Tennis Court Oath

Uncommon card · No. 105882

The Tennis Court Oath (French: Serment du Jeu de Paume, pronounced [sɛʁmɑ̃ dy ʒø də pom]) was taken on 20 June 1789 by the members of the French Third Estate in the hall of an indoor tennis court in the grounds of Versailles. Their vow "not to separate and to reassemble wherever necessary until the constitution of the kingdom is established" became a pivotal event in the French Revolution. 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 it outnumbered the other two estates by a large margin). On 17 June of 1789, the Third Estate began to call itself the National Assembly, led by Jean Sylvain Bailly and Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau, who took prominent roles in much of early stages of the Revolution. On the morning of 20...

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