The deputies of the Third Estate, who realized that they would be overthrown by the two privileged orders, the clergy and the nobility, in any attempt at reform, had formed a National Assembly on 17 June. When they found themselves locked out of their usual meeting room at Versailles on June 20, thinking that the king would force them to dissolve, they moved into a nearby jeu de paume room. There, they took an oath never to separate until a written constitution for the France had been drafted. Faced with the solidarity of the Third Estate, King Louis XVI yielded and ordered the clergy and nobility to join the Third Estate in the National Assembly on 27 June. The point of view of a historian: “Jacques-Louis David recognized the seriousness of the moment and the enthusiasm it aroused. It has history in the making. Faces and bodies are frozen in a moment of the highest emotional intensity. The delegates are obsessed with a common mission to preserve their new unity. The oath taken on the tennis court in front of the Royal Palace of Versailles. marks the beginning of the French Revolution. The language is perplexing when trying to capture David`s visualization of a unity that manifests itself in quantity.

Stefan Jonsson The 577 deputies met on the floor of this court and took the oath, hastily written by Emmanuel Sieyès and administered by Jean-Sylvain Bailly. Together, they pledged to remain united until a new national constitution is drafted and implemented. When the king learned of this defiance, he reacted indifferently, apparently whispering “f**k it, let them stay.” Over the next three days, dozens of clergy and nobles – including the Duke of Orleans, a member of the royal court and a distant relative of the king – crossed the grounds to join the National Assembly. Decrees that all members of this Assembly shall immediately take a solemn oath never to separate and to meet whenever circumstances so require until the Constitution of the Reich is established and placed on solid foundations; And after this oath has been taken, all the members and each of them confirm this unwavering resolution by their signatures. Like the fall of the Bastille two weeks later, the tennis court oath became a memorable gesture of revolutionary defiance against the old regime. The eminent artist Jacques-Louis David later immortalized the oath in a dramatic portrait. Among the main revolutionaries featured in David`s engraving are Isaac The Hatter (1); journalist Bertrand Barère (2); three religious leaders Dom Gerle (3), Henri Grégoire (4) and Jean-Paul Rabaut Saint-Étienne (5); the famous astronomer and later mayor of Paris, who took the oath, Jean-Sylvain Bailly (6); the author of the oath Emmanuel Sieyès (7); the future mayor of Paris Jérôme Pétion (8); Maximilien Robespierre (9); the constitutional monarchists Honore Mirabeau (10) and Antoine Barnave (11); and the solitary desecration of the oath, Joseph Martin d`Auch (12). Whatever the reason, the deputies of the Third Estate interpreted the locked doors as a hostile act, proof of their suspicious mood. They leave the Menus Plaisirs and go to the next open building, the Jeu de Paume, a real tennis court used by Louis XIV.

The oath on the tennis court was the result of the growing dissatisfaction of the Third Estate in France with King Louis XVI`s willingness to cling to the history of the country`s absolute government. Members of parliament from the Third Estate met to discuss the reforms proposed by Necker, the prime minister. These reforms provided that all estates would meet and vote on the basis of the chief rather than the succession. This would have given the Third State, at least nominally, a stronger voice in the Estates General. The men of the Third Estate were ardent supporters of reforms and they were eager to discuss these measures. When the members of the Third Estate arrived in the meeting room assigned to them, Menus Plaisirs, they found it locked up against them. The deputies considered that this was a blatant attempt by Louis XVI. They had to put an end to their demands for reform, and they continued to be irritated by the king`s duplicity. The deputies refused to let themselves be held by their king any longer and did not separate.

Instead, they moved their meeting to a nearby indoor tennis court. Members` fears, even if they were false, were reasonable and the meaning of the oath is beyond its context. [6] The oath was a revolutionary act and an affirmation that political authority emanated from the people and their representatives and not from the monarchy. Their solidarity forced Louis XVI to order the clergy and nobility to join the Third Estate in the National Assembly in order to create the illusion that he controlled the National Assembly. [1] This oath was crucial for the Third State as a protest that led to more power in the States General, and then in all the governing bodies. [7] 1. The oath of the tennis court was a vow made by the members of the Third Estate to the Estates General. He was sworn in on June 20, 1789 on a tennis court in Versailles. On June 17, the Third Estate began to call itself the National Assembly under the leadership of Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Count of Mirabeau. [1] On the morning of June 20, MPs were shocked to discover that the door to the chamber had been locked and guarded by soldiers. They immediately feared the worst and feared a royal attack by King Louis XVI. Immediately imminent, so that at the suggestion of one of its members, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin[2], the deputies met in a room next to the Jeu de Paume in the Saint-Louis district of the city of Versailles near the Palace of Versailles.

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