Faced with enormous financial difficulties, Louis XVI was forced to call a meeting of the Estates General for the first time in 175 years. This involved representatives of the three Estates – the clergy, the nobility and the non-privileged common people known as the Third Estate – meeting with the king in the town of Versailles, close to the royal palace, on 5 May. Their objective was to solve the ongoing economic crisis.
The allocation of votes at the Estates General was deemed unfair so the representatives of the Third Estate separated themselves from the main group and met separately. On 13 June, by which time they had been joined by some nobles and the majority of the clergy, they declared themselves the National Assembly.
When the king ordered their usual meeting room to be closed and guarded by soldiers, the National Assembly feared that the king was about to force them to disband. The National Assembly instead relocated to a nearby building used for playing jeu de paume, a forerunner of modern tennis, where they swore the oath. The Tennis Court Oath therefore didn’t really take place in a tennis court, but the name has stuck.
The Tennis Court Oath was significant for being a collective action by French citizens against their king. Faced with such opposition Louis finally relented and, on 27 June, he ordered the remaining nobles to join the National Assembly and ended the Estates General.
