The French Revolution

Estates General Meeting & The Tennis Court Oath

Review - The Three Estates

Review
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The French Government is deeply in debt. They were spending and

borrowing more money than they were collecting from taxes.

An extremely cold winter and a drought in the summer lead to a food shortage

Louis XVI has shown weak leadership qualities and the public begins to see
him as unfit to lead the country during a time when they are in desperate need
of leadership

Estates General
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Louis calls for a meeting of the Estates General that is scheduled to occur at
Versailles on May 1st, 1789.

Angered by an unfair voting system, the Third Estate begins to advocate for a
National Assembly, where every member, regardless of estate, had a right to
vote on the way France was governed.

Although the king does not yet agree to forming a National Assembly, faced
with a bankrupt government and angry citizens, he allows the third estate to
double their representation in the Estates General from 250 members, to just
over 500 members.

The Estates General Meet

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May 5th 1789: At Versailles, the Estates General meeting opens with lengthy
speeches from the king and his chief ministers.

The king then tells the three estates to split up and carry on the meeting in
separate halls of Versailles.

The Third Estate was angered by this order, as by meeting in three separate
halls, where each estate still had a single vote, they could be outvoted by the
nobles and clergy.

The Estates General Meeting

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The Third Estate takes a stand and refuses to discuss anything as a separate
group. They threaten that they will keep meeting at Versailles until changes
are made in the way France was governed.

The third estate gives the clergy and nobility an ultimatum: If, at the end of a
week, the nobles and clergy had not joined them, they would start the work of
the Estates General by themselves.

This was seen as an act of defiance by the king, as they were refusing to
work by his rules for the Estates General, so he schedules a Royal Session to
warn the third estate to not defy him any further.

Tennis Court Oath

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Although reluctant at first, on June 19th, 1789, some members of the clergy
decide to join the third estate in their demands of forming a National
Assembly.

The following morning, the Third Estate arrives at Versailles to welcome the
clergy into their meeting hall. However, they arrive only to find the doors to
their meeting hall locked and guarded by soldiers.

After being locked out, the third estate began to fear that Louis was going to
break up their assembly by force.

Tennis Court Oath

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Members of the clergy and the third estate take shelter in the nearest empty
building they could find: a tennis court.

Packed inside the court, they took an oath to carry on meeting until they had
changed the way France was governed.

The king holds his royal session on June 23rd, 1789, and once again orders
them to meet in their three separate estates... but the third estate refused

One of the leaders of the third estate is quoted by saying We shall only leave
at the point of bayonets.

Tennis Court Oath

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Louis, faced with the determination of the third estate, gives in to their
demands.

On June 27th, 1789, Louis orders the nobility and the remainder of the clergy
to join the third estate in forming the National Assembly.

Thus, the National Assembly became Frances legal parliament.