So the next time you play a game of tennis, remember its roots in the French Revolution and share your fun facts with your opponent. 1. The oath of the tennis court was a pledge of the deputies of the Third Estate to the Estates General. He was sworn in on June 20, 1789 on a tennis court in Versailles. This brings us to the revolutionary act of the tennis court oath. While conservatives were angry at what the king had abandoned, the news in Paris sparked much excitement and joy. The bourgeois revolution, it seems, had prevailed – but with a large number of royal troops gathered near Versailles and on the outskirts of Paris, there was even more confrontation. 4. The oath of the tennis court was drafted by Emmanuel Sieyès, administered by Jean-Sylvain Bailly and signed by 576 deputies with an abstentionist player. Later, the oath was represented by the revolutionary artist Jacques-Louis David.

For more informative articles about the sport and the history of tennis, read this excellent article on the layout of a tennis court. This illustration shows the oath of the Jeu de Paume of Versailles of June 20, 1789. The National Assembly, also known as the Third Estate, was an ancient but little-used gathering of nobles, clergy, and ordinary people. They were built by King Louis XVI. Excluded from their usual meeting point and instead met on a nearby indoor tennis court. Here they pledged to create a written constitution for the France; In 1791, they would have one. The Third Estate, which had the most representatives, declared itself the National Assembly and took an oath to impose a new constitution on the king. At first, Louis seemed to give in, legalizing the National Assembly under the Third Estate, but then surrounded Versailles with troops and deposed Jacques Necker, a popular minister of state who had supported the reforms. In response, Parisians mobilized and stormed the Bastille – a state prison where they believed ammunition was stored – on July 14, and the French Revolution began. To truly understand something, it`s important to know a little more about the events that led to it.

So let`s take a look at the background itself before we dive into the nature of the oath. The point of view of a historian: “Jacques-Louis David recognized the seriousness of the moment and the enthusiasm it aroused. It has history in the making. Faces and bodies are frozen in a moment of the highest emotional intensity. The delegates are obsessed with a common mission to preserve their new unity. The oath taken on the tennis court in front of the Royal Palace of Versailles. marks the beginning of the French Revolution. The language is perplexing when trying to capture David`s visualization of a unity that manifests itself in quantity.

Stefan Jonsson Every great revolution can be traced back to a few moments that really defined it or made it in full swing. For the French Revolution, one of these defining moments came from the historic oath of the tennis court in 1789. This served as a significant inspiration for several other revolutionary acts of defiance that would follow. Almost overnight, the royal tennis court or “jeu de paume” was transformed from a royal gym into a symbol of revolution, democracy and challenge. The oath was taken by Jean-Sylvain Bailly and signed by 576 members of the Third Estate. There was one abstention: Joseph Martin d`Auch, deputy of Castelnaudary, refused to sign the oath because he insulted the king. The full text of the oath read as follows: The king left the chambers, but the goods did not leave. They took the opportunity to reaffirm their oath, which they had taken a few days earlier. They continued to hold their meetings – an act that clearly opposed what Louis XVI had ordered. They refused to listen to the guards and did not leave the room.

Among the main revolutionaries featured in David`s engraving are Isaac The Hatter (1); journalist Bertrand Barère (2); three religious leaders Dom Gerle (3), Henri Grégoire (4) and Jean-Paul Rabaut Saint-Étienne (5); the famous astronomer and later mayor of Paris, who took the oath, Jean-Sylvain Bailly (6); the author of the oath Emmanuel Sieyès (7); the future mayor of Paris Jérôme Pétion (8); Maximilien Robespierre (9); the constitutional monarchists Honore Mirabeau (10) and Antoine Barnave (11); and the solitary desecration of the oath, Joseph Martin d`Auch (12). They immediately feared the worst and feared a royal attack by King Louis XVI. Immediately imminent, at the suggestion of one of its members, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin[2], the deputies met in a courtyard near the Jeu de Paume in the Saint-Louis district of the city of Versailles near the Palace of Versailles. There, 576 of the 577 members of the Third Estate took a collective oath “not to separate and to meet again wherever circumstances so require until the Constitution of the Kingdom is established.” [3] The only person who did not take the oath was Joseph Martin-Dauch de Castelnaudary, who only made the decisions made by the monarch. [4] The oath of the tennis court followed several days of tension and confrontation in the Estates General. Frustrated by the procedures of the Estates General, in particular by the application of the vote by ordinance, the Third State spent the first week of June thinking about the measures to be taken. Whatever the reason, the deputies of the Third Estate interpreted the locked doors as a hostile act, proof of their suspicious mood. They leave the Menus Plaisirs and go to the next open building, the Jeu de Paume, a real tennis court used by Louis XIV. 3. Fearing a royalist conspiracy, the Third Estate responded by gathering on a nearby tennis court. There, they promised not to dissolve until the nation had drafted and implemented a constitution.

The deputies of the Third Estate, who realized that they would be overthrown by the two privileged orders, the clergy and the nobility, in any attempt at reform, had formed a National Assembly on 17 June. When they met on the 20th. They moved to a nearby tennis court (jeu de paume room). There, they took an oath never to separate until a written constitution for the France had been drafted. Faced with the solidarity of the Third Estate, King Louis XVI yielded and ordered the clergy and nobility to join the Third Estate in the National Assembly on 27 June. What he refused, however, was to accept the elimination of the old distinctions that rested in the domains. Although the reforms were part of the demands of the domain, their main demand had been rejected. They have long been frustrated by the votes, the veto and the absolute lack of power, compared to the other two areas. Decrees that all members of this Assembly shall immediately take a solemn oath never to separate and to meet whenever circumstances so require until the Constitution of the Reich is established and placed on solid foundations; And after this oath has been taken, all the members and each of them confirm this unwavering resolution by their signatures. The 577 deputies gathered on the floor of this court took the oath, hastily drafted by Emmanuel Sieyès and administered by Jean-Sylvain Bailly.

Together, they pledged to remain together until a new national constitution has been drafted and implemented. .