May 2008
Issue
An oath made on a tennis court changed France forever.
Before Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and the French Open, an agreement
in Paris changed the political trajectory of France and Europe
for centuries to come. In 1789, French King Louis XVI was desperately
trying to hold on to the dream of his predecessor, Louis XIV’s
belief in absolute monarchy, which states that the royal family
makes all decisions in the land without it being challenged or contested
by a constitution or legislative body. 
Painting of 'Le Serment du Jeu de Paume' by Jacques-Louis David
The Tennis Court
Oath
This came in direct conflict with the Third Estate, the French
government’s
legislative body that comprised all people who were not apart of the aristocracy.
This group made up 96% of the overall French population. In order to try to settle
the matter, members of the Third Estate, or the National Assembly, as they began
to call themselves three days earlier, decided to meet in their chamber, the
hall of the Menus Plaisirs, in the early morning of June 20, 1789 only to find
the doors locked and guarded by troops. The king’s surrogates claimed that
the hall was closed for cleaning.
Originally listed in the Gazette Nationale, ou Le Moniteur universel, Third Estate
President Jean Bailly said, “I do not need to tell you in what a grievous
state the Assembly finds itself; I propose that we deliberate on what action
to take under such tumultuous circumstances.”
Shocked and apalled that guards would be used to prevent the nation’s legislative
branch from its own chamber, the assembly’s leadership decided to meet
in the “Old tennis court on Versailles street.” The court itself,
known as the “Jeu de Paume of Chateau Versailles,” is a very large
building, originally constructed in 1686 for the king to play the recreational
sport, jeu de paume, the precurssor to what we now know today as tennis.
The Assembly continued with their meeting, using an idle bench to write an oath
as a large and boisterous crowd began to grow, chanting “Vive l’Assemble.” Under
trying circumstances, the drum of revolution was steadily beating. The oath itself
states that the Third-Estate is, “never to separate, and to meet wherever
circumstances demand, until the constitution of the kingdom is established and
affirmed on solid foundations."
The top representatives of the Third-Estate, which actually was comprised of
the more wealthy citizens of France, held their end of the bargain and met as
much as possible until a constitution was written and accepted.
Site of the Tennis
Court Oath today
What has come to be known as the Tennis Court Oath represented the first instance
in which the people of France, with the weight of the National Assembly behind
them, challenged the authoratative rule of King Louis XVI. The oath represents
the first act of defiance against the king and sparked protests and riots throughout
France, eventually leading to the French Revolution, and much later, the rise
of Napoleon. Not only would the Tennis Court Oath change history just for the
sake of France, but it also forevermore weakened the power of the divine right
of kings. History may have been different had French revolutionaries left it
all on the court.
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