- French:
- Serment du Jeu de Paume
- Date:
- June 20, 1789
- Context:
- French Revolution
- Key People:
- Jean-Sylvain Bailly
Tennis Court Oath
Tennis Court Oath, (June 20, 1789), dramatic act of defiance by representatives of the unprivileged classes of the French nation (the Third Estate) during the meeting of the Estates-General (traditional assembly) at the beginning of the French Revolution.
By 1789 France’s government was close to bankruptcy. An inequitable system of taxation, which placed most of the tax burden on the peasantry, was the fundamental cause of the problem. The situation was exacerbated by military expenditures both for the Seven Years’ War and for the support of the colonists during the American War of Independence. In response to this crisis, King Louis XVI called for the Estates-General to convene. This advisory body, made up of representatives of the three estates into which the French nation was divided (clergy, nobility, and commoners, respectively), subsequently met for the first time since 1614.
The deputies of the Third Estate, realizing that in any attempt at reform they would be outvoted by the two privileged orders, the clergy and the nobility, had formed, on June 17, a National Assembly. Finding themselves locked out of their usual meeting hall at Versailles on June 20 and thinking that the king was forcing them to disband, they moved to a nearby indoor tennis court (salle du jeu de paume). There they took an oath never to separate until a written constitution had been established for France. They were joined by some sympathetic members of the other two estates. In the face of the solidarity of the Third Estate, Louis relented and on June 27 ordered the clergy and the nobility to join with the Third Estate in the National Assembly.
The oath proved to be an event of historic significance. It marked the first time that the Third Estate had publicly opposed the king and expressed its solidarity with the French people as a whole. It also led to the abolition of the centuries-old Three Estates via their absorption into the National Assembly. Henceforth popular opinion would become one of the forces driving France toward a republic.