The Tennis Court Oath launched the French Revolution
On this day · 20 June 1789
Locked out of their hall, France's commoner deputies crowded into a tennis court and refused to leave until they had a constitution.
On 20 June 1789, deputies of France’s Third Estate arrived at Versailles to find the doors of their meeting hall locked and guarded by soldiers. Fearing the king meant to dissolve them, they relocated to a nearby indoor real-tennis court, the Jeu de Paume.
There they swore a single, defiant promise: not to separate until they had given France a constitution. Having already declared themselves the National Assembly days earlier, the deputies were now asserting that sovereignty rested with the nation, not the crown of Louis XVI.
“The deputies of the nation swore a solemn oath to stay together until they had established a constitution.”
The gesture worked. Within a week the king conceded, ordering the clergy and nobility to join the Assembly. The oath became an emblem of the Revolution, immortalised in Jacques-Louis David’s great unfinished canvas, and a milestone on the road to the storming of the Bastille weeks later.
Sources & references
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