The Tennis Court Oath

When the Estates General assembled in May 1789 it did so in the traditional form of the three estates: clergy, nobility and the commons.  Many in the third estate believed that all three of the groups should be brought together as one assembly.  On the 10th of June Sieyès called on the third estate to invite the others to join them.  Initially only three cures from the first estate joined them.  This however added legitimacy to the third estate announcing itself as the National Assembly.  By the 18th of June the National Assembly were making tax decisions independently of the King and the other estates.  At this point a third of the nobles and many clerics decided to join this burgeoning assembly.

The more conservative nobles called on the King (who was mourning the death of his son) to take a firmer stance.  He called a royal session where he would make his judgement clear.  The National Assembly turned up at their assembly point the Salle des Menus Plaisirs to find they were locked out and guards placed in front of the building.  Some leapt to the conclusion that the King was abolishing the National Assembly.  Joseph-Ignace Guillotin happened to know a nearby tennis court that would suit a large group so off they traipsed in the pouring rain.

Once inside Mounier called for a sacred oath.  Soon everyone (save Joseph Martin Dauch) would swear that the Assembly would not dissolve until a constitution had been created.  It is this scene that is immortalised in Jacques-Louis David’s painting. A work that would be finished as many of the heroes of 1789 would soon fall out of favour with the numerous regimes to follow.

Moving behind the rapidly evolving events the King had his royal session on the 23rd June.  The King’s decisions were read to the assembled three estates.  He did accept many of the laws that had been passed by the National Assembly and did call for a more liberalised press.  He did however place restrictions on when the three orders could meet to discuss.  He then dismissed the estates to their separate meetings.  The problem arose when the third estate did not move.  The President of the National Assembly Bailly called out, “The Nation when assembled cannot be given orders,” the typically flamboyant Mirabeau added, “We will not leave except by force of bayonets.”  The King did not test the ultimatum.  On the 27th of June the King’s meagre opposition folded and he invited all the estates to join together to form a National Assembly.