The National Assembly

When the Estates-General held its first meeting at Versailles on May 5, 1789, Louis XVI ordered the estates to meet separately and to vote by estate. The Third Estate demanded that the Estates-General be transformed into a National Assembly with each member, not each estate, having one vote. When the king rejected the proposed National Assembly, the representatives of the Third Estate, on June 17, declared themselves to be the National Assembly. This was now a revolution!
 

The Tennis Court Oath

Louis XVI, under pressure from the nobles, locked the member of the National Assembly out of the hall in which it met. The members assembled at an indoor tennis court nearby. There, on June 20, they swore never to disband until they had given France a constitution.

 
Tennis Court Oath (1789)
 
Louis XVI, under pressure from the nobles, locked the member of the National Assembly out of the hall in which it met. The members assembled at an indoor tennis court nearby. There, on June 20, they swore never to disband until they had given France a constitution.
 

       Tennis Court Oath (1789)
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