill would need to be passed by both houses. Either way, the First and Second Estates could exercise a veto over proposals enjoying widespread support among the Third Estate, such as reforms that threatened the privileges of the nobility and clergy.

Oath

The deputies' fears, even if wrong, were reasonable and the importance of the oath goes above and beyond its context. The oath was a revolutionary act and an assertion that political authority derived from the people and their representatives rather than from the monarchy. Their solidarity forced Louis XVI to order the clergy and the nobility to join the Third Estate in the National Assembly to give the illusion that he controlled the National Assembly. This oath was vital to the Third Estate as a protest that led to more power in the Estates General, every governing body thereafter. An English-language translation of the oath reads:

The National Assembly, Considering that it has been called to establish the constitution of the realm, to bring about the regeneration of public order, and to maintain the true principles of monarchy; nothing may prevent it from continuing its deliberations in any place it is forced to establish itself; and, finally, the National Assembly exists wherever its members are gathered. Decrees that all members of this Assembly immediately take a solemn oath never to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require until the constitution of the realm is established and fixed upon solid foundations; and that said oath having been sworn, all members and each one individually confirms this unwavering resolution with his signature. We swear never to separate ourselves from the National Assembly, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require until the constitution of the realm is drawn up and fixed upon solid foundations.

Significance and aftermath

Procès verbal de la prestation du serment du Jeu de Paume Page de signatures - Archives Nationales - AE-I-5

The Oath signified for the first time that French citizens formally stood in opposition to Louis XVI. The National Assembly's refusal to back down forced the king to make concessions. It was foreshadowed by and drew considerably from the 1776

United States Declaration of Independence The United States Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America, is the pronouncement and founding document adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at Pennsylvania State House ( ...

, especially the preamble. The Oath also inspired a wide variety of revolutionary activities in the months afterwards, ranging from

riot A riot is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The property targete ...

ing in the French countryside to renewed calls for a written constitution. It reinforced the Assembly's strength, and although the King attempted to thwart its effect, Louis was forced to relent and on 27 June 1789 he formally requested that voting occur based on head counts, not on each estates' power. The Tennis Court Oath (20 June 1789) preceded the abolition of feudalism (4 August 1789) and the

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (french: Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen de 1789, links=no), set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human civil rights document from the French Revol ...

(26 August 1789) as the National Assembly became increasingly radical. Following the 100 year celebration of the oath in 1889, what had been the Royal Tennis Court was again forgotten and deteriorated. Prior to World War II, there was a plan to convert it into a table tennis room for Senate administrators at the Palace. In 1989 the bicentenary of the French Revolution was an opportunity to restore the tennis court.

Gallery

File:Oath of the Tennis Court; the deputies of the third estate m Wellcome V0048256.jpg, The deputies of the third estate meeting in the tennis court at the Château of Versailles, swearing not to disperse until a constitution is assured. File:Gravure Serment du Jeu de Paume à Versailles le 19 juin 1789 1 - Archives Nationales - AE-II-3691.jpg, Etching by Helman after C. Monnet, “Serment du Jeu de Paume à Versailles” on 19 June 1789 File:Galerie de la Salle du Jeu de Paume de Versailles.jpg, In the western gallery of the Salle du Jeu de Paume, reproductions of the engravings are on display.

References

External links