Who was involved in the Tennis Court Oath?

Answer 1

When Louis XVI had to convoke the Estates General, the third estate (the bourgeoisie) ordered to double their numbers in the Estates General, because the majority of France existed of Bourgeoisie. The others 2 estates (the nobility and the clergy) did not agree with this, but the King gave in to the third estate. When the Estates General met, they had on one occasion locked out the third estates members. The third estate members went to a nearby tennis court at Versailles and swore they would not dissemble until a constitution for France would be drawn up and accepted.

Together with the storming of the Bastille (3 weeks later) this was significant for the beginning of the French Revolution

Answer 2

The tennis court oath was a pivotal event during the French Revolution. The Oath was a pledge signed by 576 out of the 577 members from the Third Estate and a few members of the First Estate during a meeting of the Estates-General of 20 June 1789 in a tennis court near the Palace of Versailles. Their leader was Mirabeau and they began calling themselves National Assembly (the name of the primary French legislative body). On the morning of 20 June the deputies were shocked to discover that the doors to their chamber were locked and guarded by soldiers. Immediately fearing the worst and anxious that a royal coup by King Louis XVI was imminent, the deputies congregated in a nearby indoor real tennis court where they took a solemn collective oath "never to separate, and to meet wherever circumstances demand, until the constitution of the kingdom is established and affirmed on solid foundations". The deputies pledged to continue to meet until a constitution had been written, despite the royal prohibition. The oath was both a revolutionary act, and an assertion that political authority derived from the people and their representatives rather than from the monarch himself. Their solidarity forced Louis XVI to order the clergy and the nobility to join with the Third Estate in the National Assembly.

Answer 3

The Third Estate.