Tennis Court Oath

The Tennis Court Oath (serment du jeu de paume) was a pledge signed by 577 members of France's Third Estate on June 20, 1789. It was an early beginning in starting the French Revolution.

Related Topics:
Jeu de paume - Third Estate - June 20 - 1789 - French Revolution

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King Louis XVI had locked the deputies of the Third Estate of the Estates-General out of their meeting hall, Menus Plaisirs; they met instead in a nearby indoor real tennis court, because it had started raining, where they adopted a pledge to continue to meet until a constitution had been written. 577 men signed the oath, with only one delegate refusing. This was a revolutionary act, and an assertion that political authority derived from the people and their representatives rather than from the monarch.

Related Topics:
Louis XVI - Estates-General - Real tennis - Court - Oath - Authority - Monarch

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The Tennis Court Oath is often considered the moment of the birth of the French Revolution.

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See also John Ashbery's poem of the same name.

Related Topics:
John Ashbery - Poem

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